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Lessons--30 Minutes or 60?

I would think starting off, hour lessons would have a little more of an impact. Once you established a swing, pattern and just need a tune up then 30 minutes should be suffice. What I really need to do for myself is having a playing lessons. My lessons are not translating to the course.
 
30 has been very good for me recently. That's enough time to focus on one or two things, do some drills to address it and then I practice everything immediately after the lesson on my own. I've done hour long lessons before and it's just too much information for me or we end up going through the drills a little longer, either of which doesn't really help me.
 
I prefer 60 minutes, so I can get 30 mins of instruction, and then practice for 30 mins with my instructor making sure I'm doing things right.
 
In my limited experience, it depends on the instructor and what you can accomplish in a given time frame. I took a package of 5 hour long lessons from one instructor and felt like it was a complete waste of money. I just started a new (much more expensive package) of 6 half hour lessons from someone with a lengthy resume and recent tour experience. My first lesson really opened my eyes. I hit out of a bay on video and really believe the video makes a HUGE difference. Being able to see what you are actually doing really helps the brain/body do what you want it to do.
 
This is a great question Mike, I just had this discussion with our pro on the way out of the pro shop this weekend.

He charges $45 an hour, but I mentioned to him that when he and I do a lesson I always seem to get more out of it when it's only 30-45 minutes. He said he tries to vary his time now based on the student's preferences. Honestly I think you can get more out of a shorter lesson and then spend the rest of that time on the course or on the range trying and practicing the things you just learned.

I think I'll try and get into a habit of a 30 minute lesson once a month to keep my game refreshed, once the weather is nicer that is!
 
I talked with the instructor that I will be using about this when we scheduled and started working on a plan. We decided to go with 30 minutes and I can practice and use as many of their balls after. These are all out door lessons BTW, with the option of going inside and getting on monitors etc if necessary.
Is trying the guy out for 30 an option and move into 1 hour sessions if determined that it's necessary?

JM
 
My lessons right now come out to 45 minutes, which I like. Gives enough time for instruction, without being too much. I can also practice a little right afterwards. Practice sessions are about the same length of time.
 
mikedean441 said:
I'm in the process of looking for lessons and find myself debating between half hour or full hour lessons.

Obviously cost plays a big role in the whole process and the hour in most places costs twice as much as teh 30 minutes (obviously)
But then part of me wonders if 30 minutes is even enough time for a solid lesson.

This time of year where the lesson will be the majority of my practice (until spring), is it better to spend the money and get an hour long lesson and get as much time in all at 1 time I can to work on things, or is it better to maybe have more shorter lessons throughout the same period?

Thoughts...experiences?
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i let my instructor decide he knows where i need the most work and whats gonna cause me a problem to get through and fix whatever we are working on for that day. i've had some really great 30 minute lessons i think you can get something out of 30 especially if its something you are gonna need to learn how to fix and then you're going to need to put in a lot of your own practice time after you have your lesson.
 
IceyShanks said:
This is a great question Mike, I just had this discussion with our pro on the way out of the pro shop this weekend.

He charges $45 an hour, but I mentioned to him that when he and I do a lesson I always seem to get more out of it when it's only 30-45 minutes. He said he tries to vary his time now based on the student's preferences. Honestly I think you can get more out of a shorter lesson and then spend the rest of that time on the course or on the range trying and practicing the things you just learned.

I think I'll try and get into a habit of a 30 minute lesson once a month to keep my game refreshed, once the weather is nicer that is!
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wow $45 an hour is a pretty amazing price
 
First lesson with my instructor was 45 minutes then the rest are 30 minutes. Because I have unlimited range access at PGA SS I go over there and spend another 20-30 minutes working on what we went over.
 
I prefer 30 min. blocks. If you go to a full hour, sometimes your teacher will give you too much information at one time and too many things to work on at one time and you won't remember half what he told you. If you only go for 30 minutes, that's plenty of time for your teacher to give you 2-4 key things to work on before your next lesson and it will be easier for you to spend more time focusing on those few things.
 
My lessons are scheduled for 30 minutes, but usually run 45 minutes to over an hour. A lot of times we would work on things for the 45 minutes or so and then I would be given another bucket where my instructor would just watch me practice for bit. I have found that really helped. Of course all of that is outside. If I was doing inside practice I would say go for 30 minutes and save the extra money towards longer sessions when you are outdoors.
 
I prefer 45 mins - 1 hr personally, because I'm the type who wants to get a lot of stuff to work on and then drill it in my own practice until I feel comfortable. But if I only have one major thing to work on, I'm totally cool with 30 minutes as well.
 
Depends. You can get 30 minutes and you are on your own; or 60 minutes broken into halves, half instructional, half studying and reinforcing good habits and correcting bad habits on a more casual level.
 
I'll usually do 30 minutes and then practice those drills for another 30 minutes right after to burn them into my memory. However, today's lesson lasted an hour because we covered more than usual.
 
Scarnici said:
I think the 60 minutes lessons are working because getting in any practice time during the winter is very limited.
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Christian took the words right out of my mouth.
ddec said:
My lessons are scheduled for 30 minutes, but usually run 45 minutes to over an hour. A lot of times we would work on things for the 45 minutes or so and then I would be given another bucket where my instructor would just watch me practice for bit. I have found that really helped. Of course all of that is outside. If I was doing inside practice I would say go for 30 minutes and save the extra money towards longer sessions when you are outdoors.
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Remind me to pick your brain about this tonight.
 
Depends how big of changes the instructor plans on doing. If they're small, positional or setup like things that you need to do in front of a mirror to make sure you're set up correctly? Half hour. If they're major changes? An hour. 30 to explain the technique and get you setup in the proper way to do it, then 30 to practice and hopefully have his eye there to make sure you're still doing it right. I guess the perfect scenario would be if he let you break the hours into 2 30min segments. That way if he feels you're gonna need the extra time, he can stack them back to back and you get the help you need. If he feels not so much, you get a half hour.
 
I did hour lessons and thought it worked out well. It gave me enough time to understand what was going on that day and then put it to practical use. A few times we did some video and had plenty of time to watch it on the screen to show what I needed to correct. Then go back at it to work on the corrections. As some mentioned for the half hour they would do the lesson then practice on their own for a bit. The last 2 or 3 that I took were similar to that except after the first half hour or so I just hit a bunch of balls for the remaining time and the instructor was standing behind me watching. That way I could put a lot of balls down range and he was there to correct me when I made a mistake. That really helped me learn my common mistakes and what I needed to do to correct them so when I got to the course and the ball did this or that, I knew the corrections to make.
 
While I don't take lessons both my wife and daughter take lessons in 45 minute increments (3x a week for my daughter, 2x a week for my wife). They generally warm up 15 minutes beforehand and will spend 15 to 20 minutes post lesson working on what came out of that session. Their instructors are of the opinion that time must be alloted on the front and back end of a lesson, keeping it under an hour seems to work well with this plan.
 
I've seen both sides of this coin. The lessons that I use to give were usually an hour long, but when you have a 1/2 hour, my students tend to stay focused more. So, my vote (unless you have a long drive, like Miller Time mentioned) is the 1/2 hour lesson. Then, if you can, work on your own with what you were taught for the other 1/2 hour.
 
JB said:
Mine were 30 minutes. Usually ran to about 40. Then I immediately practiced what I learned for an additional 20 minutes.

I actually liked that set up. The cost was the same for me, but got twice as many days in front of my teacher.

If you have access to practice to go along with the lessons, 30 minutes can be good. Gives you a chance to in grain something small each time.
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I agree. Most of the ones I've taken over the years were around 30 to 45 minutes followed by range time on your own.
 
I like the way Golftec does it. Sign up for a lesson 30 minutes the follow that with the 30 minute practice session. I've had hour lessons in the past. I find I need the short duration instruction and plenty of practice to fully get what the lesson was for.
 
T2GRN18 said:
I like the way Golftec does it. Sign up for a lesson 30 minutes the follow that with the 30 minute practice session. I've had hour lessons in the past. I find I need the short duration instruction and plenty of practice to fully get what the lesson was for.
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Me too...just didnt like price tag
 
mikedean441 said:
Me too...just didnt like price tag
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Yeah it's a rough pill to swallow. I made the decision to hold off on buying new clubs for going through their program. Got crazy lucky with the Grandaddy and it's worked out.
 
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