ADULT COACHING
ACADEMY SERVICES
You have a wide variety of adult services to choose from at the Redwood Canyon Golf Academy, depending on your needs and goals.
Redwood Canyon Golf Academy Coaching Programs
4-Session Complete Game Coaching (4hrs)
2-Session Complete Game Coaching (2hrs)
1-on-1 Private Sessions (60min)
Family Hours, (Parents + Children, 60-90min)
Playing Lesson (90min)
Small Group Clinics (60-90min)
Corporate Team Building (1/2 day)
Start with Complete Game Coaching
We strongly recommend starting with the 4-session Complete Game Coaching series. It is our signature service, and the best way to improve your game. The curriculum is designed specifically to improve your skill level and consistency in the most frequent and important shots you’ll hit on the golf course. Read more below.
Costs vary depending on the coach and program, but generally run from $150.00 to $95.00 per hour.
Tandems: Bring a friend and make it a tandem session. You’ll have fun learning and practicing together, and costs can be split between students.
Send us an email with all your contact info. Include your full name, email and phone number. Tell us a little about your game: your average score, how often you play and practice, and your goals. That way we can direct you to the right coach and program.
ACADEMY BENEFITS
When you work with our Academy coaches you’ll get many benefits and tools that will help your game:
BENEFITS
Comprehensive Game Improvement Curriculum
Personalized Coaching
Private Video Training Space
Customized Practice Plans
Strategy Coaching
Mental Game Coaching
Club Fitting
Team Approach
Comprehensive Curriculum: One of the biggest benefits of working with an Academy is that we have a curriculum. A curriculum is a structured progression of knowledge and skills to master at your current (and future) levels, combined with a way to measure improvement.
Working from a curriculum is an immensely empowering way to “plan your work and work your plan.” You’ll be amazed at how happy you will be to practice with a purpose and actually see your improvement from session to session.
Personalized Coaching: Our philosophy is to teach the athlete, not just the swing. Every person is unique when it comes to the many factors that affect the swing, including: your age, athleticism, body type, physical limitations, and mental training. All play a role in the unique way you swing. Cookie-cutter approaches don’t work. That means you’ll get individualized swing insights along with drills customized to your unique ability and skill level.
Personal Video Space: You get your own private video locker on the CoachNow App, where you’ll find your lesson recaps, swing analysis, and drills. It’s the best tool we’ve found to help you remember what you learned in your coaching sessions. Watch the videos before each range session to organize your practice. Our students love CoachNow!
Customized Practice Plans: Practice sessions have a consistent structure. But what you practice will be considerably different depending on your skill level. For example, new golfers looking to break 100 will focus on Contact – hitting the ball first with a square clubface. Players looking to break 80 will focus more on Directional Accuracy and Distance Control to hit more fairways and greens.
Strategic Coaching: Our Strategic Coaching includes not only how to play smarter on the course, but also a long-term strategic roadmap to help you achieve your goals. Once you have been through a 4-session Complete Game Coaching series and have a month or two of practice sessions under your belt, schedule a playing lesson to take your game to the next level. Here’s a mantra for you that has withstood the test of time that you would be well-considered to adopt when you play: “Conservative strategy, aggressive swing.” Ask your coach how it works on the course.
Mental Game Coaching: As your game progresses it becomes increasingly important to augment your mental skills alongside your physical skills. Mental skills will help you focus, manage your thoughts and emotions, handle pressure, and play more consistent golf. We are experts in mental game coaching, and we have an incredible library of books and videos to help you jump to the next level.
Club Fitting: If you need clubs or are ready for an upgrade, we can fit you with clubs that match your game. Academy students also get a discount when ordering clubs through the Pro Shop. Talk to your coach when you ready for new clubs.
Teamwork: When you hire us as your Coach, we consider ourselves “part of your team.” Your goals are our goals. That means we are dedicated to helping you achieve your objectives, whatever it takes. We are with you, all the way.
Ready to get started?
Curriculum overview
MINI-LESSONS
We’ve organized our curriculum into mini-lessons below that explain both the theory and the practical application of deliberate practice. In other words, how to get better, on purpose.
Knowing this information before your lesson will make your sessions more productive and engaging. Read these mini-lessons before and after your coaching sessions.
Here is what you will learn in the following mini-lesson sections:
MINI-LESSON CURRICULUM
1. WHAT To Practice centers on the four key shot types and the Complete Game Coaching curriculum
2. HOW To Practice describes the different types of practice (Block Practice, Performance Training, and Execution Rehearsal)
3. MEASURING & ORGANIZING Your Practice focuses on stats and how to prioritize your time on the range
Mini-Lesson 1: WHAT TO PRACTICE
COMPLETE GAME COACHING
How It Works, and Why You Need It
QUESTION: What are the most important shots in golf?
We’ve surveyed hundreds of golfers – pros and amateurs alike – asking what shots they believe matter the most. The feedback is consistent.
Here’s what players consider to be the most important shots in golf:
Putting (specifically 6ft putts)
Driving
Pitching
Scoring Wedges (shots from 75-125yds)
If these are the most important shots in golf, wouldn’t it make sense to get coaching in each of these areas?
We created a curriculum designed specifically to help you gain skills and master each of these four most important shot types.
That’s why we call it “Complete Game” coaching.
In order to be a “complete” player, you need to develop skills in each of these shot types.
These four shot types are WHAT you should practice.
It’s very straightforward.
The better you get at each shot type, the lower your scores.
Complete Game Coaching Session Description
In each Complete Game coaching session we’ll spend an hour on one of the four shot types.
You’ll get a comprehensive explanation of all the shot fundamentals, from grip to stance to stroke. The What, Why, and How behind every shot.
You’ll know what goes into making a good shot.
More importantly, you’ll also know how to diagnose your less-than-perfect shots, and you’ll know what to do about it. This is the essence of self-coaching.
We’ll assess your current skill level in each shot type, and give you a plan with concrete metrics to take your skills to the next level.
After you’ve completed a series of complete game sessions, we’ll show you how to structure your overall practice sessions so that you are working on each shot type, either daily or over a period of time or a set number of practice sessions.
That’s the beauty of a curriculum. We know what skills to test, and we know how to measure results. Then all you have to do is follow the curriculum to build consistency in every area of your game.
Having a curriculum is one of the defining differences between an Academy and traditional instructors.
It’s what sets us apart.
It’s also why you will improve so much faster and why you will have so much more fun playing and practicing.
Mini-Lesson 2: HOW TO PRACTICE
Mini-Lessons "How To Practice" CURRICULUM
The WAY you practice matters.
A lot.
Now that you know What to practice (Complete Game shots), let’s turn our attention to How to practice.
Here is an outline of the mini-lessons for the “How To Practice” sections below
HOW-TO-PRACTICE CURRICULUM
Three Different Types of Practice: Block Practice, Performance Training, Execution Rehearsal
Practice in Sets: 5-ball, 10-ball, 3-ball, and simulated play sets
Pre-Shot and Post-Shot Routines: Practice like you play
Self-Coaching: Every shot has a purpose
These “How To” mini-lessons will help you understand the right way to practice.
They will help you become much more efficient and effective in the way you use your practice time.
Keep reading for more detail.
Mini-Lesson 2.1: Three Types of Practice
Here are three different ways to practice, along with the type of activity for which they are best suited.
Block Practice
Performance Training
Execution Rehearsal
1. BLOCK PRACTICE
Block practice means breaking your practice into a series of small discrete activities, usually a set number of shots or specific amount of time.
For example, doing one drill for five consecutive shots is a block (or set). Once you complete your block set of balls, move on to another drill block. Repeat. Then start over.
When you rotate through three different drills, then start over with the first drill, you are engaging in Random Block Practice. Random Block Practice is the fastest and most effective way to make changes.
Block practice is best used when working on swing mechanics. Whenever you goal is to improve your technique, change your swing, learn something new, improve specific skills, experiment, test alternatives, or fix a problem, do it in blocks.
Remember that when you are working on your swing mechanics, the objective is change. Not consistency, and not scoring.
Change is uncomfortable. But the better you are able to distinguish “feel” from “real”, the faster you will improve.
As a rule, no more than 50% of your practice time should be devoted to block practice and making changes. The closer you are to a competition, the less time spent on practice and the more time on training and execution.
2. PERFORMANCE TRAINING
Unlike block practice, Performance Training isn’t about change. It’s about developing consistency by measuring results and then working to improve on those results over time.
Every time you measure your results, you are engaged in Performance Training.
The objective is to improve the results. Not change the swing.
For example, hit 10 putts from six feet. Count how many you make out of 10. That will establish your baseline performance metric. When you practice your 6-footers, your goals is to improve on your initial baseline metric until you can establish a new, higher baseline.
You’ll often hear us refer to your baseline measurement as your “level.” As you practice, your goal is to continually “level up.”
Metrics are the key to Performance Training, and Performance Training is the key to consistency.
Consistency is the holy grail of most golfers.
If you want to be a more consistent golfer, spend 30% to 50% of your range time improving your performance metrics.
3. EXECUTION REHEARSAL
Execution Rehearsal is how you transfer your range game to the course. The idea is to rehearse on the range the shots you will hit on the course.
For that reason, Execution Rehearsal is usually performed one shot at a time. Full routine, full focus. Different clubs, different targets, different shapes. Never the same shot twice, because you don’t hit the same shot twice on the course.
Mimic real shots you will hit on the course.
Activities such as 1-ball practice, variable shot-making, playing imaginary holes, 9-ball challenge, full-routine target practice, and most forms of competition will improve your ability to execute on the course.
Execution Rehearsal is usually done at the end of your practice (the last 10-15 balls). It’s a great way to finish your session.
Spend at least 10% of your range time on Execution Rehearsal. Spend even more time the closer you are to a competition.
Most golfers spend far too much time on the range tinkering with their technique (in other words, poorly organized block practice). When you spend too much time changing or fixing your swing, without balancing it out with Training and Execution, the result will be inconsistent play.
Quality practice is a balance of time, emphasis, and activities that blend Block Practice, Performance Training, and Execution Rehearsal.
Mini-Lesson 2.2: Practice in Sets
Now that you know the three types of practice (Block Practice, Performance Training, and Execution Rehearsal), here are our recommendations for how many shots to hit for each type of practice.
Block Practice on the Range = 5-ball sets
Block Practice around the Green = 3-ball sets
Performance Training = 10-ball sets
Execution Rehearsal = 1-ball
1. BLOCK PRACTICE SETS
On the Range: When you seek to change your swing or learn a new skill, you’ll typically use drills.
Drills are designed to overemphasize a particular feel or motion, in order to improve your awareness of what you want to do vs. what you are really doing.
Feel vs. Real
The closer your feel is to what you are really doing, the better you will play. Drills help you distinguish the difference.
Practice your drills on the range in 5-ball sets.
Rotate through a sequence of three related drills to turn your practice into Random Block Practice.
Random Block Practice is the fastest way to learn.
We even recommend that you leave all your practice balls in your bucket and only pull out the five balls you are going to hit for the drill you are using. It will help to concentrate your focus and accelerate your results.
Around the Green: We recommend practicing in 3-ball sets.
Whether you are putting or pitching, working around the green in 3-ball sets will accelerate your results.
3-ball sets go really fast and keep your attention sharp.
2. PERFORMANCE TRAINING SETS
When you want to measure your performance, we recommend working in 10-ball sets.
It’s simply easier to measure your stats and remember your levels when hitting 10 shots at a time.
- How many putts did I make from six feet out of 10 tries?
- How many drives did I hit in the fairway (out of 5 or 10 tries)?
- How often did I hit a scoring wedge plus or minus 4-yds from my distance?
- How many times out of 10 can I hit a pitch shot within 6ft?
If you like hitting in 5-ball sets, simply double the results to measure your performance level.
3. EXECUTION REHEARSAL SETS
The perfect way to end every practice is to simulate play.
In other words, play a series of imaginary holes.
Tee off with a driver. Pick a yardage for your second shot, pick a specific target, and hit the iron for that distance.
Use your full routine as you would on the course.
In other words, start behind your ball to visualize the shot and rehearse the swing. Practice stepping into your setup, perfecting your alignment and posture. Maintain your target awareness, and trust your swing.
Conduct a post-shot routine to learn from the outcome. Add a post-shot reinforcement swing (on the good shots), or a correction swing (on the not so good).
Mini-Lesson 2.3: Pre-Shot Routine
Every shot you hit on the range should start with a pre-shot routine and end with a post-shot routine.
In other words, practice like you play.
PRE-SHOT ROUTINE
POST-SHOT ROUTINE
1. PRE-SHOT ROUTINE
Your pre-shot routine is designed to get you physically and mentally prepared to hit the shot.
It is everything you do before you hit the ball, up to the moment of impact.
A routine is a series of steps and actions, completed in the same order and at the same tempo each time.
Your pre-shot routine should include the following
FEEL – Stand behind the ball and do rehearsal swings while looking at your target until you get a “feel” for the shot and can visualize the results.
SETUP – As you step into the ball, your setup routine should help you automatically with the following:
- Alignment
- Stance
- Ball Position
- Posture
- Grip
- Target Awareness
There is a lot you pre-shot routine needs accomplish, which is why you should use it with every shot on the range.
The more you practice your pre-shot routine as part of the shot, the more automatic it will become on the course.
Your pre-shot routine is truly the most important component of consistency. The better and more faithfully you execute your pre-shot routine, the better your shots.
2. POST-SHOT ROUTINE
A Post-Shot routine, like the name implies, happens after the shot.
QUESTION: At what point in the swing does learning take place? Before the swing? During the swing? After the swing?
ANSWER: All learning takes place AFTER the swing.
Your post-shot routine is where you learn.
It is your opportunity to evaluate what actually happened with the shot compared to what you wanted or expected.
Hold your finish position for 3 seconds, or until the ball lands.
That critical three seconds gives you time to evaluate the results while you still retain the kinesthetic awareness and feel for what just happened.
If the shot was what you wanted, add a post-shot reinforcement swing to help you remember what the good swing felt like and make it easier to repeat next time.
If the shot was not what you wanted, use a correction swing to make adjustments until it feels right. Then move on to the next shot.
Your post-shot routine is the secret to accelerating your learning and improvement.
Mini-Lesson 2.4: SELF-COACHING
This last part of the How To Practice mini-lesson is about Self-Coaching.
If your goal is to improve your game, self-coaching will be your most valuable skill to master.
Our coaches will help you make adjustments and learn new swing skills during sessions. But the vast majority of the time you will be on your own on the range.
Self-coaching is much more than just watching where the ball goes. It’s a systematic approach to observing shot information, analyzing the feedback, distinguishing between feel and real, and making adjustments.
It is also the ability to see the big picture, break your game down to specific objectives, develop action plans, organize your practice sessions, and track and measure progress.
In other words, everything a coach does for their athletes. Except you are both coach and athlete.
Your skill at self-coaching will determine how far you can go and how fast you’ll get there.
There are two primary components of self-coaching.
Two Components of Self-Coaching
Self-Awareness
Self-Discovery
1. Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is the lynchpin of self-coaching. The greater the awareness of how you think, feel and react, the easier it will be to coach yourself to a higher level of performance
Self-awareness is developed by tapping into your sensory system to isolate and interpret specific feedback. Drills make it easier to focus on one specific aspect because they exaggerate the feedback.
Sensory System Focus Areas
Kinesthetic and visual awareness of the target, the ball flight, and your own swing
Athletic awareness of your body position, balance, swing dynamics and tempo
Auditory pre-awareness of a well-struck shot or the sound of the ball falling into the cup
Tactile awareness of the feel of the club as it strikes through the ball and pulls you into a well-balanced finish position
Internal awareness of your thoughts and emotions before, during, and after the shot
Physical awareness of involuntary reactions such as heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, perspiration, vision and others
Visualization and retention of the target location and flight of the ball to the target
Each of these feedback sources can be deliberately engaged during practice and while playing.
2. Self-Discovery
The primary tool used to enhance your self-awareness is the process of self-discovery.
Self-discovery is creative experimentation, trial and error, adjusting, refining, and reflecting.
Sometimes self-discovery is just playing around, but it is always a combination of action with observation.
Self-discovery should be fun, interesting, challenging, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding.
There are no rights or wrongs: only doing, testing, observing, and learning.
Give yourself permission to experiment and fail. And fail again. And fail some more, until you eventually figure it out.
Mini-Lesson 3: Measuring & ORganizing Practice
STATS
When you play you need to be able to hit the fairway, hit it on the green, and two-putt.
If you do that on every hole, you will shoot even par.
Of course nobody hits every fairway and every green.
Not even the Pros.
So how do you become a consistent player who shoots the best scores they can within their capabilities?
The answer is stats.
Stats allow you to break the game down into key categories and establishing performance levels for the most important shots.
That’s exactly what we did to develop our curriculum.
Take a look at the chart below.
It’s a breakdown of key stats for players who shoot within a given 5-stroke range.
For instance, let’s say you typically shoot between 90-95.
You can compare a few of your key stats to other players who shoot in the same range. This data is compiled from tens of millions of shots collected by (and thanks to) GameGolf.
Locate your scoring range across the top (90-95).
Then look down the column to see how other golfers who shoot in the same range perform.
You’d hit 7.7 fairways per round (out of 14), hit 4.1 greens in regulation (out of 18), have 36.2 putts per round, get up & down 10% of the time, and hit your driver around 196yds.
Now let’s say your goal is to break 90 consistently so you can call yourself a player who shoots in the 80’s.
Look at the next column down to see exactly how much you need to improve, and in what areas.
You’d need to improve from 7.7 fairways hit per round to 8.1. That’s half a fairway per round, or only about one more fairway hit every two rounds.
However, you’d need to improve your greens in regulation from 4.1 to 5.6 per round. That’s about 1.5 more greens hit per round.
Similarly, you’d need to improve your putting from 36.2 to 34.7 putts, or about 1.5 fewer putts per round.
Lastly you’d need to improve your pitching around the greens from 10% to 15%, or about one shot per round.
KEY STAT TAKEAWAYS
There are several key takeaways from this stats analysis:
- Small changes in a few key shot categories lead to big changes in scores
- Two shot categories – putting and greens in regulation – are the areas to focus on for the biggest improvements in scoring
ORGANIZING YOUR PRACTICE
Your stats will vary.
Most of our students have an intuitive feel for how many fairways and greens they hit, how many putts they have, and how often they get it in the hole when they miss a green.
Some students hit fewer fairways, some students hit more greens but have more putts than the typical player in your scoring category.
We encourage you to start keeping your stats.
Even if they are basic.
Because once you start paying attention to how many fairways and greens you hit, and how many putts and up & downs you have, you’ll know where you need to focus your practice efforts.
That is how you are going to know how to organize your practice and what you need to focus the most time on.
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CONSISTENCY DEFINED
The #1 goal of 98% of regular players is to be more consistent.
Yet when we ask them to define consistency, they have a hard time coming up with a concrete answer.
Here is our definition of consistency.
It’s the best definition we know.
If you run across a better one, please share.
The entire world of golf would benefit and thank you.
Let’s break down the definition, because it leads to concrete actionable steps.
First, the ability to make centered contact. That means hitting the ball first, in the middle of the clubface, with the clubface square.
Second, having the ball go the direction you intend. That means the ball flies to your specific target or location.
Third, the ball needs to carry the right distance. With your driver you want to maximize your distance. But with every other club in your bag and every other shot on the course other than driver, the goal is to hit the ball to a very specific distance relative to a specific target.
Fourth, shape could be straight, draw, or fade. Whichever works best for you, pick a specific shape and master it.
When you break down these components of consistency, you arrive at the absolute minimum four factors you need to understand every shot:
Contact
Direction
Distance
Shape
PRIME METRICS
These four shot characteristics are what we call the Prime Metrics.
In other words, every shot can be broken down, described and analyzed by these four characteristics.
Your shot cannot be broken down further and described in an actionable way into fewer categories.
What that means is that these four metrics should guide your improvement efforts.
If you shoot over 100, your primary focus will be contact – hitting the ball first with a square club face.
As you progress into the 90s, your focus will shift to directional accuracy.
To shoot in the 80s, your emphasis will be on distance control.
To shoot in the 70s your emphasis will be on shaping your shots the same way each time, as well as controlling both direction and distance.
Learn It Fix It Master It
"Nobody said it would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it." Dr. Seuss
Learn it, Fix it, Master it
- When you’re just getting started, there’s so much to learn! Getting the fundamentals right from the beginning is not only smart, it will save you from all kinds of headaches down the road
- Once you are comfortable with the fundamentals, your focus shifts to consistency. That means keeping the ball in play, hitting greens with your short irons, and carding 32 putts or fewer per round.
- Advanced players develop a stock shot, nail down their yardages, know how to shape shots, change trajectory, and play to their strengths
All this boils down to following a curriculum. The truth is, you never stop learning, fixing, and mastering. But it is too hard to do it without a plan.
We are here to support you every step of the way.
Reach out to us today to get started on you journey to a better golf game.
