The right way to take it up ..

My friend, the "Hopeless Golfer" commented offline that he wishes that he had "first taken lessons before he started playing" and that got me thinking. Really, whats the "right" way to take up playing golf?

Lets see, to a great extent, it depends on how you got hooked into it in the first place. I generally ask this question whenever I am paired up with someone I havent met before. "How did you start playing?". And they all have varied answers. Some played coz their friends dragged them to it, some played coz thier Dad was the Course Manager ..

Of course, one could start by enrolling in a class at your local Golf Driving Range. This approach seems very popular among parents who always want to "guide" their kids to various extra curricular activities. Does this work? Do these kids really take to the game if it was introduced to them in this fashion?

I mylself prefer the approach of "learning by practising the art". Whats the difference? Well, I believe that instead of "reading the manual - and understanding the "right" technique", I would rather just try my hand at it - see if I like it, and THEN take a more formal class to hone my skills.

If you see how children pick up languages, you will see how well this approach works. Kids start learning languages by just repeating what they hear and gradually building up their repertoire. No one ever sits with the kid with a grammar book in hand and teach him/her the "right way to construct a sentence".

Will this approach work with Golf? I often hear the comment -- "Bad technique you picked up is hard to break if you dont start with formal lessons". How true is this? Is it possible to say, develop a bad swing (that somehow works for you), and then have your instructor coach you the "right techinique" that will make you more consistent and play better? Would it be very difficult to "forget" your "bad" technique? Would it creep right back?
I would like to assume that a bad technique is correctable.

The question is when is the right time to start taking formal lessons? That, I believe, depends on YOU. Its when YOU feel that YOU are ready and would benefit from formal lessons.

Or is it better to start with formal lessons?

In the end "Its all Talent 'Maccha'" :-)

Comments?