Courtesy: Les Miller - Golf Instructor at Primus Golf Academy

My love affair with golf began as a three year old boy being taught the game by my father; he instilled within me a passion for the game that I cherish to this day.

For me, teaching golf reinforces life; nothing’s impossible if you work hard, believe in yourself and want it with all your heart, strive to achieve these goals and you will realize your dreams.

Most of all love what you do and do what you love.

In regards to golf instruction, my feeling is that within every golfer there is a golf swing that is unique to his or her physical and mental ability. I sat and watched too often the same lesson(s) being given over and over, I wonder if the instructor really understands the students’ abilities. As an instructor my challenge is to quickly uncover those abilities so I may assist students down the path to learning, improving and enjoying the game of golf. Because each student is different there is “no one way” to teach, instruction needs to be tailor-made on an individual basis.

Years ago as a young golf professional I came to learn, quite by accident, how listening and observing could help me become a better teacher of the game. I’d like to share this story with you.

Every winter my wife and I would pack up our young children for our annual ski vacation to Colorado. Each morning we would drop the kids off at ski school and my wife and I would ski, have lunch and then ski with the kids in the afternoon. One day my wife suggested we take a private lesson while the kids were in ski school. As we both were very intermediate skiers I thought it was a great idea, so we called and made an appointment for the next day. Here’s where the story relates to teaching golf.

For two hours that morning our instructor (very pleasant fellow), tried to drill home his fundamentals of proper technique and form as we slowly moved down the hill. The more he forced his “method” of teaching upon us the worse we got, finally I had to tell him, “I need to take a break”. As we stood half-way down the mountain I thought of quitting, but something was about to change my skiing ability (and golf teaching ability) forever.

As we stood on the mountain a young ski instructor stopped slightly above us and watched her young students skiing past us. As they went by she yelled out, “That’s it, it’s just like riding a bike, pedal down with your right foot, then with your left foot, the faster you pedal the quicker you will turn.

I thought how easy does that sound, so in a blink of an eye I left my wife and instructor behind and starting pedaling down the mountain. It was amazing; within a minute I’d improved my skiing ability 100%. Why, because I could relate to what that young instructor had told her pupils. Hence I learned the #1 rule to being a good instructor, the ability to communicate to your students in a way they can understand!

The following is a list of what I believe all successful instructors have in common (to which I’m sure you can add your own ideas):

Good communication skills
Good instructors find ways of connecting as they listen more than they talk, finding out their student’s needs, desires and capabilities by asking, probing and observing.

Continued Education
Continued education in the golf industry especially by being good students of the game themselves, continually looking for opportunities to become better at teaching the game along with improving all areas of their lives.

Good Personality and Attitude