With the goal of teaching the mechanics of a golf swing to beginners as well as more advanced golfers, direct learning plays an instrumental role in shaping the learning experience. Using direct learning, which is a learning method which emphasizes structured, systematic, and explicit teaching practices, you can implement many activities to help assist the lessons. In this blog post I aim to give an overview of direct learning, and emphasize how direct learning is a great method to teaching the mechanics of a golf swing.
Direct instruction is a teacher directed teaching method in which the instructor generally stands in front of the classroom or teaching space and presents well thought out information to students. This is done through clear explanations and explicit information to maximize the teaching time available. An example of this teaching style is university courses such as engineering which have a high quantity of information to relay to students in a short period of time. This “lecturing” provides clear learning objectives to students for expectations and goals to be set.
In terms of our chosen topic of teaching the mechanics of a golf swing, this direct instruction may have a slightly different form but the same general concept. There will be “lecturing” prior to hands-on learning which will allow the students to take the information presented to them and use it in a practical way. Teaching a golf swing must be a systematic approach as you don’t want to teach the mechanics of the club face before teaching the students how to position their feet. The structured approach from the direct instruction is great in making sure that steps in learning are followed correctly and that the basics are taught in the correct sequence. With the use of visual aids and instructor demonstrations, direct instruction can also allow visual learners to observe the correct way to swing and enable them to replicate as they have been shown.
Teaching a golf swing is a very complicated thing with many intricacies (I feel this firsthand, golf is hard), and many learning methods should be used for the best outcome. Direct learning along with the other forms should be used collectively for the best outcome.
Hi Colby,
First of all, great blog post. I think that there is for sure merits in the direct instruction approach to teaching golf. But, as you said, I don’t think it is the only method. You have got to get students out there practicing in addition to teaching them how to golf.