(For the next couple days, we'll take a time out from our regularly scheduled blogs to allow Duncan Woolger, a PT Certified Instructor from the UK, provide you a glimpse of his experiences at our first annual Plane Truth Certified Instructor Summit.  Next week, we'll return with part 2 of Chris O'Connell's look at Matt Kuchar's swing.) 

It’s Tuesday the 13th of October and I have travelled 5000 miles to be in a lonely hotel room, albeit a very nice hotel room and it’s raining! Why?  Well, because of Jim Hardy that’s why.

I first heard Jim at the PGA of America’s Teaching and Coaching Summit of 2004. I had come over from the U.K in 2002 and enjoyed it so much that a very small group of Professionals from the UK and Ireland came back for more.  I had enjoyed listening to the great teachers but felt that I hadn’t heard anything ‘NEW’.  "There’s nothing new in golf" was what I often heard.  But on that day, I hadn’t heard anything like what Mr. Hardy said.

He captured me for the whole presentation. George Porter, another Certified Instructor from the UK and I sat there with our mouths wide open thinking “how does he know that?”…and “that’s so true”…and “how do I get more of this?”  When the presentation finished I rushed down to the ever increasing crowd and finally got to one of the assistants saying that I was from England and knew Jim’s mentor John Jacobs.  I was handed a leaflet about 2 day seminars in Scottsdale.

I attended 2 seminars and met Jim at the PGA show in Orlando and I can honestly say that I have not met another Teacher/Coach in golf that has such magnetism and has had an impact on my teaching style and on me as a person that Jim has. It’s the whole package. Everything about The Plane Truth for Golfers, the books, DVDs, website and most importantly the other Coaches, most notably Chris O’Connell, Mike Crisanti, Mike and Sandy LaBauve make it feel like a big family all of which are willing to help each other out and help all golfers understand their golf swings and help them improve very quickly by correcting impact and making it more repeatable.

Unlike a lot of other coaches, you can become a Certified Instructor without having to work at an “Academy”. You have to pass an exam and when you do that you have access to the Matrix which is in my view the biggest most powerful golf swing information portal ever created.

So what’s in store? Three days with Jim and the gang. Learning from who I rate as the best Teacher around along with all of the Plane Truth Family. Working on our games and asking lots of questions. Things you can’t ask in an e-mail.  There are 40 instructors here, so any question I have will be solved. I hope I can help some people out as well.  There are presentations by people that normally we wouldn’t have the chance to spend time with.  Definitely wouldn’t be able to coming from Europe. They are quite simply leaders in their field and I look forward to telling you all about it.

Until then, play well!

Duncan.