Junior Golf

HOW TO START YOUR CHILD IN GOLF?

I am often asked questions about junior coaching. For instance, what is the right age to start? How much coaching should children have? Should it be group coaching or individual? Here are a few guidelines that I give to parents when asked these questions. The first thing to remember is that golf is a very difficult game to learn and does not come naturally to even the most gifted sportsmen and women. There are very few top players that made their way to the top without professional instruction, and for the select few that have, they probably had to spend triple the practice time in the trial and error of finding a consistent swing.

Before children pick up a real golf club, it is best for them to learn the art of turning the shoulders and striking a ball with a tennis racket or something similar, using two hands on the grip and striking a ball with a big headed racket or bat. This is a lot easier than hitting a ball with a small club head. Even throwing a ball will teach children weight transference and a certain feel of whip from the arms and hands that is very relevant to the golf swing. When I used to give junior clinics in the UK, for the first lesson I would always ask the children in the group to pick up a few balls and throw them as far as they could down the practice ground. It was interesting to see that the children who threw the ball the furthest were always the longest hitters at the end of the lesson course.

My idea in starting kids into this game is simple but proven. Firstly, let them strike a ball with something other than a golf club like a racket or bat, play some catch with them, so they learn to throw a ball with a little bit of power and then they are ready to start golf.

The most common way I see kids starting golf is at the local junior coaching class probably being taken by the trainee instructor with 8 or more children in the class. The other way I see children introduced to the game is just to let them hit balls at the range with no formal coaching. This leads to guaranteed bad habits and possible injury especially if clubs are too heavy. Rather than the common practice of the trainee instructor teaching the junior classes, it should be the responsibility of the head coach to give the first time lessons to get the kids off to the most correct introduction to the game especially whilst their minds have no preconceived ideas of how to play this game.

When I started in this game I had played football, tennis and cricket all before starting on golf. I took a ? hour individual lesson from the head pro every 1 or 2 weeks that gave me just enough information to make the game seem fun and made me want to practice ready for the next session. I was taught to setup properly, turn my body, hinge my wrists and found a sense of rhythm to my swing fairly early on. I did attend a few large group classes which were fun and I made friends with other junior golfers but I don't think I actually learnt much game changing technique in that environment.

Without a sense of improvement, the initial wow factor in this game will soon wear off leaving children bored and wanting to try something different. I believe that group lessons are only a supplement to golf tuition and should be treated as supervised practice as opposed to proper instruction but can be useful in making the game fun and holding interest of the game in kids.

I hope this helps for any parent thinking about introducing their children to this game.

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