Online vs In-Person Lessons, Part 1

There’s no denying launch monitors, pressure plates, even AI-powered club design, are here to stay. The modern golf lesson tee employs high-tech tools to make you a better golfer and technology has become the means to bring the lesson tee to you.

Let’s explore the differences between online and in-person lessons and maybe help you get a little bit better at this game in the process.

About the Student

I’m a 7-handicap with aspirations of getting to scratch and beyond. Dedication I have but time is another matter. There’s that pesky full-time job, for one. Add in a family with three extremely active little ones and time to play or practice is minimal. I spend most of my weekends at my kid’s baseball tournaments rather than the course and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. But that means that when I do get a chance to practice or play, I have to get the most out of the reps. My time-crunch situation is not unique. The challenge is finding a way to maximize precious practice time to reach my golfing goal.

The thing is, I’ve had to move a lot in my professional life—nine times in the last 20 years in fact, which includes my entire golfing life. That trope you often hear about building an enduring relationship with a swing instructor that makes you feel all warm, fuzzy and confident? Moving so much means that doesn’t work for me and, when I do move, I don’t get to pick the zip code I’m touching down in. As a result, it’s been years of luck of the draw on what teaching pros might be within the ol’ “reasonable drive” radius. The availability of a quality golf instructor isn’t always a certainty.

Take Your Pick

Of all the benefits of online golf lessons, the real magic is that you can work with whomever you want, geography be damned. Golf coaches have caught on to the online trend in a big way. Case in point: Want to work with Sean Foley, swing coach for Justin Rose and Ben An (to name a couple)? He’s available for online instruction via Skillest. Perhaps you’d like to turn to Cameron McCormick, Jordan Spieth’s instructor, to fix your slice.  Yup, he’s on Skillest, too.

Granted, they’re not cheap. The top coaches never are. Case in point: the per-lesson rate to work with Foley or McCormick on Skillest is $400 or $250, respectively. I also suspect that if you sign up to work with a PGA Tour player’s coach on Monday before a major, you might be waiting a few ticks before you hear back. The point is that your options for lessons have become truly unlimited.

Back to me. Seven-handicap, not much time, yada yada yada. I’m also close to turning 46 and I’m desperate to beat Father Time. I work out regularly and pretty intensely, trying to be as  healthy as possible and bashing the ball as far as I possibly can off the tee. Those goals led me to Mike Carroll’s Fit for Golf podcast and a guest who became my new instructor.

Meet Tre Mullins

Tre Mullins is a PGA of America teaching professional who gives in-person golf lessons at Fairways and Greens Golf Center in Knoxville, Tenn. Mullins also gives online lessons via Skillest. He’s in his 30s and, like me, also has three little kids at home. Having some common ground with your golf instructor is always a good thing. What really got my attention however, was his swing speed.

Hop on over to Instagram and watch him punish some golf balls and you’ll see what I mean. He’s  around 5’10” and 190-ish. He is an in-shape dude but a freak-of-nature Adonis he is not. That’s what makes it all the more impressive when he routinely posts golf swing videos wherein he touches 140 mph clubhead speed and 200 mph ball speed. He’s got me by about an inch and about 10 pounds but he bests my clubhead speed by well over 30 mph. As I’ve said, I work out religiously and I’ve been training with the Stack System, but I’m nowhere close to his speeds. Whatever secrets he’s discovered, I’m buying.

Skillest Offering

Mullins offers two options on Skillest. For $125, you record your swing and get his analysis and instruction in return or, for $175, you get the same plus an additional follow-up session with feedback on your progress. Skeptic and tightwad that I am, I dropped $125 and took the plunge on my first online lesson.

Go the online lesson route yourself and you’ll likely find a wide array of price points. Skillest, for instance, doesn’t determine the pricing, the instructor does. Some will offer one lesson at a time while others offer lesson bundles or even a recurring subscription-based model billed monthly. It’s another feature of online lessons: an increased ability to pick and choose just how much of a financial commitment to an instructor you want to make. Add in the ability to take lessons at your own pace and you have a good formula for better golf.

My Skillest Experience

Very shortly after purchasing my lesson, I got a message in the Skillest app from Mullins asking me about my goals, my ball flight, typical miss, injury history, etc. All the same stuff a good instructor asks you in person. Unlike an in-person lesson, he also specified the six swing videos he wanted from me: face-on, down-the-line and rear-facing with driver and 8 iron.

Online lessons require a bit of hardware to be done right. First and foremost, you need a cell phone and a tripod. Sure, you could probably carefully perform a miracle balancing act with your phone on your golf bag but do yourself and the instructor a favor and get the damn tripod. I bought one on Amazon for 30 bucks. Having that tripod allowed me to quickly position the phone at the right height and position Mullins wanted.

If there’s a risk or downside to online lessons, the instructor being dependent on your videography skills is probably the big one. Swing videos need to keep the clubface in the frame the entire time for the instructor to really be certain of what’s going on in your swing. Furthermore, “down the line” and “face on” mean exactly that but instructors often receive bad angles that can make analyzing your action very difficult.

The Lesson

It’s important to note that, like the pricing, individual experiences vary when it comes to online golf instruction. I heard back from Mullins in just five days. He supplied two very in-depth analysis videos describing what he thought were my big targets of opportunity to gain speed and correct some flaws. He also shot six different drill videos specifically for me on what he wanted me to work on to correct those flaws. I was extremely impressed. Rather than send me a few pre-canned videos he’d already made, I received personalized drills specific to my swing and the flaws we’d be working to correct.

Again, individual experiences may vary. Skillest and other online lesson mediums typically promise a ballpark window for how many days until you hear back from the instructor but let’s face it, some are busier or more dedicated than others. One of the real perks of the Skillest app is the “Sample Lesson” feature. In addition to reading reviews from other students, Skillest will let you watch and listen to another lesson that particular instructor has posted. It’s a great way to get a sense of the coach’s style and mannerisms to help you decide who you want to work with.

What’s Next

I mentioned that online lessons require a bit of hardware to be done right. A launch monitor is another important component. You don’t necessarily have to own one but you’ll need access to a good device. Sure, an instructor could look at a new video and say “looks good,” but how can they really know without measuring your shots? A launch monitor is really the only effective way to do that measuring. Fortunately for me, I’m the proud owner of a Rapsodo MLM2PRO and I’ll be lugging it to the driving range in short order to get some baseline numbers.

Baseline for what?  My in-person lesson with Mullins. I’m making the journey to Fairways & Greens to meet the man in the flesh and get another lesson. In Part 2 (coming soon), I’ll compare the online and in-person experiences for you. Maybe I’ll even get him to uncork one of those 140-mph clubhead speed drives for me, too!