Entry 25.4

When I first started this venture, I told you that I think a lot. Nothing about that has changed. But lately what I think about has changed. Well may be not changed completely, it is still in the same major domain: golf. Specifically golf instruction. What has changed is my thoughts have gotten a lot broader. Without digging too deep into my memory bank or running statistics, I can with high certainty say that a vast majority of those thoughts were technical in nature. If I had to guess, I would guess 90 percent of them were swing technique focused. Maybe as high as 95 percent. But that trend has changed. It hasn’t changed because I’m not as interested in the topic. I’m still fascinated by it. At some point in my career, I could see myself being a swing coach. But that time isn’t right now. I’ll be honest, when I first started teaching, that’s what I saw myself being so that is what I marketed myself as. And I love teaching the swing. But at the end of the day, the swing is such as small part of the game. As much as I love teaching the swing, I actually wish there were more requests for other parts of the game. My mind might work in numbers and geometry, but I actually love the creativity in the short game. Maybe its because it forces me to use my brain differently and balances out all the left side of the brain that I use. I don’t know. Well, I don’t know yet. I’m sure at some point I will want to know the answer as to why I enjoy the short game so much. Which means I get to do some research and learn something new. Which from a couple of weeks ago, you all know that I love to learn. But all of that has nothing to do with what it on my mind right now.

I was going to bore you to death with all the details of what I learned over my seven days in Orlando for the PGA Show, but I won’t. In fact, what I want to talk about today is something that was said during the training I attended on the last day of my trip. I made my first foray into Stack & Tilt. I’ve had Mike and Andy’s book for four or five years so its not the first time I’ve studied the system. It is the first time I have done anything formal, however. It took me quite a bit of time to commit to going. I don’t know the entire back story between Stack & Tilt and the rest of the golf instruction community, but whatever happened, there is bad blood. In fact, I don’t really care what happened. My hesitation stemmed from the social media posts that Andy released. I’m all about learning from anyone I can, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of becoming a focus of those posts. While I may project the idea that I don’t care what other people think of me, we can all agree that we all care what others think about us. Social media is a powerful tool for good, but even a falsehood can cost someone their reputation. We can probably all think of an instance where someone was accused of doing something and then the truth came out that they in fact did not do that thing. At the end of the day, that person’s reputation was ruined. I didn’t want that to happen to me less because of me, but more because I by proxy am attached to the university and to all of you. I don’t want something that I do to negatively affect your career. Anyway, I digress. Completely derailed where I was actually going with this. My mind was decided when a speaker in another certification I was doing said “as a teacher, you should learn from other teachers, especially those that you don’t agree with.” When Butch Harmon speaks, you listen. So, I signed up for Network Training and boy am I glad that I did. Andy opened up the day by stating that he understands that some were there to truly learn, and others were very skeptical. He said take as much or as little of the information and use it as we saw fit. Ok, not what I expected. I don’t know how much interaction you have had with Stack and Tilt instructors, but the first ten (rough estimate) that I had contact with were fanatical. But over the last six months I have gotten to know more teachers and coaches who were not. But wow, I just wrote way more on than I expected to, but I think it is important information. Now let’s actually get to the point.

“A coach should give more than they should take.” I don’t remember exactly where in the day Andy said that, but out of all the information that he said, those words stuck. And whatever my impression of Andy Plummer was before I met him at 0830 that morning, it has changed. Does he drink the Koolaid? O good lord yes. I mean after all, it is his Koolaid. Could I have gone without all the backhanded comments at all the people he targets with his resentment and bitterness? Most definitely. Is he a good coach? Nope. He’s a great one. Because he didn’t just say those words. Over the next twelve hours, he lived them. He was vigilant as he taught, noticing when someone didn’t seem to be following, stopping, and making sure that person understood before moving on. During each break he checked in with each of the first timers making sure we were keeping up. And it wasn’t just him. Each of the current Stack and Tilt instructors checked in on the newbies sitting at their table. It was evident that it’s the culture that Andy has fostered in the Network. I did a lot of education over the week, but this was different. Now do I agree with everything that he taught? No. Despite what his opinion on how worthless ground reaction forces are, I still believe they are important to understand and measure. Should everyone get all their weight on their lead leg right off the bat? Eh, those of you who have worked with me should know that answer. Some people should and some people shouldn’t. Over the week I did eight hours of education with Dr. Greg Rose and Dave Phillips of TPI and eight hours of education with Andy. They both singled out the other camp and talked about how ridiculous the other side’s beliefs are. The funny thing is they agree on more than they disagree on. I wish I had recorded both seminars. Then I could run it through AI, get a transcript and then have AI analyze to see how much was the same. It had to be upwards of 75 percent. Probably more.

Anyway, I said I spent twelve hours with Andy and so far, I have accounted for eight and a half. At the end of the day as I was headed out, one of the senior guys (that I met for the first time this week) invited me out to dinner. It ended up being Andy, six of the senior instructors and me. At no point did I feel like an outsider. I felt like I was part of the group. When it came time to settle up, Andy paid for dinner. He didn’t have to do that. He could’ve been like most coaches I have learned from and packed up at the end of the day and gone home. He could’ve easily made it. Instead, he spent the evening with some of his coaches… and me. I have a feeling he knows I was one of the skeptics in the room at the beginning of the day. Mike Manavian and Dennis (who invited me to dinner) both know that my views don’t line up 100 percent with their own and my guess is that they let Andy know. I could be completely wrong. At the end of the training, he asked if I had any questions and what I thought. I didn’t have any questions… yet. He filled in a lot of the gaps that I had from the DVDs and book. I know I will have questions eventually and when I do, I now have an entire Network I can lean on for answers. What did I think? I told him the truth. I was skeptical on some of the things he said but that I had an open mind. Like I said, most of what he said lined up with what I currently believed. I honestly think that if the two sides could come together and see their likenesses instead of their differences, that the world of golf instruction would be better for it. Kind of like LIV and the PGA Tour. But again, I digress. Maybe I can be the guy who makes it happen.

The next day I listened to Hidden Potential by Adam Grant as I drove from Orlando to Fayetteville. At some point, Grant said something (he wrote the book and read it on Audible) that I immediately connected with what Andy said. I plan on buying a physical copy of the book so I can read it again and find exactly what he said. I will do my best to paraphrase. Grant said that we should be doing more to make our kids proud than we are to make our parents proud. The context was kids who have all the means possible to succeed versus those who start out with nothing. The first group of kids is handed everything and so they do what they can to make their parents proud. Admirable don’t get me wrong. But the ones who start out with nothing and do their best to create opportunities and a better life for their kids? That is another breed. What’s the point? How does that connect with what Andy said? The kids whose parents gave them everything who then squander their opportunities are the coaches who take more than they give. The kids who start with nothing? They give everything for their kids. They have nothing to take, but they pass everything on to the next generation. Just like Andy said coaches should do. When I heard that my brain went ding ding. You don’t hear the same message that close together for no reason. I was planning on giving you the rundown of my week but that all changed in an instant. This message was way more important. My brain immediately began to scramble to determine which group I fell into and what else I could do. I don’t know why, but for some reason, I thought about the future coaches and teachers I see every day. Maybe because of Andy’s example. I came up with an immediate idea and will rack my brain for more.

Here’s what I came up with: Teach the Pro a Lesson. Kind of corny, but I know there are several students who already know they want to be teachers. I’ve created all sorts of educational opportunities, but I missed something important. Maybe the most important thing of all: teaching experience. I may not have had a lot of experience teaching golf when I started, but I have a lot of teaching experience. Over twenty years. Every job I have held since I was sixteen minus one, I have been a teacher, trainer, and educator for five different career fields (don’t ask me to teach sales, that’s the one job I wasn’t a teacher at it and if you want to learn how to make no money, take sales from me). So as of today, you will have the opportunity to book lessons to teach me. You pick the topic, show up and teach me. It will be good for both of us. You will gain the needed experience to be a golf teacher, and I get to experience being a student again. All the great coaches always joke that they should give their first students their money back. If you take this opportunity, you won’t have to worry about that cuz I’m not paying you a dime. You can mess me up all you want, it can’t get any worse. That was the first idea that came to mind. We’ll see if it works.

The second thought that came to my mind was a challenge for you to give more than you take. Right now, we are struggling to get involvement with the MUGA. All the work for the student body is being done by a very small group of students. I promise you they are giving more than they take. You may not see it happening, but it is. Unfortunately, if we don’t get more involvement, all the events that you enjoy won’t happen in the future. These students are not trying to make their forebears proud, they are trying to make all of you proud. Proud to be Methodist student in the best PGM program in the country. It is time for all of us to step up, re-evaluate our involvement and start giving more than we take. I’m including myself. Do I want to make all of our graduates proud? Of course! But more importantly, I want to make all of you proud. How many of you will join me in making this program a program that the next generation of PGM students can be proud of?