These are just some of my opinions and questions stimulated by my experiences. You can agree or disagree with these opinions and questions. It might be a good exercise to reflect on your own opinions and experiences.
The golf swing is under-learned despite being over-taught.
The golf swing is over-taught and made unnecessarily complicated by the golf instruction industry.
The golf swing is promoted as complicated and difficult, and not easily learned or understood.
The golf swing is over-mechanicalized, over-technicalized and over-analyzed……and therefore perceived to be complicated.
The mechanicalzation of the golf swing leads to paralyzation of the golfer.
The solution may be simplification.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo da Vinci
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.
Albert Einstein
Everything should be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.
Albert Einstein
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
Albert Einstein
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust
My destination is no longer a place, but a new way of seeing.
Marcel Proust
We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us.
Marcel Proust
You were born with potential.
Rumi
Society and traditional education has conditioned us to over rely on our left brain judgmental and analytical conscious mind at the expense of our subconscious right brain creativity, instinct and bodily intelligence.
Left brain judgment and analysis is detrimental to expressing the flow of natural and instinctive athletic movement such as a golf swing.
Question: Do you think that most golfers have a fear of “losing their swing” if they explore any variation from what they are “taught” is the “correct way?”
OR, do you think that most golfers have an unconscious fear of “finding their swing” if they explore variations from accepted standards….for fear of discovering the simplicity of the golf swing….at the expense of having “nothing” for the conscious mind and ego to work on?!?
Do you think that most golfers blindly accept conventional golf swing “wisdom” without evaluating whether it makes sense and follows the natural human process of how we best learn physical motor skills?
Do you think that the complication, mechanicalization, technicalization and analyzation of the golf swing has had an unconscious purpose by the golf instruction industry……to create a demand for teaching, instruction and computer analyzation of the golf swing?!?
Which do you think is more valuable in producing an effective motor skill such as a golf swing – exploration, self-discovery and self-learning – or outside instruction about the “correct way?” (See the May 2021 Golf Blog Teaching vs. Learning on this site).
Did anyone teach you the mechanics of how to walk, how to ride a bicycle, how to brush your teeth, how to kick a soccer ball, how to swing a baseball bat……or were you given some guidance to self-discover how your body instinctively wanted to move to achieve the desired result?
How do you best understand an effective golf swing – through what you read or are taught about the correct way to make a golf swing – or through the kinesthetic satisfaction and feel of pure impact when you make an effective golf swing and golf shot?
Do you think the mark of a good “golf instructor” is knowledge about golf swing mechanics? Or, do you think that the encouragement of exploration, self-discovery and self-learning is the mark of a good “golf instructor?”
Quotes by Michael Hebron, PGA Master Professional:
Golfers should trust in their own capacity to learn what is relevant for their swing, and avoid someone else’s “how to” advice,
when long term progress is their goal.”
“Golf Swing Secrets….and Lies”
The natural process of learning directly from experience has been undermined
by “how to” instruction.
“The Art & Zen of Learning Golf”
Golf is a game to be played, not a subject to be taught.
“The Art & Zen of Learning Golf”
Do you think that the over reliance and dependency on teaching and instruction has compromised our self-reliance, independence, individuality and self-trust?
Has “teaching” turned into a form of “conditioning” to make us dependent on “experts” and “teachers?”
Do you think the above questions might pertain to our general education system as well as golf swing instruction?
Do you trust yourself and your abilities to walk, tie your shoes, brush your teeth, drive a car, and hundreds of other physical movements and activities you perform? Do you think about the “how-to’s” when you perform these activities and movements?
How about your golf swing?!? What do you think of when you make your golf swing? Is it productive to think at all during your golf swing?!?!?
Keep it Simple Golf 