LEARN TO PLAY
Boys 9-12 // Girls 8-11
OBJECTIVES:
Continue to develop fundamental movement skills and start to develop fundamental golf skills.
LEARN TO PLAY CHECKLIST:
✔ Further develop all fundamental movement skills and teach general, fundamental golf skills. Otherwise, a significant window of opportunity is lost, compromising the ability of the young golfer to reach their full potential.
✔ Develop strength using exercises that incorporate the child’s own body weight
✔ Introduce hopping and bounding exercises or routines to aid in strength and power development.
✔ Further develop endurance through continuous activity games and relays.
✔ Further develop flexibility through stretching.
✔ Further develop speed by using specific activities that focus on agility, quickness and change of direction during the warm-up.
✔ Further develop mental skills including focus and visualization.
✔ Provide developmentally appropriate competitions (as outlined in Competitions heading below)
✔ Identify sports the child enjoys and may have a successful predisposition toward, as enjoyment and success will increase the possibility of the child being active for life. Narrow the focus to three sports.
✔ Apply a ratio of 70 percent training and fun play to 30 percent competition (the 30 percent includes competition-specific training and actual competitions). Participants undertaking this type of preparation are better prepared for competition in both the short and long-term than those who focus solely on winning.
✔ Key Competencies: putting, choice of grip, ball position, proper weight transfer, position of the club
✔ Encourage unstructured free play.
LEARN TO PLAY GOLFER DEVELOPMENT#
ATHLETIC SKILLS
Agility, footwork, dynamic balance, complex coordination, speed of coordination, strength, flexibility.
TECHNICAL (SKILLS) DEVELOPMENT
Continue to progress in proficiency of putting, chipping and full swing. Introduce bunker play, green reading and pitching. Note that children can be introduced to bunkers earlier from a play and fun perspective.
PSYCHOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
Love of the sport, coach-ability, concentration, problem solving, becoming confident, making good choices, learning fairness, taking responsibility.
SOCIAL-BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT
Learning to compete against other players. Learning the values of golf. Learning independence and also how to work together as a team. Developing self-awareness, children start to be aware of what they don’t know or what they can’t do. Like to help others and the coach. Able to listen to the coach.
PRACTICE
Randomized practice for 30 to 60 minute sessions. Promote practice with other juniors in activities and fun games. Include on course practice for the fun aspect. No more than 1 to 5 hours a week.
COMPETITION
Fun competition can start to be introduced at this stage with junior club events and local
league or interclub events or junior tours. 9 holes is a great start with a progression to 18.
EQUIPMENT
Equipment continues to be important. At a minimum: putter, wedge, 7 iron, 9 iron, hybrid, driver.
WHERE TO PLAY
When ready, 1,000 yard Par 3 courses. 9 holes. Male: 18 holes up to 5,500 yards. Female: 18 holes up to 4,750 yards (note these are maximum recommendations and suggest erring on the shorter side)
WHAT A PARENT SHOULD KNOW
Parents must educate themselves about local In the development stage, parents should look for progression programming at this point in the development stage and specifically look for how their child is progressing with their skill development (not competition results). Introduce local competition if the child chooses. Parents should speak with their children and identify some sport preferences. As a child may begin to compete, parents should support with positivity and focus on their child’s behavior, experience and process for personal improvement. They should not focus on the result.
