gurutv – The Golf Guru Show

Daily Guru Episode 4 – A Great Addtion To Guru Workshop 16

January 22, 2016

A rare snow day here in North Carolina so not much golf going on so the off-season continues which makes my mind work as we look ahead at the Spring season that is just around the corner. After I return from the PGA Show next week my thoughts turn to our Section PGA show and our annual teaching summit. I am on the first Carolinas section teaching committee so we are excited to see our hard work being put into action. This year our presenters will be our teacher of the year, Marc LaPointe, Biomechanics expert Dr. Rob Neale and Michael Jacobs of X Golf School. We are very excited to host these fantastic speakers and look forward to a great day of learning and sharing. Also, I am hosting and presenting in the 5th annual “Guru’s Teaching Workshop” where I bring in some of the best instructors in the business for an entire day of presentations, live lessons and interaction. This brings me to some bad adn good news regarding my workshop. My good friend, John Graham who has been a part of the workshop from the second year has a family conflict that won’t allow him to present…..But as we lose one great instructor, we gain another one in Mr. Jon Sinclair from Sinclairs Golf Training Center in Euless, Texas. As I mentioned in my original

golfchannelacademy

workshop post, I was thinking of adding a fifth presenter and Jon was at the top of my list and I am so excited to hear his information and get to know him better as well. For those of you who don’t know about Jon, he has one of the most extensive tour player data bases when it comes to 3d data from AMM, trackman, K-Vest, Gears, SAM Putt Lab etc.. If a coach wants his player to get measured he takes them to Mr. Sinclair. Also my good friend, Dennis Sales works for Jon so I know how much he has benefited from his mentorship. Here is a short bio on Jon Sinclair:

Jon is the owner and lead instructor at Sinclair’s Golf Training Center in Euless, TX. One of only three Master GolfPsych certified instructors in the world, Jon played professionally for seven years and has been teaching golf for 15 years. He is an expert in the area of 3D swing analysis, swing mechanics, the mental game, TrackMan, and clubfitting. He is also a certified UST shaft fitter and club fitter for all major equipment brands and is on the Advisory Staff for Edel Golf. Jon’s other certifications include Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Level 2 Biomechanics and Fitness, Advanced Motion Measurement (AMM) Biomechanics, TrackMan Level 2, SAM Puttlab Level 2 and SAM Balance Lab. He and his staff currently work with more than 20 PGA Tour professionals and 15 Web.com Tour players.

For those of you who haven’t seen the original lineup, it will be myselfClaude Harmon III and Mark Blackburn which will make for a great day learning from some of the best in the teaching business. Depending on how signups go in the next couple of weeks, I may have room for one more presenter……..Will it be you? I have a list of guys thay I will meet with next week but if you have an interest shoot me a message or get with me at the PGA show and I will make a decision in a few weeks.

guru workshop group pic — Guru Workshop 15

Important: If you haven’t signed up and would like to attend. It is Monday, March 28th at my home club..Carmel CC in Charlotte. The cost is 250.00. We will go all day and will include lunch with an after party that you don’t want to miss which allows you to mingle with the presenters. Email me at jsutton@carmelcountryclub.org and I will send you an invoice.

Coaching thought for the day: There is always more than one solution to the problem. When evaluating a golf swing or a putting stroke, the solution must match up to the goal of the student, the ease of the change (which seldom is the case) and the commitment to the team. Asking the right questions, gathering the information whether its verbal or technicallogical will allow you to put the proper pieces together to get the end result which is….PROGRESS AND CHANGE. Be confident in your delivery in your analysis and when describing the solution and process. Don’t be afraid to be WRONG but make sure you have enough information to correct it once it fails…..and it will. This is how the teacher and the student learns!

Leave me some questions on twitter @golfgurutv , instagram (golfgurutv) or snapchat (golfguru1)

Guru

2013 Guru’s Top Twitter Active Teacher List (The Ultimate FF)

December 29, 2013

As the end of 2013 draws near, it is a great time to reflect on our year but also to recognize people in our industry that help grow the game in so many ways. I hope that you all have accomplished your goals and are ready to set new ones for 2014. I have had an outstanding year thanks to so many of you and my outstanding team (Adam Ohsberg, Maggie Simons and Alex Van der linden). I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your efforts as I have learned so much from you and enjoy watching your continued growth as professionals and as outstanding people. Being recognized as the Carolina PGA Section Teacher of the Year is such a huge honor and I am so humbled by this award. Awards like this don’t happen without a lot of help and guidance from my mentors. The people who you choose to be around you says so much about who you are and what you stand for. I hope that the way I conduct myself has made a small impact on the attitude and direction that our industry is heading. The days of putting yourself in a little box, protecting the information and best practices that you have accumulated over the years and refusing to share it with anyone in the hopes that you may get ahead of the next guy is OVER. The days of sharing, discovering through continued research and mentoring others is what we must focus on going forward. Our game and the ones following in our footsteps are counting on us to set the example and share what has been passed down to us with them. This is the only way that we are to improve our skills as coaches and how we will be able to help guide the average golfer to improvement. This is the what I call the Cycle of Evolution For Growing the Game. Even though this list focuses on Twitter, the use of social media has grown in many ways and has allowed us as coaches a platform to provide golfers and other coaches with valuable information that will help us all grow and improve.

The Goal Of The List

The main goal of this teacher list is to highlight individuals that are ACTIVE on twitter and doing the following: 1) sharing quality content 2) engaging with other coaches and golfer…which means answering tweets, using debate in a healthy way (no bashing other teachers) 3) promoting and lifting up other coaches to improve and recognizing good work

Requirement To Qualify for List = Must have at least 2000 Tweets (as I promised from last year). Next Year will be 3000 minimum

It has been incredible to see the growth in the number of tweets and the number of followers from last years professionals. I have a couple of special categories for a few amateurs that are doing some great things and a couple of sport psychologists as well. I also am recognizing some of the coaches that I feel have a lot to share but didn’t quite make the tweet count. I hope this will motivate you to shoot some video, start a blog, reach out to some of these coaches that can help you. because they will be willing to help in many ways. I don’t want to hear the excuse that you are too busy teaching and that your lesson book is full. I am pretty sure that most of these folks are busy, I know that I am…..you just have to make it a priority and view it as important. Twitter should be a part of your improvement plan for 2014. Before I get to the list, Happy New Year and I hope to meet you all at the #tweetup13 in Orlando. So here you go…………………!!

Congratulations to the 18 new inductees that are the first on the list so you can click and follow them!

Number of Tweets

John Graham @johngrahamgolf 59000
Sara Dickson @sara_pga 26670
Jason Helman @jasonhelmangolf.com 6601
Rob McGill @golfprorob 10459
Kirk Oguri @kirkoguri 19576
Andrew Marr @andrewmarrgolf 10676
Dennis Sales @dennissalesgolf 11365
Andrew Rice @andrewricegolf 4884
Mike Fay @mikefaygolf 11091
James Ridyard @jamesridyard 12121
Vikki Vanderpool @vvanderpool 5243
Mark Sweeney @aimpointgolf 5104
Brad Redding @bradreddinggolf 6304
Ed Bowe @bowegolf 6489
Mark Durland @durlandgolf 2708
Andy Griffith @andygriffiths1 6250
Ryan Chaney @oraclerio 6912
Rick Grayson @rickgraysongolf 5237
Ryan Crysler @ryancrysler 20241
Josh Boggs @boggspga 2791
Hugh Marr @hughmarr 5069
Erik Barzeski @iacas 7865
Mitch Walz @walzygolf 7902
Robert Campbell @rcampbellgolf 2282
Petri Parviainen @piiter77 8496
Ian Peek @ianpeekgolf 7124
Jamie Donalson @golfdonaldson 8281
Keith Stewart @kjpga 2323
Matt Diederichs @mattdgolf 18400
Blake Graham @blakegrahampga 17200
Denise Hastings @hastingsgolf 2147
Brett Packee @brettpackeegolf 4772
Joe Mayo @trackmanmaestro 7879
George Connor @connorgolf 3237
Denis Pugh @Dpugh54 9737
Derek Hooper @derekhoopergolf 2193
TJ Yeaton @tjyeatongolf 2750
Chris Gibson @chrisgibsongolf 4196
Jesse Struebing @jstruebs 6739
Kate Tempesta @KTUrbangolf 3047
Andy Gordon @andygordongolf 4545
Martin Park @parkythepro 13254
Kevin Flynn @kflypga 6949
James Martin @James_W_martin 2671
Meindert Jan Boekel @BKLGolf 5722
Donal Scott @donalscott 4415
Michael Balderstone @mjbalderstone 3098

Here are a few amateurs that are doing a great job of growing the game through social media

1. Ricky Lee Potts –@rickyleepotts aside from the many talks that he has given at PGA shows and such about how to use social media, he is leading the way with his incredible Google + Golf (almost 10,000 members) group. He utilizes the group to promote teaching professionals with his Friday Foursome hangouts as well as sharing information with golfers all over the world

2. Nick Chertock – @golfprogress. Nick is an avid golfer that has started several groups on Facebook including the most popular (Golf Teaching Professionals) group which attracted over 200 top teaching pros to the first LIVE forum at the PGA show. Talking about thinking out of the box . You don’t want to miss this years as it is going to be awesome.

2. Rich Hunt – @richie3jack Rich is doing some incredible analysis on PGA tour stats that is changing the way golfers and pros are thinking about different parts of the game. Make sure you get his 2013 golf synopsis that can be found on his twitter page.

Sports Psychologists – Dr. Bhrett McCabe, PHD , Andy Morrison

Up and Coming Twitter Coaches (Guys and Girls that have alot to share and need to tweet more)

Corey Lundberg, Brandon Roby,Cameron McCormick, James Hong, Alex Pisano, Adam Ohsberg, Maggie Simons,Alex van der Linden, Megan Padua, Tim Cooke, Scott Chisholm, Allen Burton, Skip Maiwald, Tom Stickney, Travis Lloyd, Aaron Olson

Thanks so much for reading and feel free to share!

Guru

The #1 Myth In Putting and How To Change It

June 5, 2013

In my last article I discussed what I feel is the most important factor in distance control (feel and touch) in the putting stroke. Aside from knowing how to read greens (www.aimpointgolf.com) controlling the distance your ball rolls is critical. How do myths and misconceptions is golf get started? Someone has an idea, tries it, feels like it works and shares it with someone else. The word spreads and we have a myth or fact. The difference is that a fact is researched, tested with accurate data and hard numbers. I trust the numbers. Since having a data collector like the S.A.M. Putt lab, my staff and I have been able to learn a lot about what creates a great putting stroke and we have been able to help more of our players improve with some simple ideas and drills.

Cruise Through Impact don’t punch it!

Good putters arrive at impact mostly at a constant acceleration rate which means that their peak velocity is before impact. In my opinion, the average golfer overaccelerates because of 3 reasons:

1. They have been told by their buddies or other golf pros that when they leave a putt short they decelerated

2. they don’t have enough backswing because they are trying not to make a mistake (tentative). They think shorter is more efficient

3. The don’t have enough speed in the backswing to have a smooth acceleration rate through impact.

How To Change It

The best way to change this profile, smooth out the stroke and also create some balance to the length of the stroke is as follows:

1. Take the putter back with more speed

2. If it is too short for the length of the stroke, add some length. (trial and error)

3. Don’t forget to brake at the finish (don’t be sloppy)

****You must get your putter velocity up to speed sooner in order to create a (cruising) through impact.

Consistency In Whatever you do Is Key

I understand that their are good players that can overaccelerate prior to impact and putt pretty good. But the best players arent always the best putters and can always improve. Whatever you do if you do it with a high consistency rate with repeatability you can make it work.

Closing Remarks – Results and Testing

I have shared this idea with few LPGA Tour players EGolf pros, elite juniors, top amateurs including our club champ and many every day golfers and they it always makes sense to them and they have improved so their is something to it. I will keep testing it and researching it.

Let me know what you think, if you can improve on it or am I completely out of my mind. All I want to do is share great information with other golf coaches and help players play better.

Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to share!

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv

Guru

The Guru On Maginnes On Tap SiriusXM PGA Tour

December 6, 2012

I wanted to share an interview that I did with John Maginnes on his XM Radio Show “Maginnes On Tap”. John was so nice to have me on his “Teacher Tuesdays” segment where we talk about AimPoint, D-Plane and take a few calls to help some of the listeners with their game. It was fun to do and I hope to be a guest on the show again soon.

https://www.box.com/s/6zfgct9d7rbab1q8ltdx

Feel free to share this post with any of the available buttons at the bottom and leave a comment below

Follow me on Twitter @golfgurutv

Guru

Meet The Mastermind Crew “The Next Generation of Great Teachers”

February 9, 2012

Just in case you missed it. I got the mastermind crew together, (Charlie King called us the next great teachers) for a little roundtable discussion at the PGA Show. There were two members missing, Sara Dickson and Switzerland (JG) but they were not forgotten as they were involved in many sidebar discussions during the week. Stay tuned for the next twitter academy. You have to watch the last episode to find out what is next for the group. There is talks of a major group golf school that could pop up later this year. Who would sign up for that? What a great mix of talent would be assembled and big things are coming for 2012. I hope you enjoy the #Roundtwitter Golf Discussion with Jason Helman, Rob McGill, Andrew Marr, Dennis Sales and Kirk Oguri (listed as seated). Thanks again for our good friend Ricky Lee Potts for moderating and Eric Ballard for filming it. Follow these guys on twitter for more #banter and knowledge than you can stand

Follow me on twitter @golfgurutv and I will see you on the lesson tee @ Carmel CC

Guru