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Guest Post by Mental Coach Wade Pearse
If you’re serious about getting the most out of yourself, your game, and any lessons you take, it’s imperitave you understand and meet the needs of your innate learning style.
What do I mean by learning styles? You have your own way of learning that is decidedly different than mine. I understand this and am skilled at tapping your individual style so that you can learn in a way that supports you. Not my teaching style. Does this make sense? The problem rests within the “one size fits all” approach that many golf instructors and mental game coaches use. They are attempting to have their students/clients conform to their teaching style.
This leads to all kinds of needless issues for you in your skill development. Have you noticed this is what the traditional education system does as well? It’s called rote learning. Their position is: “We spoon feed you the pabulum WE know is right for you. And it is YOUR responsibility to figure out how to swallow it!”
I am as serious as a heart attack with this. Yet as you know if you’ve read my blog or freqented my website, I don’t simply raise a pile of questions and leave you hanging. You’ll have practical tools to make the changes you need.
There are two fundamental approaches to learning. Technical and Natural. These terms aren’t carved in stone so don’t get attached to the labels. It’s the learning we’re after. The technical learner prefers to use the left brain approach. Enjoys the “how” questions and all the nuances of learning. They do best with specific things to think about along the way and to put in their game. This, without question, is the predominant approach of the modern golf world. Training aids, articles, magazines and 1000’s of technical “tips” for your game.
The Natural approach is more right brained, creative. These people prefer to get a “sense” of what they’re learning. Without being encumbered by any technical details. These people would destroy their chances of playing well if they went to David Leadbetter. And in fact many players who have worked with him have suffered immensely. I have no beef with Leadbetter, don’t get me wrong. It’s that certain learning styles will learn better if they’re matched with the appropriate “teaching style.”
You must take the time to ask yourself which approach truly resonates with you. Don’t allow yourself to buy into the golf establishment that incessantly promotes the technical side of learning. It is killing the games of half the golfing public.
Neither approach is inherently better than the other. Yet one is far worse than the other to you if you’re on the wrong path! Each has their benefit to certain people, and the natural learner can certainly benefit from some technical teaching. Yet not at the expense of their need for simple pictures and kinesthetic experience of what they are learning. And the technical players perform at a far higher level when they learn to “let go” of their conscious mind with all its details on the swing and simply “play” golf. Not “think” golf swing.
I am not overstating this. If Lee Trevino attempted to follow Ben Hogan and try to use the techniques he promotes Lee would have had a career as a caddy, not the sensational player he was. So please do yourself a life changing favor and determine which approach suits you the best and follow this. There are golf instructors out there who understand and appreciate this. Make the instruction match your style, not the other way around.
In terms of mental game training I teach both ways. Every golf lesson you have will have more power to you. Your ability to integrate what you’re learning will increase. You‘ll make your instructor look like a genius! But it’s all because you took the time to find a teacher who can instruct the way you need to learn, not how they want to teach.
If you’re looking for a resource to improve the mental part of your game, I encourage you to take a look at Wade Pearse’s Mental Golf Program today!
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What do you think? 5 Comments »
October 14th, 2007 at 11:32 am
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIf you’re serious about getting the most out of yourself, your game, and any lessons you take, it’s imperitave you understand and meet the needs of your innate learning style. What do I mean by learning styles? … [...]
October 15th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
good evening wade
I can really see where your coming from, the first time i played golf about 12 months ago now i shot in the 90s and again in my next couple of rounds, the rest of my four-ball where raving, After about 6 weeks they got me to go for a couple of lessons at the local range,
after my lessons i had a 2 week break from playing but practiced of the things i was thought, my next game came up and it was a disaster, I had so much junk in my head i forgot to do what came natural to me in the first place, it took me eight months to break 100 after that now i,m in the 80s,, I know i need a lesson to get into the 70s but i,m afraid they will destroy all the hard work i put in to get back to where i am now,..
my kindest regards Thomas
October 18th, 2007 at 5:11 am
Thomas, I hear this one all the time! At one point I had the “62-point” checklist going on in my head. I think the goal for most amateurs should be to “simplify your golf swing”. Maybe one or two swing thoughts at the most.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Thomas: this is fairly typical of the learning process. Many times the learning we might be getting is useful yet when the “technical” aspects of the learning are still excessively conscious, we get lost in our head. Not the best way to play golf. Notice the word “play.” This is what we should be doing. Not “working” on our game when on the course. This is a critical distinction every players needs to learn if they really want to play carefree golf and play the game naturally.
I smiled at your comments about getting worse after the lessons. What’s important is that you have this awareness now and you, by what I’m hearing, are more of a natural learner. I recommend simply looking at some photos of great swings, maybe glance at a couple videos and then stand in your front room and imagine swinging the way you saw.
Swinging like the photo or video you saw isn’t what matters. The kinesthetic process combined with your imagination is what matters most. Feel it inside. This imaginary work is some of the best exercise you can do. I never had a lesson and play to a 4 cap. All from “seeing” and “feeling”.
Stick to how you learn and the 70’s are in sight for you!
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:34 am
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