Im going to give my opinion on teaching. First im a PGA pro does being a PGA member make you a qualified teacher no i agree with some of the comments but i went out and seeked some of the great teachers of the golf swing to learn. Some included Mac,Butch,Blake,Merrins etc after that i went to teachers that teach kindergarden.high school aand college and tried to find out how people learn and absorb information then i went to players who played on various tours PGA,Asia,Nike,Nationwide etc and played alot of golf with Lag’s friend Games and absorbed alot of info on what there were trying to do with the golf swing. This is what made me a successful teacher and thats all i claim to be as far as playing ability i play to a 1.0 not bad for a guy who plays twice a week never played on any tour or even tried my call has been teaching. This site has been very helpful for me beacause i feel i understand the swing more and more everyday and can throw out all the garbage along the way. There are people who are knowledgeable about the swing and about teaching the swing some both. Is the PGA watered down yes , Leadbetter is a PGA member i believe and never went to 1 class! hmmmmmmmmmmmm. is he a good player not now. As far as Maves goes he does have some good info on the swing and its biomechanics is he a qualified teacher that’s debateable can he teach someone on how to swing a golf club yes. Let me ask you this question does playing on any golf tour make that person a qualified teacher of the golf swing?Because you played in 2 hooters events can you go out and get a job teaching is that enough qualifications? Because your a PGA member does that give you the right to teach ? If you are not a PGA member or TGM certified should you be teaching. Some claim Nicklaus to be the best ever how come he couldnt teach his sons to last on tour? How about Stockton,Stadler,Tway,Summerhays etc all good players and siblings struggling. These are good questions to be answered your opinions please and no bashing please also not responsible for spell checking. Thank You 
Just addin a couple of pennies
In the totally devote to a controlled outcome fields, lets take brain surgery, creativity is needed, but only in the invention of new protocols. Once that system is invented, I want the guy digging into my brain to follow all the rules exactly. I don’t want a, “Hey I never liked this bundle of axons. Think I’m gonna pull it out and see what happens.” I want him to only change when a better system is invented. Shit for brains is a nickname I get way too much as it is.
In the creative fields freedom is just another word to lose. It’s the gas pedal you want to be stomping on.
You want your brain surgeon to both go to school, and also pay attention, and then apprentice under somebody that really knows what they are doing. In art, the maker is much more free to follow alternative paths. For most, school and the finding of great teachers is the best road. For others, it’s the lonely winding one. Julliard versus the play in dive bars until your fingers bleed. More “stuff” is readably available in schools. It’s a place where it’s way easier way to get to know what train of thoughts the greats were driving, and technical skills are easier to accumulate.
That said, however, it could also be a great way to learn to fake it. I always looked at the work as a reference to the artist’s depth and uniqueness. The fakers had an easy time fooling the public. If you take the audience too deep they get the bends, and hence there are only a small percentage willing to make the effort to dive with you. Only a small few, those in it for the real journey artists and collectors, know what simplistic crap the fakers were peddling. The, “Hey man that artist is just way too weird for me. Let’s go look at the painting of the bunnies with big eyes - now that’s art I can appreciate.” rules the I know what I like roost.
The golf world as now exists, feels a lot like this to me. We should care a lot less about sheepskins and public persona, and a lot more about taking the time to dive deeply with the ones whose depth and uniqueness ring our diving bells. No one said it would be very easy, but it is our job to do the work to make it so. We could still be hitting frying pans with a mile wide sweat spot, or enjoying feeling what a real sweat spot is all about. Like any worthwhile endeavor it’s the students job to cull the wheat from the chaff, and IMHO Lag and Sevam are both growing some pretty nice crops.
Flop
Out of interest, was Harvey Pennick a PGA pro?
Elk has worked with Ben Doyle and a few other well known people. If he trusts Sevam with his swing thats qualification enough for me.
As far as teaching qualifications, I’ll give you my opinions:
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PGA membership has little if nothing to do with a teachers ability to teach. Been to PGA pro’s that could teach and some that couldn’t. In actuality I’ve seen way too many “PGA members” that can’t play a lick but can certainly “run a shop”. I don’t know exactly what the PGA uses to “teach the teachers”, but I suspect it’s steeped in opinions (and many bad ones at that).
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Can all tournament players teach? No way… especially the ones that don’t give a hoot about why they’re able to hit a ball so much better than the average player. I find that most of these guys don’t WANT to know anything about the “why” of the swing as their fragile psyches might implode/explode if they gave any consideration to the mechanics of the swing. (I never know if all that talk is BS because they don’t want anyone to know their secrets, or if they truly are such “naturals” that they’d get screwed up … even if it was GOOD info).
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Although Tway, Nicklaus, Stockton, etc, have sons who didn’t become as good as Dad, most of these guys were/are VERY good players. It’s a fine line that exists between being GREAT and just being better than 99.99 percent of the population, which many of these offspring are. There might be some genetics involved, or just the fact that they grew up around the game, but some of their talent has to be due to instruction they got from Dad.
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For ME, the rarest breed of teacher is one who has a deeper understanding of the swing (why it really works the way it does… way beyond the typical Golf Digest stuff) and one who can flat out play and hit “shots”! If they have experience playing on the big stage then it’s a bonus (because of what I’m trying to accomplish with my own game). Tournament golf is way different than casual golf and having an instructor who’s “been there” (how else can one really understand professional tournament golf?) is an important criteria for me. However, these types of instructors are hard to find, although there is a pretty good one here at ABS.
robbo
I was originally taught by my father who won 6 club championships, and at his best, played off +1 for several years. Not a long hitter, but he was straight, solid irons… great chipper and putter. At 78, he can still play some good golf.
I shot my first 79 when I was 11 years old at Sandpiper GC which is a pretty long track. At age 13 I broke 70 for the first time in a tournament shooting a 68 with a bogey on the last hole (par 5) as my nerves melted walking down the fairway!
I think as soon as I was beating dad on a regular basis, he started looking around for another coach for me… and in a seemingly act of destiny… we accidentally found Ben Doyle, who coincidentally lived across the street from dad’s good friend from Southern California. We knocked on his door just after dinner hour wondering if the “Doyle” sign on the front porch could be that of the same Ben Doyle of TGM fame. We felt slightly tipped off by seeing a driving net on the side of the house. Ben kindly invited us in for a chat, and from that next week on, I worked with Ben exclusively for 5 years. I then worked with McHatton somewhat due to better proximity, and they basically where teaching identical stuff.
I left the TGM camp when I realized that they could no longer relate to what I was going through on tour… dealing with the demands of life on the road, and the difficulties I was having keeping the swinging version of TGM oiled up and working properly week to week and the toll that was taking on my body. I also had to wake up quick to the reality that there were a lot of very “un TGM or wrong, bad incorrect” swings playing some fantastic golf out there. The great strikers on tour had a different sound to the strike also. So obvious it would be like someone screaming into your ear right as you were falling asleep.
I think the better you get, the harder it is to find proper instruction… because you really can’t teach what you don’t know… and if you haven’t been on tour … under the gun… and understand how the body feels under those situations… when your brain melts to jello, and all you have left is “your move” and it’s ability to perform on auto pilot… you find out really quick what your golf swing is made of.
If you don’t believe me… ask Clampett…
That is why I teach a hitting protocol, because whether you are a tour player, or teeing off in the final round of your club championship, or a simple grudge match with an old rival… I want you to win.
I can certainly attest to the “different” sound of the strike of someone who hits it pure. As a 16 year old in 1966 I personally stood behind Ben Hogan at Champions Golf Club in Houston,Tx. and watched him hit balls for 20 minutes. There were other tour pros lined up on either side of him. Everthing he was doing impressed me that day, but what I recall the most was the sound of his strike. The percussive nature of it was startling - totally different from the other pros around him. And the ball just fairly sizzled as it left the clubface and streamed away. I’ll never forget it. I think he was 53 at the time and I promise you he could really hit it - almost knocked his caddy down with every shot!
dinkbat
Another thing about that day on the range watching Hogan - all those pros around him were pausing about every three shots to watch Hogan. They knew they were witnessing something special!
dinkbat
dinkbat,styles,lag,robbo,flopshot
These are all great comments and this is why this site is great and a place to learn and help each other. I will go and agree with Lag until you’ve been in the trenches like he experienced you cant take it to that tour level and hopefully someday my teaching will get that far but for now the journey continues as i hit golf balls and realize how hitting is a superior route to great ball striking.
Doug Blevins is a world class placekicking and punting coach who has taught the likes of Adam Vinatieri, David Akers, and Joe Nedney. He also has cerebal palsy and has never kicked a field goal in his life.
Homer Kelley didn’t have any qualifications in the game of golf.
‘Qualifications’ are things I’m not too bothered with in the game of golf. They may pique my interest to some degree, but I’m more interested in what they know and if they can teach it. Take a look at Bill Belichick, he played football at Wesleyan. Or Bill Walsh who only played for San Jose State.
That certainly didn’t mean that they couldn’t teach and coach the game of football.
If I got bogged down on only listening to the greats, then I would want to listen to John Daly and Fred Couples over Ted Fort and Lynn Blake. Worry about the truth, not the qualifications.
And if you really don’t like it, then don’t buy his book and don’t listen to his videos. Nobody is putting a gun to your head.
3JACK
Not to beat a dead horse here… but just to clear up any misconceptions.
There really are two very different protocols for striking a golf ball… hitting and swinging…
Dead hands acting as passive hinges utilizing Homer’s idea of “Law of the Flail” and the active
hands approach, firing the hands like motors… such as both Hogan and Snead described.
The battle between these two methods have created debates since the birth of this game from pubs in Scotland in the 1700’s to the internet forums of our contemporary age, and will continue to do so.
When I was on tour… the best strikers… the ones who flushed it every week, the guy who could travel on a plane and get off, from a trans continental flight, tee off the next morning and flush a drive down the middle… HITTERS!
That’s what I wanted, and eventually learned how to do.
I left TGM not because swinging didn’t work when executed properly… I found it didn’t work well enough to handle the rigors of the road. Taking time off… or under the pressures of being under the gun.
I couldn’t find a TGM instructor who understood hitting. Not in the late 80’s. Looking at the current situation… I still see TGM instructors that are teaching a right arm throw through impact, whether passive or active… it’s still a sketchy method in my opinion.
I think Mac understands hitting as I do… meaning… “around the corner” not driving the right arm actively out to right field.
I saw the piece on Real Sports or wherever it was that they did DB, they left the piece inconclusive whether he could actually teach a skill like kicking as well as an able bodied person. More power to him though. And I would suggest you Google Bill Parcells and Paul Brown because you obviously have never heard of either of them. On that note are you really comparing coaching in golf to football? Really?
To the point I am trying to make the correctness or incorrectness of what Maves is saying or doing is fairly irrelevent. I’m talking primarily about WRITING AND PUBLISHING A BOOK and by indiscriminent means attracting status and wealth as an expert. Has this individual formally renounced his amateur status? Within the integrity of the game and the rules set by the USGA and R&A one cannot perform any formal instruction for money and retain their amateur status. And to those who will say they don’t care I offer Harvey Ward. Find some friends or family of Harvey’s and I dare you to say the same to them. I saw also a comparison to Jay Sigel, Jay has been an amateur champion for decades, this guy says he hasn’t played more than a few scramble events for work in more than 10 years. If that is so then produce video or some other proof from 10 years ago with the same dynamic swing and expertice. Verify something, anything before getting paid. As far as I am concerned this is exactly the same tactic as used by an infomercial or worse yet showing up to a tournament and expecting the trophy just for telling everyone that you are better than the rest.
The last word I am going to say on this subject is this; call a few publishers, maybe a hundred and count how many have interest in a book of instruction and nonfiction with no bibliography, no verifiable sourcing and no fact checking with a title set as a non-quoted idiom readily attributed to one of the most famous persons in the history of the field (long since dead). I will of course totally abide by their judgment.
integrity?
I think the better word would be marketing.
I honestly can’t see why the fact he’s making money and a name out of a book and videos he published is of any importance. Good on him. He found people that were willing to buy his book based on what they heard and saw. I can’t see why people need qualifications or an existing name or status to be able to teach stuff if they know what they’re talking about, which obviously he does as Lag also pointed out. If a mule out of nowhere arrives at your door with a chest full of treasure would you refuse it because of the origin?
maybe so but it’s been the same campaign for way over a century
You mean like a Trojan Horse, read that story…
I think sevam1 has a lot of good insight- plus he can swing a club and feel and explain what is going on…that’s half the battle. Most teachers look like they are cutting down trees in a snowstorm and couldn’t tell you what they are feeling internally.
I had a lesson once in the early 90’s in Europe from a ‘famous’ coach- or ‘now famous’ I guess. He was starting his way into prominence at the time and my game was a bit lost and I was a million miles from home and with no coach of my own, I managed to go see him for an insight. The poor guy would film my swing- and then get his Leadbetter coaching book out and try to describe what I was doing and why I should be doing something else !! All from a book!!..and this guy had started raking in money and getting a name for himself and went onto bigger & better things …is that not bogus teaching but making $$$
As for books I have two books right in front of me.
- The secret of Hogan’s swing- Tom Bertrand…apparently Tom Bertrand bumped into John Schlee ( a former tour player) at a driving range…Schlee took an interest in him (why? we don’t really know) and then Schlee told him Hogan mentored him and that he knew Hogan well and that he knew THE SECRET as Hogan had told him and he passed it on to Tom Bertrand who is now writing a book about it as Schlee as passed away and all can be revealed.
I read this book with high expectations- IT’s A LOAD OF JUNK - another charade of endless thoughts and ideas and 55 swing thoughts and keys all guessing at what Hogan did.
IF Hogan actually told John Schlee all this stuff and Schlee passed it onto Bertrand then wires are crossed and BS has manifested it’s way in from all angles.
2)Ben Hogan’s Magical Device- Ted Hunt… here’s a summary of Hogan’s Magic coming into impact as described in this book of make believe
*the dimple on the inside of the left elbow is pointed skyward…(how’s that for a starting point!!!)
*the right elbow is pressed against the right crest of the pelvis
- the left wrist is arched with a long thumb pointing down the shaft at the ball. the back of the hand bulges toward the target
- the right hand is strongly arched and is held firmly in the concave position of dorsi-flexion
And on and on…it even has a remarkable story of how VJ Singh autographed a $5 note for a cab driver at the Canadian Open!!! if that’s not giving away the secret then I don’t know what is!!
Apparently this writer knew Moe Norman and Stan Leonard and is a Canadian with a physiology and kinetics degree
BOTH THESE BOOKS SHOULD BE PLACED IN THE CHILDRENS FANTASY SECTION alongside Enid Blyton and Hans Christian Anderson
also avoid like the plague a DVD called ‘The Lost Fundamentals of Hogan’- by Luther Blalock (or something like that)- that should have stayed lost…the guy dresses in a Hogan Cap and has a Hogan bag and pretends he is Hogan? and then …Aggghh…don’t even want to remember that dvd
These got published SOMEHOW- SOMEWAY and actually stare at you on a book shelf with a price tag…every person the author quoted as telling them THE SECRET is now 6 feet under the ground so they all had no back up of proof…but that’s just an example
At least Sevam1 has a clue and can walk the walk with regards to the swing. I know Lag has spoken with him and stated he knows his stuff quite well. His book is online- it was pretty much written and published by Sevam himself…so he is not chasing publishers or plonking them on the shelves.
Just as a footnote; I do believe Bobby Jones- the greatest amateur of all- received well over $100, 000 for making his set of videos that are still around today- which is not really in guidelines with amateur rules.
I don’t care who writes what - if it’s informative then it will sell…if it’s junk then it shouldn’t sell many
there’s a dimple on my elbow now?!!
How about these for a couple of books on instruction that even the writers didn’t do themselves:
Golf my way - Jack Nicklaus
5 lessons - Ben Hogan
I’m laughing so hard it hurts!! 
Maybe time to start a bonfire with all this rubbish? I’ve got plenty to contribute for fuel… 
Instructional books get written without verifiable sourcing and no fact checking all of the time. I should know, I’ve got about 50 of them in my collection. IIRC, Jimmy Ballard isn’t even a PGA member and yet I’ve got his book and who did David Leadbetter and others blatantly rip off without ever giving credit?
The way Sevam1’s book came about was the camera guy was taking up the game with no success and came to Mike saying that he heard he was a pretty good stick and asked him for help. So they went to the camera guy’s place and Mike hit some balls and the camera guy recorded it for his personal use. It was then brought to the attention on the GolfWRX forum, mainly by somebody who thought people would pick apart Mike’s swing, but that foiled in the end because Mike can flat out stripe the ball, his swing is very sound and he has a lot of great insight. Eventually that turned out into people requesting his videos and requesting him write the book. So it wasn’t something he came up by himself.
His book ‘The Secret Is In The Dirt’ doesn’t use Hogan images, but is more of Mike’s story about why he feels Hogan’s ‘5 Lessons’ is correct thru years of observation. The USGA and the R&A haven’t closely followed rules towards amateur status for years and have greatly loosened those rules as now players can have equipment contracts and all sorts of stuff.
And good for them. Why should the game ‘punish’ a golfer for having knowledge of the game and helping others improve their game? Take a look at Dr. Robert Grober, a Yale physics professor who created the Sonic Golf training aid and has done heavy research on the swing using his physics background. Or how about Fredrik Tuxten who created the Trackman Launch Monitor. Or Homer Kelley who wrote The Golfing Machine.
Should they be forced to give up their amateur status? If you do that then you’re going to drive these people away from creating devices and researching the game in order to improve golfer’s scores. And that in the end drives people away from the game. I understand that teaching pros need to make a living and should be entitled to making a very good living if they have the talent and knowhow. But as far as I’m concerned as long as the integrity of the game is in tact, improving golfer’s scores take precedent over keeping book money and instructional money in the PGA membership.
3JACK
Lecoeurdevie
Labelling some one “mentally challenged” without absolute proof borders on cruelty imo. For Moe to develop a unique move like his without access to high speed camers and such speaks loudly against that being true.