THIS A SPECIAL EDITION ON THE PGA MERCHANDISE SHOW
Chuck Evans, a 2013 GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional and a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher in America, is a PGA instructor at the Medicus Golf School at Tiffany Greens Golf Club in Kansas City, Mo.
Chuck Evans on the importance of knowing how to identify useful training aids at the PGA Merchandise Show:
As one of approximately 50 instructors certified in the 5 Simple Keys teaching method, what I look for in a training aid is very specific to my teaching style. Two of the things I really want to stress while looking around at the latest and greatest training aids at the PGA Merchandise Show is how to help my students keep a steady head and how to get their weight forward (anywhere from 70-90 percent depending on the shot) at impact. The golf swing is like a camera tripod, but with a 12-pound bowling bowl on top instead of the camera; we need to find a way to stabilize the bowling bowl (your head) and then ensure forward compression at impact. If you ever watched Ben Hogan and Sam Snead, these were two players that did these two things incredibly well. When I am at the PGA Show, our team and I evaluate more than 100 training aids to see what we can take back with us to our academies, and this is what I am looking for: is it simple to use? Does it help to stabilize the head? Does it help to get the player’s weight on his or her left side? Some great examples of training aids we have found to be most effective with this are K-VEST and Vision Track. My advice to PGA Professionals would be to evaluate your teaching style and then go down to Orlando with a specific thought process when consequently evaluating training aids.
Chuck Evans on the business impact of knowing how to identify useful training aids at the PGA Merchandise Show:
One of the things I truly pride myself on is taking a lot of technical information and being able to make it understandable for my students. Going to the PGA Merchandise Show and finding training aids that help me do that is really so valuable that it is impossible to put a dollar amount on it. It has helped me to become a GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional. I had one student who cut his handicap from 8.4 to 4.1 after spending just two days with me. That’s the type of story that makes me want to teach and help people improve!
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email chuck@chuckevansgolf.com