Golf is a complicated sport, and every small detail can affect your swing. Lessons can save you time and energy if you have the correct teacher, but others swear by teaching themselves. So what is better golf lessons or teaching yourself?
Lessons save you time and energy if you have the correct teacher that teaches you great fundamentals to help generate power with less effort and prevent injuries and bad habits. The majority of pros have coaches and lessons give you an understanding of what makes a good or bad shot.
However, now is the best time to teach yourself golf, with countless free excellent resources available on YouTube. But I still recommend getting golf lessons to learn the correct fundamentals to not injure yourself.
Keep reading to understand the benefits of golf lessons vs teaching yourself, to help decide which path you should choose, or you can do a mixture of both
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Why You Should Have Golf Lessons
If you ask any amateur on the golf course with excellent fundamentals and a solid swing 99% will say they always had golf lessons.
Lessons will save you time and energy assuming you have the correct teacher, you will have excellent fundamentals(proper grip/stance) to help create power with less effort to prevent injury and bad habits.
If you are self taught and develop incorrect grip and stance habits behind the ball it will be VERY difficult to change these habits later on.
If you start having lessons later on in your golf journey you will have to become worse to get better as the coach needs time to correct the bad habits you developed. To learn more about why people need to get worse to get better and why it’s so common in golf check out my article.
Only a select few professionals like Jim Furyk and most notably Bubba Watson have never taken Golf lessons, but the VAST majority of PGA players all have regular coaches.
Golf is a complex sport with every small detail affecting your swing, so it needs to be constantly calibrated and fine-tuned making coaches a crucial part of the game if you want to keep on improving.
Individual lessons can be affordable and most pros will offer group lessons at a substantial discount.
After a few lessons your professional will get an understanding on your individual swing, so you can record to them whenever your not hitting the target or you want to improve a specific aspect of your game.
No matter if you take lessons or teach yourself you want to prevent muscle imbalances that cause you pain when you Golf. To know the 6 major muscle groups that are used in golf and what exercises to make them stronger check out my post.
5 Advantages Of Professional Golf Lessons
1.Solid Fundamentals
Golf is difficult enough even if you have all the fundamentals in place, it can be impossible to play if your fundamentals are incorrect. By taking pro lessons you can learn the basics of the game like the correct stance and grip correctly from day one.
This gives a massive advantage to people who learn on their own even with excellent videos on YouTube.
Teaching the fundamentals is simple for pros and it will only take one to two lessons to understand how to hold the club, how to stand over the ball which you will benefit from in your entire golfing life.
For a complete guide on everything you need to know about golf lessons please check out my helpful article.
2.You Can Ask Questions To A Pro
As a beginner you are going to have lots of questions, rather than googling the answer you can ask your professional directly, this wealth of knowledge will supercharge your learning experience.
If you take advantage of asking your pro every question you can think of(you should) this will help you learn a huge amount about the game in a relatively short period of time.
3.Professionals Give Encouragement
You should pick a professional that gives you encouragement, your teacher will know how difficult the game is, so they can understand the struggles someone has in their quest to learn golf.
If your at the range or course and trying to learn everything yourself, golf can be frustrating but also lonely. Many people who try to teach themselves end up giving up the game altogether because they get discouraged.
With a professional that gives you constant positive reinforcement, you will find yourself in a good state of mind to build up confidence in your golfing abilities. Only through sheer persistence will you become good at golf and having a positive coach makes helping you through the hard times easier.
4. Golf Lessons Give You Connections
If you don’t have problems with playing golf it can be lonely as a new golfer, but by working with a pro you will constantly interact with other players learning the game.
Tell your teacher that you are interested in meeting new people to play with. Also, there are apps like Tee Up and Golf Buddies that help connect you with golfers in your area it’s not as lonely as it once was before technology.
5. Golf Lessons Give You Accountability
Similar to an overweight person needing the accountability of a personal trainer to eat right and exercise, signing up for a series of lessons will force you to stay committed to the process or you will waste your money!
If you just take a trip to the driving range every once in a while it may be weeks or months before you decide to go again, buying a series of lessons forces you to repeatedly practice golf over a period of time; this is crucial to improving
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t practice at the driving range, to know how to maximize the best out of your driving range practice please check out my article.
Why You Should Teach Yourself Golf
Even if you pay a lot of money for golf lessons there is no guarantee that your coach will be good, or you won’t get forced after formal instruction.
Paying for a few lessons will not guarantee you anything in reducing your scores, no matter what it is always going to be up to you to do the necessary work to keep pushing yourself to improve.
Ideally, you can blend two methods of learning the game to become a great golfer, for example, you could learn put yourself as it’s less complicated than the other clubs and is more about repetition and feeling.
I practice my putting daily with the fantastic Putt Out Matt from Amazon if you record yourself putting and ensure you are following the basic fundamentals you can easily learn putting yourself.
However, learning the iron swing or driver is far more complicated movement and I suggest seeking professional advice. Keep reading to know the benefits of self-taught
4 Advantages Of Teaching Yourself Golf
1.Teaching Yourself Is Far Cheaper
The average golf lesson costs $55/hour and if you go once a week this cost quickly adds up. Building your swing DIY saves you cash that could be spent on more buckets at the range, better equipment, or the cost to play the game itself.
There are numerous YouTube channels most favorite is Golf With Aimee who has a FANTASTIC 32 part beginner series that you can access here and Meandmygolf.
It is the best time in history to teach yourself golf before we needed to rely on DVDs and even worse books. Can you teach yourself a proper swing by looking at pictures? I don’t think you can.
But does the quality of your equipment even matter? Learn the facts in my article.
2. You Are Creator Of Your Golf Swing
You understand the exact process that created your swing, so you know how to fix it if it goes wrong assuming you are hitting the target! If you can’t hit the target then you should get lessons regardless.
For example, if you’re on the course and you start to hook the ball you could solve the problem on your own as you know what is causing it.
However, if you always rely on a professional opinion, you may not be able to solve the problem on your own as you lack the knowledge of why you are swinging incorrectly.
If you like control, and knowing every aspect of your swing teaching it yourself is a good way to go.
Do you ever get painful blisters from golf shoes? Learn why blisters happen and how to prevent them in my article.
3.Teaching Yourself Allows You Go At Your Own Pace
No one learns at the same time, certain players struggle with specific aspects of their game. You might have no trouble getting into the correct stance but struggle to create the best grip.
When you are teaching yourself, you can work on what is your biggest problem area and spend as much time as you like.
With a professional, they will stick to their preferred teaching format so you are reliant on how they like to teach so you might not get sufficient time to work on what you think are your problem areas. This problem is worse if you have a coach with poor communication skills or when they think they’re always right; they might not be!
GolfTec is a company that prides itself on innovative golf technology to improve your game, but its instructors are known to be rigid in how they teach the game. To learn more about if GolfTec is worth it see my post.
Teaching Yourself Golf Is Rewarding
Golf is challenging, the challenge of teaching yourself a difficult game might be something you take price in and you might decide you are a natural like Bubba Watson and don’t need a coach to help your development.
If you’re not pursuing golf as a career and are simply playing for fun then the difficulty of teaching yourself a difficult game could make it even more enjoyable.
The average cost of a round of golf? 36$
The average cost of shooting a better score than your friends who paid thousands for lessons when you are self-taught? Priceless.
Want to know everything there is to know about golf lessons? If so I suggest you take a look at my helpful article.