quick tip...

I am out at a party last night and I get into a conversation with Mark, a Financial planner that tells me he "sucks at golf"...that he had taken lessons before and the pro straightened him out for the day but then he couldn't reproduce it. 

I explained that was a typical experience with taking lessons and that most people will not get much out of even a series of lessons unless they are extremely talented or put in an incredible amount of time to improve, basing their learning on developing muscle memory.

He asked if there were an alternative to lessons like that to which I claimed yes. 

I asked him if he'd ever played baseball.

He said yes.

I said, here's an example.  When a professional directs you to "hit down and thru the ball" most people do not know what exactly it is the professional is talking about even when the student has played for years.  

It is a matter of a complex equivalence in the phrase: "down and thru". 

What is down and thru for me might be different for you or anybody else so...

Where does that leave us?

You play baseball I said so if I asked you to hit a grounder down the third base line do you think you could do it?   

He said, yes.

I said, that is the equivolent to hitting down and thru in golf.

He perked up.

I gave several other examples.   I said, if you hit the ball to the right what does the typical golf professional do?   He tries to get you to hit the ball straight.    I do not....I get the student to hit the ball as far left as possible, because if you know how to hit the ball to the right and try to hit the ball straight there is a constant struggle but if you remember how to hit the ball left then straight in somewhere in between.  

If you hit the ball to the opposite field then you have to learn to pull the ball.  That takes all of about ten minutes....then you have the option between right, left and straight. 

Of course there is a little more to it, which is why he is coming to see me next week for some time.