Our Nation's Future In Golf...Our Junior
Players! Where have all our athletes gone?
By: Mindi Boysen, TPI CGFI
Are you thinking about enrolling your child into a Junior Golf Program this
summer? Then here are a few questions you
should ask before choosing your school and writing the check:
1. Do your instructors have any athletic knowledge besides golf?
2. Will you be focusing on other fundamental movement skills while my child
is here?
3. How will I know what stage of development my child is in when your
clinics are over?
4. Will my child have fun and be doing things to make him/her feel good?
5. How many balls will my child hit repetitively?
The problem with many Junior Golf Schools of the past and even today is
that they focus solely on the golf swing. This is
considered very one dimensional when most of the hours are spent “raking”
and “beating” balls
repetitively….sometimes leading to horseplay or boredom and most always
exhaustion and irritation for both the kids
AND the instructor. Unfortunately, some schools turn out to be little more
than expensive babysitting and the
instructors may not have any experience with teaching and relating to
children.
Recently there has been much research on early childhood and athletic
development. The Titleist Performance
Institute’s (TPI) philosophy of junior golf is very simple: Junior golf
schools need to develop fundamental movement
skills, establish functional movement patterns, develop sport specific
skills, teach golf-specific skills, and most
importantly create a love for the game.
A famous coach once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” A
child’s physical literacy should not and cannot be left
up to chance. When a child has not been taught the proper skills, adult
recreational activities later in life may be less
than stellar, non-gratifying, even leading to injury. That is where the
Long Term Athletic Development (LTAD) model
comes in. The LTAD approach focuses on having kids perform age-appropriate
skill acquisition drills to maximize their
athletic potential. It progressively gets more complicated and more
specialized as the athlete develops and reaches the
next level. For each stage, there is a corresponding phase of athletic
training.
So what does all this mean to you as a parent?
If your desire is to have your child play golf and become great at it, then
expose your child to other activities as well.
Junior golfers under the age of 11 should focus on mastering the
fundamental movement skills (FMS). FMS are general
patterns of movement such as: running, hopping, skipping, leaping,
bounding, agility, balance, coordination, speed,
throwing, kicking, and catching. If a child doesn’t fully develop his
fundamental movement skills and jumps straight to
sport-specific skills, he will miss out on the foundation of MANY sports.
So, when you are shopping for junior golf schools, most definitely pay
attention to the skills acquisition for the sport of
golf (putting, chipping, full swing, course management, rules). They are
VERY important and the reason it is called a
“golf school”. But, don’t hesitate to ask what that school can offer your
child as a complete athlete.
In a sport development study in 2002, Cote & Hay divided a child’s athletic
progression into three categories:
Sampling Years (Learning To Play): This early experience with organized
sport usually occurs in the 6-12 age group.
These are the years of exposure to a wide range of activities. The main
focus is fun and enjoyment while learning skills
through “deliberate play” that is NOT necessarily guided by adults. As a
child finds “favorite” activities on his own, he
may start “dropping out” of certain sports or moving onto the second phase
with that sport.
Specializing Years (Training To Play): This second phase typically happens
during the 13th-15th years of age. The range
of sports reduces to one-three sports and focus turns less from fun and
enjoyment to a more competitive spirit. This is
where the lessons of winning and losing play a huge part. Training &
playing is deliberate and guided to further sports
skills.
Investment Years (Train To Compete & Excel): The third phase is where a
certain sport is chosen for intensive training
and competition at the regional/state/national levels and can start as
early as the age of 16. It is important to keep in
mind during this phase that deliberate practice is a must and sense of
balance physically, mentally, and emotionally is
key.
If you invest in your child’s athletic development as a whole during the
Sampling Years (6-12) and the Specializing Years
(13-15), your “investment” may well pay off in the Investment Years (16+).
As a parent, you are a very powerful influence on not only your child’s
athletic development, but your child’s athletic
attitude as well. Be patient and become informed by asking questions of
coaches and schools. Your child will look to
you for guidance and support often. By understanding the progressive stages
of development, you can help ensure that
your child’s experience with sports is a positive one.
Mindi Boysen has her Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education from
Indiana University of PA. She is a TPI Level 3
Certified Golf Fitness Instructor and TPI Level 2 Junior Golf Instructor
endorsed by Tatum Ranch Golf Club in Cave Creek, AZ. She has released "Fit
For Golf! Fit For Life!", a golf fitness program on DVD's as well as her
book, Synergistic Golf, outlines each day of the year with golf performance
enhancing tips. You can catch Mindi demonstrating golf specific
exercises on Golf
America TV nationwide. She is also the official fitness partner of the
Arizona Women's Golf Association
and is available for private or group sports conditioning training as well
as seminars and nutritional consultations. For
more information about Mindi...http://www.fitforgolfusa.com.
