5. A "good swing" when first experienced feels anything but good

When you engage in either a lesson or a series of golf lessons, to get the best from them, you must look upon it as a shared responsibility. It must be a 50/50 arrangement for it to produce real improvement. This is how it breaks down.

The Pro brings his knowledge of the mechanics, knowledge of golf psychology, understanding of the pupils needs and wants, patience, positive attitude, an understanding of cause and effect, communication skills in audio, visual and kinaesthetic modes, his experience, an approachable manner and last but not least, a shoulder to lean on.

The pupil needs to bring 3 things. A willingness to listen to ideas, (ideas that may sound irrelevant and sometimes strange) commitment and patience. You must be willing to learn new strange concepts that initially make no sense at all. I often tell players that a "good swing" when first experienced feels anything but good.

More often than not, better swings do not work straight away either which is why you need a commitment to stay with the idea until your natural hand / eye co-ordination re-adjusts. This can take time especially if you inwardly resist the idea or display commitment in a "Bull headed" fashion. The harder you push the more resistance you meet. If you can back off from this kind of confrontation, you will often find the game then comes to you. A calmer commitment is required which is, in a way, another form of Patience.

Patience and golf are not naturally compatible because golf, and the challenge of it, brings out the worst aspects of the human condition. It is extremely difficult to quickly change several million years of conditioning in a few hours or days.

A friend of mine, a fellow Pro, is a very good player but a reluctant coach. He once felt obliged to give one of his members a lesson and on the way to the range, the pupil spelt out what he expected my pal to achieve for him. Already disgruntled at having to turn out, he rounded on the surprised, would be pupil and said, "Why the hell should you learn in half an hour what took me 20 years," He was right but obviously not in the way he said it. This happened several years ago and the tragedy is that if that pupil is still approaching the game in the same fashion, he will be the same player with the same underlying faults today.

You cannot bend the rules and leap frog up the ladder of experience. You have to apply yourself to gradual protracted learning. The game can appear cruel if you do not follow the process because misplaced effort counts for absolutely nothing and leads absolutely nowhere. Even though the Pro, on the face of it appears to bring more to the equation, make no mistake that your contribution is harder and essential if you are to improve and not waste your time, effort and money.