This week’s review of Honda Classic winner Michael Thompson’s golf swing, a great competitor on tough courses.

Back Row left to right: John Graham, Dennis Sales, Andrew Marr, Jason Sutton, Jason Helman and Sara Dickson. Front Row left to right: Kirk Oguri and Rob McGill

The 2012 Tweet Up was one of the highlights, for me, at this years PGA Merchandise Show. With the help of Rich Hunt (aka Richie3Jack) we organized a get together at the Brickhouse Tap and Tavern designed to bring together twitter users in a face to face environment. This year we had 49 coaches show up and discuss everything from social media to special types of tilts I can’t mention in this arena. =)

In typical fashion, they had to kick us out of the bar we were in again this year. Also, in typical fashion, did the heavy swing talk come out around Midnight. Sadly, I missed a fair amount of the heavy stuff trying to catch up with some people I hadn’t seen in awhile. I also want to send a special Thank You to the Dutch 5 for showing up. I met all these guys while I was Holland last summer and we had a great time talking. These guys really know how to have fun and use their time to see so many cool things. I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

There were coaches from 4 different countries and I’m happy to say from nearly every ‘camp’ out there. There were Stack and Tilt coaches, Plane Truth coaches, MORAD coaches, Manzella Instructors, Alignment Golf coaches, McClean coaches, 5 Keys coaches MiniTour coaches, PGA Tour coaches, Top 100 coaches,  and a fair amount of no system or brand coaches. It’s not often that coaches from all these disciplines get together, let alone get together, to share information and talk openly in a friendly environment. This is what I am most proud of. Getting people together from all disciplines with an open mind and a desire to learn and share. That is why I choose twitter over all other forms of learning about golf information. That is the reason for this get together.

It’s always been my goal to learn from as many different people as I can and to do in a manner that I don’t upset everyone I deal with. I enjoy learning for learnings sake and have no stake in my information. I’ve enjoyed sharing what I have learned and will continue to do so. For the second time, I have been tagged as the Swiss Contrarian. Seemingly neutral yet always challenging. I think that sums me up pretty well.

Thanks to everyone that attended this year. I had a blast and hope to continue to grow this gathering again next year.

Here’s a little video made by Nick Chertock that has a bunch of the pictures tweeted from that night.

#JG

Trackman III is coming and it’s coming soon. Here’s a little sneak peek you may not find anywhere else.

Obviously you can see from the picture that the new Trackman will be much smaller and more portable. I haven’t heard about a wireless feature or bluetooth feature like the Flightscope X2. Here’s what I can tell you so far. They are telling us to be prepared for future short game applications. They are claiming it will measure a pitch shot down to 2 meters carry. A new battery which is internal with greater accuracy and better use on grass. The new camera will be a 160 fps camera and the machine will only work with the Trackman Performance Studio.

That’s all I know aside from the price being about the same as usual which is around $25000 US. I’m hoping they will have it on display at the 2012 US PGA Merchandise Show. Stay tuned for more details. If you know someone that might want to see this, be sure to share it using the social media buttons below.

JG

Twitter Tips for Golf Professionals and Players is what I have chosen to offer all of you on this Thanksgiving Day of 2011. Below I will talk about 5 things you can do to make Twitter a more powerful resource both for learning and growing your business. Admittedly, I have made Twitter a priority in terms of my marketing plans and business model. Some of you may not have the time or desire to approach Twitter the way I do so I thought I would help you with some ideas to speed up the process. Some of these tips will require some time to get the most out of but you won’t have to spend the time trying to figure out what some shortcuts are.

1) Find the Twitter Professionals – Seek out those that are talking through Twitter. Certainly, I would put myself in this category so please use me as a resource. There are so many in this group it would be impossible to list them all. What you want to do first is follow me @johngrahamgolf. I try whenever possible to make my conversations as public as I can to help others find new Twitter users to connect with. If you want to save some time, go to my Twitter Page and feed and look who I am discussing things with. You’ll see some names appear more than a few times. Those are the users you’ll want to start with.

2) Face to Face Interaction – In my opinion, this is the key to building the strong relationships in all parts of life. Just because you are at a computer screen and so are they does not mean you talk or act any differently. I see too many people miss this point. Treat the user as you would if face to face. When you meet someone brand new to follow, say hello. It is usually better to do a little research before making your initial interaction. Go to their website, if they have one or look through their feed and see if there is anything that interests you. Just like in real life, it is usually easier (more comfortable) to say hello when you combine it with, I read your article on “X” and wanted to ask you a few questions. Something in that vein is a great icebreaker.   When someone decides to follow you, thank them for the follow. Be Real. This is simple stuff that is often overlooked. People will gather very accurate information about you as a person (in my experience) from how you tweet so be sure to tweet how you want to be perceived.

3) Butt In - Twitter is designed to be engaging so engage. If you see a conversation on a topic that interests you, butt in. That’s the whole idea. Share the opinions and knowledge you have with all of us. Don’t expect it to be universally accepted. Information that is presented in a public forum will always be scrutinized and on Twitter it will certainly be the case. For me, that is a good thing. I like testing information for accuracy and Twitter is a great place for that. If you have questions, ask them. Do not be shy. We are here for the discussion so let’s discuss.

4) Follow All Halves of the Conversation – Here is a little twitter tip to help you follow along with conversations. In order to see the entire conversation, you need to follow the users that are being mentioned. Twitter will send to your feed all tweets from those you follow. If a conversation is taking place between 3 people and you only follow 2 of them you won’t see the conversation. Conversations on Twitter are done with the @ symbol. It directs the tweet to that person’s attention. If you don’t follow everyone that is being @’d you won’t see it. When I was starting, I would go to certain peoples feed to see if I was missing some conversations. Invariably I was and I would find new users to follow. I highly suggest you do this as I mentioned in Tip 1.

5) Google it – Here’s something that I did to find more Golf Professionals to speak with. I used Google to find them. Try typing this into Google and see what comes up.  site:twitter.com/* bio+pga Basically, it will search Twitter for users that have PGA in their bio.

I hope you find this helpful and use these ideas to improve your business on Twitter. Please consider sharing this with those that you think might find it helpful by using the social media buttons located at the bottom of this post. Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and thank for reading.

A question to open up with-‘Why strive to be a second rate version of someone else when it takes no more effort and time in becoming a first rate version of yourself?’This has been an article which has kicked around in my thoughts for some time..an article clear in my head for a while, but the perceived judgement it might receive had somehow delayed its appearance…I’d inadvertently started editing myself in order ‘to fit in’.

Don’t rock the boat Andy…don’t fly in the face of what’s correct’ and ‘expected’. What will ‘proper’ coaches think? I was in danger of becoming a cookie cutter coach!

It’s also my last article that will surface on John’s site in 2011….I’ll explain why at the end

See, the desire to conform is all well and good…but what if in doing so, you stop being you and end up walking someone else’s path looking out for the sign displaying ‘Success Here- Blindly follow’?

The prompt for this message actually got reinforced after a meeting with a new player back in July….an elite junior here in the UK who sought me out through well known social media sites.  I say ‘reinforced’ because I’d thought the same for a while.. it was just that it took the shared time with this young player to bring those thoughts  back to the surface.

At 16, he was thoroughly disillusioned with the state of mental coaching in particular, likening it to nothing more than coaches talking like a textbook and making claims that quite frankly they couldn’t back up where it mattered…On the golf course WITH the player’s game. They weren’t coaching him as a PERSON..they where preaching to him as a PLAYER

And you know what…He’s spot on!

And by asking/listening to many others….the message is coming again and again.

Players are fed up with the rise of the Cookie Cutter Coach….in both the swing and mental instruction domains

What do I mean by ‘Cookie Cutter’?

I mean the growing trend for coaches to seek and promote a conformist way…a textbook approach…a one size fits all umbrella with which to hold over the game of golf. More and more coaches (swing and mind) being churned out in the same one dimensional mould

The current state of golf coaching has been hijacked by a generation of cookie cutters….The Generalists!

 Players being led by Generalist Coaches with Generalist Badges reading from Generalist Books…and make sure you pick up your generic newsletter, CD and audio when you check out from my generic website (looks great doesn’t it…I must be successful right!)

Players aren’t bothered about all that…it’s more that coaches assume they are.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t players simply want to improve, feel that improvement consistently, understand what they are doing and pay a fair price for their instruction? And for the experience to be with a coach who shares time in a non-judgemental way , inspiring them to continue that process? Thinking back to my swing lessons (I had very few) I rarely got asked what I wanted  or for my opinion (That’s £40 Andy…next week ok)

Fortunately , there is an antidote on the coaching market

Enter the Specialist! (Cookie Cutter Free Zone)

A growing band of coaches are now starting to question the mainstream way (and it’s not just golf)…looking at the game through new eyes, actually listening to what players want and sticking opinion out there irrespective of perceived criticism.

The domain of the Generalists…30 min lessons, 8 hours a day, fixing kit primed……stand on a range…same stuff as 10 years ago. One man band. Self titled expert of the game.

The domain of the Specialist…Coaching programs with longer terms, on course coaching, networking seminars, seeking constant new learning . Team Dynamic. Self titled student of the game

Look around at the successful people in any field…and it’s not just about having extra talent, having a skill set elevated above the norm ; It’s about having the inner confidence to be themselves…know what they want and pursue if even if it means being labelled  as a non-conformist.

See, what you want never goes away, whether you get it or not. Just because you may not have figured out the ‘how’ doesn’t mean you don’t want it anymore.

If you’re a coach who truly wants to land an elite player and it hasn’t happened yet…you still want it

If you’re a player with a 12 handicap and you want to play to 9….being off 12 doesn’t mean the need isn’t still there

The evidence to back up my thoughts is out there

Roam onto Twitter and no surprise to see where the influencers are

John Graham, Neil Plimmer, Steven Guiliano, Martin Park, James Ridyard, Steven McDaniel. Sara Dickson, Allan MacDonald, Ian Peek….the list goes on- SPECIALISTS

I dare say they could all continue to make a living doing the same thing over and over….but the Specialist is a new breed. They actively seek out flexibility and creativity, have a desire to learn and grow, see the person, not just a player. Winter goals are to devour another stack of literature to ensure they stay ahead of the pack….they aren’t influencers by chance

As more and more coaches enter the market (explosion in NLP/Life Coaches in past 3 years is staggering) the coaches who will sustain a living and meet the demands of players who seek more for their hard earned cash and increasingly precious time…will be the Specialists

As a player, you too need to seek out those coaches. Coaches who actually ask you what you want, are more than willing to push you higher and further, such is their belief in you; Coaches who rarely coach the same way twice, have massive flexibility in their tool box and don’t hide behind past reputation and player’s records.

You want to see what’s really possible for you…seek a Specialist

Exploit Twitter and Facebook…ask the Specialist as many questions as possible because by their nature, they will share and help you grow your skill set.

And the 16 year old junior? He’s committed to working together until the end of 2012….an 18 month program to explore. Still disillusioned with mental performance coaching? I’ll let you decide.

As I hinted at above, this is my last outing for 2011. I’d like to thank John for giving me the platform to stick out my articles, maybe some have hit their intended targets….maybe some missed by some margin.

It’s been a fantastic experience writing for John, a man who is clearly moving into deeper specialist territory. I remain hugely appreciative of all he’s given me and look forward to watching his already frighteningly good skill set progress.

Thank you for your time..

Brand new GolferBluePrint blog is being launched, would love you to take a look and interact with me on all things mindset…Just a click below, see you there-

http://golferblueprint.wordpress.com/

To your enlightened success…go discover your first class version of you

Andy

info@progolfmindcoach.co.uk