What's holding your junior golfer back from achieving their goals?

[BloctonGolf11]

His brain. He is a +3 or +4 kid in practice and drills without anything glaring holding him back from getting to par golf and a cool bogey golfer or worse in tournaments. He over thinks and does very dumb things. We are working on it but fixing a cast or a slice is a lot easier than fixing the way someone thinks and approaches competition. It also seeps into other parts of his life and I battled the same thing as an adolescent. We will get him there, just takes time.

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

4 hours ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

His brain. He is a +3 or +4 kid in practice and drills without anything glaring holding him back from getting to par golf and a cool bogey golfer or worse in tournaments. He over thinks and does very dumb things. We are working on it but fixing a cast or a slice is a lot easier than fixing the way someone thinks and approaches competition. It also seeps into other parts of his life and I battled the same thing as an adolescent. We will get him there, just takes time.

I was thinking the samething when I seen this thread again.  Def the muscle between his ears.  Thinks he can solve everything on the range and never plays.  Honestly, I've learned to stop wasting my breathe.

[heavy_hitter]

23 hours ago, BloctonGolf11 said:

His brain. He is a +3 or +4 kid in practice and drills without anything glaring holding him back from getting to par golf and a cool bogey golfer or worse in tournaments. He over thinks and does very dumb things. We are working on it but fixing a cast or a slice is a lot easier than fixing the way someone thinks and approaches competition. It also seeps into other parts of his life and I battled the same thing as an adolescent. We will get him there, just takes time.

Is it something that they can control?  From a psychological standpoint, there are things you can control in regards to your brain and things you cannot.  Once you get into a tournament setting it is harder to control those thoughts.

[BloctonGolf11]

22 hours ago, heavy_hitter said:

Is it something that they can control?  From a psychological standpoint, there are things you can control in regards to your brain and things you cannot.  Once you get into a tournament setting it is harder to control those thoughts.

I will let you know in a month. We took a break from tournaments for three months and he is going to start fresh midway through September. Hopefully a different mentality. He has been learning to look at the game in a different way.

[libtech75]

On 7/16/2020 at 4:01 PM, Golfingdawg19 said:

For my daughter it is length. She is usually the smallest one in her age group and that relates to her not hitting it very far. She grinds and does very well but she is hitting hybrids where some girls are hitting 8 irons. Just tough to shoot really low numbers that way.

Same. It's demoralizing when she has to hit woods or hybrids when other girls are hitting irons.  She hits driver on some long par 3s.  She's already a shot behind on many longer holes, and she has to make up for it with straight hitting, very clean short game and putting. I guess not unlike PGA - far less margin for error when you aren't hitting it far.

[MB19]

On 7/16/2020 at 4:01 PM, Golfingdawg19 said:

For my daughter it is length. She is usually the smallest one in her age group and that relates to her not hitting it very far. She grinds and does very well but she is hitting hybrids where some girls are hitting 8 irons. Just tough to shoot really low numbers that way.

Was just talking to my son and daughter about the importance of getting a solid tee shot out to the fairway this week.  We worked on approaches the past few times out in practice with 3w, hybrid, 6i-PW just to give them an idea what an advantage it was to hit with an 8i or less to the green.  As long as they don't putt like me, they are good to go if they hit the green in regulation.

[BustedBogeyMachine]

Not realizing he’s playing golf until after the first hole. Last three matches he’s gone 38,38,39 with a triple on the first. The 39 included a double on the second. All on holes that are super easy. 

 

Scores well. Isn’t a nervous type. But chokes every time first hole. He loses that and he’s under par regularly. 

 

[rrkman]

My son is a new golfer.  13 years old.  Just really started playing this summer.  Started off shooting around 110 and has quickly knocked off 20 strokes.  His biggest hurdle in my opinion is letting a bad shot turn into a bunch of bad shots.  If he doesn’t learn to move on and keep it to just the one bad shot, he’s going to struggle reaching any of his goals.

[BustedBogeyMachine]

On 8/27/2020 at 3:14 PM, rrkman said:

My son is a new golfer.  13 years old.  Just really started playing this summer.  Started off shooting around 110 and has quickly knocked off 20 strokes.  His biggest hurdle in my opinion is letting a bad shot turn into a bunch of bad shots.  If he doesn’t learn to move on and keep it to just the one bad shot, he’s going to struggle reaching any of his goals.

 

As a fellow dad to a Jr golfer, you just gotta let them do their thing. If I push too hard, he hates me and golf. 

 

The only thing that bugs bugs me anymore is him getting upset when he doesn’t put the work in. In my mind you can either be a casual golfer (I’m fine with that for him) or you can be serious. In my mind he loses the right to get upset on the course if he doesn’t practice. 

[leezer99]

1 hour ago, BustedBogeyMachine said:

 

As a fellow dad to a Jr golfer, you just gotta let them do their thing. If I push too hard, he hates me and golf. 

 

The only thing that bugs bugs me anymore is him getting upset when he doesn’t put the work in. In my mind you can either be a casual golfer (I’m fine with that for him) or you can be serious. In my mind he loses the right to get upset on the course if he doesn’t practice. 

“You’re not good enough to get mad”

[BustedBogeyMachine]

5 hours ago, leezer99 said:

“You’re not good enough to get mad”

 

No, but close. 

 

Hes good enough to be spitting mad. He just loses that right when he doesn’t practice for months on end. I’d prefer he was mad, I just don’t want to see it if he hasn’t swung a club in 7 months. 

Edited September 4, 2020 by BustedBogeyMachine

[chrissdc]

7 hours ago, BustedBogeyMachine said:

 

No, but close. 

 

Hes good enough to be spitting mad. He just loses that right when he doesn’t practice for months on end. I’d prefer he was mad, I just don’t want to see it if he hasn’t swung a club in 7 months. 

I would say this is what 90 percent of under performing parents say. 
Your kid doesn’t want to practice/play. It is not fun enough for him to do it. It has to be play. It can’t be work. What kid wants to work?

Edited September 5, 2020 by chrissdc

[MB19]

It's too hot here to play as much as we had been.  I'm not saying it's keeping my kids from achieving anything, but I can't drag them out there with the heat index eclipsing 100 here like it has and feel good about it.  We'll pick the pace back up in a week or two, I think

[ConcernedBoutCOVID]

Genetics

[ConcernedBoutCOVID]

On 9/6/2020 at 12:48 AM, ConcernedBoutCOVID said:

Genetics

In all seriousness, course management, putting and wedges (40-100y).

 

I am hoping those aspects improve with time and experience.

[hangontight]

On 9/4/2020 at 10:46 AM, leezer99 said:

“You’re not good enough to get mad”

“....and if you were, you wouldn’t” 

 

 

[mrshinsa]

Covid and heatwave and wildfire smoke, and just plain ol 2020