Martin Hall, the 2008 PGA Teacher of the Year and a Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher for the past 10 years, is a PGA golf instructor at Ibis Golf & Country Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. and PGA Master Professional of the PGA of Great Britain.
Martin Hall on the importance of choosing training aids that demand perfection:
When I consider endorsing a training aid, several requirements immediately come to my mind. The best teaching devices must be easy to use and work correctly, but most importantly they have to directly tell the student what to do; after all, golf is a much easier game to understand when we are being told exactly what to do. Effective training aids are the ones that demand you do it correctly instead of strapping you and placing you in a position where you are being asked not to make a certain move. One of my favorite training aids to use is the Pro Head Trainer, which keys in on keeping the head still by having the student put his or her head up against a bar. This is a great example of an effective training aid, because it focuses on something everyone realizes is correct but also something that very few people execute. These are the type of products I endorse due to the direct feedback and lack of being clamped down in an uncomfortable position. The golf swing should be a free-flowing motion, and there are aids that make the golf swing difficult to feel for the student. At the end of the day, I choose the aids that can create good habits for my students.
Martin Hall on the business impact of choosing training aids that demand perfection:
I never look at things from the perspective of whether it helps my business. Instead, I look at it from the perspective of whether it helps my students. If your students are getting better, your business will be fine. Your best advertisement is a satisfied golfer. Training aids don’t help my business, they help golfers. If you can make the game easy, the student you helped is going to come back with three or four of his or her friends.