Ian Clark is a golf professional. This is a complete understatement, as he is one of the most highly qualified and knowledgeable teaching professionals in the world today.
Ian is an Advanced Fellow of the PGA, a TrackMan University Master Instructor and an Authorised Instructor of the Golfing Machine. What Ian doesn’t know about teaching is not worth knowing. He is based at The World of Golf at Beverley Park and we are delighted that he has agreed to answer a few questions for us.
Golf Features: What are the most important aspects of teaching a golfer for the first time?
Ian Clark: For me personally, the new golfer needs to understand what a correct impact looks like: I have a view that golfers don’t actually do anything wrong, they just have the wrong concepts, so in fact golfers are doing things correctly, it is just the wrong thing to be doing! And impact is an area where golfers struggle, most especially new golfers, who believe they need to get under the ball to get it in the air, hence they fall back and flip the club at the ball, an example of doing nothing wrong as far as they believe, it is just the wrong concept. So for me learning how to make a decent strike is so important. I understand the so-called fundamentals, but over time we have seen many variations of these; golfers over the years have won majors with strong grips, weak grips, interlocking, overlap, etc, but they have all had sound impact. Please don’t get me wrong, I still show a new golfer a sound grip and posture, but I have impact and an understanding of how the golf club works in there straight away.
Golf Features: Does this vary on experience?
Ian Clark: No, not at all, for any instructors reading this, please do a test for me: ask your next twenty students where they think the club strikes the ground at impact, relative to the ball, behind, under or ahead of it? The answers may well surprise you. Even some of the better club players have a hard time understanding what is really happening at impact.
Golf Features: How do you stop too much detail blighting a player’s ability to learn?
Ian Clark: I never have forgotten Martin Hall once telling me to talk to every student as if he were a 15 handicap. This helps to remind me as an instructor that words are really horrible, some of our terminology in golf is terrible – weak grip, strong grip – to many golfers they don’t know what that means. I prefer to say the player’s hands are turned too much one way or another on the handle, so much easier for them to understand. The instructor needs to know what the students capabilities are – Butch Harmon always said that you can give a student one set up thought and one swing thought, and that’s it!
Golf Features: Can you explain how your knowledge of spin rates and data the TrackMan measures can help you to improve the performance of a golfer?
Ian Clark: Firstly, I would say that being a Trackman user has improved me as a coach so much, and I believe that people are sometimes looking at it the wrong way. Using Trackman makes me more accountable, so if I see that something I am saying to a student is making him worse, then I had better find a different way – and fast. With Trackman, I feel like I have a hundred pairs of instructors’ eyes behind me watching every move I make in a lesson. Trackman is firstly there for me – not the student – and I want to be armed with as much detail about this player’s golf swing as I can get, and that includes BodiTrak, video, and K-Vest.
Now, does the student need to know his ball is launching too low and his landing angle is too shallow? No, very few would really understand this level of detail, but some do. I like to use the data as a way of showing the student his improvement, so a lot of the time at the finish of a lesson I will do comparisons, showing the student his first swings were doing x, and now his swing with the adjustments we have made are now doing y. This helps the student to know he is making improvements. And as far as it being technical, if a golfer cannot understand the term launch angle(the angle that your ball leaves the ground at impact) then the instructor is not doing his job and explaining it simply enough: as Einstein said; “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
Golf Features: Is Trackman a useful tool for all lessons?
Ian Clark: I have Trackman running for every lesson for every shot. Sometimes I want to see the data myself, sometimes I may share some of the data with the student. The optimiser feature is a great upgrade – this shows a student that with their particular club head speed, the ball has an optimal carry distance, and how far away from that distance the student is. Then the coaching part: the coach now has to find out why the distance is short of optimal, so we spray the clubface with athletes foot spray to show the strike point and go from there. Trackman will not do the lesson for you, the coach still has to do the investigative stuff, it just speeds up this process. Interestingly, though, I now have three students who have enjoyed having their lessons on Trackman with me so much, they have gone out and purchased their own units to use at home.
Golf Features: What can you tell us about your understanding from The Golfing Machine that can translate into better ball striking for a) a golf pro and b) a club amateur?
Ian Clark: First, the ball doesn’t care who is holding the club, it reacts the same, so correct impact does not look any different depending on the player’s ability. The Golfing Machine has taken such a lot of bad press over the years, and most of it is unfair. People are very scared of what they do not understand. All I would ask people is: what is it in the book that they disagree with? Is it really such a bad thing to swing the club on-plane, with a decent impact position? Yes, the terminology maybe confusing for some, but every word used in the book is in the English dictionary. There is no one way to swing a golf club. I think people need to understand that The Golfing Machine does not say you need to swing the club in one particular way, all it says is that if you are going to do something, then make sure you do these other things as well. I find it really funny that instructors of my age will remember the Golfing Machine poster boy used to be Bobby Clampett, and now we have Bryson DeChambeau. All I would ask any instructor is: do these two swings look alike?
Golf Features: Will golfers continue to hit the ball further, and if so how will these be improved?
Ian Clark: Yes, I can see a point soon where Dustin Johnson will not be the extreme, he will be the standard. These youngsters coming out of college will be fitter, stronger and quicker. For me, I think along with better fitness, and the Titleist Performance Institute having done a great job educating golf instructors in this field, you will start to see people understanding how to use the ground better. Look at someone like Rickie Fowler or Justin Thomas: they hit the ball tremendous distances by using the ground so well. This can be seen with the use of various pressure mats, like BodiTrak, which show what sort of the downward force the golfer is putting into the ground. Using this correctly, and at the right time, will help to increase clubhead speed, which if applied correctly to the ball will see a big jump in distances.
Golf Features: Does a better strike always get optimum spin?
Ian Clark: Not always. You need to be sure the club is also being delivered to the ball correctly: a centred strike with a driver will not always have optimum spin if the attack angle is too much down.
Golf Features: How do you become an Advanced Fellow of the PGA?
Ian Clark: I never set out to become an Advanced Fellow of the PGA, though it is something I am very proud of. I have always wanted to be the best coach I could be; I love to learn, I am a bit of a seminar junkie, and I like to be constantly upgrading my knowledge. From that I became an Advanced Fellow. I would add that if a pro is thinking of applying for a new membership status, then really take time filling in the application form – treat it a bit like applying for a job, and re-read it before sending it.
Golf Features: Do you have a philosophy or strong views on the short game, specifically chipping, pitching and bunker shots?
Ian Clark: I think bunker shots have been taught horribly over the years – the entire concept of aiming way left and swinging across the ball has confused the life out of players. For me, Seve was a genius in the sand, and take a look at his set up: feet wide apart, square stance, slightly open face, hands low, the bunker shot is more of a skimming motion. Students need to understand bounce – this should be explained to everybody. They need to know that bounce is there to help, rather like skis – the front of skis are turned up to help prevent them from digging in – much like bounce is there to help prevent the leading edge digging in. Chipping and pitching are the same: I have been helped with this by James Ridyard, who in my view is one of the brightest minds out there, and he has helped me to understand delivery of the club into the ball, hitting a low launch high spin shot. Set up is important. I think we are now moving away from telling people the ball needs to go way back, weight way forward and hands miles ahead of the ball, but I think that is in part due to launch monitor technology and our ability to measure impact. I like a neutral set-up, ball centred, level shoulders. I see so many people set up for chipping and pitch shots with too much tilt in the shoulders and so are unable to control the low point of the swing.
Golf Features: What has been your proudest moment as a coach?
Ian Clark: Honestly I don’t really have one, but anytime a student comes in or emails me and says they have won their club championship, or monthly medal, then these are my proudest moment at that time. If I can help people to hit the ball a bit better and help them enjoy playing golf, then that will do for me.
Golf Features: What type of players have you been most pleased to teach, in terms of their improvement?
Ian Clark: I am very fortunate to have been helping several young junior golfers, one in particular with loads of potential who, when she came to me, was struggling a little. This young lady works so hard at her game, she is a coach’s dream. I think when we started working together her handicap was four, and she is now down to plus two. But I get a real buzz from any student who walks in and says they are playing a bit better than they were.
More details on Ian Clark are available at: www.ianclarkgolf.co.uk