Everything I have learned on the golf coaching

By : Franck Damée

A few years ago, I realized I had become too old to continue to run tennis, then I started golf. What I did not know then was that I was perhaps too young for this sport: the more I m'acharnais, the more I resisted! Over the years, I learned patience, acceptance, the unknown, humility.
Now I play ...

When I was little, I found the game easy. It took me many years of practice before you understand how difficult it was. (Raymond Floyd, professional golfer)

Note to drive non-golfer. I tried to limit the text that follows the golf jargon o) You will find, however below are some links to better understand and discover the sport.
http://www.france-green.com/BUT/index.php
http://www.ffgolf.org/
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R% C3% A8gles_de_Golf

How golf illuminates my coaching practice ...

The analogy

"Your behavior on the golf course generally reflects your behavior in life. (Jammie Green, professional golfer)

"A golf course is the epitome of all that is purely transitory in the universe, a space that is not to stay, but to leave as soon as possible. "(Jean Giraudoux, French writer)

Golf is a mirror of life. Harvey Penick, a professional, very rightly said: "Play one route with someone, and you know much more about him that dozens of dinners in town. Just watch how a player approaches the hole to remove the ball and you think it will adhere to the green and the other players ... "

In my practice, I learned to take the pitch to observe what happens when I'm coaching a client. You never know, it could be that it resonates with what led him to consult me ...

The label

In contrast to many other sports, the game of golf is mostly practiced without the supervision of an arbitrator or a judge. The game relies on the honesty of the player as regards respect for other players that compliance with the Rules. (Excerpt from the Rules of Golf approved by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews)

Golf in the rules of etiquette and meeting the well are as important as the proper rules of the game (Bobby Jones, golf legend)

If there is one essential thing in golf, it's honesty (Jack Nicklaus, another golf legend)

In golf, the label above the rules; coaching as the charter of ethics above the contract.

The charter is the ethical basis of professional practice of coaching. It ensures fairness: the coach, the client, that of their relationship ... and honesty breeds trust and shared essential to coaching.

The course does not a priori, only the player is capable

The older you get the stronger the wind gets and it's always in your face. (Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear)

The route is the same for all players, each player uses it differently. Your storm against the tree that stands between him and the hole, you blame the wind for your ball deflected to the left ...

Some are struggling against the elements when others use your client ... you surprised, you ask him a question and it does not give you the answer you were expecting ... Because you expect a very accurate! Resistant?

The only person I can change, c'est moi.

The greatest victories are those that are won on oneself. (Bobby Jones, always him)

I can not change either the terrain or weather, or my partners part. Nor can I change my ball up, I played where it lies. If I play badly, if I have no result, it's me that I must change to something different.

I coach, I and my client's problem. If we do not, if we are in a deadlock, it is not the score that I upsetting me is that I change.

Do more of what works when things change ... does not.

Concentrate on solutions, not errors. (Jack Nicklaus)

When I have a good contact with my long irons, I do not hesitate to use them rather than the woods ... If my first lobed approaches are vague and perilous, I rode a coup for the following approaches. If I play well, if it works, I do more of what works. Otherwise, I try something else.

Keeping it simple, be practical ... The three rules of the Guidance Solutions by Yves Gros-Louis, psychologist:
1 - If it works, do not change!
2 - Once you know what works, do more of what works!
3 - If it does not work, stop it and do something different

Step by step

This is neither new nor original to say that golf is played in one at a time, but it took several years for realizing it (Bobby Jones)

A golf course consists of 18 holes. A player hitting an average of 4 strokes per hole, or 72 shots in total. The purpose of the game is to "enquiller" the ball in the eighteenth hole affecting the least shots possible.
When I start on the first hole, I do not think the last time on 18, or even the final score. The only time the next important thing is that I will play.

An objective always seems difficult to achieve (if not, is not a goal, we speak ...) When the problem is complex, when the step is too high to cross, I decomposes.
The "small step" negotiated with the client is a difficult enough to make it a goal for the client, but it is accessible to able to achieve.
Setting small goals is more comfortable and more effective to set big goals unattainable ...

Small changes produce large effects

I improve my game, I reach more rarely spectators. (Gerald Ford, President of USA)

Change the angle of your 3-wood of a single degree and your shot will fall from 220 meters to the goal 3m84 initially targeted. Perhaps the distance between the green of the river that borders the ...

Theory of chaos or disorder organizer ... Coaching leads to the small steps that produce large effects.

Imbalance arises from the movement

Golf is a strange series of body contortions designed to produce a result Charge (Thomas D. Armor, professional golfer)

Swing, the essence of golf: the strange movement that is seemingly all over the body in balance, it is the conquest of power transmitted to the ball.

I discovered it was easier to make a ballerina doing a Sumotori camping tips on two legs. And why a sumo could not make a tip? The change is far from equilibrium ...

Let go

The only shots that you are really sure that you have already made (Byron Nelson, professional golfer)

In golf, it succeeds better in practice (in training) when there is no issue. It is more relaxed, attempts blows. In part, it was sometimes (often?) Tend to stiffen, stifle the grip (the "neck" of the club) we imagine that pressing harder, better control on the ball to impose the trajectory. Obviously, quite the contrary! Letting go is to first learn to release the grip.

Let go for a coach is not to accept any control is to follow the path which leads to his client rather than a scenario prepared in advance. This acceptance of the unknown is to copy the client can consider the change.

The indifference to the result

"Golf is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots, you get good breaks from bad shots - but you have to play the ball where it lies. "(Bobby Jones, always him)

You are on the green, so close to the hole, you place your routine, measured the distance that the ball is rolling, the estimated slopes, the imagined trajectory, is a vacuum in your head ... a movement of peace and balance balanced, you clear the ball rolling ... What! You forgot to make a vacuum in your head? You were already in the process of recording your points before "enquillé" the ball! Too bad ... It misses.

It never succeeds so well that when one is serene, indifferent to the result. I do what is right, I want the (not too close) I manage my routine (without falling in) I am present to my client ... and I welcome the unknown brings with it humility .

Humility

I discovered that to succeed in the world of golf, one must first accept ourselves as human beings capable of self-improvement and become someone better (Gary Player, another legend)

The challenge of golf is to accept to be imperfect (Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player buddy)

Professional players are surprising people when they pass a difficult time, they are surprising. Yet they have never achieved this coup had not tried.

A coach is not perfect since it is human ... (whew!) I am not perfect and it does not prevent me to dare to try things during a coaching session ... If it works, it is a success. If it does not work, this is not a failure, it is an attempt which I learn, which my client learns. The failure would be not to try