OUR PHILOSOPHY
When I started teaching professionally in 1987, I made my hobby into my way of living by doing what I enjoyed the most – teaching others to play better golf. I was a decent player at that time, and was constantly asked by my friends to have a “look at my swing”, “what do you think?”, “why am I not hitting it straight? It was a challenge which I enjoyed tremendously, and I considered it an honor to be asked by already good players to help them to become even better players. I guess I had a good eye, considering that my technical knowledge was very simple to say the least. I was able to help, and most importantly, they trusted me. I had an instinct and was able to relate to different players with different needs and expectations. It all sounds like I am rather indulging myself with an ego trip to boost my career. Yes, I had confidence and a good eye – two key elements necessary for anyone aspiring to become a teacher, but these attributes alone were not enough by far for me to become a complete teacher.
One of the many things I have learnt on this long journey is that confidence and a good eye serves the teacher but not necessarily the student. I have learnt that to help a student, the teacher has to bring the message across, communicating with the student on their own wavelength, taking into consideration multiple factors from the students DNA. I have also learnt that in most cases students have more to say than I do, the information they share with me is more important than mine to them. I have also learnt that the student doesn’t belong to the teacher, they are merely stopping by at our small cantine to take a refreshment on their long journey. We, the teachers, just hope that the refreshment we give them helps to keep them on the right path to become successful at what they are doing by getting better.
The Academy´s teaching philosophy is represented in our logo. Having said that it can represent anything you want it to; for some it looks like a tee at the moment of impact, others see a leaning bull’s head…..imagination lies at the heart of all great projects. We see the synergy between student and the teacher leading to a wider river representing the evolution of the student.
Chema Andrade
Golf Academy Director
