In that discussion about golf instruction it was pointed out to me that golf instruction is almost completely subjective. All about marketing and taking peoples word for how good they are and how good their theories and methods are.
SUBJECTIVE EVIDENCE is evidence that you cannot evaluate -- you have to simply accept what the person says or reject it.
OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE is evidence you can examine and evaluate for yourself.
My friend, Judge Tinker, frequently talks about how few people are interested in taking golf lessons and how few golfers actually take them. I think there may be a correlation between that and SUBJECTIVE EVIDENCE. Today's consumers tends to be very cynical so simply trying to market to them by saying trust me, I am better or trust me, I can help you isn't going to work with most people.
In the past golf professionals were held in much higher esteem than they seem to be today so what worked in the past may not work as well today especially with younger people.
With verifiable data would golfers tend to trust you more?
Is it possible that more people would be prone to take lessons if there was OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE to prove how good someone and their methods are? With today's technology it seems to be very doable. It be a simple matter of using technology to establish a baseline for each student. Prior to the first lesson simply chart club head speed, smash factor, center line variance, carry distance etc. After 4 lessons do the readings again and compare them to the baseline readings. That would give objective evidence of how much a teacher can actually improve his or her students in 4 lessons. No debate, no simply proclaiming that you help everybody, it would just recording the facts.
I know that those people that are successful today are not interested in seeing anything change and I don't blame them. It is like the old saying, “If it ain't broke don't fix it,” but for the younger teachers coming up and trying to get themselves established and build a clientele I would think that they would embrace the idea of objective evidence. I think it might have a very positive effect on the golfing public if someone can say here is the evidence that, x percent of the time my students improve by X percentage with only 1,2,3,4 lessons etc.
Can you imagine a Top 100 List based on OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE? Might be interesting.
