Episode Details

Our guest this week Golf Master Coach, Steve Bann on Coaching the world's best golfers, confidence and the improvement lifecycle.

Here is what Stuart Appleby had to say about our guest. "I have worked with Steve Bann since I was 18 years old and he is my coach to this day. Steve has helped me shape my game in every aspect from the start and helped me win on the nationwide PGA tour and internationally. Steve is the most knowledgeable coach in the world and can help any golfer of any skill level achieve their goals."

Steve is a partner in BannLynchMcDade, and the team have coached their students to 29 USPGA Tour wins and multiple international amateur and professional titles. After turning professional in 1979, Steven played on the Australian PGA Tour from 1981 to 1996. Since 1996, Steve has travelled the world, coaching at over 40 Majors and five Presidents' Cups. His students, who have included, Stuart Appleby, K J Choi, Robert Allenby, and he has given lessons to many notables, including Ian Baker-Finch, Greg Norman, Vijay Singh, and Adam Scott. He is the author of Simply Golf: Back to Basics. Steve Bann, welcome to the show.

Quotes and Key Points Made by Steve Bann

• The one thing that we all had in common was we all loved to compete. We loved to play the game and loved to compete. We didn't have any technology. There was no high speed video cameras, and force plates, and launch monitors, and ... but we all found a way to play. The conditions of the golf courses were terrible. Some of them were dry, some of them were sloppy, so the grain on the grass ... Gravity's supposed to make the ball go that way, but the grain was so strong that it would actually go against the gravity. You just had to figure out your way of being able to score. Along the way, we learnt to deal with adversity. We learnt to find ways to get on with doing what we were trying to do, trying to do better, and were all pushing at each other, at a competitive level, and yet, we were all supporting each other. It was like a team.
• I think people focus on technique so much, because it's tangible. You can see it. Somebody hits a bad shot, you can say, "Oh, I hit that bad shot, because I did this. If I then work on fixing that, then I won't hit bad shots anymore." There's always something to work on. I'm too flat, I'm too upright, I'm swaying, I'm sliding, I'm spinning out. There's always something. An interesting stat is that there's more books written on golf technique than every other sport in the world combined, and yet, golfers still aren't improving.
• Focusing on technique, and I think you fall into that trap, which we call a reactive cycle. When something goes wrong, you're always trying to fix it. The reactive cycle is always trying not to do something, and that's not a good cycle to get on. In golfing terms, I hit a slice, I'm trying not to hit a slice.
• How do you fix a slice? You teach somebody to hook the ball.
• I was asked by the ESPN interview a few years ago, who I thought some of the great coaches in the world were, and I said I'd have to put Mike Furyk, Jim Furyk's dad, right up there, 'cause he's actually a golf coach. They said, "How could you say that?" I said, "'Cause Jim Furyk swings ... as David [inaudible 00:19:42] said, he swings like an octopus falling out of a tree." No one ever asks why the octopus was up there, but that's what it looks like. But he gets the job done.
• I've heard Mike Furyk say that, "Jim used to come down after school, hit some balls, I'd get him to hit some draws and fades, and highs and lows." He said, "I knew it didn't look right, but I didn't know enough about technique to try and fix anything, so I just let him go." To me, he's a great coach. He had him hittin