"INSTINCTIVE GOLF IS THE WAY AHEAD"
Bonnyton club pro McWade aims to make his coaching style the world leader
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
By COLIN FARQUHARSON
colin@scottishgolfview.com
There is more than one way to skin a cat and since meeting a little-known Scottish club pro, Kendal McWade, little-known outside the “trade” that is, it would seem to me that there is more than one way to teach someone to play golf.
A golf professional can set up a complete novice with the correct way to hold the golf club, a textbook stance as he or she addresses the ball, the correct way to start and complete the backwing, the body turn and so on.
Then there is the way of Kendal McWade, pictured above, the founder of the “Instinctive Golf” coaching method, which is about as far removed from the “I’ll show you and tell you how it’s done” school of traditional golf teaching as Buckie is from Birmingham.
In the words of McWade, whose bread-and-butter occupation is club professional at Bonnyton Golf Club, Eaglesham:
“`Instinctive Golf` is committed to changing the mindset that believes golf can only be mastered by being taught the correct technique. Teaching good technique is extremely logical but unfortunately the reality is that all too often logic doesn’t deliver. Golfers still believe there is a secret out there, a magic move, and once they get it, everything will be fine.
“They read about how to do, watch how to do it, listen to how to do it, and yet, for most, the game of golf remains a frustrating exercise. Why? Well, because that is not how we best learn motion skills. We are all individuals. We are all unique. And therefore so are our golf swings. Insttinctive Golf does not believe that is our job (as golf coaches) to impart some opinion on how you should or shouldn’t swing the club. Our job is to help you acquire new skills.”
McWade makes no bones about his beliefs. He says: “Instinctive Golf is the future of golf coaching. Why? Well, because it is the simplest, most effective way of learning and developing your golf. It’s fun, it’s natural and it’s empowering, just the way we learned as youngsters to catch, throw, whistle, ride a bike or, in fact, any motion skill.”
McWade is training and indoctrinating an ever-expanding coterie of “Instinctive Golf Master Practitioners” and simply “Instinctive Golf Practitioners” who have to attend three four-day coaching summits conducted by Master McWade and his chief disciples, Paul Affleck and Paul Eales, over a 12-month period before they acquire the “Master” tag.
Former Walker Cup player, former Scottish amateur and professional champion and the 1999 Italian Open winner on the European Tour, Dean Robertson from Paisley swears by McWade.
“Kendal has restored my love of golf and in particular given me such an insight into teaching and coaching youngsters that I now get probably more enjoyment from it than I do from playing the game myself,” says Deano.
So how did it all start for the 51-year-old McWade who was born in Glasgow and played his amateur golf in Helensburgh where he achieved a handicap of one only three years after taking up the game?
“It came about through my own personal journey in golf because how I coached was not within my own game and ended up turning a game that I had a passion for into a game that actually had huge anxieties, fear and doubt for me,” says McWade.
After 15 years as a golf professional – he turned pro much to his mother and father’s disgust; they had other plans for him – McWade was a very busy golf coach ….
“I was very busy, yes, but unfortunately I had got to the point where I did not want to play. I would make up stories about why I did not want to play, because I believe I was protecting myself from failure, looking stupid in front of my pupils and my fellow professionals.
“Then I read a book called ‘Extraordinary Golf’ and felt compelled to go to America to speak personally to the author of the book, a chap called Fred Shoemaker. I went to the States, spent four days with Shoemaker and that was the turning point in my golfing career.”
So what did McWade find so mind-boggling in the pages of ‘Extraordinary Golf?’
There is more than one way to skin a cat and since meeting a little-known Scottish club pro, Kendal McWade, little-known outside the “trade” that is, it would seem to me that there is more than one way to teach someone to play golf.
A golf professional can set up a complete novice with the correct way to hold the golf club, a textbook stance as he or she addresses the ball, the correct way to start and complete the backwing, the body turn and so on.
Then there is the way of Kendal McWade, pictured above, the founder of the “Instinctive Golf” coaching method, which is about as far removed from the “I’ll show you and tell you how it’s done” school of traditional golf teaching as Buckie is from Birmingham.
In the words of McWade, whose bread-and-butter occupation is club professional at Bonnyton Golf Club, Eaglesham:
“`Instinctive Golf` is committed to changing the mindset that believes golf can only be mastered by being taught the correct technique. Teaching good technique is extremely logical but unfortunately the reality is that all too often logic doesn’t deliver. Golfers still believe there is a secret out there, a magic move, and once they get it, everything will be fine.
“They read about how to do, watch how to do it, listen to how to do it, and yet, for most, the game of golf remains a frustrating exercise. Why? Well, because that is not how we best learn motion skills. We are all individuals. We are all unique. And therefore so are our golf swings. Insttinctive Golf does not believe that is our job (as golf coaches) to impart some opinion on how you should or shouldn’t swing the club. Our job is to help you acquire new skills.”
McWade makes no bones about his beliefs. He says: “Instinctive Golf is the future of golf coaching. Why? Well, because it is the simplest, most effective way of learning and developing your golf. It’s fun, it’s natural and it’s empowering, just the way we learned as youngsters to catch, throw, whistle, ride a bike or, in fact, any motion skill.”
McWade is training and indoctrinating an ever-expanding coterie of “Instinctive Golf Master Practitioners” and simply “Instinctive Golf Practitioners” who have to attend three four-day coaching summits conducted by Master McWade and his chief disciples, Paul Affleck and Paul Eales, over a 12-month period before they acquire the “Master” tag.
Former Walker Cup player, former Scottish amateur and professional champion and the 1999 Italian Open winner on the European Tour, Dean Robertson from Paisley swears by McWade.
“Kendal has restored my love of golf and in particular given me such an insight into teaching and coaching youngsters that I now get probably more enjoyment from it than I do from playing the game myself,” says Deano.
So how did it all start for the 51-year-old McWade who was born in Glasgow and played his amateur golf in Helensburgh where he achieved a handicap of one only three years after taking up the game?
“It came about through my own personal journey in golf because how I coached was not within my own game and ended up turning a game that I had a passion for into a game that actually had huge anxieties, fear and doubt for me,” says McWade.
After 15 years as a golf professional – he turned pro much to his mother and father’s disgust; they had other plans for him – McWade was a very busy golf coach ….
“I was very busy, yes, but unfortunately I had got to the point where I did not want to play. I would make up stories about why I did not want to play, because I believe I was protecting myself from failure, looking stupid in front of my pupils and my fellow professionals.
“Then I read a book called ‘Extraordinary Golf’ and felt compelled to go to America to speak personally to the author of the book, a chap called Fred Shoemaker. I went to the States, spent four days with Shoemaker and that was the turning point in my golfing career.”
So what did McWade find so mind-boggling in the pages of ‘Extraordinary Golf?’
+FIND OUT TOMORROW IN PART TWO OF THE KENDAL McWADE STORY
.
Labels: FEATURES
posted by Colin |
See story on its own page | Monday, March 17, 2008
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home