Choosing the Right Golf Teacher

By Jack Moorehouse

From time to time you may need to go see a golf professional to really sort out any problems in your game. If you're thinking of taking golf lessons, one of the first things you'll need to do is choose an instructor. The right instructor makes learning the game fun, enjoyable, and interesting. The wrong instructor makes it difficult and unpleasant. Choosing the right golf teach means finding one that inspires confidence in his teaching abilities. He/she needs to know the game well, must communicate well during golf instruction sessions, and needs to provide golf tips that generate results.

Golf teachers come in all shapes, sizes, and flavors. Some are good communicators. Others are a wealth of technical knowledge. Some are great working with beginners. Others are better working with more experienced players. Many are highly personable, while others are not. The key is finding an instructor that you're comfortable with, not one that has a great reputation or charges the least. After all, you may be taking a number of golf lessons from him so you need to fell comfortable with his teaching style and personality.

Key Traits of a Good Instructor
While every golf instructor is different, the good ones all seem to share some of the same traits. Below are traits to look for in a golf instructor:

-Passion for the game
-Experienced
-Highly Knowledgeable
-Good Training
-Excellent Communicator

The first thing you want to look for in a teacher is how he/she feels about the game. Does he/she have a passion for it? Does he/she have a passion for teaching it? It's easy to find a teacher who's giving golf lessons just to make a few extra dollars. If that's what you're looking for, that's fine them. But if you're serious about improving your game, you want someone who is dedicated to what they're doing and has a passion for helping others learn how to play it.

You also want someone who is highly knowledgeable about golf and has experience teaching at your level. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't use someone who is new to teaching golf. He or she may be an excellent teacher. And you may have every confidence in that person. However, chances are that you'll get better results from an experienced teacher who knows the game well and knows how to teach someone at your level.

You also want someone who's been trained to teach. You're local pro maybe a nice guy and a friend, but be wary of taking golf lessons from him. If he hasn't been fortunate enough to have attended a teaching school, you may not enjoy taking golf lessons from him. Those instructors who have enjoyed success in the field haven't achieved it accidentally. They've work with others to help them improve their teaching abilities and their expertise. Take advantage of that if your can.

In addition, you want a teacher who is an excellent communicator. This is critical. Some teachers have a lot of technical knowledge stored inside them, but they're not able to communicate during a golf instruction session in a way that a person can understand. If he or she can't communicate well, it doesn't matter how man golf tips he knows. Look for a teacher who can help you understand what you're attempting to do. A good golf instructor understands this. He also has the patience to enable you to lean at your own pace.

Doing Your Part
Achieving tangible results from taking golf lessons, however, ultimately depends on you, not the instructor. In other words, you need to do your part, too. An effective golf instructor can only do so much. He or she is only as good as you allow him or her to be. So you need to do things right to facilitate the learning process.

One of the most common mistakes a student makes is not doing enough between lessons to make a golf instruction session payoff. Golf lessons are supposed to help you improve your game. All the lessons in the world won't help you improve, if you don't put enough time in on the course.

Another mistake includes arriving to the lesson late. Then you jump out of your car, pull out your driver, and start taking full swings without having warmed up properly. Or maybe you're stressed out from work and the traffic getting to the lesson didn't help. During the lesson, you give the instructor a hard time. To get the most out of a golf lesson you must approach the session with the attitude.

If you combine the right attitude with the right golf instructor, one whom you're comfortable with and is a good communicator, you'll enjoy taking lessons and learning about golf. What's more your game will improve and you're golf handicap will start dropping—and that's what taking lessons is all about.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book "How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros." He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.