Measure the Same Way Every Time

The premise: a number is only progress if it was taken the same way twice. The assess → train → retest → adjust loop depends entirely on the retest being comparable — same tests, same conditions, same standards.

Change the warm-up, the time of day, the surface, the cue, or the scoring standard, and the second number measures the change in method rather than the change in the golfer. Worse, it is indistinguishable from real progress, so it quietly corrupts every decision made downstream of it.

Standardization is what turns an assessment into evidence. It is also what lets one coach hand a golfer to another without losing the thread.

Coach Application:

• Record the conditions alongside the score, not just the score.
• Retest on the same protocol even when you suspect a better one exists — change it at a cycle boundary, and note the change.
• Do not coach a test immediately before administering it.
• When a result looks surprising, check the method before rewriting the program.