Tax Tips for Golf Teaching Professionals
Today’s tax laws are so complicated that unless your financial affairs are extremely simple, chances are you could benefit from at least occasional assistance from a certified public accountant. Don’t be caught in the trap of assuring that cutting taxes means hiring high priced experts to find “loopholes” in the tax law, a technique reserved only for rich people. The simple fact is that the tax law is the same for everyone and the...
The Plane Truth
In the last issue of Golf Teaching Pro, I introduced to you teacher Jim Hardy’s new swing theory involving the one-plane and two-plane swings, and showed you basic concepts involving the elements of each. This time, as promised, I will present each swing type in much more detail, relative to describing the most important backswing and downswing keys. I learned these while collaborating with Hardy on the book, The Plane Truth For...
Mental Rule for Teaching Golf and Other Thoughts
How much time do you spend teaching the mental game to your students? If you’re like many teachers, you probably spend far greater time dealing with the physical aspects of the game. Yet, the teacher can greatly enhance the student’s learning experience if the teacher has a good grasp on the mental game. Some of the more prominent sport psychologists have put out bestselling books in recent years, most notably Dr. Bob Rotella and Dr....
Never Stop Learning
A wise old pro once told me, “Mark, most experienced golf pros don’t want to hear teaching advice from other teachers. That’s because they already think they know it all.” The more I’m in the golf teaching business, the more I’m convinced how true that statement is on some levels. An experience that national coordinator Bob Wyatt and I encountered at a recent Level IV Master Teaching Professional course not only epitomized the...
An Analysis of Tiger Woods’ New Swing
Ever since Tiger Woods broke ties with golf instructor Butch Harmon and started taking lessons from Hank Haney – the coach who helped Mark O’Meara revamp his swing and win the 1998 Masters and the 1998 British Open – golfers and teachers like you have been curious about Tiger’s new technique. Having previously written The Tiger Woods Way in 1997, a book that explained Tiger’s power-draw swing, I too was curious to discover the new...
KEEPING FIT WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?
As I have mentioned before in this column, I have been teaching skiing for over 40 years. How does this relate to teaching golf? Well, the President of the USGTF and I were both funseekers at a ski resort in Vermont in another life, he being the Chief of Funseekers. He has asked me to relate some of my experiences in teaching skiing to teaching golf. There are a remarkable number of similarities, as you would expect. Stance and...
On not giving up
Dear Student, So the greatest game in the world has humbled you a bit, has it? Welcome to the club. It’s a club with millions of members. In fact, everyone who has ever driven a ball off the first tee – Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan, and every weekend hacker who’s on the tee right this very second – is in it. You’ve got a lot of good company. Believe it or not, joining this club is actually vital if you want to get out of the...
A Teacher’s Primer on the HISTORY OF THE THREE-WEDGES
It wasn’t too long ago that a “standard” set of golf clubs consisted of a driver, 3-wood, 5-wood, 2-through-9 irons, pitching wedge, sand wedge, and putter. Notice that, with this set, there is a strong emphasis on the long game. In recent years, golf professionals have come to appreciate that most strokes in golf are taken within 100 yards of the hole. Therefore, set make-up has evolved to emphasize these shots – specifically, with...
Daly’s Dynamite Lob-Wedge Game
I’m sure you’d admit that John Daly is the “everyman” of golf – a PGA Tour player your students most love to watch blast drives 300-plus yards. As long as Daly is off the tee, he has often been criticized by the game’s purists for his unorthodox driving technique, namely his extra-lengthy backswing. Ironically, Jack Nicklaus, Daly’s golf idol, was also mocked in his early days for both his flying right elbow at the top of the swing...
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