Information Overload

During a lesson with one of my students I couldn't help but notice a distinctive change in his rhythm. He was also taking the club too far inside creating a too flat swing plane for his 6 foot 2 inch stature. He was complaining of hitting fat shots that were going right of the target. After inquiring he confessed reading an article that convinced him he wasn't coiling his shoulders enough during his backswing. Aha ! Now I knew the reason for this contorted movement he was attempting to make. Forty five minutes later we had his swing path and plane corrected and he was hitting straight, solid shots once again.
Just out of curiosity I picked up the lastest issue of a golf magazine and read no less than nineteen swing tips to help you play better. Now imagine I wanted to learn how to throw a baseball or shoot a basketball, but first I'm given nineteen different directives on how to do this correctly. The last time I put a stopwatch on a baseball pitcher, a basketball player or a golfer it took about one and 1 /2 seconds for them to complete their throwing, shooting or swinging motion. Can you imagine what they would look like if I gave them multiple directives to perform during that short time?
Unfortunately this is exactly what is happening to many golfers after a winter of reading their favorite publications loaded with all the latest breakthroughs in the golf swing. The golf swing hasn't changed over the years - only the amount of information available to golfers.
My first recommendation is to put the instructional magazines down. My second is see you golf professional and let him or her determine what areas of your game need attention. One thing I have learned through years of teaching is the less thinking we do during the swing the more success we have.