Certifications Matter, Exclusive Survey Shows (Part II of II)

Oct 14, 2020 | News

By David Gould, Staff Editor

Earlier this week on our website’s News page we posted initial results of an exclusive survey on coaching certifications. With this followup post we complete the process of reporting what Proponent members stated about certifications in their survey questionnaires. You can refer back to the News post from Monday by opening the archive file titled “Certifications Mean a Lot to Coaches, Exclusive Survey Shows (Part I of II).”

That earlier article focused on which programs had proven most popular with members over recent years, and which programs were yet to be experienced by the respondent but ranked highest on his or her to-do list.

Here we summarize the satisfaction levels expressed by members who have become certified in the various programs. To that end, the questionnaire specifically asked if a given program “significantly added to your skill set,” secondly, if it “somewhat or strongly enhanced your reputation,” and, thirdly, if it could be called “a good or outstanding value” for the time and money spent on it.

As to our question on skill enhancement, the top 10 programs from that standpoint, based on the percentage of members who answered “yes,” were as follows:

  • SAM PuttLab  64%
  • Golfpsych (Graham/Stabler)  60%
  • Forces and Motion (Cheetham/MacKenzie)  60%
  • Frankly Putting (Frank Thomas)  60%
  • US Kids Golf  56%
  • The Fluid Motion Factor  56%
  • The Golfing Machine  55%
  • Aimpoint Technologies (Mark Sweeney)  44%
  • Skilled Coaching Alliance (Wu/Dunigan)  43%
  • Jacobs 3D  43%

In judging which programs had enhanced the coach’s reputation with students and peers, these were the 10 that respondents specified:

  • Stack & Tilt Authorized Instructor  100%
  • The Putt Doctor (Dr. Craig Farnsworth)  100%
  • Operation 36   94%
  • Vision54   90%
  • Golfpsych (Graham/Stabler)   90%
  • Aimpoint Technologies (Mark Sweeney)   89%
  • TrackMan University   88%
  • The Plane Truth (Jim Hardy)   88%
  • US Kids Golf   82%
  • SAM PuttLab   82%

Our bang-for-the-buck question asked which certification programs represented solid value in light of the effort and dollars expended. Topping the list were these 10:

  • Vision54  100%
  • Flatstick (David Orr)  100%
  • Wright Balance (Dr. David Wright)  100%
  • The Plane Truth (Jim Hardy)  100%
  • Skilled Coaching Alliance (Wu/Dunigan)  100%
  • Jacobs 3D  100%
  • The Putt Doctor (Dr. Craig Farnsworth)  100%
  • TrackMan University   93%
  • Aimpoint Technologies (Mark Sweeney)   93%
  • US Kids Golf   92%

Among programs that showed up on more than one of three lists was, most prominently, Aimpoint Technologies and US Kids Golf, which made all three lists. Programs showing up on two of the lists included Vision54, SAM PuttLab, The Putt Doctor, Jacobs 3D and Jim Hardy’s program, The Plane Truth. There’s a case to be made that putting-oriented certifications stood out as a sub-category with particular appeal to the respondents, seemingly indicating in hard numbers the undeniable value of putting to the lowering of golf scores.

Click here for the full results of all 35 certification programs that met our minimum threshold of 4 percent of respondents having completed.