read a great quote once – 

“Those who dare to teach must never cease to learn” – John Cotton Dana

I like to think I live my daily life with this motto in mind….always an open mind, you can learn from anyone at any time.  Lots of great learning and insight for me, has actually come from those I teach!

Choosing a coach can be one of the most important decisions a golfer will ever make.  The right coach should see you as a truly unique individual and support you along your development pathway, giving you the best chance, to fulfil  your genetic potential.

As a Coach, I see the player in front of me and will coach them rather than a method.  You only have to look at the U.S.P.G.A to see how many different swings are out there, which proves there is more than one way to swing a golf club.  One method does not fit all, but a good Coach looks at the player and analyses their strengths and weaknesses. They will enhance the players strengths but, crucially, creates awareness and drills to develop the weaker elements of the players game.  

A good coach will not just focus on Technique;  they will introduce Nutrition & Hydration, Fitness, Psychology, Practice Routines and Drills, Course Management, Goal Setting and Life-Style Balance and much more.  A good coach understands it takes more than just technical talent to make a great golfer!

As an Ex-European Tour Player, I can vouch for these additional areas being as much of a factor in the development of a player as that of a sound technical swing.  I had the “swing” but had little to no knowledge in the supporting areas.  This cost me dearly during my 3 years  on Tour, but I always look for positives and, on reflection, my experience has made me a much better Coach.  Another of my motto’s I now live by on a daily basis is –

“To Coach as I would have like to have been coached!”

But……Back to You! 

If you are reading this, it would suggest you are on or have just started your golfing journey, which is great! or at a crossroads.

Maybe you wish to improve your handicap, win the sweep, become a Champion of your Club or County? Perhaps you have higher aspirations – to become an Internationalist, win a National Title or, become a Professional Golfer and win at this level – well, why not?!

I have worked with many players, of all levels from absolute beginner to Tour Professional and every one brings joy and satisfaction!  Let’s face it….I LOVE my job!!

 I am very hands on at Junior Development level, which keeps me on my toes and grounded.  My Total Golf Programme, at its height, had over 150 children each week coming along to golf lessons – instilling the love of the game is a massive honour for me.  

All of the juniors have a swing and an understanding of golf.  Some don’t currently use it, some are casual golfer, some more serious club golfers and some of these Juniors have gone on to win County and National Titles. 

I take delight in these great achievements but I get just as much from the pupils telling me they broke 100 for the first time or made their first birdie – it all gives me such a thrill!

For me, each and every player I meet and work with through golf is truly unique and for each and every success they attain along the way is so satisfying.

If you come along for coaching I will have something to suit you.  Different strokes for different folks: there’s the standard 1-2-1 lesson, Junior coaching uses games to teach the skills.  Ladies clinics are sociable and fun, Gents MOT clinics are more getting you back on track, senior coaching is chaos, only kidding guys.

If you’re more serious about your golf, check out the Academy section.  This is where those who wish to get to the very top work.  If that’s you I can help.

If any of this has been of interest to you, I would love to hear from you

Karyn

ps – check out my Testimonial page to see what others have said

Over my Professional career I have developed my coaching method, Total Golf, and I continue, to this day and beyond, to evolve my coaching programme through experience, continued learning and understanding of the game of golf.

Let me give you a little background into how Total Golf became my coaching philosophy.

As a youngster I played some golf but was not fanatical about it and, due to this, I never really had an amateur career.  Seemingly I showed talent and was urged to take the game more seriously but my heart was not in it….my parents were willing to support me and urged me to take a year out after school but I decided I was not dedicated enough and went off to college and became a Medical Secretary. When I married my husband he successfully persuaded me to take a sabbatical from my career, to see if I could become a Professional Golfer.  For two years golf became my job 8 hours a day and 6 days a week – It was during this time I realised I needed a structured programme to work to otherwise I could not take out of my day any improvements I had made or feel I had accomplished anything – on a bad day I felt I had wasted time and not been productive enough….how was I going to figure out a programme as I had never had one?

I worked hard and reduced my handicap from 8 to scratch and then joined the Professional ranks, where I played for four years on the Ladies European Tour.

My husband came on tour with me and earned money as a caddie to some of Europe’s top players.

As I player I struggled to make cuts and was getting down on myself for it.  The harder I worked the the more I struggled.  I was becoming increasingly frustrated!! (Something I see in many players today)

Through my husbands work I began to compare my game with the top players he caddied for.  I would ask how many greens his player hit, how many putts, how far were they hitting it, what club did they use at a certain hole etc… I wanted to know what it was they were doing to be Top 10 or win whereas I was struggling to make cuts!  I discovered my tee shots were putting me at a disadvantage as I was fairly wild from the tee – hitting it as far but not always fairway, my iron play was as strong and possibly longer than most allowing me to hit a similar amount of greens but the main issue was the short game and putting – if I missed a green I was not not getting up and down as often and certainly not taking my chances by making as many putts.

I began to Over the months we began to work out how to address this.  On one of these evenings the conversation steered to football coaching and Graham told me about the revolution that happened in Football coaching in the late 60’s early 70’s.  He talked about Total Football, a programme that was developed at Ajax of Amsterdam.  They broke down the skills required to be a top footballer and drilled these into the players.  The skills were, shooting, heading, dribbling, first touch and tackling.   They coached all their players in all the disciplines, no matter what position they player.  It was hugely successful and would lead to Ajax winning the European Cup, 3 years in a row.

It resonated with me and I never slept much that night.  I thought about Total Football and how I could apply that to golf.

By the morning the plan was laid, I had determined that the there were five skill that needed to be developed to make me a top player: putting, chipping, bunker shot, pitching and full swing.  I worked out drills for each of these skill and got to work.

That evening I explained what I had done to Graham, he laughed and asked if I was going to call it Total Golf. I did and I do it in honour to the work carried out by those coaching innovators at Ajax in the late sixties.  This all sounds really simple and it is but goldf is a simple game complicated by those who play it.

When I went to Gleneagles to train as a PGA pro I adapted Total Golf into a junior coaching programme, by simple making games from the drills I had used on Tour.  This proved hugely popular with the Juniors.

I moved on to become the PGA Professional a Kirriemuir Golf Club.  Kirriemuir is a Town in Angus, Scotland, with a population of around 8,000.  I rolled out the Total Golf Junior programme and within a couple of years I would have over 150 players on the programme.

Sportscotland and the Golf Foundation came to see it and asked if they could use it.  Unfortunately they decided to use it as a template to develop their own programmes.  The Scottish Ladies Golfing Association, also came to see it and asked me to become their National Coach.  

The programme was developed into a National Programme for the Scottish Ladies and Girls.  Over the next five years Scotland’s girls would go on to achieve great success and the squad pictured above would win the Home Internationals, only losing 1. 1/2 points on the way.  That squad of girls would go on the following year to make up 1/2 the British Ladies Curtis Cup team and more than half of these girls pictured above would play on the Ladies European Tour.

At Kirriemuir, players taught there, would go on to lift 5 Scottish and a British title.

Currently we are developing a Total Golf app and hope to roll this out in the next couple of years.

Total Golf has grown from these simple roots.  We now start at 3 years of age teaching motor skills.  The formative years 8 – 12 are key deveplopment years and we work hard on developing the five skills, mainly through games.  Results at this stage are not important.  From 12 onwards it gets more serious, they begin to add the skills required to compete at the top level.  No stone is left unturned.  From diet to reflection were was building winners who although they wont alway win will never be easily defeated.