I spent a lot of hours on ranges teaching myself this game, and I overheard a lot of instruction. Plenty of it was excellent. Some of it was vague, generic, and disconnected from anything you could measure — a tip handed over with no diagnosis, no reason, and no test.
To be clear: there are outstanding coaches and golf schools out there, and I respect them enormously. The lesson I took wasn’t “instructors are bad.” It was simpler and more useful: golfers deserve to understand what they’re being taught.
The four questions
A good coach should be able to answer four questions about any change they ask you to make. If they can’t, it’s a guess wearing a lab coat:
- What did you see? A specific observation — start line, strike location, low point, sequence — not a vibe.
- Why does it matter? The connection between that observation and the shot it’s costing you.
- What are we changing, and why that? One intervention, and the reason it’s the highest-leverage one right now.
- How will we know it worked? A test with a result you can actually see — or the honesty to say “let’s find out.”
A good coach should be able to explain what they see, why it matters, and how you’ll know it worked.
“I don’t know yet” is a real answer
The best sign you’re in good hands isn’t confidence — it’s willingness to be wrong. A coach who says “I’m not sure yet, let’s test it” is treating your swing like the system it is. A coach who is certain about everything and tests nothing is selling certainty, not improvement.
You don’t need to become a biomechanics nerd (that’s my job). But you should walk away from every session able to say what you changed, why, and what the ball did. If you can’t, something in the process is broken.