Coaching

Your overall coaching area – all matters specifically to do with coaching. Parent category of your two categories of people you have coached. NB – for coaching tips please use the sub category “technical” so they appear on the page that appears when the Coaching Tips area on the home page is clicked.

Blending Pupils Wants With Their Actual Needs!

Posted on by Ian
Teaching never ceases to stop fascinating me. Next year will be my 30th year of standing out on a practice ground helping people play better golf. In thirty years you can imagine how many changes I have seen and in all shapes and sizes from equipment and techniques to fitness and playing strategies. I am not sure that subscribe to the view that teaching has changed that drastically. Of course tea...
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Juniors & The Parent’s Role

Posted on by Ian
Charley Hull... Child to Superstar, the best nurtured "Golf prodigy" I know and have ever seen Recently I had a long and interesting conversation with a very famous Professional footballer who is a very good friend of mine. We were talking about the coaching of children and the myriad of challenges that now seem to attach to it. It was interesting to see how many parallels and indeed syne...
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The Golf Robot

Posted on by Ian
If Trackman 4 and 3D Bio system are like X-rays and MRI scans then surely the Golf robot is like at Spec't Nuclear CT scan, it is simply amazing. My philosophy has always been to use a blend of my own teaching knowledge coupled with all the available technical systems effectively meaning that you don't just have a subjective coach opinion. If its available and gives us hard and fast factual da...
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Phillip Price

Posted on by Ian
Ryder Cup Star & 3 Tour Wins Everyone will remember the day that Phillip Price defeated Phil Mickelson in the Ryder cup! Mickelson was World No.2 at the time and "Pricey" was not given a cats chance as they say. Well the rest is definitely history. That day I was an incredibly proud as alongside with Dennis Sheehy we had worked so hard the previous four years to get him to that poin...
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Peter Baker

Posted on by Ian
Ryder Cup Star & 3 Tour Wins To this day Seve Ballesteros apart, I would have to say Peter Baker was the biggest talent I have ever had the pleasure of working alongside. Great ball striker and not phased with anything, "Bakes is just Bakes" and has never changed. He amassed 9 Professional victories and over €4,000,000 in prize money. Two highlights stand out for me and it was in 19...
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Nicole Gergely

Posted on by Ian
French Open Winner 2009 Nicole Gergely came to me in 2011 because her game started to become inconsistent. She turned Pro in 2005 and by 2009 she had become a solid performer on the Ladies European Tour with a spectacular win at the 2009 French Open at Arras cementing her position as Austria's No.1 female golfer. We worked a lot on the backswing and tried to get the club up and down the lin...
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Elisabeth Esterl

Posted on by Ian
2 Wins & Solheim Cup There were not many golfers I worked with that knew more about the swing than Elisabeth. Her knowledge of her own swing was infinite and working with her was good as the feedback you would get from Elisabeth as a coach was excellent and her feels and way of communicating it were superb. She was also a very hard worker and could change things very easily. Although no...
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Per-Ulrik Johansson

Posted on by Ian
6 Tour Wins & 2 Ryder Cups Per-Ulrik Johansson had the most perfect golf swing I ever saw. It was a privilege to stand behind him and watch him hit ball after ball. The biggest compliment I can pay him is he was the closest thing to a robot I have ever seen. Per-Ulrik went to Arizona College with Phil Mickelson and the two are great mates. Ironically in 1995 at the Ryder Cup the two played...
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Steve Lewton

Posted on by Ian
2014 Taiwan Masters Winner Originally from Woburn and now based in Australia I tell everyone that Steve Lewton is really a fantastic golfer and one that I still feel has unfinished business out on Tour. I was thrilled when he won the 2014 Taiwan Masters and he immediately thanked all the people that had helped him. It was a class act from a class person. Stevie came to me as am amateur ...
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David Addison

Posted on by Ian
Greatest Ever Ball Striker It must be said I have been very lucky to coach, work and help with some of the most amazing ball strikers ever to play the game of golf. Seve Ballesteros, David Frost, Howard Clark, Vijay Singh and Ian Woosnam all impressed me when I was with them. I am often asked who is the best striker of a golf ball I have ever coached and to this day the answer is David Addi...
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Matt Briggs

Posted on by Ian
PGA European Seniors Tour Matthew Briggs came to me a very solid amateur. He was in his mid forties and has harboured a life time dream of playing on the European Seniors Tour. Already at a brilliant level of plus 2 and plus 3 (+2/+3) level you would wonder why you would drastically start to change a swing, however Matt had hip issues and was prone to shaping the ball far too much right to ...
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Marcus Menara

Posted on by Ian
NZ Senior Touring Professional I have worked a bit with Marcus now over the last fifteen months or so. He is a quality ball striker and it strikes me that he can hit the ball with any kind of movement. In many respects this is quite impressive however at the same time quite dangerous. He has a lot of knowledge and many of our lessons are in depth discussions about how I explain it, how ...
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Simon Hurd

Posted on by Ian
European Tour Professional Simon Hurd is no question the most confident player I have ever coached. Confident in his own game, confident as a person and if you spend time with him you start realise it is definitely not a front. In fact Simon Hurd probably has more self-belief than any other golfer on the planet. I realised very quickly that Simon had talent and ability, however what struck...
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John Hawksworth

Posted on by Ian
PGA European Tour 1986-2000 Along with Stephen Ames, John Hawksworth is the funniest player I have ever worked with. Joke after joke and witty beyond belief, it is little wonder "Hawky" has gone on to be a TV commentator and a great after dinner speaker. He is also the best pool player I have ever played against. Trophy as he is affectionately known (When his hair was short his ears stu...
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Michael Barrymore

Posted on by Ian
TV Entertainer They say that golf is addictive, well in Michael Barrymore's case then it was super addictive. He came to me as his minder Steve Gilbey had researched for Michael to have a private instructor and I was taken off to the Buckinghamshire Golf Club to coach him. To say that Michael took to Golf like a duck to water is an understatement. He explained to me that he was used to rehe...
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Jorge Sampaio

Posted on by Ian
Portuguese Presdient I was very honoured to teach the Portuguese president at the 1998 Portuguese Open and what an entertaining man he turned out to be. Seve Ballesteros had told me that we would have Jorge (Mr President) in our group for the Pro-Am and would I take a look at his swing. Not in my nature to argue with Seve so of course I did. Jorge was fantastic, a great guy and he asked...
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Bradley Dredge

Posted on by Ian
PGA European Tour 2 Wins Bradley Dredge is still playing some of his very best golf today and it seems he has been around for a long time now. When I first worked with him he struck me immediately as a top class ball striker and also a very long and straight hitter. He was at the time a little hung up on drawing the ball and I spoke at length to his mind/mental manager Roger Manners about g...
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Andrew Beal

Posted on by Ian
PGA European Tour Professional Andy Beal is a fantastic golfer. He has also overcome an incredible obstacle of whilst being on Tour being diagnosed with cancer and he had to have his eye removed. In 1998, his best year on Tour, Andy earned over 100,000 Euro and finished 3rd at the Benson & Hedges Open. The fact that he returned back to the European Tour to compete again is nothing short...
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Jessica Ji

Posted on by Ian
Korean LET Tour Professional If ever there was a nicer girl on Tour than Jessica then I haven't seen her. Jessica was the first real Korean Professional I had ever coached and what made it difficult was the fact that she hardly spoke any English and her mother actually spoke none. Jessica really worked hard with me for a long time and slowly but surely became a lot more confident in her...
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So You Want To Be A Pro?

Posted on by Ian
It is amazing how many people, especially young children that come to me and tell me that they want to be a Professional. Recently when delivering a talk to a group of 7 to 12 year olds every single hand in the group went up in the air when I asked who wants to be a Professional. their is no doubt that Tiger woods has had an amazing effect on people now wanting to play professionally. In e...
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Trackman 4 – My Thoughts

Posted on by Ian
Well it just got better and a whole lot easier. So many people ask me what the benefits of going on Trackman are and I have to say its a hard question to answer as the benefits are numerous. Effectively I have seen, been around and worked with Trackman since 2005 and coaching on the different Tours since 1992 I really get to see a lot of new products when they are at a testing and research...
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John Conteh

Posted on by Ian
World Champion - Light Heavyweight Boxer John came to see me at the Buckinghamshire Golf Club. His spoke to me about his son James however said it's hard to take advice off your own son (James was a Pro standard player at the time). Being a very built up athlete, John had problems rotating from his hips and was in turn used his arms too much to hit the ball. It was tough trying to get him n...
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Gareth Paddison

Posted on by Ian
Top NZ Touring Professional I first stated working with Gareth in December last year (2014) and instantly we gelled. He has a very open approach and sounded quite surprised that I would communicate so easily with his Aussie coach the brilliant Dennis Mcdade (Marc Leishmans coach). Gareth has to be amongst the very hardest working Pro I have seen and he eats, gyms and does the whole thing li...
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The most advanced Bio-System in Golf

Posted on by decay
"Accurate to 3/100 of and inch and 1/6 of a degree, giving real time feedback and quantitive information". When Justin Rose recently told one of my lessons who is a Pro that this system is "A must have to use for the serious golfer" then that made my mind up to finally take the plunge to get it. I have been closely involved in using the system for over three years now and could see it's ben...
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Paul Way

Posted on by Ian
Ryder Cup Twice & 4 Wins Paul Way was a fantastic golfer. When he made his debut in the Ryder Cup became the second youngest Ryder Cup player after Nick Faldo. Very strong and a good ball striker with a short game to match Paul for a long time looked the most likely player to take the mantle from Ballesteros and Faldo, he was that good! I worked with Paul for the first time at the 1995 ...
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Seve Ballesteros

Posted on by Ian
8 Ryder Cups & 91 Wins Without doubt not a day goes by when I don't think about Seve Ballesteros. The fact I actually got to coach him was a dream come true and I could write a book, no in fact two about all the things I learned from him. He was an absolute golfing genius, no question. I was fortunate enough to travel to such events like the US Masters at Augusta, The Open, The Dubai Ma...
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How Trackman 4 Works

Posted on by decay
Trackman 4 is a dual radar which basically works like a microwave, reflecting waves from the movement of a golf club head and the resulting ball flight. The change in frequency of these receiving waves is what makes it possible for us to track what happens at the very moment of impact (and now after with TM4) between club and ball. TrackMan has a long track record of working with radar techno...
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