Now, as a golf coach I'm not trying to be bias here by saying 'yes everyone needs technical golf lessons and swing checks to achieve' because that may not be the case. In fact if you're swinging well there may not be any reason to see your coach ... right?
Speaking as a competitor I would see my coaches throughout my sports regularly, not necessarily for them to tell me something is wrong, but for them to check up on my technique, monitor my practice methods and to keep setting challenges which are going to help drive me forward within the game.
Golf and table tennis are two different sports which I have competed in, but the training methods are similar... We need to make practice a challenge for ourselves and be able to bring into our competitions. With table tennis it was easier to put yourself into a match situation, someone would fire table tennis balls to me and I would react to them with certain types of spin around the table or practice a serve, return and finish the point with a smash. This is something that I could take into the tournament with me. But what would golfers do?... Go to the driving range and hit a basket of balls? Unless I'm working on something technical on my swing this wouldn't be beneficial, so I would work out different routines with my coach that I could take with me onto the golf course for my tournaments.
Within my lessons I always like to give the golfer something that they can take away with them to work on, whether it is simple drills, a practice game or a thought for the course. Sometimes I may not need to make changes to the swing, but what we would've done is evaluated the performance and look to see how to improve. For me it's so important to keep that drive fearce.
Personally my view on a role of a coach may not just be someone that looks at your swing in a technical way, they could also be there to overcome emotional and mental barriers as well. If your struggling with holing those 4ft putts then lets work on mental and technical drills which over time will make these putts easier for you to achieve.
Remember, you haven't come to the golf lesson to impress the coach. You've come to work as a team to help make you there best you can be. We're not expecting you to carry your drives 300 yards even though you may have done that once last year, (unless you were wanting to work on distance of course) but I would be focusing on questions like 'how many fairways do you hit?'
I've always had so much respect for my coaches over the years and the amount of time and effort they have put into my game I am truly thankful for. Long may it continue!
So don't ever feel that you can't pick up the phone and call your coach when youre on that winning streak. Its more than likely that if you do...that winning streak will continue.
"Don't be too proud to take golf lessons - I'm not!" - Jack Nicklaus
Happy Golfing
Katie
