How should I introduce Golf to my child?

30th October 2008

posted in Golfing Articles |

What age is recommended? What basics should I introduce first? Any specific books/videos you recommend? What kind of drills are most useful when teaching a young one?

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There are currently 2 responses to “How should I introduce Golf to my child?”

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1 On November 1st, 2008, gladerade said:
In introducing a child to golf, or any game for that matter, don’t worry about drills or any big formal training. Just take them out and let them try, teaching them just the basics they would need to know — which for golf would be basically that they swing the club and hit the ball.

You can start them as young as they start to show an interest, and don’t overlook those big plastic kids play toys. While not real golf clubs, they are a lot cheaper than the real thing and still enforce the basics of swinging the club.

When you’re ready to progress to real golf clubs, try just going to a driving range and using their clubs and don’t overlook minature golf for working on putting skills. A real golf course with its vast size can be intimidating at first, but if the child has shown it can consistently hit the ball at the range, go for it.

And if the child is still enjoying things at this point, it’s probably time to finally consider bringing in training and drills and — unless you are a scratch golfer and a teacher — I would recommend bringing in a professional, who will be better suited to see where your child’s game has problems and figure out the best way to work on them without having an adverse effect on the things they are doing right. Just remember, children’s natural swings (be it golf, baseball or whatever) tend to be more closer to correct than what we start to do as adults, because after watching other people play and hearing all the talk on TV about how his pro does this or this is good and this is a problem, we try to make our swings match … and often those things we’re told are right for one person are wrong for us.

The biggest key is not to try and force anything on the child. If you push too hard, they probably won’t have fun and, if they don’t have fun they won’t stick with any activity. Look at Tiger Woods … he played early on, but he also has talked about how much he enjoys doing it. You generally never hear top level athletes, or even just casual athletes, talk about they’re playing the game because their parents pushed them into it, but because of how much they love and enjoy it.

posted on November 1st, 2008 at 5:11 am
2 On November 3rd, 2008, imalisap said:
one swing at a time. Be sure to make it fun, there are two rules to golf 1. make sure you have fun. 2. always see rule number 1. this advise comes from a golfing family, the one thing NOT to teach your child is to throw the club and beat the ground. remember FUN FUN FUN

posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 11:16 pm