Every year I try to take a proper break from golf. It gives me a chance to step away from the lesson tee, switch off for a while and reflect on the season. Just before I went away, a friend sent me a series of screenshots from Reddit and Boards.ie. Golfers were discussing coaches around Ireland, and to my surprise, my name came up several times. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. There were plenty of positive comments from golfers talking about their experiences with me, how their handicaps had improved and how much they enjoyed the coaching process. There were also a couple of comments that were less positive. If you know me, you’ll know something about my personality. Most people would spend their time reading the positive comments. I spend my time reading the negative ones. Not because I enjoy criticism, but because that’s where I believe the biggest opportunities to improve are.

Coaching Isn’t Just About Golf

One thing I’ve learned over the years is that teaching golf is only part of being a golf coach. The real challenge is teaching people. Every golfer who walks through the door is different. Some have played for thirty years, while others only picked up a golf club a few months ago. Some have watched hundreds of YouTube videos, while others have never had a lesson before. Some arrive after a stressful day at work wanting to switch off, while others come expecting one lesson to solve every problem they’ve ever had. The technical side of golf is actually the easy part. The difficult part is understanding the person standing in front of you. Every golfer learns differently. Some players want every technical detail, while others need one simple feeling to focus on. Some enjoy understanding the science behind the golf swing, while others simply need confidence and reassurance. Over the last few years, I’ve realised that great coaching isn’t about giving players more information. It’s about giving them the right information at the right time.

Reading the Criticism

One comment stood out. The player mentioned that I could be abrupt at times and that lessons sometimes felt frustrating if they didn’t understand a drill straight away. I’m not writing this to defend myself. In fact, I’m glad they wrote it because feedback like that forces you to ask difficult questions. Was I communicating clearly enough? Did I explain why we were doing the drill? Did I recognise that the player wasn’t struggling with effort, but with understanding? As coaches, we can become so focused on helping someone improve that we forget how difficult change actually is. When a player struggles with a drill, it isn’t because they aren’t trying. Sometimes they’re combining ideas from previous coaches. Sometimes they’re thinking about something they saw online. Sometimes they’re trying to fix three different swing faults at once. Instead of following one clear concept, they’re trying to merge several together, and that creates confusion. As coaches, we often know exactly what we’re trying to achieve. The player doesn’t. Neither person is wrong. They’re simply looking at the same situation from different perspectives. Reading that comment reminded me that communication is probably the most important skill any coach can develop. Not by talking more, but by communicating better. One of my biggest goals this year isn’t to learn another piece of technology or another swing theory. It’s to become a better communicator.

Why Sticking With One Coach Matters

Another thing that stood out in the discussions was how many golfers had moved between several coaches in a short period of time. This is something I see regularly. A player arrives and tells me they’ve worked with three or four different coaches over the last year. Every coach has their own terminology, their own drills, their own priorities and their own way of producing the same ball flight. None of them are necessarily wrong, but mixing them together often leaves the player more confused than when they started. I’ve experienced this myself. When I was younger, I constantly changed coaches because I thought someone else had the answer I was missing. Looking back, I simply wasn’t giving anyone enough time. The biggest improvements in my own game came when I committed to one coach and trusted the process. More recently, I spent almost two years working with a coach in the UK. This year I’ve moved to someone different because I wanted a fresh perspective, but I’ve already committed to giving that relationship time as well. You can’t expect long-term improvement if you keep restarting every few months. Golf doesn’t work like that. Neither does coaching.

Why Every Player Starts With an Assessment

One comment questioned why I include a physical assessment before beginning the coaching programme. It’s a fair question. Years ago, I probably didn’t explain it well enough. Today, I see it completely differently. The assessment isn’t there to impress anyone. It’s there to understand the golfer. If I’m asking someone to rotate further, but their hips physically won’t allow it, that’s not a coaching problem. It’s a movement problem. If someone lacks shoulder mobility, balance or stability, I need to understand that before asking them to create positions they simply can’t achieve. Every golfer develops movement adaptations. The goal isn’t to eliminate every adaptation. It’s to reduce the ones that stop the golfer producing consistent golf shots. Understanding how someone’s body moves gives me a much clearer starting point before we even discuss the golf swing.

Technology Doesn’t Coach Golfers

Another discussion centred around technology. Force plates. 3D motion capture. Launch monitors. Pressure mapping. Earlier in my coaching career, I probably showed players everything because, if I’m honest, I thought it looked impressive. Today, I use technology very differently. Most of the time, players don’t even see half of it. Technology doesn’t replace coaching. It simply confirms what’s actually happening. Take balance as an example. A player may tell me they feel all their pressure is in their toes. When we look at the pressure plate, they’re actually perfectly balanced. Without that information, they’d probably stop making the movement because it feels wrong. Golf improvement is full of moments where feel and reality are completely different. Technology simply shortens that gap. It helps us match feel with reality. That’s its purpose. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Working With Lewis Clarke Changed My Coaching

One of the biggest influences on my coaching over the last 18 months has been working alongside biomechanist Lewis Clarke. He’s challenged a lot of my own thinking. He’s encouraged me to question why I coach certain movements rather than simply accepting that’s how they’ve always been taught. That has changed my coaching more than any piece of technology ever could. Today I spend far less time chasing perfect positions. Instead, I spend more time understanding why a golfer moves the way they do before deciding how we can improve it. That shift has probably been the biggest step forward I’ve made as a coach, and I’m still learning every single week.

Coaching Isn’t About Being Popular

One sentence kept coming back into my head while reading those discussions. Some players may think I’m direct. They’re probably right. I’m not trying to be anyone’s best friend during a lesson. My responsibility is to help people improve. Sometimes that means slowing things down. Sometimes it means challenging old habits. Sometimes it means asking golfers to do something that feels completely wrong because their current movement has felt normal for years. That doesn’t always make for the easiest lesson, but in my experience it produces better long-term results. That said, reading those comments reminded me that how I deliver the message is just as important as the message itself. That’s something I’ll continue working on.

Lessons Are Becoming More Expensive

Another topic discussed was the cost of golf lessons. It’s true. Prices have increased across the industry, and I completely understand why golfers notice it. But there are reasons behind it. Education isn’t cheap. Many of the courses coaches attend cost thousands of euro before you even factor in flights, accommodation and time away from work. Then there’s technology, software, insurance, rent and VAT. Good coaches never stop learning. We invest heavily in ourselves because we believe our players deserve better coaching next year than they received this year. I have huge respect for coaches like David Ruddy and many others around Ireland who continue investing in their education. Every coach has their own style. Some focus on quick fixes, while others focus on building long-term relationships that create lasting improvement. Neither approach is wrong. The important thing is finding the coach whose philosophy matches your goals.

Final Thoughts

Those screenshots probably meant more to me than the people who wrote them will ever realise. Of course, it’s nice to read positive comments. Every coach appreciates hearing that they’ve helped someone improve. But the comments that stay with me the longest are the ones that challenge me. They make me stop. They make me think. Most importantly, they make me ask one question: How can I become a better coach tomorrow than I am today?

Over the last couple of years, my coaching has changed enormously. Working alongside Lewis Clarke has challenged many of my own ideas and encouraged me to look beyond simply changing golf swings. Today, I spend far more time asking why a player moves the way they do before deciding how to help them improve. That has reinforced something I’ve believed for a long time. Golf coaching shouldn’t start with positions. It should start with the player. Every golfer has different goals, different movement capabilities, different learning styles and different expectations. My job isn’t to make everyone swing the same. My job is to understand the golfer standing in front of me and help them produce better shots, lower scores and enjoy the game more.

The technology, the biomechanics and the data all have their place, but they’re only tools. They don’t replace coaching. They simply help me understand your game more clearly so that together we can build the right solution for you. If there’s one thing these discussions reminded me of, it’s that coaching is never finished. I’m still learning. I’m still making mistakes. I’m still refining how I communicate. I’m still looking for better ways to explain complex ideas more simply. Because if I’m asking my players to keep improving, then I have the same responsibility myself.

At the end of the day, I don’t want players leaving a lesson thinking, “That was interesting.” I want them leaving with a clear understanding of what they’re working on, why it matters, how they’re’re going to practise it and how it will help them play better golf. Because coaching isn’t about building the perfect-looking golf swing. It’s about solving the problems that are stopping you from playing your best golf.

That’s always been the philosophy behind everything I do.

We don’t coach positions. We coach people.

We don’t sell golf lessons. We solve golfers’ problems.

If I can continue improving as a coach every year, then hopefully my players will continue improving alongside me.