By Cameron Strachan · 3 min read
“I Teach Skipping a Stone”
Five words from a golf teacher, and why most drills won’t make you a better golfer.
One of my Facebook ads says the throwing motion is the main driver in the golf swing.
A golf teacher left a comment underneath it. Five words.
“I teach skipping a stone.”
I find that funny and sad at the same time.
Funny, because he’s halfway there. He isn’t arguing that the swing isn’t a throw. He’s telling me he already teaches one.
Sad, because of what he does with it. He’ll take the swing and be happy to teach skipping a stone, or a drill, or whatever else - but ignore the actual motion.
The thing you actually have to do
The actual motion is a two-handed throw. Or hit. Or swing. Call it what you like. It’s done with a club, at a ball sitting on the ground.
Skipping a stone is a throw too. Just not that one.
One hand, not two.
A stone, not a club.
Water, not a ball on the ground.
A different weight, a different timing, a different target.
He’s taking the thing we have to do and replacing it with something else - like it makes it easier.
It doesn’t.
If you want to get better at your swing, grab a club, take hold of it and hit the f*cking ball.
That’s it.
If you want to skip stones, skip stones. But don’t think it’s going to help your game that much. There’s no transfer.
You get better at what you practice. Skip stones and you get better at skipping stones.
And yes, I’ve used a skimming stone myself, to describe a throw. As a picture, it’s fine. As a replacement for the real thing, it’s useless.
Most drills are skipping stones
Most drills pull the same trick. They take the swing away and give you something else to do instead.
A towel tucked under your armpit.
An alignment stick down your belt loops.
The pump drill.
Stopping at the top to check your wrist.
Throwing a medicine ball.
And for the most part, they don’t help that much.
A drill makes you better at the drill. It looks good on the range, on the day. Then you get to the first tee with a real ball, a real target and a card in your pocket, and it’s gone.
Looking good in practice was never the same thing as learning.
Every drill also takes a piece of the swing and turns it into a job. Hold this. Turn that. Pause here. Before long you’re not swinging a club at all. You’re working through a list.
And the swing was never a list. It’s one motion. Practice the parts one at a time and you still have to put them back together - at full speed, with a real ball, with Billy standing there waiting to take your twenty bucks.
So why is every lesson full of them?
Because drills are good for the teacher.
A drill fills a lesson. It looks like expertise. It gives the golfer homework and a reason to come back. And on the day, it often works - for about twenty minutes.
They’re comfortable for the golfer too. A drill feels like progress. And it lets you skip the hard part: standing over a ball, trying to hit it somewhere, and finding out.
But finding out is the whole point. That’s where the learning is.
The UNFK way
The UNFK way is to get the golf club in your hand and use it. Over and over.
No drills. No positions. No breaking the swing down into a thousand parts.
A clear intention.
A club, a ball and a target.
Honest feedback from where the ball goes.
And enough reps for your body to sort out the rest.
It isn’t a shortcut. It’s just the real thing, done a lot.
I’d love to reply to him: are you a stone-skipping coach?
I should. But I won’t.
Skip stones if you want to. Then grab a club and hit the ball.
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