Changing Coaches

[mojomover]

I was curious how parents (or kids!) decide its time to try a different coach. My 11yr old has been with the same coach for the last 3 years and this is one of the more popular coaches in the area. Good coach but it seems to have stalled progress and not seeing as much improvement. We have tried a few other coaches, 1-2 lessons here and there but none seemed better till earlier this month when we found a coach who seemed to resonate with the swing issues and had some improvements in a lesson. So, the question is, do we

 

1- dual coach for a while as dropping the current coach might mean tough to revert back should the other one does not work out?

2- how do other parents figure when and how to switch? 

 

 

[leezer99]

Been through quite a few coaches to be honest. Not a great situation to be in but it is what it is.  I would never go the dual coach route since each coach might just be trying to 'fix' something the other coach is trying to do. 

 

We've moved on for various reasons. One coach brought his life drama to the lesson tee... BYE. Another coach was so popular (top 100, worked with major winners, etc.) that it was impossible to get a time on the lesson tee plus he was horrible about texting back... BYE. 

 

Finally settled on current coach that was a top 5 junior golfer in the country, monday q'd into the Farmers and LA Open, has a son the same age as my son that plays golf. Great at texting back in a timely manner. Should have started with him TBH.

 

For us it came down to who showed interested and invested in our son's growth. 

[Bizzle80]

I would be careful about jumping around if the OG coach is/was good, cares about your kid, etc... We have to remember that the better our kids get, the smaller the incremental improvements are going to be. So it is a bit unreasonable to expect the same types of jumps in performance that come early.

 

Few new tweaks from new coach might just be illusory or make you feel like there is improvement than actually being improvement. Like getting a new putter at Roger Dunn which seems magically better, but not really...

[mrshinsa]

if you do go route 1, be aware that it's frowned upon by the coach.   

I know a friend who does this, and the coach was pretty annoyed. 

[kekoa]

I should write a book on this.  At this point, there are no more coaches for us to see. 😞

 

I agree with @Bizzle80 that dual coaching is a touchy thing for a lot of instructors.  Its almost like cheating on your spouse.  Everything is fine and dandy until someone finds out. 

[BagofToast]

I changed coaches when I noticed that kids my age who had been playing for less time than me were beating me. My dad and I searched around and found my current long time coach. Would not recomend dual coaching, seems like a recipe for disaster.

[mojomover]

Thanks all- really helpful feedback. To clarify, I didn’t mean dual coaching permanently, but to to take a couple of lessons before deciding if the switch makes sense but I can see the challenge of that and hence wanted to see how folks make the switch. 

[hangontight]

19 hours ago, kekoa said:

I agree with @Bizzle80 that dual coaching is a touchy thing for a lot of instructors.  Its almost like cheating on your spouse.  Everything is fine and dandy until someone finds out. 

 

Find a coach that doesn't post EVERYTHING on IG and keep the secret.😀

 

My son tried a new coach recently and he (my son) asked me if he could see both.  One is very tech/fitness/studio focused and shed some light on something that has helped him a lot.....whereas the other they do all lessons on course focusing almost entirely on "playing the game, not playing golf swing"..minimal swing work... he doenst even have a launch monitor that I know of.     I dont think its an unreasonable idea given their different styles....I see benefit to both, just the same as seeing a putting coach, mental coach, fitness coach, etc.   

[Movingday]

Yeah I think the only way to see multiple instructors is if they are working in different parts of the game. My boys see one coach for swing and another for putting. We tried putting work with swing coach first, didn’t feel it was great (he’s great at swing stuff). Tried another putting coach on a recommendation at is was a hit immediately. Both coaches know we see the other for those areas. 
 

Also, I would hesitate to change from a guy that has done a good job with the swing. If you’ve seen good results in the past then it’s possible your son is just at a plateau for the time being and will have another bump later. Good coaches are hard to find 

[Bizzle80]

12 hours ago, Movingday said:

Also, I would hesitate to change from a guy that has done a good job with the swing. If you’ve seen good results in the past then it’s possible your son is just at a plateau for the time being and will have another bump later. Good coaches are hard to find 

 

 ^^^ This is smart and what I was referring to earlier. The better kids get, the smaller the incremental gains will be. We also forget that kids bodies are changing literally weekly and that sometimes in growth spurts their coordination is just off - so if a week or two goes by and they aren't hitting it perfectly...sometimes its not the coach...but literally waiting another week or two until coordination comes back.

 

Sometimes with my daughter she literally will go to range and look like shes never hit a golf ball before. I learned to not even sweat it and just chalk it up to growth. we will come back in 2 days and it will be a stripe show. If I agonized and got on her a** everytime it was a little wonky one day, she would have quit already.

 

 

 

 

[leezer99]

7 hours ago, Bizzle80 said:

 

 ^^^ This is smart and what I was referring to earlier. The better kids get, the smaller the incremental gains will be. We also forget that kids bodies are changing literally weekly and that sometimes in growth spurts their coordination is just off - so if a week or two goes by and they aren't hitting it perfectly...sometimes its not the coach...but literally waiting another week or two until coordination comes back.

 

Sometimes with my daughter she literally will go to range and look like shes never hit a golf ball before. I learned to not even sweat it and just chalk it up to growth. we will come back in 2 days and it will be a stripe show. If I agonized and got on her a** everytime it was a little wonky one day, she would have quit already.

 

 

 

 

Still with the same coach?

[Bizzle80]

On 3/2/2024 at 2:16 AM, leezer99 said:

Still with the same coach?

 

We would be with same coach, but the guy she started with had some addiction issues, and while he is a great human being, I really cant have that around my kid.

 

Now we are working with a woman at our golf club...but had no intention of leaving the first guy except he went off the grid to get himself healthy. New coach used to coach D1 womens team, is great, vibes w my kid and while she might not be one of the IG famous coaches for having a stable of top juniors, I am very happy and so is my kid.

 

 I might not be the tiger dad, as I am pretty happy with continued growth as long as she is having fun and building a love for the game. I think coach is part of that...

 

Through some work I have become friends with some top level coaches...and they all hate these parents that jump around. they all feel its actually a long term disservice to the development of the players, but have all given up trying to convince parents of that so accept that kids come and go. I might get more honest feedback from them as they know im happy where my kid is at and im not trying to get her in with them.

 

 

[leezer99]

2 hours ago, Bizzle80 said:

 

We would be with same coach, but the guy she started with had some addiction issues, and while he is a great human being, I really cant have that around my kid.

 

Now we are working with a woman at our golf club...but had no intention of leaving the first guy except he went off the grid to get himself healthy. New coach used to coach D1 womens team, is great, vibes w my kid and while she might not be one of the IG famous coaches for having a stable of top juniors, I am very happy and so is my kid.

 

 I might not be the tiger dad, as I am pretty happy with continued growth as long as she is having fun and building a love for the game. I think coach is part of that...

 

Through some work I have become friends with some top level coaches...and they all hate these parents that jump around. they all feel its actually a long term disservice to the development of the players, but have all given up trying to convince parents of that so accept that kids come and go. I might get more honest feedback from them as they know im happy where my kid is at and im not trying to get her in with them.

 

 

 

I know the new coach you are speaking of and she's awesome. I know some girls that played for her at that school. My son has played golf and spent time with her and her mentor on the range.

 

Sad to hear about your old coach. My son started with him and we left for similar reasons. 

[caligolfer2103]

mc, sometimes you just know when it is time to switch coaches. when we first moved to socal, we went with a coach at our local country club. had great credentials, had won some coaching "awards" and so we went with it. it always bothered me that my son didn't really seem to be building any consistency or fixing flaws. while i don't know golf, my perception was that he was just plugging holes in the proverbial dike versus actually fixing the dam. and every one of his students seemed to have flaws that even a novice golfer could see that were never fixed. after about a year and half, we switched coaches. the new coach day one said he would have to rebuild my son's swing from start to finish and since he was working with a number of highly rated juniors, we gave it a shot. a year later, we couldn't be happier. it took a ton of hard work, basically breaking everything down and starting all over, but the result thus far is so worth it. my son now has an incredibly efficient swing that just works and has consistency.

 

long story short, i think you sometimes have to just go with your gut. with our old coach, it just always felt off. he's a great guy, super nice but didn't fit our style. the new coach, even after one lesson, i just had faith that if we were patient and my son worked hard, it would pay off.