Hi there, my name is Luis Gaspar. I’m the newest addition to the Future Champions Golf Family. I hail from Mexicali, Mexico where I spent the last five years finishing up a business degree, all the while trying to promote and develop junior golf in the Baja California Region. I cannot be more excited about joining such a great organization and look forward to contributing in many ways to grow the Future Champion name and logo. I’ve had the good fortune of meeting some amazing people while I’ve been up here and cannot wait to meet many more of you, either at our practice facility or at our tournaments.
I’d like to take some time today to talk a little bit about what I’ve learned these past couple of months from the perspective of somebody who has been instructing in Mexico for the past 5 years and just how simple being a great golfer can be.
Be honest with yourself and your golf coach.
There’s an old saying about honesty being the best policy. In golf this is definitely the case and if you are an aspiring golfer wanting to get better at the game, you constantly have to look in the mirror and be completely honest about your limitations and strengths. This a huge determining factor in understanding how to play the game the right way. Chris does this better than anybody I’ve ever seen. Before any swings are made, Chris invites his students to give him a complete detailed description about their last round. This process creates awareness of self and allows the student and the coach to converse and pinpoint mental or technical issues that need to addressed. I have begun to implement this technique with all of my students and it has helped my students better understand their tendencies all the while helping to strengthen the relationship between player/coach.
Not about lines and angles, just balance.
As a golf instructor, you try to have a player move their body a certain way in order to get “key” positions in their golf swing. We’ve all heard time and time again about shaft planes, swing planes and shoulder planes, as if focusing on hitting a golf ball straight wasn’t stressful enough. Let’s stick to the basics and the fundamentals:
- Grip
- Aim
- Posture
These three things are the main focus of every single lesson taught by Chris for the past two months, and there’s a good reason for it. Golf is a balancing act, as you are carrying a heavy object (the golf head) in an arc around your body in order to generate speed. As an example, what would happen to Dustin Johnson’s swing if you start setting him up like Jim Furyk? He probably wouldn’t be as effective, as his swing is modified to balance his body in such a way that a repeatable motion happens. Golf is mostly about the balance of the human body, not angles.
Practice with a PLAN
The idea of practicing with a plan has been around for quite some time, and it still rings true if you want to take your golf game to the next level. This is one of the reasons I wanted to get involved with Future Champions Golf. Chris understands what it takes for a golfer to truly get better. Purposeful practice starts with a plan! What is your goal for the fall season? Are you going through some changes? Does your chipping need help? Chris sits down with every single one of his golfers to talk about what’s happening on the golf course and what steps need to be taken to eliminate certain negative tendencies. This is what brings about change in a golfer, understanding what areas of his/her game are a weakness and create a plan to effectively convert that weakness into a strength. I truly believe that we should not be deemed golf instructors but rather golf coaches because at Future Champions Golf we create an environment of better golfers through purposeful practice that begins with a plan.
Short Game is EXTREMELY Important
This is one of the most important things I’ve learned these past two months while working alongside Chris. Developing a short game will cause your scores to start dropping drastically. Most amateur golfers like to work on their golf swing; but they are not going to hit every shot perfectly out on the golf course and they are going to miss some greens. Therefore, the recommendation is to set some time aside to work on developing a great short game over on the chipping and putting green. Shadowing Chris for the past months, he sets aside 10 to 15 minutes with his students to talk about the short game. Practicing with a proper plan in place to cover areas of identified weakness like the short game or body balance will set up future golf students for success.