Lights! Camera! Power Failure!

Filed in archive Golf Instruction on October 8, 2007

Courtesy: Amazon.com

There were two events that changed the world of golf instruction forever back in the late 1970s.

First, the VCR was created. Second, the cost of finished video productions descended from the stratosphere to a level affordable to the average consumer rather than the average television network.

Lo and behold, golf video instruction was born. We haven't looked back since. From VCRs, we've moved to DVDs and on to iPods, mp3s and even mobile phones, all capable of delivering a very visual subject - how to hit a golf ball - in a very visual way.

But that doesn't mean squat if there is no production value.

Unfortunately, that problem will always be with us. It's one thing for a golf instructor to be effective one-on-one but funny things happen when that instructor is put on camera and told to speak to a lens.

That's only the beginning, however. The moving image, to badly paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, is the message. A series of good moving images is like a book that's been carefully proof-read. Nothing gets in the way of the idea being expressed.

Way back in the day, Jack Nicklaus produced what is arguably the best instructional tape ever produced by a leading golfer. Golf My Way was, and still is, a classic. That's why you can still buy it today, some 25 years after it was made. It was shot with at least two cameras, as memory serves. There were relevant close-ups, slow-motion replays, different angles and, of course, Jack's intimate knowledge of the golf swing put succinctly into words.

Alas, the bar was set pretty high with that production. Since then, there have been many highs but many, many lows.

I draw your attention to much of the instructional video available on YouTube - and there is plenty.

Some of the video is not meant to instruct; many of the videos posted on YouTube were shot be golf fans at PGA events. That's fine.

But there are endless examples of instructors, whose credentials are unknown to the vast majority of us, explaining different elements of the full swing or the short game. Inevitably, they are shot with a single camera, often jerky, and the audio is poor. There are no separate close-ups but clumsy attempts to get close with snap zooms. Focus is an issue.

The best communicator in the world would be hard-pressed to communicate properly, let alone have an impact, with such production values. And not every one of these instructors is a great communicator, which only compounds the issue.

Yes, we can applaud them for trying. Yes, we acknowledge that video production is not how they make their living. And, yes, the stuff they post on YouTube is free to view.

But you get what you pay for. And, as a wise man once said, pay a little more, get a little more.