You think once you’ve been doing your job, hobby, or whatever for a long time that you wouldn’t need coaching, but I recently came across a card from a Coach that I met at a conference I attended. On the back of the business card was a bunch of stuff advertising this woman’s Coaching services. I read it today while entering everything into my address book and a light went off in my head because of something I had done recently. I quickly came to the conclusion that you can ALWAYS get better at what you are doing. NO matter what!
The card said:
Who hires a coach? – To close the gap from where you are to where you want to be.
What can happen when you work with a coach?
- You immediately take more powerful and focused actions
- You become a more effective communicator
- You radically organize your time and life
- Be unstoppable! You work/live from your pace of inspiration
The value of hiring a coach was clear to me when I took a golf lesson recently – not that I thought I was ready for the pro am or anything, but I can get around the golf course without embarrassing myself that much (only if you don’t ask who just hit those three balls into the water hazard???) One of the football dads is a golf pro and I asked him for a lesson. I met Greg Coplin where he teaches at Crystal Springs and had no idea what to expect because I had never had a golf lesson before from a golf pro (the boys took lessons all last summer from a golf pro, but I did a drop and run so I never observed their lessons) Greg gave me a half hour video lesson and I got a rude awakening.
Greg started the lesson by having me hit a few shots off the tee at the driving range so he could get an idea of how I hit the ball. My first shot was probably one of the five best shots I’ve ever hit in my golfing life and I’m sure Greg thought I was sand bagging him at that point. But I confessed that I never hit the ball like that, almost ever… so he had me hit a few more for good measure and sure enough I topped the ball, missed the ball, and even hit a few straight. But it gave him a truer picture of what he was going to have to work with.
Now for the video part – We went into this garage like area that was set up with video cameras and a computer and he had me hit a few shots. Then he played the video back, in real time, and also in painfully slow, slow-motion. Then he lined the video up with a pro shooting the ball. I was astounded at what I looked like hitting the ball. Here I thought I had a good set up, just like my dad and golf boyfriends had taught me, but no – not even close. I moved my left leg like I was taking a baseball swing. I moved my elbow and arm like a tennis swing, I could go on. And on… But I’ll save you the agony of describing all of the faults shown on the video and talk about what Greg had me concentrate on fixing.
He wanted me to focus on just two things:
- Keeping my left leg still along with my left arm/elbow; and
- Keeping my swing going through at a slight angle ending my stroke with my club pointing to where I intended to hit the ball.
I spent the rest of the lesson just trying to do ONLY those two things with his observation and feedback and reminders. Once the half hour lesson was up, I spent the rest of the time trying to hit through the biggest bucket of balls ever – it felt like I was there for hours. I never did finish that whole bucket. I had to zip out of there and hop on a conference call. But the time I spent there just trying to work on those two fixes was an eye-opening lesson. Focus, focus, focus – don’t try to fix everything all at once!
The words from the coaches card “You immediately take more powerful and focused actions” jumped out at me. With 30 minutes of a coach’s feedback – I learned that anyone could get better at what they are doing if they get the right kind of feedback and take an honest look at what they are doing.
Sadly, I have no pictures of the before and after although the images are seared into my brain from the bad video pictures of what NOT to do. Hopefully if you are feeling unfocused and stagnant with something – work, a hobby, or whatever, you’ll consider a coach or a lesson or honest feedback! It did my golf swing a ton of good.
PS – Greg Coplin, as it turns out, is one of the top 10 teachers in California (as voted by his golf pro peers).
