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GOLF TEACHING PRO%u00ae 11 WINTER 2O26KNOWLEDGE THOMAS T. WARTELLEand loses confidence in his game. At this point golf becomes less enjoyable and the teaching professional has failed.A happy student will take another lesson! Therefore, to be successful as a teacher, our goal is to guide the student and provide a positive learning environment.Refining Your Golf Teaching SkillThree simple elements that will make you a better golf instructor:1) Positive Communication. Make sure you introduce the skill in a clear and concise way. Use language that the golfer can understand. Try to be as brief as possible and create a positive learning environment.%u2022 Get the golfer%u2019s attention.%u2022 Make sure that the golfer can see and hear everything about the skill that they need to.%u2022 Give a reason for learning the skill.2) Demonstration. Every picture is worth a thousand words. Shapes you see affect shapes you make. Show more and talk less. Ask players to mentally rehearse the movement after they have seen the demonstration. For your own credibility, it is important that you use demonstration. If you cannot perform the skill, use the best available model, or even use a video.3 ) The golf swing is not static. When someone hits a golf ball, the swing is a continuous motion. Too often the motion is broken down into separate parts, resulting in a loss of the continuity. The golf swing is best taught by correcting a flaw with a key thought or feeling. Find a simple solution that allows the student to continue the motion of a full swing. Encourage drills or training aids that promote the complete swinging motion. These thoughts or feelings are less likely to break down when put under pressure.Learning a SkillA successful teacher can transmit his information to the student in the most effective manner possible. To help achieve this goal, it is important to understand how the student receives the information the teacher is sending him.Rather than delve into theories of learning a skill, use simple techniques to reach a student without the scientific clutter, although the goals are the same. Sports performance is basically how one%u2019s psychomotor skills react to achieve a goal. The term %u201cmuscle memory%u201d is misleading. Information is stored in the body%u2019s computer %u2013 the brain.The brain is what stores memories.Many sports have similar actions and movements. All sports that require body rotation rely on the same core muscles as the source of stability and power. Therefore, when a student has already performed other sports, often it is easy to transmit the same images to the golf swing. Too often a teacher pushes a student with excessive images and thoughts that lead to %u201coverload.%u201dTry this experiment: hand a beginning golfer a golf club and tell him to hit the ball. That%u2019s all. Most of the time, they will make contact.The golf swing is basically a natural movement. When a child picks up a stick and swings at a pine cone, nobody explains the techniques of %u201chitting a pinecone.%u201d Therefore, in your teaching, try to start as basic as possible. Let the movement begin naturally and let it ingrain with repetition. In many cases less, is more.The same can be said with advanced golfers. Often a good golfer feels as if a swing change is a huge undertaking when in reality it might be as simple as a few centimeters. Even advanced golfers should work on simple drills and exercises to %u201cage%u201d a swing change. For example, I have a client who is a scratch golfer. Since he was a child, he had a huge loop in his swing. He came to me one day and said, %u201cThe loop in my swing is gone! I have worked it out! Watch me hit some balls, Pro.%u201dAs I watched a few shots, every ball was straight down the middle, but the loop was still there. In his mind it was gone and his performance was elevated. For the next year we didn%u2019t let him see his video and I gradually worked the loop out little by little. He was hardly aware of it because I kept the drills simple, never more than one exercise at a time.When teaching a skill, let natural ability guide the student. Try to avoid information overload. Ingrained bad habits can be changed; it is simply a matter of understanding the fault, finding a simple effective exercise or thought to correct the fault, and repeating principles of practice.Principles of PracticeThe following are solid principles to follow that will help to develop your teaching skills:%u2022 Only perfect practice makes perfect. Golf is a skill; therefore, practice golf in pressure conditions. This is the major difference between learning a skill and learning a technique. Keep practice sessions short and frequent when working on a new skill. Use practice time efficiently. Students should experience a reasonable amount of success at each practice session. Make practice fun as well as challenging.%u2022 Positive attitude towards learning. No matter what the