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Play Time for Big Kids
Taking the adage of 'All work and no play' to heart, area business people take their avocational pursuits seriously
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Business New Haven
6/23/2003
By: Melissa Nicefaro
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Learning never has to end. And why should it when it can finally be fun? We're not talking the basic reading, writing and arithmetic. We're talking fun learning like golf, flying or fly-fishing.
If you drive by any golf course on a beautiful Friday afternoon, it is crowded with people looking rather relaxed. Shouldn't they be working? Maybe they are - on their swing.
Max Baughan runs the Max Baughan Golf Academy in Branford. He says very few golfers are motivated primarily by competition when they're out on the course.
"Most of them are taking a day off from work and trying to have a good time. Golf is an extremely difficult game. Most people are there to go and have fun."
But they leave the competition in the boardroom.
Baughan says: "It's a tough game to go and have fun with if you're worried about the score you shoot. It doesn't go together. Golf is too difficult. If there are three or four people trying to shoot a good score, the people who are there drinking and having fun are going to get in their way. The two don't mix. The game's too hard and usually those outings are about having fun."
Baughan supports the latter concept - having fun - as opposed to taking the sport - and, by extension, one's self - too seriously. That's not to say you don't want to look like you know what you're doing with a four iron in your hand. That's is where Baughan comes in.
Baughan's golf school offers year-round golf instruction for the beginner through elite golfer and has 30 hitting stations, seven all-weather hitting stations, a practice putting green and a practice sand trap. (Call 203-315-8365 for lesson and package prices.)
Baughan, a PGA pro golfer, offers private or group lessons in the newly built golf center. The center includes an ASTAR computer system for swing analysis and diagnosis of technique. Becoming aware of your swing mechanics and maximizing your golfing ability are key components to Baughan's instruction.
"ASTAR captures each swing and allows us to put models up next to you - different touring professionals to show you what your body looks like at certain times during the swing and what you're trying to do with the golf club versus what a tour player would do," Baughan explains.
The key to an efficient and effective golf swing is using the club correctly, which most people do not, according to the golf instructor.
"We look at the timing of the swing and what you're doing at certain times," explains Baughan. "We'll teach you that if you use it the way it's supposed to be used, it would work much more effectively. That's where pictures help. If you hit the golf ball with the back of the club, you can still hit it, it's not going to go where you want it to go."
Baughan says the best analogy is a hammer. The head of the hammer is the part you're supposed to drive the nails with. It will work if you turn it sideways, or you can use the claw. You'll eventually get the nail in.
"That would be a bad mistake, but the nail would eventually go in. A golf club is the same way. It'll work a lot of different ways, but it won't work effectively unless you use it the way it was designed to be used," Baughan says.
As a teacher, he tries to simplify "how the seers see and feelers feel," and the computer program helps do both, especially for those who work best with visual accompaniment.
"It gives the feeler the picture to go along with it to help create the feel. It's the link that visual people are missing because they can see the beauty of the motion when someone on television swings the golf club. They can feel like they're doing it, but this can teach proper feel more than anything else. It's given us a way to teach feel."
Gary Steinmiller, education chairman for the Connecticut Flyfisherman's Association (CFFA), also teaches the role of "feel" in his sport. He oversees the fly-fishing courses that start in January and wrap up in April, before the fishing season gets underway.
"It's one of those sports where you don't have to be a white-collar worker, and you don't need to be a businessperson, but we do get our share of everyone," Steinmiller explains.
"A good thing about this sport is that everybody gets along together," he says. "There's no age discrimination and it's not competitive at all. It's very relaxing. We have a fellow who took the course because his doctor told him to take the course, that it would get his mind off of everything else, all the stresses of life."
The CFFA sponsors organized trips to Cape Cod and Connecticut waters. Classes include salt- and freshwater fly tying and fly rod instruction. Classes typically run over six weekly evening sessions. Through March there are four weekly classes and lectures on fly-fishing format. (Visit www.ctflyfish.org for class information).
Not everything can be learned in the classroom, of course.
One Saturday in April, students take fly-casting instruction at a pond and on another Saturday in April, instructors and students pair up for more fieldwork - or stream work. CFFA classes are introductory, explains Steinmiller.
"We did offer advanced classes at one time, and I'm sure if we offered advance fly-tying, I could fill the class," he says. "But we take it from the approach that nobody's ever done this before. We introduce people to it and it's up to them, if they get a passion for it, to pursue their passion. Once they learn the basics, as far as the fly-tying, if you watch a video or read a book, you can apply those techniques to more advanced pattern."
Steinmiller says having advanced classes would work; it's just hard to get the volunteers to teach.
"We're there January, February, March and April. When the season comes around, we're ready to fish. But I'll gladly take anybody out. I was out with a student the other night. If they have the passion for it, I'd gladly take them out at any time."
Another instructional discipline that works best one-to-one is aviation training offered at Metro Flight Services based at Hartford's Brainard Airport.
Flight training at Metro Flight is one-on-one. The instructor is intimately involved with the student's progress and will provide assistance in helping the student get her or his flight rating.
With classroom time and airtime utilizing computer-simulated software and other learning tools, Metro offers a comprehensive and attractive aviation-training program for roughly $40 per hour.
Metro Flight instructor Henry Zalegowski says even classroom training is one-to-one.
"Flight training is more like an apprenticeship rather than a formal classroom setup. You probably spend three times as many hours reading and learning as you do flying to get a certificate," Zalegowski says.
Roughly 30 percent of the people who come for flying lessons are business people with nothing more than a hobby in mind. Zalegowski says quite a few teachers take flying lessons in the summer months.
For some people, developing the skills to fly safely can take six months. Others take a year or more to earn a certificate to fly solo.
Says Zalegowski: "They go along at their own rate and as they have time available. Some manage to set aside four weeks and come down and get their license in four weeks. There was a woman last year who did it in 13 days"
There is an FAA-mandated minimum number of hours a student is required to fly with an instructor, but that's not what the license is based on. Students must pass a practical test, and the length of time it takes to get to that level of competence varies from student to student. Once in a while somebody might get it on his or her second try, but most pass the first time.
Though a certification or license is involved at the end of flight training, unlike in golf or fly-fishing, the "hobby" suits the same needs: avocational learning.
Both beginners and advanced golfers benefit from a learning environment. In aviation or fly-fishing, it's a matter of focusing and learning technique. In golf, it's very difficult for someone to change fundamental swing mechanics based on how their body moves, according to Baughan.
"Unfortunately, what it takes to change a physical motion is not always what it seems. What's important is to hit the ball straight. If I get a tour player, he knows how to hit it straight. The problem is, he's not able to hit it straight when he's under a tremendous amount of pressure. Sometimes it can be a swing fault that won't let him hit it straight when he's under pressure. Pressure effects timing, tempo and rhythm and if somebody gets quick with their tempo, they're probably not hitting the ball very straight, especially if they're having a major swing fault."
Baughan says one of his biggest concerns is his sports ebbing popularity. Participation is down, and one of the big reasons is economics.
"Golf is not cheap and it's extremely difficult," he says. "Part of what I do is try to make golf easier for people so they don't quit. It's a very difficult game and most people quit because it's too difficult to enjoy."
In Baughan's eyes, golf serves two functions: 1) the golfer gets out of the office to play instead of work; and 2) the challenge of the game itself. On any day, there could be 150 people playing in a tournament. Only about ten percent of them are serious golfers, according to Baughan. "The rest are there to go and have a day and that's a good thing! Four out of five people can't break 100 playing by the rules of golf."
Well, what are summer hours for, anyway?
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