You’ve seen GolfTEC for years now. Commercials on the Golf Channel, a sign in the corner of your local Golfsmith, an email in your inbox. You probably know by now we provide golf lessons and instruction with a 96% success rate. Which is why we’re the undisputed world leader in golf instruction.
But, have you ever wondered what the TEC in GolfTEC stands for?
Turns out, the TEC is really about our core philosophies as a company.
If you look at who we are, the first thing you see is Golf. We love the game. Nearly all our employees play golf, which may not sound unusual except – look around your office. How many active golfers do you see in, say, the Accounting Department? How about IT? Marketing? We have golfers in every area of our organization, and that says a lot about us and our love for the game.
Getting back to the TEC in GolfTEC – a lot of people think the T stands for Technology. Understandable given our Centers and Bays are equipped with some pretty sophisticated technology. Yet, ultimately, this is a misconception. The T in TEC stands for Technique. If we go back to our core philosophies, GolfTEC is about helping people play better golf. Technique.
The number one reason people come to us in the first place is because they’ve hit a wall not just once, but repeatedly, over and over until they just can’t take it any more. It can be a slice, consistent contact with the ball, inability to hit that low score at your favorite course, distance – whatever your story, it comes down to being frustrated with your game and unable to fix it yourself – and you’ve probably tried. A lot. Our Coaches hear these stories every day. And when they take that student into the bay for the first time and break down their swing, it’s like a light going off.
How many of you can honestly say you’ve seen yourself swing a club before?
Once you have, the dominoes start falling into place. Your Coach breaks it all down, shows you how you’re going to work together to fix it, and before you know it, your Technique has changed. Improved. That one thing that was bothering you, making you bang your head against the wall or throw your clubs in the lake, loses it’s grip on you. What you don’t realize right away, is how you’re hitting the ball more consistently. You’re controlling the ball flight. Maybe you’re even getting more distance than before. Why?
Technique.
Let’s talk about the E inTEC – Equipment. When I was a teenager, I went to my step-grandfather and announced I wanted to learn how to play golf. He took me under his wing, led me into his garage and started pulling golf bags out of every nook and cranny. One by one, he took out woods, irons, and wedges, held them up beside me and judged whether or not they were long enough for me. I was already six foot and change. Most of what he had didn’t work for me, but in time, he was able to put together a hodgepodge set for me to learn with, including a 2-Iron I used mostly for the fact it had the longest shaft of all the clubs. Feel free to insert your favorite 2-Iron joke here.
Now, having gone through all of that, I don’t recommend it. Having equipment fit for you is incredibly important. Buying ‘off the rack’ can save you a little money, sure, but you aren’t really going to ‘break those clubs’ in. If anything, your frustration level is going to rise. If you’re spending the time and money to improve your golf game, why would you hamstring yourself with clubs that are too long, too short, too heavy or light, have awkward grips, shaft flex, etc., for your body-type and swing?
The combination of Technique and properly fit Equipment can be staggering for any golfers improvement. It’s why GolfTEC offers a TECFit; a comprehensive custom golf club fitting experience matching your individual shot patterns – clubhead speed, ball flight, launch angles and spin rates – to figure out what’s going to work best for you. My orthopedic surgeon and I chatted about TECFit recently. He told me it was the best money he’d ever spent, loves his custom clubs and how they’ve improved his game.
Okay, the final bit is the C in TEC – Conditioning. Let’s face it, playing golf can be rough on your body. We have to bend, twist, crook, pivot, keep our head down (but not too far down), shift our weight, rotate our shoulders – all in a way that, to the uninitiated, looks horribly uncomfortable and more than a little unnatural. Which is why we tend to have knee and back pain, joint issues, wrist problems, shoulder aches – the list goes on and on.
Proper exercise and staying fit can mitigate these issues. Warming up before a round, and cooling down after. Stretching. Staying active in the off-season, maintaining our overall health and wellness throughout the year. Many of us live in areas with a ‘golf season’; X number of months in the year where we’re out actively playing golf, and X where we’re shivering beneath winter weather prohibiting us from enjoying our favorite pastime. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
We can keep our game going, our bodies conditioned and in-shape the whole year round with exercise and practice. Something like GolfTEC’s Training Camp offers indoor training when the outdoors is covered in snow. A regular regiment of practice combined with exercise can mean far less prep-time when ‘golf season’ in your area comes back around again.
Imagine the looks on your foursome’s faces when you walk out there on the first day playing just as well, if not better, than the last time you played together.
GolfTEC – Golf Technique, Equipment and Conditioning.
