Why take lessons?

To a beginning golfer, the golf swing is a mysterious, unpredictable creature that rears its head often and attacks at will. Confusing, confounding, and consistently inconsistent. The negative feedback one experiences when starting this game dramatically and disproportionally outweighs the positive. Most people who effort to learn the game on their own completely abandon it after a couple of attempts on the course, due to shots that veer every direction, dribble ten yards forward off the tee, or, (worst case scenario) are completely 'whiffed'.

The golf swing is difficult to learn, because it is a complex action involving many moving body parts that must all work in perfect harmony in order to achieve a proper strike on the ball. It is easier to learn the swing as a child, because the club is heavier in their arms and they are forced to make the correct weight transfer. However, when taking up the game as an adult, it's important to take a series of lessons and learn the fundamentals of golf (grip, stance, alignment, ball position, posture, tee-height, swing physics, ball flight laws, etc.). The more one can become 'a student of the game', the more success they will experience and the earlier they will experience it.

Many students come to a lesson unsure of what they hope to achieve. They just want to 'get better'. It is important to have a goal and a purpose when taking a lesson (or a series of lessons). Even if the goal is as simple as: "to get good enough to feel comfortable playing nine holes with my spouse", having something to strive for will make one practice with purpose.

The student's role during a lesson:

Obviously, one should try to absorb as much information during a lesson as possible. It is important to ask a lot of questions, with the confidence that there are no 'stupid questions' when it comes to the learning process. Everyone has a different 'learning style'. A lesson that an instructor shares with one person might not make sense to another. Consequently, the teacher needs to hear from the student that what they are saying doesn't make sense and and to please explain it in a different way. Fortunately, there are many different methods used to teach the same thing, so a qualified instructor should have no problem custom tailoring the lesson to any student's needs.

An instructor will not care much about 'what the ball does when hit' during a lesson. They are more concerned with the student making the correct body motions and getting the club in the proper positions. The teacher may not even be looking at the ball because they are focused on what the body is doing. Therefore, the student need not be overly consumed with successfully striking the ball or getting it close to the target. This should free them up do just 'let things happen' rather than tensing up and worrying about poor performance. This free swinging, easy going attitude will set the stage for a conducive learning environment and allow the student to absorb more good information.

Taking notes is never a bad idea. If the student can approach the lesson like they would any other 'class' that they pay for and want to get the most out of, they are more likely to improve their game. So, what would one do during any other class besides a golf lesson? Probably take notes, ask questions, refer back to the notes, and, most importantly: DO THEIR HOMEWORK! Yes, this means practice. As is true when taking a class in college or any other forum, more time should be spent doing homework (practicing) than was actually spent in class. On average, a student should expect to practice about two hours for every half-hour lesson they take. The closer to the actual lesson that they can practice, the better, as the information will still be 'fresh'.

If a student does not practice what they learned during a lesson, they will get worse, not better. When one tragically spends money on a lesson only to get worse, they are not happy campers, and may take out their frustration on the instructor . They need to ask themselves who is really to blame though, because if they didn't practice after their lesson, their mind was so overwhelmed with swing thoughts during an actual round of golf that swinging with any freedom or confidence was probably next to impossible. The student must, MUST practice on their own in order to make the proper changes so that they become ingrained into the muscle memory and are 'automatic' when on the course. In other words, they don't have to 'think' much when playing because the swing changes have already happened during practice sessions.