Every year, Golf Magazine hosts a “Teaching Summit” for its Top-100 Instructors. It brings together all types of teachers with different perspectives of how golf should be taught to the masses. Some teachers are from the old school, some bridge the gap between old and new and others are part of the latest generation of teachers that will eventually become more advanced than my generation ever was.

As a Top-100 Teacher for nearly 10 years, I have gotten to know almost everyone … what they teach, how they articulate concepts to their students, etc. It’s been such a blessing. This vital information helps me to become a better instructor and it exposes me to thoughts I might not otherwise have on my own. I know some of you on GolfWRX would have loved to sit in on what was talked about at the Teaching Summit, so I figured that I’d provide you an exclusive look into what was said.

Dave Pelz

I have known Dave Pelz for more than 15 years, as he and his wife owned a home at a place that I worked in the summers, and I am always fascinated to speak with him to see what he has come up with “this time.” You might know that Dave focuses on the short game, and I was expecting to hear some of his new studies on how the ball rolls or how to put more spin on wedge shots, but he took a different route this year and I think it made perfect sense.

During his speech, he focused on growing the game by improving the short game and further went on to say that if we (the teachers) did not do more short game instruction then the game will continue to decline and even more people will leave golf for good. His thought was that missing short putts or having the chipping/pitching yips make people quit the game. Stop and think about it: How many golfers do you know who quit the game because they:

1. Can’t hit their driver straight?
2. Don’t hit their irons as well as they’d like?

Now, how many times have you heard about golfers who quit the game because they had the short game yips? Yes, it’s much more often.

When most people pick up golf, they never seem to place much importance on properly learning the short game. By the time they come to me for a lesson, they either need a ton of short game work or their short game is too far gone to drastically improve. We just Band-Aid what we can until they refocus their attention, which sadly happens too rarely.

What I learned from Mr. Pelz is that we teachers need to work on teaching the short game in every lesson package. Some of us do, while others do not. Even if you don’t agree, Dave makes a very interesting point.

The Heart-Math Company

A former cardiologist spoke to us about how the heart and brain react to stress and strain within our daily lives. This could be at work, at home, or on the golf course, but the fact always remains that stress causes bad things to happen. He made a funny statement that hit me like a rock, asking about last time we made a really stupid decision or lost all of our rationale? “When you are highly stressed,” the doc said.

Secondly, he asked us if we have ever been in the Zone while being uptight or ticked off? Think back to your golf game. Imagine the player who tends to lose his temper on the golf course. Do they make great course management decisions or stupid plays? Are they in the Zone? I don’t even have to answer those questions for you.

His company, Heart-Math, provides training for you to understand how to control your brainwaves, heart-rate and blood pressure all with a little gizmo that you clip to your ear that projects this information onto your computer screen. By watching these “waves,” you will be better able to get yourself into a position in which you could actually enter the Zone. And this makes perfect sense to me. We all need to learn how to relax more often!

Stack and Tilt: Andy Bennett and Mike Plummer

Above: Mike Bennet (left) and Andy Plummer (right).

This was the first time I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Mike and Andy in person. While some teachers instantly write them and their swing model off, for whatever reason, I was excited to hear the “how and why” of what they teach. Their style is deeply rooted in The Golfing Machine, written by Homer Kelley, and the teachings of Mac O’Grady and his MORAD research. I have been trained in both systems, so I listened extra carefully. I could tell that they have worked very hard to create an instructional system that golfers could believe in and adopt

While I’m not quite sure everyone can move and play 100 percent successfully within any swing model, I will say that I like their thoughts of keeping the head centered and more stable during the golf swing. Getting the lower body to work correctly per their ideas is the key to making this work; it’s up to you to practice and buy-in. The final take for me with Stack and Tilt is that as teachers we need to be better organized in creating a plan for our students so they know what’s coming up next week or next month.

Bernie Najar

Bernie is the Director of Golf Instruction at Caves Valley and is a guru when it comes to the integration of force plates within his instruction. There are currently three types of force plates that most of us teach with: BodiTrak, Swing Catalyst, and the SAM BalanceLab. Bernie uses Swing Catalyst and has become their go-to guy when it comes to understanding ground reaction forces. What he basically said is that what we see on video is not always what is happening within the world of force and pressure. Sometimes you can see a guy on a force plate and you would bet your life savings that he has a reverse pivot, yet when you check the display you find out that the pressure is indeed on the correct foot!

Another thing that Mr. Najar discussed was how the center of pressure (or COG) moves back and forth between your feet. It give teachers clues as to how the body is moving and how the arms will react during the swing. As someone who has used force plates in my instruction for almost 10 years, I can tell you that if you have not taken the time to understand and feel how to move your weight through force plates that you are missing the boat. It’s Funny how a simple percentage on the screen under each foot can make missing elements of the weight shift so much easier to understand

The takeaway for me is to ensure that my students spend more time on my BodiTrack Motion Analysis System.

Michael Jacobs

Michael is a techno-teaching stud out of the Metropolitan Section in the Northeast. His school, X-Golf, is located in New York and he has always had the passion for technical instruction and systems that measure how everything works. Now he doesn’t teach in that manner, but he has the tools to make sure he never goes down the wrong road with his students. He continually refers to what one of the Top 100 Teachers, James Leitz from Pinewood CC in Slidell, La., often says:

“Why guess when you can measure?”

Both Michael and James have purchased the newest 3D Motion Analysis System called GEARS — you can find it online — and it is so cool. GEARS gives you a total MRI of your golf swing, as well as data on the club and ball interaction coupled with impact point on the club itself. For the first time we are able to track the body motions, the collision of the club and ball and have all the Trackman data including impact point on the clubface — it’s truly a breakthrough in golf instruction.

The ability to see where on the face the ball is impacted helps me to better understand how the face and the path are working together, as well as how much gear effect is playing a role in the output of your shots. Having this information at your fingertips is a great asset. GEARS will never take over for systems like FlightScope and Trackman when it comes to how the club and ball interact because it is an indoor system, however, it is showing us that we need to spend more time as teachers auditing the impact point of the ball on the clubface so that we can better control vertical and horizontal gear effect as you work on your swing.

Tom Stickney

I did a presentation on the merits of using Trackman while teaching the AVERAGE golfer, not the pros, not the single-digit players, but the once-a-week golfers who never get to practice. I feel that I need to teach these types of players differently with my Trackman than how I go about teaching my Tour Players.

[youtube id=”pGg1_ETlZ84#t=15″ width=”620″ height=”360″]

You can find other videos on my YouTube channel at www.tomstickneygolf.com

Final Thoughts

As teachers, we all get stuck in the way we do things because we hardly see others teach due to our busy schedule. I can tell you, however, that hearing the people above and listening to my peers during our roundtable discussions has rekindled a passion for me to get better as a teacher. It’s not that we stop trying to learn, but it’s hard to find new information that challenges us mentally and makes us stop and think.

“Am I really teaching ‘X’ the correct or best way?” That’s the question we all get to ask ourselves.

Thank you to all my friends who attended the Top-100 Summit. You’ve taught me a lot!