Most golfers think golf coaching means booking a lesson, hitting some balls and being given something to work on.

But what if great coaching is about more than what happens during the lesson?

In this episode of the Golf Yourself Happy Podcast, Golf Mindset Coach Kris Lynch is joined by Sam Kiloh, PGA Professional and Head of Junior Development at Deeside Golf Club, to explore how golf coaching is evolving and what golfers really need to improve.

Sam has competed professionally on mini tours including the EuroPro Tour and Pro Golf Tour, and now combines his in-person coaching with online coaching through Skillest.

Together, Kris and Sam explore why online coaching can be just as effective as traditional in-person coaching, how ongoing feedback can strengthen the coach–golfer relationship, and why the best coaching doesn't necessarily involve giving golfers more information.

They also discuss the challenges faced by recreational golfers - from frustration and inconsistency to embarrassment and even wanting to give up the game - and why mindset can become increasingly important as golfers become more committed to improving.

The conversation also explores what adult golfers can learn from juniors about playfulness, patience and resilience, and why keeping practice simple can sometimes be more effective than chasing technical complexity.

Whether you're considering working with a coach, curious about online golf coaching, or simply looking for a simpler way to improve your game, this episode will encourage you to think differently about what great golf coaching should look like.

In this episode:

• How online coaching is changing golf instruction
• Why ongoing feedback can make coaching more effective
• The difference between online and in-person coaching
• Why good coaching should be simple and individualised
• The mindset challenges facing recreational golfers
• What adults can learn from junior golfers
• Why playfulness and experimentation can improve learning
• How mindset coaching can complement technical coaching

Key Takeaways

✔ Great coaching isn't about giving golfers more information - it's about giving them the right information.

✔ Online and in-person coaching can complement each other.

✔ Keep improvement simple, focused and individualised.

✔ Golfers can learn a lot from the patience, resilience and playfulness of juniors.

Resources

• Golf Yourself Happy website
• Book a free 30-minute Golf Yourself Happy Coaching Discovery Call
• Explore Sam Kiloh Golf
• Book online coaching with Sam on Skillest

I've played with some great players that are now major winners or on the DP World Tour I'd be surprised on the on the tour if it wasn't if there was a few that didn't do any of this training.

and I just never really did, which it was one regret I definitely had.

I mean the club golfer or beginner is definitely more on the negative side and almost embarrassment not wanting to go out on the course. I've had a few come in and it's almost like a make or break lesson. Like they're they're close to stopping going out on the golf course 'cause they're struggling so much I mean the pressure's on there when that when you get one of those lessons.

Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Golf Yourself Happy Podcast with me, Kris Lynch, your host, founder, and head coach. I coach everyday recreational golfers to use their mind as their greatest asset, helping you move from frustration to fulfillment, from anger to enjoyment, and ultimately to build a happier, healthier relationship with golf. Before we get into today's conversation, and if you're enjoying the podcast, please take a moment to follow or subscribe to.

On your favourite podcast platform that will ensure you don't miss a future episode and it will help more everyday golfers discover the show and fall in love and stay in love with golf. Right, let me introduce today's guest, Sam Kiloh a PGA professional and head of junior development at D Deeside Golf Club in Aberdeen.

My hometown, no less. And as you've just heard, Sam has some fascinating experience to draw on when it comes to the mental side of the game. Sam turned professional at 19 and went on to compete on mini tours, playing alongside some incredibly talented golfers, including people like Aaron Rai no less, who have since gone on to win major championships.

But now, as a PGA teaching professional, Sam is seeing a very different side of the game and how mindset comes out in the recreational club golfers version of the game. It really is fascinating to hear him talk about things like embarrassment, frustration, fear, and feelings that they're just not good enough at golf. And

With that, there's so many striking parallels with the work that we do here at Golf Yourself Happy, because so often it's not just about the golf swing that gets in a golfer's way, it's the way they're thinking or the things that they're saying to themselves and the relationship they've developed with their own game. There is, however, I'd say another really interesting dimension, an especially interesting dimension to Sam's coaching that we focus on today, which is the online side to his coaching business that he's building through Skillest

And I wanted to explore that because I think there are still plenty of golfers out there who are who are either sceptical about online coaching or simply assume that it can't offer the same value as in-person coaching. Sam's experience would suggest otherwise. We talk about how online coaching can provide ongoing feedback and support between lessons and technology can actually strengthen the relationship between coach and golfer.

So there's that and much, much more in today's conversation. And so whether you're interested in the mental side or the technical side and working with someone like Sam, or if you've ever wondered whether online coaching can really work, there's a lot to get out of this one.

So without any further ado, then let's tee off and get into my conversation with Sam Kiloh

Sam Kiloh welcome to the Golf Yourself Happy podcast

It's good to be in fellow

Aberdonian company and a fellow Don as well at that. season predictions to kick us off, Sam? How you feeling?

not not too hopeful to be honest. Hopefully. Hopefully we can get a I'm gonna say we're gonna go fourth this year. I'm gonna go high expectations. yeah. But not not not too hopeful. We will we will find out. But I've kind of lost a little bit of

well the last couple of years.

Well, I was going to say what you're saying to me is you're maybe an optimist, but you're a realist by the sounds of things. You're

Yeah, yeah. Sounds about right. Yeah.

trying to be optimistic that we're going to at least break the top six and even make it back to the top four this year.

We'll see how it goes. But anyway, we're not here to talk about football. We're here to talk about golf.

the love of golf, I think I should probably go to that straight away because just before we hit

Yeah.

record, I said to you how it's not always the case in my experience. So when I speak to PGA teaching professionals that they all...

still love the game because it tends to follow that, you know, in most cases, would say, PGA pros have come into that job having played to a fairly high standard before, you know, trying to make it on the tour or, you know, being a professional golfer

Yeah.

by trade, which grinds them to a certain degree. And then actually, you know, they

Yeah, yeah.

just,

They can always obviously fall back in the coaching because they're qualified to do that. But I don't see that the love of the game is still there for them. It's a bit of a, it's gone for whatever reason. So what's the secret for you? How or why are you still in love with golf after all this time?

Yeah, I think for me it's the facilities we have here as well are next to none here at Deeside side. So I mean we have a nine hole and eighteen hole golf course, short game area, but there's obviously coaching diaries busy, but then after you've kinda done there's a few members I go out and play nine holes or for play. I still have a handicap just to try and again make it a bit more competitive when we go out and go out and play some rounds of golf. So again, fellow professional Kevin here as well. We try and play some evenings, get out there, play some different games. I mean it's just

I always find it's it's good to find in lessons as well. Like if your short game's not great or a bit rusty, it's hard jumping on and doing a demo and showing kind of your student how to do it. So I like to keep my game in check and I think at times I loving it. It's just it's just fun, it's good to get outside, it's good after a busy day as well. If you've had a busy day working, it's nice to get out a bit of fresh air, get the steps in and it's just yeah, do you know what golf side always keeps you on your toes, it's

one the most frustrating games we play but it's so enjoyable and it's going well. And I think I just like to keep my

Yeah.

game game sharp and again just having these fun I wouldn't really ever go out and play by myself. I was always go out and do a fun game. if it's with Kevin Graham, the pros here or some of the younger boys in the shop go out and play a holes.

Yeah, nice. Tell us a bit about, you know, the your background then in golf. you know, you played to pretty high standard. Give us a sense of kind of your your kind of competitive golfing life.

Yeah,

so I turned pro at quite a young age. I was nineteen, so I was looking on going to America to do a scholarship. and then just wanted to to try and give it a go playing and I was lucky enough to get help from Paul Lawry Foundation at the time. So I worked there when a few years ago, just kinda part time when I was still in in academy. And then fr yeah, from there I just done some mini tour. so played the EuroPro, some pro golf tour and actually went out and done some Mina Tour in Dubai as so just tried to kinda find my feet just

These mini tours are designed just for trying almost it's it's all a learning curve. I don't think there's not many players that go on to these mini tours that are European tour already. You're there, you're getting the experience, you're you're playing,

Mm.

you're just getting a feel for it. It's like even the travel side is hard. A EuroPro you have week after week and for us we have at the time we maybe had two or three events in Scotland, so it was a lot of traveling back and forth with England. It's that awkward one is it should be drive, fly, and just the whole experience and then I mean obviously you you can't

do that your whole career. So again once I gave it a shot for a few years, and I just mainly why I'd got into my P G was I've always been fascinated with golf swing and wanting to get better myself and even helping my friends here and there when I was kind of at home and I just started my P G training. so again I thought I wanted it was mainly to stay in golf and to obviously learn a bit about more about the coaching. so I wasn't I wouldn't be the most I'd be more of a field player so I wouldn't know all the

kind of technical mechanics of the golf soon. So again, learning each time and I've done quite a few seminars that either the PG or Scottish Golf host as well. So you're learning from other coaches and they're great as well. And then from there I just kind of got into more and yeah, as I said, the more you coach as well, you step aside from the playing. Again, I'll try and play some events. This year I've only played in a couple as we've kind of done now. mainly just kinda jumping into the teaching.

training, then coming to here to D side. I mean D side it was just when I finished my first year, to my first year at Paul Lawrie Golf Centre, came over to here and then just with how busy it is, you just get more and more coaching and start to get enjoy it and then when you're teaching and you're seeing some success for the students as well, it's always great. Just shows that you're doing something right. You're seeing them get better and enjoying it a bit more, improving. And then yeah, just from there it's kind of kept on to more full time.

Nice. Out of interest, you know, in that time where you were playing on those mini tours and things, or just throughout your competitive golf career, did you ever have any mindset support at all? Other than sort of

No huh.

the more sort technical swing-based stuff.

No,

I never. That that would be one thing looking back, that that and a bit more of a better practice plan or structure, I would say. again I would I would like to play as much holes as I can when I'm home in between events. I obviously hit some balls, do some range time, but I would be one to more get out and play. But yeah, in terms of the mind set it's never something I ever I ever done and yeah, I feel like I feel when you look at these top players in the world, or even on the mini tours, the ones that have made it versus

I've played with some great players that are now even major winners or on the DP World Tour and when it comes to just golf alone, there's probably not a golf shot they could hit that not just myself but a lot of other mini tour players that didn't make it. there's nothing jumping out of you've got to think it's more of the mindset, and I'd be surprised on the on the tour if it wasn't if there was a few that didn't do any of this training. That you've got to think majority of them are doing some sort of kind of mindset, and just even if it's

more of the practice and prepping for tournaments. There's gonna be some involved and I just never really did, which it was one regret I definitely had.

Yeah, it's really interesting, right? Because

I find in time that I've been doing this role as a golf mindset coach, generally speaking,

a golfer has to be at a certain stage in their development to want to go to that next. It's almost like a natural next step from having done a lot of technical coaching, because I think not everyone sees the immediate value of it, if you know what I mean. So it's an interesting one.

Yeah, definitely.

On the online coaching side, right, you are somebody who.

You know, if we put into the conversation here Skillist, which as an online coaching platform is growing seemingly at a rate of knots, how would you describe Skillist for anyone who's not familiar with it or unaware?

Yeah, so Skill is an app for for online coaching but e just for you to receive notes from your from your coach. so again we'll get more dive more into it, but I used it more just to send my students like in person some lesson notes so you'll see a couple of swins at the top and then the analysis so when the coach is kind of talking through what they've seen in a golf swing and then just some videos at the bottom, so some tips, drills, and then again.

Normally the coach would kinda jump on and send you a few drills if it's that online or in person is just seeing your shots after. So it's just a platform, but I I mean it's yeah, grown arms and lens and it's just got so many. It's amazing. It's there's like an AI summary on all the lessons now. There's a Shadow Pro feature which

Mmm.

is like an your AI coach giving you the notes after the lesson and yeah, you can use that for practice. You pretty much have yeah, an AI me in your ear pretty much as you as you're practising. but yeah, you can use it

Yeah, for coaching side it's just getting better and better. I can upload a lot of videos on there to share with my subscribers or followers on the app and yeah, it's just some just a platform

Mm.

that you can reach out to other other coaches.

Yeah, because what I'm noticing there is actually what you just described in terms of you initially, if I've heard you right, we're using it more for your in-person coaching clients at the side, say,

Yeah.

and using it as a place to like store lesson notes and whatever. The guy that I get lessons from here in Wales told me the very same thing and then almost

by accident for want of a better word, like just by you having a presence on the app as a coach, you then all of a sudden get inbound queries from or inquiries from people all around the world looking for online coaching. I guess, you know, what's, I think part of skillists kind of USP,

is that they're kind of tapping into the fact that yes, traditionally golf coaching would have very much been seen

as a sort of thing that in order to get value and benefit out of it and for it to be done well, it needed to be in person. But I think the skillist model has really proven that there's not only a demand for online coaching, for technical swing coaching,

Okay.

but it works as well. So I mean, what's been...

What's been your experience of that? Like how do you sort of reflect on almost what's different and what works well in the online set up versus the in-person and even the hybrid version of it as well, I guess.

Yeah,

yeah. I it's been amazing for me. So yeah, I started off using it just for in person. so just for my student to have notes to look back on. It's good I think it's good for them to see their their swin as well as seeing the before and after. so obviously when we make a change it's not going to be easy straight away. So if they can see how different it is, it almost gives them a okay, it's changed a lot. I need to not give myself too hard of a time, I'll give it a bit of practice. but yeah, then just as you said there, I just started getting a few more messages of people following me on the app.

Just because I was the more lessons you kind of do on the app, the the better, I guess. You might kind of move into like categories skill list have on the on the website if it's like a trending coach, popular, or even like a new coach to the platform. So but yeah, and then I just started kind of getting on. I I'd never really jumped straight into that. I just still just kept it with the in-person and then I thought, well, I'm gonna try and kind of do a little bit more online. So you set up your

subscriptions and when you actually look back and I've done it a few times even just recently and if you look at an in person lesson and then an online what they receive is pretty similar to be honest. Like as I described there, you'll have a couple swins at the start with a person and then in the studio do the analysis, just press record and you show them they're right there with you. They have that in the app, the analysis part, they can just listen back to me and they're they might have a few words here and there that they'll listen back on themselves.

And then you have underneath I'll record myself jumping on the mat, showing them what they do and then what we're trying to achieve, like what I'd like them to do, and then explain why. And then give them a couple drills, like how they're gonna do it. And then that's similar, that's what they get in the in-person. The only difference is then I will get some videos of them after hitting some straight away. So they'll do their drills, video them doing the drills. They have that in the app as well. Might even do another little before and after analysis.

with them and that's the kind of session in person. So then they can go back and look at all this and the online is the same, just mine as the last part. They'll still have me showing them what they're doing, what they need to do, the drills. But then that's when the lesson part starts. They then send you videos back of them doing the drill. And then I I have on mine every coach is different. I I have a turnaround time of twenty-four hours. So I just believe that if you're using this

platform it's it's designed to get your constant feedback get your hear from your coach almost daily I mean yeah I've heard some great coaches on the platform that are back within like straight away they get back you're messaging back and forth that's what I've tried to do so that's why I would sign up for the app is if I wanted to speak to my coach as as much as I can.

Mmm.

and then yeah and then you just kind of sign on up so my subscriptions are all just kind of unlimited coaching get back within that

length

of time I feel that's the best way I can control the app as well and they get the best benefits out so they can just pin me videos, get back to them within a day. If it's just a quick check, yeah, that drill was good, little voiceover, or if I need to jump on, kind of show them something else, give them another drill. And it's just like that constant feedback. And I think that's that's the main thing with in person is you might book in and not be able to get in for another two, three weeks, style is full, and then you're kinda waiting, you've probably tried another ten

swim thoughts by then and it's it's back either over down or it's back to back to something else. But yeah, I just feel like it's just got that constant I I think it's great. I use it for everything, in person, online and even jumping on some Zoom calls now and then as well. Which has been great.

I think, you know, there's there's various other things that I would encourage people think about when when they're going to look for golf lessons. I I heard a stat recently

that was spoken about by another guest in my podcast, a guy called Will Stubbs, who referenced a piece of research by the National Golf Foundation, who basically found that only one in five golfers get coaching lessons. And

part of the reason or the context around that was that a lot of people will, teach themselves, they'll watch stuff on YouTube, they'll maybe be taught by friends, for example, but then actually, unfortunately, it tends to be the moment they eventually do come to a coach like yourself is because they're...

tearing their hair out because things just aren't going so well anymore or they've kind of

hit a wall or something. And I was very interested to pick up on something you said a bit earlier in this conversation, which was like, you were a field player yourself. that transfer across to your coaching then Sam

what's the Sam Kylo coaching style?

Yeah, I would be very personal to the student, I would say. So it depends. Everyone kinda moves differently. Can maybe some limitations here and there. But I mean, yeah, I would definitely be more kind of drill oriented, making sure they're doing the the movement correctly. Just again, it could be simple drills, little visual aids I quite like using as well, just to or putting some constraints down if it's like a driving edge basket, some golf balls in the way, something to try and almost encourage them to get into that.

Well in terms of my I'm not very technical, so yeah, similar to when I when I played, I feel like it's it's hard enough this game. You don't wanna try and think of too many things. I would try and no more than two points is always what I try and do. If it's one kind of pre swing setup and then one kind of movement based or in swin. And again, it just it just really depends on the person, what they're trying to achieve. If it's something that if they're coming in and they're wanting more distance then it's gonna

We're we're gonna try and get them more distance that you wanna try and do what the students after. But again if there's if I feel that there's something that is an obvious one in terms of if it's like a grip adjustment or setup adjustment, we'll kind of do that. And then it can be that might be preventing them getting a bit more speed or something in the setup. So it might just be quite simple. we always kind of joke here as well that sometimes we

out for a half an hour lesson and we might be done after the five, ten minutes. Might just be something pretty straightforward. They've achieved what they need.

Yeah.

You've got you've gave them a little bit of homework. if it's a just one kind of little drill or again a visual aid. If it's just something they can relate to and understand. You don't want to make it too complicated. again even with some I've teached with a look lot of elite amateurs at the club and then plus kind of an hour in the national or district squad. And even then it's just little tweets here and there that can make a big difference.

but I wouldn't dive in too much of the kind of t I I mean I like jumping on kind of force plates. We don't have any here, but personally I've done some of that stuff on the smart to move plates and done some 3D and it was pretty cool. but yeah, I would be more kind of really trying to get what the student's after out of it if it is just trying to kind of keep keep catching it clean, keep hitting out the heel, we're just trying to get them all out the middle, get the strike and it might just be something pretty simple to do that.

but you've just created a little bit of a roadmap. You kind of know as a coach what then might happen, but you don't want to fill them with too much stuff to go ahead and work on, but you might then know they're maybe gonna be coming back. And that's why again this app's great to have the notes and to know okay, this is what we've done last time. We just quickly go

Yeah.

on the AI summary, it has the bullet points were there. But yeah, no, I wouldn't be wouldn't be too technical in that in that form. I just try and everyone's moves differently and

I feel like yeah, you definitely see as you said there with different coaches, they all have their kind of things

Mm.

they want everyone to try and get in the same, which is absolutely great. But for me it just depends on on who you have in front of you, to be honest.

so looking at both the individual and the groups that you teach. I take it then you've got both ends of the spectrum. know, I mentioned before, you've got elite amateur, probably right through to, you know, recreational,

players of all levels that you coach. Yeah.

how do you reflect on like, what are the common pain points, if you like, that you see you know, so if it's a elite amateur, what are they coming to you with? a club golfer.

say, been playing the

Yeah.

game for quite a while, what's bothering them when they come to you

Yeah, yeah, interesting. I mean I would say definitely the the elite the better players they actually seem probably better in that mentally. Cause I mean they obviously are very good golfers, they know what they're capable of. So it might just be like I've had some that are yeah, I'm almost a little bit kinda worried sometimes if they've got tournaments coming up, they're really not they're really struggling, but they seem to be in a bit more of a positive state than me. just a couple of little thin tweets they know it might be here and there.

to get back to what they can do and then yeah, yeah. I mean the club golfer or beginner is definitely more they'd be more on the negative side and almost embarrassment not wanting to go out on the course. I've had a few come in and it's almost like a make or break lesson. Like they're they're close to stopping going out on the golf course 'cause they're struggling so much and yeah, I mean the pressure's on there when that when you get one of those lessons. But again it can just be keeping it simple, little grip adjustments. I'm big on kind of

grip as well. I think it's your yeah, your only connection with the golf club. You want to make sure you see Scottie Scheffler, how big he is on that and tweaking it every single week and there's obviously something in it if he's if he's doing that. And just yeah, it's more on the technical side for sure. But I would say your yeah, your club golfer would be coming in a bit more needing kind of help with the with the mental side of it as well for sure.

I'm just curious because I'm wondering if the perceived issue of consistency comes up with these golfers, club golfers, because, know,

I've as I've told you and as my audience know, I've been running a few workshops online and in person recently around goal setting. And I deliberately ask a question of people before they come, which is what's the biggest challenge in your golf right now? And I would say now.

over time, the number one answer I get to that is consistency. Now, I haven't yet got beneath the bonnet of that and actually really kind of drilled down into what do they mean by consistency. But I

I'd love your perspective on this

consistency can be seen to be almost the biggest myth in golf, especially when you're a recreational golfer, because if you think about it, like, these are golfers who are squeezing in a round of golf, maybe they get one round every week in between a busy job and family life or whatever, so it's almost like, how can you be consistent?

technically when actually you're barely ever practicing,

if you know what I mean. So to my mind, I think what you can

Yeah.

be more consistent in is the mindset, is the mental approach that you take towards yourself and your thoughts and how you show up in golf as opposed to, that's probably more within your control, I would say, than it is to be a consistent ball striker when you're a...

18 handicapper or something like that, if you know what mean, as a club recreational golfer. So I

Yeah.

wonder what you think about that.

Yeah, I completely agree. It's absolutely spot on, I would say. Yeah, I mean you even see with the with the top players, they're they're not gonna hit every shot exactly how they're wanting. They're still gonna have some kind of shots and troubles and hazards. I mean, it's just golf is just what's gonna happen, even these top guys do the same. But yeah, completely agree. I get that a lot with yeah, with your club golfer, kind of that mid handicap range or mid to high, it's just not consistent enough, which she has you said, covered some points there. I mean, if you're not playing that much or getting to practice or

even after they've had a lesson it's putting in that that time to to actually work on it as well. I mean if the they might have a lesson on the Monday and then not do it not touch a club till Saturday meadow and they're expecting it to be just absolutely perfect. So definitely little things in there, that mindset that they're yeah, just being a little bit easier on themselves would definitely make a make a big difference as well.

Yeah, absolutely. that's very much the work that I try and do with my clients is help

them practice being nice to themselves, basically. That tends to be one of the reasons why someone might come and work with me is because they're a hard time with that. Big part of your role as well, Sam, is on the junior side. And, you know, the part that I want to ask you about there is...

I get very interested in what happens to us when we reach a certain stage in life, when we come out of our youthful stage and we get into the more serious side of life, when bigger life commitments come in, or whatever stage in our lives, we lose a sense of playfulness. Because I think when you're coaching juniors, I

Mm-hmm.

imagine that...

or I've seen how juniors get coached. It can be more game-based, for example, and it's just a bit more fun and a bit sort of upbeat. And I just wonder what you think about how, is there anything that the adult golfers can learn from the junior golfers about having a bit more fun and sort of holding on to a bit of playfulness in their golf?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we've got a massive junior section here. and we do a lot of kind of camps trying to do them each time they're off on the holidays. Yeah, we see it all the time. I mean, yeah, I just find when you look at the we've got a secret a big section with a lot of really good players kind of now around that ten to fourteen age that are below fifteen handicapper, like really good. And you see them on the short game area and they're just yeah, there's just no fear. They're just they're not worried about the kind of bad shot as well. And even when it comes to the lesson side

I would say one of big things I notice is just the the patience of the juniors. You think it'd be the other way around, but like if you give them a drill or the to work on or something full swing or or short game, whatever it may be, and if they don't get it straight away, they just keep going. I'm also trying to prove a point, like, no, I I can I can do this, like I'm gonna show that I can you jump anyway. Yeah, don't worry, it'll take a little bit getting used to it. And like, no, no, I've got it. Like they just keep going and going and then this yeah, the o other side about the adults,

Which yeah, probably on that same myself over the years, but you just try something that doesn't work, and you kind of leave that, try something else. And it's just that resilience with the juniors and yeah, I mean there's so many different games. We'd try and make it game based, just just even with a even if it's a one on one less, I know it's easier when there's a group of them, but one on one, you get kind of we try and get involved and they just like really want to beat you and it's just it makes it pretty fun and enjoyable as well. Different games like that, and yeah, I would say the main thing is just

they they just want to yeah, they just have that kind of resilience. It's what really keep getting better and if they can't do something straight away they'll they'll do it and the next time you see them they've just mastered it.

Would you say there's any games that you use with juniors that could be just as beneficial to an adult golfer when it comes to like practicing a certain part of the game, like short game for example?

Yeah, we'd again mainly in the in the group stuff. But yeah, I try and do a lot of the the games. I do a lot of ladies group coaching as well. So if there's like a short game one, like capture the flag, like have circles down and then and maybe kind of three or four flags. We've got an amazing short game made out here as well. And then if they get in the zone they get the flag and it just it just gets a bit of competitive spirit and they're they're thinking more kind of outcome as well. Like you wanna try and

Obviously they'll have a couple little technical things or like I'll jump in at the start and kinda go through how you should play the shot or what you should try and get if it's most of the time with short games, just getting that club, not being scared of actually hitting the ground, get a club down into the ground. So they'll be thinking of in little practice wins, then the more thinking of outcome and these games and it does you see them start hitting better golf shots for sure. and again even if it is like a putton lesson for instance and then kinda last ten, fifteen minutes I'll could kinda go against me and we'll do a game that I need to take it like a

club length back and it just it just brings out I do feel like it brings out the best in a lot of lessons when you get little games involved, competitive stuff. but yeah, try and try and keep it similar for both for sure. Won't quite get the adults running around playing round as a warm up, but we'll get the technical stuff in the games the same.

Yeah, am. so I did the community golf instructor training a couple of years ago.

Wales Golf were basically doing a taster session that was designed for kids especially. And you had a few young boys that would come in. We basically just had a patch of ground that was cordoned off for us or whatever. And we had the golf way equipment, which is big massive club heads.

all plastic and lightweight balls

and stuff. And you've got a few lads that come in. They've played golf before, obviously, and they come in and they just absolutely welly the ball.

They're all about trying to hit it as hard as they can and as far as they can

and stuff. And I had this like one kid who I sort of said, because you couldn't do anyone any harm with the balls that we're using because they weren't like, you know, they were lightweight, spongy things or whatever, but they were determined just to belt it out the outside of the ropes or whatever. And I just said to this one boy, was like, do you think like maybe if you just like

dialed it down to like, know, what would you have to do, do you think, in order to keep this ball in play? Almost like challenged him to take something off it, but in a way where

Yeah.

I made him think as to how he

Yeah.

would achieve that, rather than telling him technically what to do. And you could just watch the cogs going in his head. He was like, yeah.

It's just interesting, isn't it? Watching kids, how their mind works and asking them to be a bit more creative rather than just instructing them and telling them the answer, you know?

Sam, if any of my viewers or listeners want to follow you, or better still, maybe take up some coaching from you, how best to find you?

Yeah, so just my I've actually got a website now which is I've only had for maybe a couple of months, so just Sam Kiloh Golf and then on there you can go into my in person it takes you into the Deeside Side website which has a link on there and it also takes you into the Skillest list as well, which you'd book if it's online stuff or combination of that. And again in there you can you can drop me I can the inquire a bit, send me a message. We're just on Instagram is probably the one I use the most of. Instagram I am on TikTok as well.

But yeah, but with Instagram's again just Sam dot kilo dot golf I would say my kind of tag in there is. But yeah I do have website which you can find.

Lovely, good stuff. Sam, been a pleasure having you on. Being a real highlight having a fellow Aberdonian on. And here's to

Absolutely.

many more chats between you and I and hopefully we can collaborate further and do some other stuff together.

Sam, thanks once more for coming on the podcast. There is so much I took from that conversation, and I hope you folks watching or listening did too. One of the things I really found stood out for me is that good golf coaching is about far more than just simply fixing a swing or fixing a technical fault. It's about understanding the person, the golfer, in front of you. It's about keeping things simple.

Giving you the right things to work on and helping you understand what you're doing and why you're doing it. And that is particularly important when we consider the mental side of the game as well, because golfers don't just struggle with technique, they struggle with confidence, frustration, and comparing ourselves to other people and worrying about what other people think of us.

Sometimes the thing that gets in the way of playing better then isn't just another technical change, it's what's going on between our ears. And that is why I believe technical coaching and mindset coaching can work so well together hand in hand. Your PGA pro, like Sam, can help you develop the skills to play better golf, and mindset coaching can help you get those skills onto the golf course,

access those skills while you're on the course and especially when you're under pressure and deal with the ups and downs that inevitably come up and ultimately help you in enjoy the game even more. If these are things that you can relate to or feel that you're struggling with in any way and you'd like some personalized support with the mental side of your golf, you can book a free 30 minute discovery call with me using the link in the show notes. It would be my

Real pleasure to hear from you, have a chat with you, no obligations, and just explore my coaching and whether it might be right for you. But that's enough for today. And thank you as always for watching or listening. And until the next time, folks, please remember to always put your happiness first and your handicap later.