Hardly a day goes by where a golfer doesn’t ask me something like:
“Help! What’s wrong with my game?”
or
“Cameron, I have missed a few putts lately, what am I doing wrong?”
or
“I have been playing quite well of late, but the last round was off, can you give me some help?”
My reply to these golfers is almost always the same and goes something like this.
Can I ask you a coaching question here? And that is, what do you think the issue is?
This is not a cop out on my behalf. What I am doing is getting the client to do the work. I am forcing them to go deeper and think for themselves.
You see, there’s a huge difference between teaching and coaching.
Teaching is telling someone what to do, is outdated and presumes that “telling” is the way forward (it’s not).
Coaching is more mentoring and guiding the golfer along the journey.
Teaching is limited because the golfer is always asking, “what am I doing wrong and can you help me?”. The golfer is always looking outwards for the answer and is reliant on someone else.
Coaching on the other hand is about learning and problem solving. So, when the pressure is on, and you need to play your best, you have the resilience and courage to figure things out for yourself. You can self-coach and manage yourself in any situation.
Like I said, world of difference. And the starting point, as always, is to ask yourself a better question.
Cameron ” Real Coaching” Strachan
P.S. I launched my latest book last week called, Swing First, Worry Later. You can get your copy over here for a special introductory price (for another week or so) and go deeper with all this learning and coaching stuff.
P.P.S Some golfers don’t like it when I force them to think and answer the hard questions. And I get it. Real coaching can be confronting and often doesn’t leave any room to wriggle. Either you have the courage to tackle the problem head on, or you don’t. Sometimes it’s easier to try some quick fix or tip from one of the golf magazines.