The Sand Trap, one of my favorite blogs, has a great rant on golf instruction. Having stopped and started golf a couple times over the last decade as my life has gone through changes like having kids, I can totally relate to the post. Every time I lay off for a couple of years and try to get back into golf, I try to find a teaching pro that will helping me shake the rust off. Without fail, I find the instructor trying to shove my square swing into his round hole, trying to re-invent my swing in his/her likeness.

Now I’m not against making swing changes that will help lower my handicap, but I’ve gone from someone who hit consistent fades and had a pretty high GIR, to a power draw hitter who sometimes loses it to the left, and my handicap has never gotten any better than when I was in high school. Part of it is that I was physically better in high school, but a lot of it is my eagerness to completely change my swing to gain a few yards off the tee and dismissing the simple swing characteristics that were innate to my own body.

I think in the long run, I’ve lost a lot by not focusing on repeatability of my own swing as opposed to swinging like Tiger Woods or Ernie Els. It takes a sage teaching pro to see the difference between fixing a golfer’s swing and re-inventing it.