Full day lessons in carton House

whocares86

i see where you can have a full day lesson for 200 euro, on saturdays , booked out untill April, 4 others max will be there. just wondering has anyone ever done one these full days lessons in Carton. I wonder are they any good and is it worth the money

fullstop

whocares86 wrote: »

i see where you can have a full day lesson for 200 euro, on saturdays , booked out untill April, 4 others max will be there. just wondering has anyone ever done one these full days lessons in Carton. I wonder are they any good and is it worth the money

Can't imagine its worth €200. When you get a lesson you need to go away and work on any changes so I don't really like the idea of an all day lesson.

ShriekingSheet

fullstop wrote: »

Can't imagine its worth €200. When you get a lesson you need to go away and work on any changes so I don't really like the idea of an all day lesson.

Agreed.

€200 = approx 6 lessons over a 6-8 week period, some on long game, some on short, all of them with a round of golf and a bucket or two of balls at the range in between. Picking up a small amount of specific info to work on, working on that, then returning to make more progress will get you much further than one big chunk of info and the pro might never see you again.

Mister Sifter

Shriek, do you get lessons constantly through the year? Or do you have a few at the start of the season and then only when something goes wrong? I take it you also use the same guy all the time too?

ShriekingSheet

Graeme1982 wrote: »

Shriek, do you get lessons constantly through the year? Or do you have a few at the start of the season and then only when something goes wrong? I take it you also use the same guy all the time too?

Yeah I go to Raymond Burns at South County. He's a bit of a legend really having won all four boys provincial championships in one year - the only guy to ever do so, and that was at the time Harrington and others were in the field I think. He was also Harrington's partner in Walker Cup and was on the European tour himself for a while. The thing a lot of top guys seem to always say about him is how good a striker of the ball he is, compared to anybody. He admits himself his short game was never great so having a full tour card with poor wedge play - you can imagine how well he hits his irons! As gay as it sounds, I find it kind of inspiring.

I've been to Brendan McDaid for a year up til I stopped playing before. He's a clas act - everything on computer video and the fact that he teaches such high class players is encouraging. It's a lot of money and travel though.

I started out with Zak from the Spawell, now at Beech Park. Really, really good teacher - probably one of the busiest in Dublin. I'd highly recommend him for all levels, especially mid/high handicaps.

I haven't had a lesson since August. When I started back in March (after 3 years out) I was shooting 90+ so got maybe 3 lessons in April/May. I'm not of the opinion that you can't get lessons in peak season. I just get them on a Monday so I have a couple of days working on technique before returning to a more playable type of practice on Thursday or Friday. At the weekend I'll go out and (try to) forget about technique.

In 2009 I'll get maybe 2 full swing and 2 short game/putting lessons in February/March. When the season kicks in, I'll get a lesson when I feel I need one. Regardless of scores (good or bad) if I start to strike it poorly I'll get one. If I'm hitting it well I won't practice long shots much and just chip and putt loads.

One thing I've gotten good at is hitting it well soon after a lesson - as opposed to hacking it until you get the hang of what you're being taught. I think going to the same guy helps here because after a while you're just making slight adjustments and reinforcing things.

Sounds like more time and effort than it really is

Mister Sifter

Cheers Sheet, interesting to hear what someone else of a similar standard is doing. I've never been big into lessons. Apart from a handful of junior coaching sessions as a kid, i've only ever had one - last year when i had a major problem that i couldn't correct.

I'm thinking that if i want to get to the next level though that it's something i should be thinking more about. I guess if i'm serious about getting down, i need to get serious about making it happen.

ShriekingSheet

Graeme1982 wrote: »

Cheers Sheet, interesting to hear what someone else of a similar standard is doing. I've never been big into lessons. Apart from a handful of junior coaching sessions as a kid, i've only ever had one - last year when i had a major problem that i couldn't correct.

I'm thinking that if i want to get to the next level though that it's something i should be thinking more about. I guess if i'm serious about getting down, i need to get serious about making it happen.

Interesting. I've pretty much always been getting lessons, maybe 8 or 9 a year. I probably have a technique that's more advanced than my scores and handicap, but I also know that that quite simply means feck all.

In your case, if you were to ask my advice, I'd say yeah get a few lessons. But not willy-nilly. Finding someone who's good and you get on with is crucial. Secondly, the great thing about lessons (if you're smart about it) is you can listen to 7 or 8 things a pro might be telling you and think to yourself "nope, nope, that's not for me, that's not either..." and he might touch on one thing that will make you think "Ah-ha...!" and get him to elaborate for you. Sure, you need to be mentally tough enough to avoid doubting yourself when rejecting a teacher's other 6 ideas but I'm advising this for you, as a 5 handicap who's probably got that ability, not for everyone. I just take one or two little things from each lesson and know that if I build them into my game, I'll be a better player.

So it doesn't have to be about re-working and making huge changes. Not that change is anything to be feared. I'll put it to you this way: I'd imagine where you'd like to go is a pretty big leap on from where you currently are. To make a big leap you might just need to make a big change. That change might not be a physical swing change, but maybe it's going from no lessons to some lessons.

To summise, you'd be better off sticking with your DIY approach than going to many of the teaching pros around. But if you find a good one, you could improve a lot.