I believe I know which "prominent PGA Aust Golf coach" you are speaking of as I happen to take lessons off him . I am quite active on Twitter and have been reading a few of the golf blogs lately, and it just seems that people are SO OBSESSED with equipment and quick fixes that they never actually get to truly test their coach's instruction out. By that I mean, say I go to my PGA pro for a lesson on Friday, and he changes my takeaway because I'm too far on the inside going back. Now that motion is going to take hundreds of repetitions over a number of days before it becomes natural. If I judge it only by whether it works for me on the weekend in a comp under pressure, I'm really not giving it a fair go. That I'm afraid is why most golfers aren't improving.

Watch my Golf Improvement Cycle here

The problem lies in the ability of the player or the coach to identify the blockage.

Too many golfers are stuck because they or their coach aren't able to identify what's stopping them from improving. The paradigm of a one off lesson or fix is obsolete. If any golfer is to improve they need to have an honest appraisal of where they are, an honest answer to where they would like to be and a coach that truly understands what is involved in achieving that outcome.

If I were to say I want to go to London and the travel agent said - that will take around 30 hours in total from packing to check in to transfers to customs clearing and baggage collection. They also highlighted that in economy class I will have little leg room to spread out and will most likely have disrupted sleep over that time. They have given me a true and honest assessment of what I can expect to achieve my outcome oh and by the way the travel component alone is likely to cost $2,000 - $3,000 devpending on some variables.

The travel agent doesn't have to tell me that if my stopover is in Malaysia and if I don't get back on the plane I won't make it to my destination. Nor that if I don't stay on the plane for the whole journey (not that you can jump off anyway) I won't reach my destination.

This is understood up front. A tourist doesn't get to London and say I wasn't told I couldn't lie down or take a 2 week break at the stopover airport.

As coaches we need to keep our students accountable and informed so they understand what's involved and give them evaluation methods for charting their progress. If a student doesn't want or isn't willing to do this, why would we work with them?

Unfortunately golf has many variables that many coaches don't understand so how can they then pass that on to a student?

Is the answer to a students problems in their equipment?
Is it in their technique?
Is it in their game plan?
Is it in their psychology?

To be able to truly help a golfer improve the coach needs to be able to asses the pupil in several ways
1. Mindset and Psychology - ability to think effectively, control emotions etc...
2. Skills and skill sets - techinique issues, distance control etc...
3. Strategies and tactics - what club to hit where, how to prepare etc...

each of these sections can be broken down in greater detail but the point is if a coach doesn't know all this he might be subscribing a technical change, when all the golfer needs is a better strategy to get their desired outcome.

Imagine that success was like opening a safe that had an 8 digit code.

Firstly you need ALL 8 numbers - having 7 just won't cut it.
Then you need to ensure all 8 numbers are in the correct order - misplace 1 and failure persists.
To finish off you need to ensure you enter these 8 numbers correctly - in the right order, in the right way at the right time, in the right place. Miss any one of these and again failure!

I think anyone coaching who doesn't spend the first hour getting to understand the golfers game before starting to make any change is setting the pupil up for failure. How can you assess the real core issues, find out their desired outcome and set a plan any faster than that?