As most of my regular readers know, I often have the opportunity to visit with local PGA Teaching Professionals to learn more about their instructional styles and what they have to offer golfers in the Chicagoland area. This past weekend I have the opportunity to visit with PGA Professional Kyle Rich, the Director of Instruction of the Kyle Rich Golf Academy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvEneMrAM_A]

Located at Bogies Indoor Golf in Downers Grove, IL., Kyle Rich has been instructing in the Chicago area for quite a while and has made quite the name for himself in the process. Most of his instruction takes part on a golf simulator in a training area of Bogies and includes many state-of-the-art training tools to help golfers of any level improve his or her game quickly and efficiently.

One thing I found most impressive was the fact that Rich focuses his instruction on the physical capabilities of each individual golfer. In other words, Rich is able to adapt his training methodologies and tools to the player as opposed to somehow forcing the player to fit into a preconceived template of instruction. This not only helps the player become comfortable with Rich's instruction, but it also provides the player instant feedback to changes introduced to their 'normal swing'.

Furthermore, Rich prefers to help golfers improve their games gradually as opposed to force-feeding a ton of mechanical adjustments or introducing a flurry of swing thoughts all at once. I found this to be most beneficial during my one-hour session.

As part of my lesson, Rich also set me up with the K-Vest; a valuable biofeedback tool not normally seen used by many teaching professionals in the Chicago area. K-Vest's cutting-edge technology enables professionals to stay at the forefront of the very competitive golf performance industry by providing the player audio and visual feedback on virtually every movement of their golf swing. While this was not my first exposure to the K-Vest, I was most impressed with Rich's use of the audio feedback function to show my where my shoulder turn should be in relation to my overall posture. When I placed my shoulders in the proper position at the top of my backswing, the K-Vest system played a tone to cue that I had been successful in my takeaway.

Kyle Rich proved to be extremely personable throughout the lesson and certainly knows his stuff when it comes to teaching the golf swing. He exhibits an obviously vast knowledge in the mechanics of the swing and has the uncommon talent to convey complex mechanics in a manner that any golfer can clearly understand. Additionally, Rich moves at the pace of the student and frequently checks to ensure the player fully understands each new element introduced during the lesson. This is extremely valuable for the student and shows that Rich takes a serious, player-centered approach to his instruction.

The video at the beginning of this post shows a few highlights of my time spent with Kyle Rich. As you can see, we covered a great deal of information in one hour. I hope to visit Rich again in the near future to keep my game fine-tuned.

For pricing options and packages, please visit the Bogies Indoor Golf website. Kyle Rich is available by appointment only and can be reached by dialing 630-853-1326, or via email at kylerichgolfacademy@yahoo.com.