How Lydia Ko And Michelle Wie Were RUINED By This Person

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Loved by few, hated by many... David Leadbetter has undeniably developed a legendary status on the golf course. His technical expertise and innovative approach to the golf swing made him an iconic figure... But what was once celebrated and sought after has tragically become known as a curse: Lead Poisoning. It's incredible how everything this coach gets involved with seems to turn sour! And is this really true? The man who was once hailed as the best golf coach is now being accused of ruining the careers of his trainees? Can you believe it?
Watch next - The incredible story of Paula Creamer
• How Paula Creamer Left...
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#michellewie #lydiako #lpgatour

[@ESNGOLF]

Road to 10k subs⏳Please subscribe if you liked this video! ❤

[@沙沙的鱼]

Coach of Lydia Ko’s young age said in interview recently after her won that it is surprisingly to see her swing didn’t change much from she was junior. I kind of believe the fall of several young talents are more due to psychological pressure than technical changes.

[@martinbyrne715]

100 percent agree, good coaches work "with" you. It was Faldos' choice to completely rebuild his swing. Let me say Ian Baker -Finch, sought out Leadbetter & went from Open champion to comentator.

[@kmwrites7456]

Lydia Ko's gold medal at the 2024 Olympics and the recent AIG Open win shows she knew how to adjust her swing again. .

[@nicklee5324]

You are correct!! This guy ruins kids swing. Don’t go there!

[@jimlake9333]

I'm kiwi so I remember Lydia as precocious 12 y o. Great short game and a deadly reliable lil fade for long shots. That fade was in her DNA but she had to change it to keep up. She has a better more powerful swimg now... but changing was always going to take years rather than months. Good to see her hold her nerve down the stretch and get home for gold.

[@don66776]

Lydia still has the fade, sometimes slight & sometimes more pronounced when necessary. Certainly looked like that during the AIG Open. Let's hope her old swing style is back. Her magic is back 🤞

[@cryptoengineer9930]

There are massive issues in coaching; more have been destroyed than fixed over the years on all the tours. Usually, the real fix is small, and then it's confidence that matters. Coaches want to make a name for themselves and then reap the paydays. Golf really is a simple game, and that's what great champions make it.

[@cameronjohn604]

Many years ago I worked under the number 1 coach in Canada (as a student). A number of his students later went on to the PGA Tour and all of them became winners on tour also. I will avoid name dropping. It wouldn't be hard to find out what players I'm referring too as 3 of them are all from the same area in Western Canada. I had a very unique swing in that my head rotated so quickly through impact that when you paused my swing on video I wasn't even close to, "keeping my head still." As conventional wisdom says. I would almost be looking down the fairway at impact. I HATED it. I didn't hate the results, because I could strike a ball with the best players in the world. I had tremendous natural talent. My coach was absolutely in love with my swing. I voiced my hatred for my head move stating, "It doesn't look like how Tiger and my favorite players swing." I was a big Hunter Mahan fan. My coach refused to change it. He was so blown away at my raw ability to hit a ball he didn't dare touch such an unusual move. In fact, to convince me otherwise, he stated, "there's only 2 other players in the world that have that move, Annika Sorenstam, and David Duval, and I think they did okay." As it turned out I was one of his favorite students of all time because of the unique action that I had. It produced stunning ball striking results. I would often see him coaching a regular golfer and he would be staring at me and watching me hit balls while teaching, almost mesmerized. He was truly blown away by my ability. Coaching is a touchy business. I think it's part science, and part art. It can be a very tricky balance. For those wondering, I went on to play in the United States on scholarship (against the wishes of my coach, he wanted me to skip all that and turn pro immediately). I got an education in business and economics and after seeing what the long, uncertain, and grueling path of pro golf was like, I chose a different career path. Seeing my counterparts on TV winning on the PGA Tour always brings a smile to my face. I know just how good those guys are, and they are THAT good. The difference between a "scratch" player and a world class tour player is MASSIVE. One of the things I noticed about these world class players was their demeanor. They had a calmness to them that was hard to explain. Yet, they exuded confidence in silence somehow. Kind of hard to explain but if you know you know. If they were wearing regular clothes and had a ball cap on, you would walk by them on the street and not even blink. There was nothing exceptional about them, they are just like you and me. So looking back, just to be around and be exposed to the best players Canada has to offer was a real fortunate experience. It was an incredible opportunity. Moral of the coaching story: If you find yourself an ultra talented player, try not to mess it up! The best players often have some kind of glitch in their move. It could be small, it could be big (Jim Furyk), but it's there. Figure out what's fundamental, and what's uniqueness. Don't confuse the two. Cheers

[@derekwhyle1884]

Is that the same Lydia Ko who’s just won the Olympic gold medal ?

[@paulwebster2616]

Yup

[@JJG86]

Yup, she has earned enough points to be added to the LPGA Hall of Fame.

[@mbrum3230]

How doed that undermine the point of the video? Smh.

[@dylanpritchard498]

@@mbrum3230 The video undermines itself by having the caption “Abused” as its banner.

[@920_Ly]

Yeah but Leadbetter messed up Lydia Kos swing so bad. He taught the A swing to Lydia Ko and it was hideous. Michelle Wie was hitting longer at age 16 then once she switched to David Leadbetter she was hitting shorter? Lol David literally ruined their swings. Just glad Lydia got her swing back.

[@chucksprenger7938]

I watch Wie 12 years ago at mission Hills and her dad was watching her also. I made the statement near her dad that led better had screwed her up. I also told Lydia's caddie to not let anyone screw with her swing he said her parents won't let that happen but it did. Very interesting that this video agrees with me after all these years

[@wesleychun3058]

He did not take into effect the human body, young athletes still growing and developing. He restricted growth with the mechanics forced on them. Injuries occurred, and then the downfall.

[@fu8713]

Don’t change a athletes natural abilities. Add to it don’t ruined what they do naturally, I seen it many times in many different sports

[@JetStream3D]

harsh. As a parent of an elite junior golfer, I can confirm golf is an exceedingly difficult sport and takes a village to succeed. Swing coach is critical.

[@andyss5582]

Yup, knew who it was before starting the video. He flat out wrecked Wie and set Ko way back. When I saw Wie wearing rolls of KT tape, it was a sign. For both, he was changing their swings in ways which were physically debilitating.

[@MrZola1234]

Michelle Wei was probably the greatest under 16 player ever... male or female.... it is a shame she did not become a HOF golfer. I'm not so sure she was ruined by a coach... her biggest issue seems to have been her putting. Tee to green she probably is a top 5 best player in the history of women's golf.... even with letbetter

[@gerrykelly2440]

Wie was ruined by her parents forcing her down a path to the men's game. Leadbetter is a swing coach not a head coach. You may not like him but he has had many successful students. I think I see a lawsuit coming!

[@spacefieldtime]

In Leadbetters original book, he talks of the "power whip" a move not the A swing move to shallow the club. Look at Faldos upper body through impact, perfection. In todays track man straight ball world, its hard to produce club head speed with this move, and players just need to stay flexible and be able rotate through the ball. Its 2024 not 1996.

[@joeraiwalui4893]

Yes I can say that too he ruined most of the top golfers swing and their carriers, and dont forget Nick Faldo was already one of the best golfer in the world before he joined David Ledbetter and he nearly ruined his golfing career before they partway's.

[@sms9106]

So I take it you don't like David Ledbetter?

[@Jerpavoo]

It can happen to any golfer with an unfamiliar coach or technique. Try to improve an already fundamentally sound swing and thing can easily go awry. By changing an even small part, it will effect the entity like a chain reaction. Golf is about finding your best swing not somebody elses.

[@BorneoTWGolf]

I think this video content make sense in the way. And most important thing that changing swing is also the risk to loose your feel and need to get use to the new move and get the feel and timing to get back. Why they is so many swing and the all the professional able to play? Because their feel and timing is good enough to hit to the target and score low.

[@hjmahaleh1382]

Yes him. Rather than fine tune theirs swing, he change them or modified

[@whodouthinkuare]

Fascinating video. Who is Leadbetter coaching now?

[@ESNGOLF]

Thank you! Appreciate the support:)

[@johntatum1951]

He is obsessed with his own techiniques...golf is not static...there are many ways to play...just look at Scottie Scheffler, Mo Norman, and Bryson DeChambeau, for examples...:) I am so sorry Michelle and Lydia had to go through the Ledbetter crap.

[@ejherrera8419]

I was saying this as soon as I had heard Lydia Ko signed up with this guy! He has ONE swing he teaches and if the golfer cannot move to make it happen it leads to injuries, Michelle Wie, and terrible play, both Wie & Ko! More people, I mean golf swing coaches, need to follow the Titleist Performance Institute philosophy. Which is there’s no one way to swing a club! But there are certain biomechanical processes that do occur and n an efficient swing!

[@shrimboi8909]

Golf is fukin' hard....

[@exitar1]

If you’re the number one player in the world don’t change your swing….

[@mayaturaibu1176]

good coach no change swing just fix or add something. and A swing is not for everyone.

[@korocam9137]

These types of videos do not age well.. you never know what is around the corner for a player.

[@MichaelEnright-gk6yc]

Harsh comments More top line player's have come to the LPGA blaming it all leadbetter. They wanted more distance because the new player's were getting longer an better.

[@tompem]

talk to Nick Price and Nick Faldo....

[@fredpierce6097]

This blame game is too convenient in terms is shifting responsibility away from the golfers. The option was always there to part company at the first sign of a troubled relationship. There was some sort of psychological weakness involved……

[@edwinsng6730]

Maybe Leadbetter has to use a different set of coaching strategies for "Ladies" golfers simply because men golfers have no issues but only ladies.

[@stbasil2135]

To be fair, most of rhe high profile coaches are guilty of the same thing....they try to clone golfers with their unsubstantiated technical dogma. X-factior constrained swing planes, body animated swings, etc.

[@sepetisionelatu5539]

He ruin more than these two girls

[@johningle1]

Dude is 72. The game has changed.

[@alann5003]

Wie's swing was so beautiful before. After Leadbetter it became ugly and Mechanical. Should have kept her childhood swing coach.

[@breeze787]

Many moons ago when I first heard Michelle Wie hiring Leadbetter and noticing weird changes to Michelles's swing and her subsequent poor play I was screaming "fire" him! I can't remember why I felt that Leadbetter was not a good coach but I was already wary of his golf lessons to be ineffective. Stay away from this guy he'll instill more issues than solutions.

[@Bangshinsil]

It's not his fault. It's their parents' fault 😂😂😂😂

[@chin49]

I think he ruined Michelle Wie, Lydia Ko and the Song twins.

[@tigerkahoy3822]

He probably did want to win the color women

[@SungHoAhn-ly4nh]

Ruined career? And still in the Hall of Fame ?

[@davidharrison4632]

A very good in depth video and I agree with most of the points mentioned. I've been playing and watching golf since the days of Faldo and yes David Leadbetter did great work with Sir Nick and a few other players of the game but his teachings are too technical as pointed out and that don't work for everyone. In the case of Michelle, I think it was a two point issue. 1. Was her parents - pushing her too soon and saw Michelle as a money machine which when she turned pro she was. 2. Leadbetter himself - Michelle had a great natural game, she got too technical and that is why injuries happened. It's a real shame that Michelle retired to start a family and is happy and I am happy for her. Lydia has been amazing recently a gold medallist and now winning the AIG Women's Open at St. Andrews and beating the world number 1 Nelly Korda to do it is something. In a way Lydia did the right thing and is now reaping the rewards. Both will be seen as legends of the game even though questions will still be What if? Both will still be two of my favourite players of the game no doubt. all's left to say is Good Golf ^_^

[@ESNGOLF]

Spot on! Thanks for your support by the way. It's much appreciated!

[@yejogolf]

Great video! Terrible coach..

[@ESNGOLF]

Thank you. We appreciate your support!

[@TomlinsonGodfery-k7x]

Thomas Anna Garcia Melissa Lee Jennifer

[@rustycockering9925]

Countless pro golfers who were at the top have plummeted. David Leadbetter is a legend in golf instruction.

[@teressaabbott855]

Don't fix something that's not broke

[@VanLe-hq5ni]

Lead poisoning is true

[@eric496312]

I didn't listen to the podcast other than to know this ESN is not worth listening to or watching. They talk garbage

[@BartonSebastiane-p8p]

Walker Ronald Moore Mark Thomas Jennifer

[@bigal7561]

Leadbetter should be banned from teaching golf or at least be sued for destroying one of the greatest swing (Wie) I've ever seen. He's a joke

[@JJG86]

You don’t have a clue. Ko is now going to the LPGA HOF. I bet you didn’t know that.

[@maryrosepoi5748]

Yeah! and the best so far, she out played her opponents in the 2024 Olympics winning gold, and now the AIG elites.

[@user-zk4sj6jb5m]

Wie couldn’t putt 🙄

[@bobbucks]

Something about a video with a pic of two deep cleavages and sinister music every time a particular person is shown makes me not trust it. More like propaganda than a historical story.

[@smoozerish]

Leadbetter is and has always been a con man touting a con man swing.

[@Carmine_Gallo]

Michelle and Lyds had the most natural, beautiful swings ..... until they met Leadbetter the snake oil salesman.

[@JJG86]

Are you really that stupid. Lydia is now going to the HOF.