PART II

Continued from blog entry – “Interview Archive . . . PART I”

CWGM:  How do you define the difference between coaching and teaching golf?

TP:  I do both. This is something Bill Strausbaugh had a lot of influence in clarifying for me. I want to teach my pupils for a short period of time and coach them for a lifetime. I can sit down with anybody I teach and tell them all they need to know about the golf swing in two hours. From there on it is time to coach. It will require me to tweak everything that is already in place.

People come to you with a lot of different expectations  when taking golf lessons.  You have to define these expectations and make sure they are realistic within a specific time frame. People have job restraints and families. They do not have eight hours a day to work on their golf game. You have to communicate with them and define exactly what it is they are trying to do. It is critical to make sure that they really think about  their expectations. Once you have clarified the expectations, you can set a game plan  that is attainable for them.

People come to us in the springtime and say they have a 14-handicap and they want to be an 8-handicap.  They expect to play once a week and hit a half a bag of balls once a week. I have to explain to that student, that if that is all the practice they can do, they are going to be very disappointed in October. At that point you need to develop a game plan that is attainable within their time constraints and make sure their goals are not unrealistic. That is coaching, not teaching. Once you have established mechanically what is wrong with their golf game, you can establish goals and practice routines for them that will help achieve those things. After that, it is all coaching.