The PGA website has some advice on picking the right golf instructor.

It’s not as easy as you might think. I’ve been to several lessons and gone away thinking that I’m never going back to that instructor again. In all of those cases, it was due to the instructor’s love affair with the video camera. They spent most of the lesson showing me on a monitor why my swing isn’t like Tiger Woods.

That’s nice, but I already know that, and I also know why. I need construction, not criticism.

Here’s what the PGA site says about video:

Video, when used correctly, is a third pair of eyes (you and your instructor are first and second). This is similar to a doctor using an X-Ray or M.R.I, to diagnosis a health issue. Your golf instructor should be using video in the same manner. Video should confirm the diagnosis to you, not the instructor. A good golf instructor has the ability to see the flaw first, and use his or her knowledge of that flaw to diagnose a cure or drill for you to practice to realize improvement. If your golf instructor is relying solely on video to tell what is happening in your swing, you will eventually lose trust in the instructor’s ability to help you.

The best lessons I’ve had were from a couple of instructors (both of whom moved away) who could tell you everything you wanted to know about your swing from the ball flight.

Read the article

A great quote I just read from John Wooden, legendary UCLA basketball coach. It’s applicable in so many situations:

Don’t Mistake Activity For Achievement

A new study on putting techniques shows that Tiger’s advice—keeping you head still—just isn’t very good.

Using an infrared tracking system, researchers recorded the putter head and the golfer’s head during sixty putts.

Surprisingly, both expert and less-skilled golfers moved their heads about the same amount during the execution of putts. The big difference was in the direction: less-skilled golfers moved in an allocentric direction—moving their head in the same direction and timing as the motion of the putter; the expert golfers moved in a tightly coupled but egocentric direction—moving their head in the opposite direction as the putter, but timed similarly to reverse when the putter reversed.

I’ve seen this sort of study a couple of times, and it makes me wonder about the advice you see from the pros in the monthly golf magazines. While the pros are highly skilled, I wonder about their self-awareness. What they think they’re doing might not reflect reality.

Online instruction is the wave of the future. With basic internet functions such as email and web pages, as well as the latest advancements in streaming media, content that has originally been offered in classrooms, now is available to anyone, anywhere, at any time. I’m currently taking a medieval English History class through BYU to renew my teaching certificate. My brother is taking an online MBA course through a major state university. Every major college and university is getting in on the act, as are dozens of private companies.

So it’s only natural that someone would take advantage of these trends and offer online golf instruction. Golf Instruction Courses dot Com, located in Brighton, Michigan is at the forefront of this educational revolution.  They’ve got three courses that cover setup and preshot routine, basic golf swing and getting the ball in the air. Each course includes on-demand video instruction and a written booklet. From their website:

The golf instruction and lessons that we provide are designed learning experiences. That is, they contain those elements that enhance learning and retention. To improve and enhance the golf training, instructional design elements are included in each course or lesson that help the student learn the specific technique. Students learn from reading the material and seeing the graphics, viewing and listening to the video demonstrations, and doing the building block learning exercises -– reading, seeing, hearing, doing, and measuring performance. These five methods of learning encompass each of the areas that all persons rely on most to learn and retain a skill. It will take a student anywhere from 1 to 8 hours to complete a lesson, which includes the learning exercises that are part of the lesson.

Take a look. They’ve also got a free lesson on their front page.

And thanks to Golf Instruction Courses dot Com for their donation of gift certificates to the South Arbor Academy Charity Auction

Facing perhaps the toughest golf course in America, a lot of golfers are going to choke this weekend at Oakmont in the 2007 US Open. Johnny Miller, who knows a thing or two about playing well at that course offered some advice on avoiding a choke in his book, I Call the Shots:

1) Admit you’re choking.

2) Get angry.

3) Eschew The X Factor: Miller believes that the modern swing, in which the player coils against their lower half is not conducive to playing well under pressure.

4) Learn the punch shot.

5) Listen to your hunches: Mechanical players, Miller believes have a harder time in fighting a choke. When teh mechanics fail, they may not be creative enough to find their way out of a choke.

6) Pretend to be someone else: When your swing is not working, try someone else’s . Ask “What Would Nicklaus Do”\

7) Make the course your enemy.

In his book, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, Ben Hogan offered the image of a golfer swinging along an inclined pane of glass. You can see that perfect swing plane in this short video. It’s amazing.

Short Game Golf with Jim Furyk & Fred Funk

Grade: A
Teacher’s Comments: Not your run-of-the-mill instructional video, Short Game Golf puts you into the minds of two of golf’s better players as they analyze a variety of short game problems.

Expert Insight produces a line of instructional dvds that promise to get you “inside the mind of the expert.”  The company produces dvds on poker, blackjack, magic, and—of course—golf.