Let me confess first up that I think that instructional golf videos on YouTube are a good thing. Watching golf swing moves on a big screen smart TV is a useful and game enhancing element of modern life. What pisses me off and annoys the hell out of me are the common characteristics of the onscreen presenters. Talk? These people could talk the leg off a chair. Why use a couple of words when you can stuff whole truckloads of sentences into every possible moment of your golf video. Talk fast? Are you kidding these folks gabble on like turkeys high on crack cocaine. Why YouTube golf teachers are so annoying is their on-camera personalities and personas.

Following the Formula: Please Like Me

First step in the formulaic instructional golf video is the plea for viewers to like them. Hell, I don’t even know this guy or gal, let alone whether I like them. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until after I have watched their offering before they hit me with the hard word?  My intuition tells me that many of these high-tech golf teachers and golf-heads don’t have many friends. Why else would they spend swathes of time alone on the golf course talking into the camera on their phone.

Overwhelmed By the Sound of the Breeze

Sound quality and editing are aspects of video making that many of these golf vloggers are unfamiliar with. How many golfing videos have I watched where our golf presenter is outside on the course and the sound of the wind blanks out most of what he has to say? Ambient sounds overwhelming our gallant golf instructor is a too frequent occurrence in my experience of watching these YouTube videos. Then, there are vehicles driving into camera view and various other unexpected distractions challenging our amateur directors.

Man on a Mission

Next up, we have the ‘man on a mission’ hellbent on challenging the status quo of golf understanding. These aggressive presenters take a commonly held concept like ‘don’t lift your head’ and proceed to dissect it with their rapier-like intelligence. The golf teacher with a bee in his bonnet is a prominent presence on the YouTube menu of channel offerings. The jock with a jutting jaw fronts the camera and aggressively berates the viewer in his or her own living room. This is one of the reasons why YouTube golf teachers are so annoying to watch and listen to. Boorish behaviour by golf pros recorded for posterity is an unappealing aspect of this segment of the vlogging industry.

Titles to golf instructional videos often have “the secret to….” Or, “this one tip will change your golfing life.” Or, “This common mistake is killing your round.” Or, “How to fix….(insert a 1001 possible golf errors here).” The slice, the hook, shank, block, push, fat shot, duff, skull, early extension, and many more popular stuff ups in your golfing game. Improving your technique to hopefully improve your golf results on-course is the name of the game, when it comes to instructional golf videos on YouTube.

My advice to wannabe golf gurus of the video teaching kind is, don’t talk so much during your presentations. Slow down when communicating instructions and don’t gabble about inconsequential stuff. Don’t try and be a comedian or the world’s greatest entertainer. Keep it simple and keep to the script. Don’t fill in each and every microsecond with chatter, as it only shows your insecurity in the role. Take a breath every now and then. Remember to relax and take time to smell the flowers. We want to watch something with a little grace in it.

• Don’t Talk So Much
• Slow Down Your Delivery (I don’t care if you are American)
• Don’t Try & Be a Comedian (I don’t care if you are from the north of England)
• Keep it Clear & Concise
• Take a Breath Every Now & Then

Of course, there are a few excellent golfing video presenters out there doing a fine job. They tend to be clear and concise communicators with the necessary technical skills or supporting co-producers to make things work. It is a nascent growing industry, and the overall standard is improving incrementally day by day. Perhaps, a recommended temperance or very small doses are the solution to my problem with YouTube instructional golf videos.

©Robert Hamilton