Young Yoda

[6bmike]

very very cool. what no dowels???

[Yoda]

I remember watching some of the Sawgrass video last spring. It's weird - yet encouraging - that the info is exactly the same now as it was almost 25 years ago. While the clothes and hairstyles have been updated, the information remains consistent. Same easel and 'geometry of the circle' illustration as well.

How about that brochure too Lynn? I remember you saying, "How many other instructors today could use their pamphlet from 25 years ago and not have to change a word on it?"

Digging deeper into the box for you, Matt. Hmmm...that brochure is around here somewhere. Hey, while I look, how about this one? As you said, that Circle Geometry ain't changin' any time soon!

[YodasLuke]

Digging deeper into the box for you, Matt. Hmmm...it's around here somewhere. Hey, while I look, how about this one? As you said, that Circle Geometry ain't changin' any time soon!

Who's the strapping young lad with the dark hair?

[Yoda]

Who's the strapping young lad with the dark hair?

Enough of that, young Luke!

I was only 635 years old at the time. And the hair was blond. That B&W photo has an attitude!

[Yoda]

Very Cool Stuff!!

What are those circular things in front of the students? mirrors?

Yes, Milan, those would be mirrors. I got the idea from Paul Bertholy, one of the more famous names in golf instruction in those days, when I trained under him during a three-day course at his home. Below is a September 1983 photo of Paul and me in his back yard near Pinehurst, North Carolina. Note the famed Bertholy Swing Bar in my left hand. And see, Luke, I told you my hair was blond!

Also, I've included another shot of how I trained students using the mirrors. First of all, check out that video set-up. It is commonplace today, but I promise it was 'anything but' in 1982! Students would pose in the Twelve Sections of the Stroke (except Preliminary Address, of course) as I called out the G.O.L.F. alignments and walked around adjusting everybody. Take a look at these guys in Section Eleven -- the Follow-Through (Both Arms Straight position). These are 'average guys' and they look like TOUR players! In the interest of full disclosure, I'm still working on the lady in front. Got to Flatten that Left Wrist and get those Arms extended!

[12 piece bucket]

Digging deeper into the box for you, Matt. Hmmm...it's around here somewhere. Hey, while I look, how about this one? As you said, that Circle Geometry ain't changin' any time soon!

Cool! Do you still have that prop? that is an awesome teaching tool.

[Yoda]

How about that brochure too Lynn? I remember you saying, "How many other instructors today could use their pamphlet from 25 years ago and not have to change a word on it?"

Here we go, Matt. This is my brochure exactly as it was printed in 1982. Every word is there, and I wouldn't change one. No need to!

Notice that Young Yoda in the large photo is Swinging with Horizontal Hinging. How can you tell? The toe of that Club is pointing right along the Plane Line.

There is one other thing that I thought was very important (and still do). Homer Kelley had trademarked the names Star System of G.O.L.F. and Star System Press,and he specifically approved my proprietary use of the name Star System Schools of Golf. I personally designed and had printed the brochure you see. Even so, my own name is mentioned only once in the entire piece...in small type at the bottom of the last page within an address block.

It was my intention that the brochure serve a world-wide network of competent Instructors and that each individual personalize it for his or her own marketing purposes. Even then I knew that Homer's work is far bigger than any one person or any one life and that it will take an army to take its message to the Golf World. Whether heralded as The Golfing Machine or some specific application of same, its concepts, principles and procedures will one day dominate the world of golf instruction. It is not a question of if...it is a question of when.

[Yoda]

Here are a few more photos from my second TGM school (winter 1982). I conducted it at my home...in the living room (actually the den) and in the back yard. The captions (in order):

1. Demonstrating Vertical Hinge Action with the model I built from Homer's plans.

2. As I was making some obviously important point to the class, Doug White is look, LOOK LOOKING!

3. My own not-too-stable version of the Inclined Plane.

4. Doug really got into the program. He actually built a plane board that he kept in his garage. And that was long before anybody ever heard of a plane board. Doug was a 16-handicap when he signed up for the class. Some eighteen months later, in the fall of 1983, he was down to a 4-handicap and shot a one-under par 71 in a club competition on a true Championship layout. Doug's 63-years-old now and still limping along with that 4 (although he went as low as 3 before Father Time started doing his thing). Moral of the story? With diligent application of precision TGM principles and procedures, progress can be very rapid...and permanent.

Those were the days, my friends...

[ChrisNZ]

So cool Yoda! So Cool.

One day I'm going to build a plane board - pictures like these go into my motivation incubator.

Chris

[Yoda]

So cool Yoda! So Cool.

One day I'm going to build a plane board - pictures like these go into my motivation incubator.

Chris,

I notice the little home-made device you've got in your avatar. Interestingly, I took a snapshot of Homer Kelley demonstrating the Flying Wedges with clapped hands. I had Greg McHatton, a fellow class member and now a GSED and PGA teaching professional in California, put some cardboard in the same configuration as your avatar device to demonstrate the relationships. I'll see if I can't find that photo and put it up.