People ask me all the time how they can sift through the morass of conflicting golf advice they hear in the golf media, from tip givers, and various teaching pros. I tell them the advice should be able to pass two tests:

1. If you pick several all time great players at random, nearly all of them should do it .
2. The person spouting it should be able to demonstrate and hit a good shot.

After all, do you really want to be applying something to your swing that fewer than 5 great golfers in the history of the game have done? Or something the advice-giver cannot do themselves? And if it’s such a good move, why did so few figure it out? And if it’s such a good thing, why can’t the advisor do it?

Amateur golfers are prone to “seeking”, and unfortunately, there’s a line around the block of people willing to heed their call. Golf is a difficult game, and it doesn’t take much bad advice to ruin a swing. When I look at the endless parade of “new and revolutionary” teaching concepts that have been introduced in my lifetime, usually one of two things are true:

1. It’s not actually a new idea at all. At best, it’s a legitimately new way of teaching an old idea
2. It’s new because it’s terrible and nobody should be doing it

Obviously there are exceptions, but most concepts fall into one of two categories.