Fred Shoemaker is a golf teacher of a rather different stripe. He isn’t so much into instructing on the mechanics of the swing, although that is certainly included in his schools, but in his students learning how to connect with their golfing soul, so to speak. Shoemaker’s method has a Socratic turn to it. He believes there must be a dialogue between the student and the coach, a term he prefers over teacher. He doesn’t want his students to simply listen and do as told, but to ask questions, question the answers, and in the final analysis become self-taught golfers who learn through their own experience, their own sense of self, and become their own best teacher. The concept has a celestial thrust, but on a practical level is a worthy goal if only because golfers must recognize when their swing or concentration is not going well and then have the wherewithal to correct the problems in the midst of a round.
In this interview we discover how Fred came to this method of instruction, but perhaps more importantly, why he embraces it.