Best Golf Books for Instructors

Hello All,

I'm a current club professional looking to grow as an instructor. I'm curious to know what some of everyone's essential/go to books are (instructional and mental game) I've been through 5 lessons, impact zone and just started to prepare for The Golfing Machine (any advice on that would be great as well). I appreciate the amount of knowledge here and look forward to any advice I can get.

Extraordinary Golf, by Fred Shoemaker. Especially Chapter 6, "Coaching." Then read "Extraordinary Putting."

I think there are YouTube channels and Instagram accounts that would be really good to pay attention to. Book: Stock Tour Swing, Tyler Ferrell. Neither of the two you mention would be core imo

Has anyone read Science of the Golf Swing by Michael Jacobs??

10 Lessons : The True Fundamentals of the Golf Swing

Bob Grisset

@geauxlong good on you for asking this question looking inward is going to be a powerful step to help you be a fantastic coach!

Well done please keep us updated you'll learn a lot, we will as well.

I fully realize you don't want to read 7-8 non sequitur golf/non golf books from some random guy on golfwrx that's not sniffing par right now that's legit. But you asked the question BEST golf books for instructor? I think you need to answer these 2 questions to make any books or methodology sing.

1 who are you as a coach Geauxlong?

2 How are you going to help or inspire your people?

I would guess the 1st step is to know yourself what are you teaching for?

Football Coach Pete Carroll has some really powerful thoughts on coaching philosophies that will be helpful to you. Not sure if you want to find those thoughts on Youtube or read his book etc all. But he talks about things in some detail about the process and how he rebuilt and improved himself after struggling as a coach.

Essentially he says when you have your philosophy down to 25 words or less then you can go!

So I'm suggesting before you read any of these books that you figure out your coaching philosophy in 25 words or less, write it down even if not perfect, then revise as you go.

Obviously things will change as your knowledge perspectives and or clientele changes. But the kinds of dividends this will pay are huge in my opinion. When you greet a potential or new client when the time comes you can say

"This is what I want to do and how I want to do it and everything we work on will be related to that"

Which allows you to be forthright purposeful and less than perfect all at the same time.

Petes book is win forever the video on youtube is a summit/interview at USC its a long one but you can skip around and find where he talks about coaching philosophy.

I would say their all kinds of golf techniques that will work. But you're looking more so for help on connecting with people and guiding them to their dreams ultimately. Least thats what I want from a coach.

If they believe in themselves they'll make your teachings work. But I would imagine that if I was an instructor that Anthony Robbins Giant Steps or Simon Sineks books would be where you need to be to start.

On the golf side I think these four are must reads. Reason being is they focus on WHY they put the teachings in context.

Little red book H. Pinnick

And if you play golf you're my friend H. Pinnick

I really liked Fred Shoemaker's extra-ordinary golf.

The Golf of your dreams B. Rotella.

Win Forever Pete Carroll

Awaken the giant within Anthony Robbins.

Sinek man I don't know... watch his Ted talks.

On the coaching side. John Wooden's book Practical Modern Basketball is as good as anything. The beauty of adapting books from other sports areas of expertise is that its relatively easy to know what doesn't apply to golf. You will in the least benefit from his pyramid of success

I mean just look at his definition of success seems USEFUL to me if I was talking to a STUDENT

Instead of focusing on hitting a 275 yard draw on the 18th hole of the club ship' PREPARE to your best ability. That way you the coach are not to blame... and the the onus on on the player/student and y'all can work together to win!


Please excuse me for being so long winded but BEST is not easy.

Pinnicks little red book makes even more sense the more you read it, you realize that this is a life times work distilled into one book it's really great. Particularly for me a straight talking Yankee to see how kind and decent Harvey used his words to help and guide people.

Again please keep us updated.

Of course you can find all of these books for less than probs $5 shipped if you buy a used copy.