[jim_0068]

I never said my 10-point checklist was a pre-requisite to becoming a great teacher. I was asked what could be done to help one prepare for Authorized Instructor training, and I offered the list, somewhat tongue-in-cheek due to its obvious overload. Certainly, there have been many effective teachers who never heard of The Golfing Machine, much less committed to memory much of its contents.

However...

Homer Kelley himself did require that those who came to him for GSEM training memorize items #1, #2, #3, and #8 in my Checklist. In addition, we were to familiarize ourselves with the Twelve Session Normal Course Curriculum, and we were to answer in writing his 50-page test bank of 529 questions covering each chapter of The Golfing Machine. All this was a pre-requisite to his training.

My own checklist included a few additional items, such as the 12 Sections of the Stroke -- certainly not difficult -- and the Mechanical Checklist For All Strokes and the Basic Motion Curriculum as long-term goals to strive for.

People think it is easy to become a Professional Golf Instructor, and they are right. There are few barriers to entry and the quality of instruction over the decades reflects that reality.

Homer saw it a different way.

It takes many years of dedicated study to become qualified to even begin to practice professsions such as medicine, dentistry, the law, and accounting. Why should becoming a qualified and competent Professional Golf Instructor be any different? Why should proficiency in what is truly a complex discipline come without the requisite pricetag of time and study?

I have met very few teachers -- great or not -- who when pressed, will not freely admit, "If I could give all my early students their money back, I would." It takes a long time to learn to teach effectively, even when you have the correct information. And rote memorization by itself is not the answer...I am not saying that it is. However, it can and will greatly compress the years required to truly be the Master of your Discipline.

Those who say that such memorization is unnecessary have not done it. Therefore, as effective as they may be as teachers, there is no way they can judge how much more effective they could be if they had truly internalized the Stroke Components, their Variations, the Basic Motion Curriculum, and the mission-critical alignments of the Hands in each of the Twelve Sections of the Stroke.

I have done it.

Was it easy? Hell no, it wasn't easy. I worked my butt off.

"How did you do it," I asked Homer. "How could you write such a book?"

Said he, "There is the sweat of blood on every page."

I know I am a better teacher for having followed Homer Kelley's advice to memorize those elements of The Golfing Machine that serve as its foundation.

My message in prior posts was that you don't have to do it all at once. Simply begin...

Take it one step at a time.

And before you know it...

You will have accomplished much more than you ever dreamed possible.

If memorization was so much more valuable why is the AI Certification test OPEN BOOK?

There were lots of times in business school when in my Finance classes my professors would ask the student what say the Time Value of Money was. There would always be the person in the class that new the definition right out of the book. Then the professor would ask, "in your own words, what exactly does that mean? Explain it in a situation." They would look at him blank because they couldn't understand the CONCEPT.

Memorization has its place in learning but it doesn't necessarily make you any smarter or know how to do anything better, it just means you can remember it.

Now please don't take this the wrong way that i'm saying all people who can recite the book can't apply it because that is not what i'm saying. Some people are really pationate and they have learned to do it and can still apply the book and maybe even teach it.