Why I didn’t think online golf lessons were for me and why I’ve changed my mind.
Back Story
I was introduced to Skillest, which is the online platform I use, by Baden who created the app about 5 years ago. We are both based in Melbourne, Australia and he made contact with me through social media to arrange a meeting to show me the app. If there is one thing I have been during my coaching career its loyal, that is in regards to video analysis software, to the V1 Golf app. I have used this software on iPads, phones and laptops for the past 10+ years and because of this, I have become very ‘used’ to the interface and usability of the app and wasn’t thinking about changing to something different. When Baden showed me the different components to Skillest it was impressive, video analysis software, messenger section and online coaching capability. Now, for whatever reason, as happens in life, I forgot about the app and continued the way I had been for multiple years previously. Every now and again I would see Skillest on Instagram and it would remind me and I believe I even text Baden a couple years later to try and setup my online coaching account but again, I got busy and forgot to follow through. Since this time some high level coaches that I enjoy following on social media have joined the platform and thrived, for me though I was always too busy with my in-person clients and other obligations to consider jumping in to this as well.
Why I Got Involved With Skillest
Fast forward to one year AC (After Covid), and multiple lockdowns in Australia and more specifically Melbourne, leaves my industry and many others like it completely shutdown. We know from the brief openings between lockdowns, and what is happening around the world, that golf is booming! From a steady decline in participation beforehand to a huge uptake in people wanting to get into for the first time, or get back into golf which is amazing. Although this did personally make me feel like I was missing out massively on helping my exisiting clients and also helping many new clients that would want to learn the game. I would love to say that I joined Skillest because I knew I would be able help golfers the same way I can delivering in-person lessons, even though this was pretty obvious to see from the coaches already using the platform. The fact is, I love my job and I need to be productive, I thought if I could help just handful of people using Skillest then it was worth it and if not, at least it kept me occupied for a few days/weeks. This is where my mindset changed.
Since giving the first golf lesson on Skillest, which is available to see as my Sample Lesson, I absolutely fell in love with process and realised how well suited it was to my coaching style. I am a very hands-on golf coach, I like putting people in certain positions to help them feel where they should be and making them work against certain positions to help exaggerate the move and I use a lot of video analysis for both my benefit and the students. I believe everyone is a visual learner, which is where the benefit of video analysis comes in, the majority are Kinaesthetic learners, where physically moving them into positions helps, and a minority are Auditory learners, this is usually highly skilled people in that discipline. So I did wonder how online golf lessons would fit into this learning process and be able to help the majority of people.
The way online lessons cater to this is by allowing the coach to provide more ‘bite sized’ pieces of information for the student to focus on. Don’t get me wrong you need to know the big picture and what the end goals are, but trusting the process and regularly seeing the improvements gives the student every chance of making changes that will last a lifetime, not just a month.
Benefits Of Skillest
What I found was the way in which Skillest works puts the client first, it allows them 24/7 access to a golf coach to send multiple swing videos, ask questions and get as much feedback on what they are doing as possible. Every golf coach has given a golf lesson that they believed at the time was ‘the best golf lesson ever’ only to see the same client a month later and nothing had stuck and we repeat the process again. Skillest removes this ‘blank’ period between lessons and allows continuous communication between coach and student to make sure they are moving in the right direction. Now, I have always offered this service to my in-person clients, I always tell them to send me videos of their golf swings so we can keep a check on things but I reckon out of 100 regular in-person clients only about 5 take me up on this.
Fast forward to today and I have given 117 online golf lessons and have worked my way up to the 6th ranked golf coach on Skillest by popularity. I am absolutely loving the process of online lessons and seeing the improvements of my subscribers in a short amount of time just backs up how effective this process is. Combine regular checkups with a monthly 60 minute video lesson, which I offer as part of my Monthly Plan, and my clients are making changes that will be with them for the rest of their golfing life.
If you’d like to find out more information about online golf lessons through the Skillest app click the link below.
Really love this review. I am researching whether to use V1 or Skillest to coach my students and your article has convinced me that Skillest is the way forward. Thank you