WHY GUESS ANYMORE ?
“A philosophy blending the use of scientific and creditable data obtained from the very best systems rather than relying on an educated guess or subjective opinion, combined with extensive knowledge of how to simplify those facts to the pupil at the exact level needed is by far the highest skill you can ever posses as a coach. It is how I have seen all the World’s very best operating”.
My coaching career changed in 1990 when I met David Leadbetter at Grenelefe Resort in Haines City, Florida and I still speak to David to this day. It was a meeting that changed my life as David then sent me to Dennis Sheehy his Director of Instruction for Europe. Shadowing and assisting Dennis for the next few years I was privileged to coach, help coach, study, advise, and work alongside with some of the World’s best players including Seve Ballesteros, Ian Woosnam, David Frost, and Stephen Ames as well as Tournament winners and Ryder Cup stars like Phillip Price, Paul Way, Peter Baker and Per Ulrik Johansson. Additionally I have experience of coaching top lady Professionals having coached players on both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA. Ultimately I have travelled to all four corners of the World experiencing, teaching and coaching at the highest level, seeing many of the very latest techniques and trends.
Ian coaching on Tour with Legend Seve Ballesteros
My beliefs are not based around a “One size fits all method” and I am definitely not the “My way or highway kind of coach” and I learned years ago that people, whether be it adults or children, historically do not fit into a “System” either. I believe the highest skill you can posses as a coach is to objectively evaluate what you actually see in front of you. That’s how I’ve seen the World’s best operating, however in many cases golf teaching can be a series of instructional guesses and leading people into generic systems that help very few.
What has stuck with me from 30 years of exposure to Tour coaching with all kinds of specialists, is really a blend of high level coaching applied with the very latest Tour trusted factual data. Having the facts for me is stronger than subjective opinion and really gives you the perfect platform to go forward from. As we say “Why would you ever try and guess what you can now factually measure” and also we know that watching a video of your swing often tells you a small part of why things actually happen as “movements viewed in 2D are not time, space or speed related” so what we effectively “Think” we see is not telling us what is always “actually happening” the very same way your “Feel doesn’t equal Real” scenario.
Whether I am at a tournament on Tour, in the middle of a driving range with an amateur or working with junior golfers, the one thing I do is always give the same level of attention to everyone. Everyone’s game is important to them so it is more than important to me. Here on this site you will find out more about my ideas on current trends and equipment I use like Trackman and force plates, learning as well as my teaching philosophies and some useful information on how to improve your golf. So your golf improvement definitely starts here and I hope to see you soon, somewhere, some day, on the practice ground.