I’m going to add a bit of Ying to my Yang.

I’m well aware that some of my previous content has been on the flattering side on the success stories.

So how about a piece on some of the failures?

I’m pretty sure this is the marketing 101 of what not to do.

Anyway here goes.

You were always on my mind

The first story that always sticks in my mind is in my first year coaching.

Laura was a relative beginner in her Mid forties and could hit some pretty decent shots that went a good distance.

We had two hours together and it was a beautiful June day.

So straight out to the golf course and we were having a great time exploring all the different shots that emerge on the golf course.

Laura was playing great.

About ¾’s of the way through the lesson I spotted something I didn’t particularly like in Laura’s movement.

Bearing in mind Laura was still hitting the ball great.

In my infinite wisdom I decided to take Laura off the golf course and into our Indoor Studio to work on Laura’s technique for the last ½ hour.

The ½ hour turned into an hour and by the end of the lesson Laura has a serious dose of the shanks!

What did I do?

I tried to change too much and give Laura too many swing thoughts.

I never seen Laura again and I don’t blame her.

Reflecting, Laura and I had already worked on a few different shot scenarios on the course.

Today, I’d have asked Laura to schedule another time when she feels ready and do some specific targeted swing work, rather than risk Laura becoming overwhelmed with too much information to sort through.

Tired and Weary.

Scott and I had already spent a fair bit of time together and we had been seeing great results in his ball striking and scores were lowering.

It was a Monday evening at 9pm my last lesson of 9 lessons that day.

Scott and I never left until closer to 11pm.

It was an absolute shocker of a lesson. Everything we tried didn’t work.

Eventually I held my hands up and told Scott I had had an absolutely shocker. I needed to go home and reflect the next day over a coffee when I was fresher (I had recorded some of the session). I gave Scott that lesson for free and the next one too (which he kindly refused to accept).

Reflecting, since we’ve worked together for a while, had I not been physically and mentally exhausted, I’d have realised nothing was broken, fixes need not be employed, and it was simply an off night for Scott.

I wen't chasing short term performance (Scott hitting the ball great in that session) to make me feel good about my own coaching/self instead of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture.

Scott's long term development.

From that week on wards I decided to put in more frequent and longer breaks during my day so that I was fresher for our sessions together.

Scott by the way is still coming and improving.

Data Led instead of  data informed

Again in my first year, probably even first few months coaching, it was a snowy, crisp winter day so I had setup up our New Trackman Simulator for my first lesson of the day in the indoor studio.

Andy was 12 handicapper that hit the ball pretty good. This was our 3^rd or 4^th lesson.

Basically what happened was that Andy came in and from the word go Andy was slicing the ball wildly on the simulator. I had never seen Andy slice the ball so badly before.

So I preceded to try and get Andy to stop slicing it getting him to try and hit wild hooks and play with how closed his clubface was.

Nothing worked!

So ½ hr into the lesson I looked at the settings on Trackman.

Shit! I had setup the machine completely wrong, the target was miles off!

When I set it up properly Andy was hitting the ball great with a little fade!

I confessed straight away to Andy!

Reflecting, of course knowing Andy's game the way I did, I should have noticed immediately something wasn’t making sense. I became too concerned with outcome and what the data was telling me which blinded me to what was really taking place.

My lesson learned here was that not to rely solely on technology.

When using technology now I don’t let the data lead my decisions on coaching interventions for you, I let the data inform them.

So I’m human, I make mistakes.

What I can promise you is I leave no stone unturned trying to help you lower your golf scores.

As a result I spend a lot of time and resources on my education, I am currently just about to finish of a Masters by Research interviewing European Tour players on their experiences playing on tour.

I am on Mark Bull’s coach education programme, Mark is one of the world’s lead biomechanists.

I am also very wary that there is no regulation in the coaching industry so my coaching in live sessions has been assessed by staff over the last few years at Edinburgh University and also by one of the world’s leading coaching scientists and practitioners Ian Renshaw from Queensland University in Australia.

The feedback was 'Have you ever thought of another career?' :-).

If I think of one I’ll let you know, in the meantime I’m here to help you reach your goals. Get in touch.