What Should You Bring to Your First Golf Lesson?
What Should You Bring to Your First Golf Lesson?
By John Kantarski
The normal answer would be your clubs, golf shoes, sunscreen, hat etc… The most important thing to bring is an OPEN MIND. What does an open mind mean?. Certainly you want to be positive. An open mind to the infinite possibilities of better golf. Better golf is a choice that ONLY YOU can choose. Unfortunately, most people bring along “baggage” to the 1st couple of lessons. That is to say, a head full of thoughts and philosophies gathered over the years from friends, playing partners, magazines, and the golf channel academy and so on. If you caught the first few episodes of the “Hank Haney Project” with Ray Romano, you would have seen what I mean. Ray fought Hank on a number of issues. Trying to tell Hank how much he knew about the swing and golf. All that this does is hinder the learning process and cost you money and improvement in your game, which will ultimately take away from your enjoyment.
The frustration comes from wanting to get better but not having a plan for improvement. Every day I see people like this on the practice tee. Shaking their head, looking down, pounding their club. How much fun is that? I personally hate to see people not having fun. So I take my own advice and instead of waiting for that person to maybe call me for a lesson, I take action and help them with what I call a “Sympathy Lesson”. Spending 30 minutes with someone to give them a little enjoyment and stop the negative actions is not a big deal to me but it is for that person. It very well may keep them from quitting the game.
So here is your 1st lesson before the 1st lesson.
1. Desire to get better at golf - Think about the best round you have ever played. Or the best shot you ever hit. Or a hole in one. How did you feel? If it made you feel exhilarated, excited, motivated, and in a state of bliss, then guess what, YOU LOVE THE GAME OF GOLF! You have a passion for golf. You will want to have more of those experiences. So go out and get it and stop waiting for it to happen. If you don’t feel those things, then stop complaining about playing bad or quit. Those are your choices.
2. Conduct a mental “Flush” - The very first thing I do with my new students is to have them tell me about every tip that is on their mind. Swing thoughts, drills, and fixes anything that you are holding on to. Besides, if any of those thoughts were working, you wouldn’t be at the lesson looking for instruction. SO FORGET EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER HEARD. You are starting a new future. Leave the past in the past.
3. Convince yourself you are going to get better - The old saying, “You have to get worse before you get better” is a load of crap!!! If a golf instructor says that to you, RUN don’t walk in the other direction. My students get better from day one. I talk to my students about what they are looking to gain. What goals they want to achieve. Then I formulate a plan around that. We work on affecting the ball flight first. Making that manageable so we can work on completing the plan. That’s not to say that sometimes the leaps in improvement aren’t smaller or larger. What it does mean is that every time you come for a lesson, you are constantly improving and getting more enjoyment. If you are not, I will give you all your money back! Guaranteed. You can measure it, you can sense it, and you can feel it. It’s a choice, your choice.
Hank Haney says “You are either getting better, or you are getting worse” What that means if that there is no in between. Like a line from the opening speech from the movie Patton starring George C. Scott. “I don’t want to get any messages saying that we are holding our position. We’re not holding anything. We are advancing constantly and we’re not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy.”
4. Golf Instruction is a process, not an event - When people ask me how much for one lesson, sometimes I joke and say $1,000. I tell them that that’s the going rate for golf miracles these days. Some motor skill scientists say it takes 10,000 repetitions to permanently learn a motor skill. There is some truth to that, but golf is a learned skill. It takes some time to make the changes so taking one lesson is useless. I offer a series of 6 and 10 with all kinds of great tools and gifts included. To me, that’s the minimum you have to do.
5. Get ready to savor the improvement - Some people will always find something to complain about. When a student comes to me and has been slicing and hitting the ball high and short for most of his life, the moment I get them to hook the ball and hit it 20 yards farther, someone invariably always says, “But it hooked too much”. Huh, wait a sec, we’re not done yet, that just a part of the process. Now hit another and watch it all the way. Stop for a second after that. Relish it. Enjoy it. Then do it again.
Contact me for more info:
jkantarski@hankhaneypro.com
http://www.johnkantarski.com
http://www.leftygolfinstruction.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Kantarski
http://EzineArticles.com/?What-Should-You-Bring-to-Your-First-Golf-Lesson?&id=4958260