Defining A Coach’s Career – Part 2
USGTF honorary member John Means, Jr. is the men’s golf team coach at the University of Idaho. In addition to his collegiate coaching, he has spent many summers teaching and directing at golf camps and academies. He shares some of his observations and experiences here.
1. What were some of the most valuable tips you remember receiving as a junior player?
Probably the tip I remember most had to do with the grip. My father taught me to hold the club in ten fingers, but in the junior lessons I had, the pro at our course told me there was a different and better way to hold the club. It felt awful at the time, but I did it anyway because I believed he was correct. The other valuable tip I received came after I had shot a bad score in a junior tournament. The pro told me golf was a game that can never be mastered. Some days you’re the bug and some days you’re the windshield; believe in that!
2. In your golf camps, how does teaching beginners differ from teaching more advanced players?
Teaching beginners is a gross (major muscle groups) introduction to the swing, from how to stand (posture), to how to hold the club (grip), and to how to align with the target. Once those are learned, slow-motion movement of the arms, hips, legs, etc., is introduced. All beginners can swing a golf club, but most have some negative baggage that has to be taken out of their belief systems, such as “keep your head down” or “swing the club at the target.” Those well-meaning lines have taken students back years in their learning curves, and yet we still hear those things on television and in golf magazines. Advanced players usually have their major muscle groups working; it is more of a minor correction to get them all moving in the proper sequence.
3. When you meet potential players during the recruiting process for the University of Idaho men’s golf team, what are some elements of prior instruction you look for?
Basically, I look for good fundamentals. I take notes on every player I see, and my comments in my notes are about each player’s grip, posture and alignment. Then I concentrate on the player’s short game and course-management skills.
4. Do you find that most of your players spent a lot of time as junior golfers under the tutelage of a single instructor? Is that advantageous? Why or why not?
Believe it or not, the majority of my players have never had any real instruction. They may have had some help as they grew up through junior lessons, or the local pro said something to them on occasion at the range, but I am shocked at the high number of players who have never had any real long-term instruction. As to whether a single instructor is advantageous, I would say it depends on what that instructor teaches. For example, does the instructor teach only Stack & Tilt or another “method”? Or, is the instructor capable of seeing what is the most advantageous way for the junior to get the most out of his physical abilities? If you try to teach a hitter to become a swinger, it can throw the player’s learning curve out of whack.
5. When an instructor prepares a junior player for collegiate golf, what are the most important things that should be emphasized?
The most essential elements for a college-bound player are fundamentals, short game (different clubs around the green, imagination), and course management from a golf course designer’s point of view. Each hole may be designed to be played perfectly only one way!
6. Course management, strategic thinking during a round, dealing with the weather…do you find these are taught before players reach you, or do players develop these skills once they arrive on the college scene?
In my 20-plus years of coaching, I have had three players who have had any of those elements of training prior to coming to college. In my opinion, for a player to develop his game to the highest level, he first needs to learn trajectory, meaning that if you hit a bucket of 7-irons all with a full swing, the shots all should look identical. This is how a player learns distance control. I have never had a single player come to college with that skill; therefore, playing in inclement weather with those players is always hit or miss, especially in the wind. Course management and strategic thinking are related, but a player has to know fly distances in order to be good at course management. When I ask a freshman how far he hits his 7-iron, for example, I get “between 165 and 175.” Young players have no clue how far the ball flies and no idea that the clubs can be hit a certain distance EVERY TIME. I once observed Dr. Gil Morgan playing a practice round with his son and a junior player whom I was recruiting. The junior player hit a 6-iron into the front bunker and he was upset with the shot. Dr. Morgan asked him how far he generally hit his 6-iron, to which the response was, “170 to 180 yards.” Dr. Morgan said he hit his own 6-iron 178 yards, and proceeded to tell the junior how important this kind of precision is to playing the game at the highest level. I have never forgotten that.
7. How do you prepare players mentally for the more rigorous competition they encounter in college golf?
I’m not sure the competition is more rigorous, but the preparation certainly is. Most college golf tournaments are like playing in the state amateur, meaning that there are maybe half a dozen players in the field who should win every time, unless it is a top-rated college tournament or an NCAA Championship (which is more like a U.S. Amateur). The main difference between junior golf and college golf is length. Most junior players are used to hitting lots of scoring clubs (7, 8, 9, PW) into par-4s, while at the college level you don’t get much opportunity to hit those clubs. Therefore, junior players’ stroke averages tend to increase dramatically when they enter college. The other big difference is that most junior players have been big fish in a little pond (the best junior players in their state), whereas now they are little fish in a big pond. They soon discover that all college players were the best juniors in their state!
8. Do you notice any unique challenges for left-handed players?
Not really. Thank goodness for the advent of the mirror button in our video library! I can take any right-handed player’s swing and turn him into a left-handed player with the touch of a button, so the swing mechanics are the same. Equipment becomes an issue on occasion, as most companies don’t keep left-handed equipment readily available. Even though most of our equipment comes from tour vans, unless a company has a lefthanded player on its staff, availability may take awhile.
9. Aside from studying hard and learning time management skills, what are some things you ask your players to focus on in preparing for collegiate life and golf competition? How can instructors help this process along during their time with juniors approaching the collegiate level?
This is my favorite conversation with juniors and their parents. College for an athlete consists of three things: school, athletics and social life. The problem with most freshmen is that high school mostly has been a combination of school and social life, so they really had to balance only two items. Balancing three is like juggling. Once a junior gets to college, the social pulls affect school and athletics tremendously (Mom and Dad are not there to dictate curfew, etc.), and the new sense of freedom becomes overwhelming. A new college player may encounter a vicious downward cycle quickly, based on time-management skills, which he hasn’t been taught how to use. I think making juniors aware of this is probably the best thing we can do, because this kind of instruction cannot be duplicated anywhere else.
10. What qualities do you observe as making some golfers more receptive to instruction than others? How do you handle these differences in your coaching, and what advice do you have for instructors as they work with juniors in this regard?
Without a doubt, a major variable is a player’s parents. If one of the parents is stubborn, then so is the junior. I have seen domineering fathers take over lessons when watching their junior son or daughter taking a lesson, or say something like, “I told you that!” The junior can’t focus on the task at hand because of constant pressure from parents. When giving a junior a lesson for the first time, I always demand that a parent be there so he or she can hear my instruction, but what I am really trying to do is figure out the junior player’s relationship with that parent, and thus how much I can expect in return from the student. If I have trouble with the two, I send them to get help from someone else, as I can’t teach someone who doesn’t want to learn. That is one of the reasons why college recruiting is so difficult. I need to know if a junior is teachable. So, when I am watching a tournament, I am watching the parents as much as the potential student athlete. Through the years, I have removed dozens of very good juniors from my recruiting list based on their relationship with their parents. If a young player doesn’t take instruction well, soon other players will surpass him ability-wise. It doesn’t take long for a junior to see others improving and then be tempted to drink the same water!
