Have you been dissatisfied with your “Progress” in golf? Maybe, you have been wasting time working on movement. Movement-focused learning creates a viscous cycle that really leads to nothing except the next fix. It’s a treadmill. Movement is taught by every player in the published instruction game. Therefore, I ask, is the treadmill is keeping you from moving forward?

Anyone reading my opinions on the “Teaching” industry knows that I suggest no real knowledge has reached students. That would be impossible, from my point of view. Because, teaching is transferring knowledge that enables freedom. Also, real knowledge underpins everything in student self-development. Therefore, I use “Instruction” as a derogatory, but descriptive term for old-school, golf swing practitioners.

Taking golf instruction essentially means you are, effectively, buying a bill of goods. My purpose is not to call individuals out. Rather, I seek to educate golfers about my definitions for instruction and teaching. Instruction is about How and What, teaching is about Why. Instruction is cleverness disguised as knowledge. Teaching is naked and wise. And, teaching is much more difficult to master, because you have to be fluent with an entire continuum of causal relationships.

People think they are getting “Why” answers – just because their instructor tells them so. Therefore, I feel te need to isolate misleading messages by showing that set-up determines swing. For instance, my followers know how quickly improvement comes by employing an Open Stance set-up. We have acknowledged the greatest ball-strikers of all time use an Open Stance. Why, then, doesn’t everyone use an Open Stance? My answer is, because each of us wakes up at a different time.

I’ve known many instructors eager to call the Open Stance a “Method”. Unfortunately, these sad peeps have difficulty discriminating between teaching and instructing. We know “methods” (A-Frame, Stack-n-Tilt, et.al.) promote one movement for all golfers without regard for set-up. Teaching, on the other hand, provides context and tools for answering our own swing questions. Instructing gives answers without context. As a result, the student’s only option is to return to the beginning… again.

My students/applicants will never have to return to the treadmill. Therefore, my advice to you is, “Step off the instruction treadmill. Open your stance and play golf.”

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy