COACHING FROM EXPERIENCE
“how can I help others…….if I can’t help myself” Fred Shoemaker
WHAT IS IGC?
Instinctive Golf Coaching is the result of Kendal’s teaching and playing experiences from 40+ years in the game. As an 18 year old he came into professional golf desperate to be as good a player as possible, and whilst there were minor successes along the way it was primarily an extremely frustrating journey.
He continued to work hard on fixing his faults and improving his swing, despite the fact that he seemed to be “losing” his game. On reflection it appeared that the more he knew….the less he could do, and eventually the anxiety and fear of not knowing where the ball was going left him hating the game he once loved. The thought of spending the rest of his life coaching a game that left him feeling this way was depressing.
The turning point came by chance when visiting the 1997 USPGA Golf Show in Florida. Bob Rotella was doing a book signing and Kendal decided to by one of his books from the bookstand and have it signed by the great man. As he was searching for “Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect” he came across another really interesting title. Little did Kendal know the impact of that chance finding of “Extraordinary Golf” by Fred Shoemaker would have on his life.
The book was finished on the plane home to Glasgow (unheard of) and before the engines had stopped he had called Fred and booked onto one of his courses in California. He was about to embark on one of the most challenging, but ultimately rewarding periods of his life.
Fred was committed to one thing……LEARNING…..and helping people apply what they already have to “master” the game in a completely natural way. Deep down Kendal knew this was what he had to do and spent the next 5 years battling 20 years of previous technical swing beliefs. Fred had a saying that hit Kendal firmly between the eyes and has become a mantra for him. “how can I help others if I can’t help myself” forced Kendal to look in the mirror and reflect on what he was doing. How could he be telling his pupils the same stuff that destroyed his game? It was what they wanted to hear, it tied in with their expectations and beliefs as to what a golf lesson should look like…..but he knew deep down it wasn’t what they needed. So he set off on a mission to change his game and then share those experiences with people. That journey continues to this day and slowly but surely the old fraud of the past is being exorcised and the authentic Kendal McWade is replacing him.
All of this resulted in the forming of Instinctive Golf Coaching. IGC is committed to simplifying the coaching of the game, to move people away from the mountains of information and tips that are simply not getting to the heart of helping people learn this amazing game. Kendal and too many others are living proof that more information is simply not the answer, and that we al have everything we need to learn what in reality is simply a “stick and ball” game.
CAN MORE INFORMATION REALLY BE THE ANSWER?
Literally 1000’s of books have been written on how to hit a ball with a stick…..it’s astonishing when you think about it. And the internet now means that we have 1000’s of videos to add to the mix. Then there’s the technology. Amazing computers and cameras that can micro-analyse our swings, the flight of our golf balls and tell us exactly what our bodies are doing during the 1.5 seconds it takes to move the club. I don’t think it’s overstating things to say that we now know pretty well everything about everything However, the big question is…..are people getting better? It would certainly appear that the best in the world are improving as distance and scoring records tumble. But what about the regular club golfer? Handicaps would suggest that scores are not really coming down, and whilst those numbers are a poor measurement of the level of enjoyment that golfers are having it tends to be the one most commonly used.
All this information, analyses, coaching, amazing equipment and beautifully prepared courses don’t seem to have changed the fact that the majority of golfers still can’t control the ball as well as they would like. In fact it’s said that around 75% of players slice the ball unintentionally….most for their entire golfing lives! What happened to learning there?
Despite all of this most golfers continue to search for more information, in the hope that someone else will have something that will “fix” them. It’s a very compelling addictive process as the latest tip can often seem to work wonders…….for a hole, or a round, or sometimes even a week before disappearing into to ether.
Instinctive Golf Coaching does not believe the answer to effective learning lies in more information. We had no technical information when we learned to walk, one of the most critical and complex skills we ever have to master. What information can you give someone that will help them balance? None….absolutely none. You have to experience balance for yourself and learn from each fall/experience until you develop a FEEL for it, and that is exactly the same in golf. Only you have the experience when you swing the club, only you knows how it feels, and if you are truly going to learn from each of those experiences then you need to pay attention to critical factors (not keeping your head down)….and that is one of the core principals of Instinctive Golf Coaching.
SKILLS or SWINGS - WHAT DO WE WANT?
If you improve your swing then surely you will improve your skills….no? Well that’s what Kendal thought for 20 years as a young professional. It’s so difficult to argue against the logic of it all, and a very easy seductive sell to the player desperate to improve.
However the world is now, as it always has been, full of idiosyncratic unusual swings that get the job done very nicely thank you! In the past we had Eamonn Darcy, Ray Floyd and Arnold Palmer all doing it “their way”, and now we have Bubba Watson, Jim Furyk and Dustin Johnson winning at the very highest level and keeping the quirky trend going. All that that goes to prove is that it simply cannot be what we can see that makes a golf swing work. Unfortunately that reality still doesn’t prevent most young aspiring golfers trying to swing it like Adam Scott, which is a very dangerous and potentially disastrous thing to do.
The reality of any swing change is that the player hopes it will give them more control over the ball….more skill. There are no prizes being handed out for the aesthetic beauty of your golf swing. There may be a stream of very nice comments coming your way…..however the most consistent modern day player by quite a long way has been Jim Furyk, so maybe we should all be copying him? Also a futile endeavour of course!
When you drill down through the beliefs and concepts it is always more skill that people want, but we have been conditioned to believe that form leads function and that culture is so strong it takes a certain strength of character to walk another path. Although when someone has reached “rock bottom” with their game they are often more than happy to explore looking at the game from a new perspective.
Skill is simply the ability to use the “tools” we have at our disposal to solve the numerous “problems” and challenges that golf presents. Perhaps the fact that most of us have 14 “tools” in our bags is part of the problem. If we had been forced to solve those problems in a more creative manner with a reduce set we would probably all be more highly skilled and better problem solvers. That is something to consider when your son or daughter is constantly pestering you for a new set of full length clubs!
Developing skill is at the very heart of Instinctive Golf Coaching.