Coaching the golf team again

[dgarland]

I am once again coaching the golf team at my school. I’m looking for ideas for practice. So if you coached or played organized golf let me know what your practices looked like. 

[ChipNRun]

My home course and favorite practice range have both high school and small college teams that play there.

 

High school coach I see the most tends to run things like a team sports practice. Usually have half team on line hitting full shots, the rest on practice green doing putting, then chipping. After a half hour they switch. If no match next couple of days, coach pretty specific about what rotation of puts and chips.

 

For college practices, the players apparently get "the lesson plan" from the coach and carry it out on their own. College players will often observe each other for a few shots to make sure player is doing what he thinks he's doing. Then, they normally work in a few holes or nine.

 

When coach is there, he'll make remarks to individual players emphasizing how to correct errors from last match. For a true college practice, half the time the coach doesn't show up.

Edited June 10, 2022 by ChipNRun

[ChipNRun]

Another caution:

 

At practice: Most high school teams the players are pretty focused and respectful. A couple of times I saw a rowdy bunch that did more "trash talking" than hitting. Trash mode not only wastes practice time, but it is distracts other golfers trying to use the range.

 

Worst case ever: A couple of players from a junior high team were trying to "clean pick" PW shots off the practice green w/o taking a divot. I went adult on them and told them to stop.

[rd1959]

1974-1975 our high school didn't have a golf team but in gym class the teacher would throw out a bunch of plastic whiffle balls and stand about 10-15 yards away from us and we would get to hit chip shots at him. It was all in good fun but, needless to say, today you know somebody would have a hissy fit about it. 

[isgerrior]

20-10-5   Every person, starts ever practice with 20-3ft puts, 10- 4 ft puts, and 5- 5ft puts.  Miss a single one and you start over.

[RmoorePE]

In our area, there are generally 1 or 2 decent kids on a team, and then a bunch of beginners. 

 

If I was going to coach a golf team, I would train to hit fairways and make 4' putts. I think if you have a team that finds fairways no matter how far they hit it and makes 65% of putts inside 4' you win every match (in most leagues, obviously there are geographic areas where there are good golf teams). Around my neck of the woods if your team is in play and draining a lot of 3-4' putts they are probably never going to lose as a team.

 

I have watched a lot of high school golf and seen many, many matches blown by kids just not able to putt at all. I.e. they get on the green by some miracle in 2 or 3 shots, and then walk off with 6 and 7 all the time.

 

Sure you will chip, and hit irons etc, but I truly think the best way to shave strokes for beginners is getting the ball in play and confident putts inside 4'. This is not my idea. My daughter attends a group lesson with some advanced players and on range days, their coach will not let them leave the range until they hit the make believe fairway (some flags he picks) 28 times in a row (2 sets of 14 fairways). If they are off with driver they move down clubs to 3w, 5w until they can meet 28 tee shots. He wants them to be confident to find fairways and know how to change what they are doing until something works. Shaping shots and redlining their drivers is a different skill, this is strictly about getting the ball in play 200+ yards away. For girls I think 150+ yards away is a good number.

 

On the putting green after the different drills, they cannot leave until they make 50 4' putts in a row (generally just 2 gates at 4').

 

It will be hard to get the above level of play out of most high school beginners, but set lower goals and know what type of shot and club each player uses for a fairway finder.

 

My oldest medaled in a few events each year she played, and always had the low score for her team (between 43-49). She was not a golfer, just an athletic kid who played on the golf team. She could hit her 7i 155y and so she teed off with it 90% of the time, then often used it for her 2nd shot. If she could have putted well from 4' she would have won a lot more. I just told her "hit a club that you know will land in the middle of the fairway and play from there."  I thought she might pick 4H or something, but she just told me "My 7i goes straight and I can just swing as hard as I want, so that is my tee shot club." I think if her coach would have told each player to tee off with their favorite club, they would have been better off. So much mental energy gets spent finding balls, getting trapped in the rough, etc. In a 9 hole match, being in control is the key.

 

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

If I was coaching.  I would work on some putting and short game.  Let them warm up.  But they would be playing atleast a few holes a day.

 

For fun you can have a 2 man captain choice scramble.

[Abh159]

3 hours ago, TripleBogeysrbetter said:

If I was coaching.  I would work on some putting and short game.  Let them warm up.  But they would be playing atleast a few holes a day.

 

For fun you can have a 2 man captain choice scramble.

 

This is the best advice in my opinion. Having a bunch of 14-17 year old kids endlessly pound balls on a range isn't going to help them much unless you can provide solid 1-on-1 institution to all of them at one (which is impossible). You're better off having them go out and play at least 9 holes each day. They'll learn more on the course than on the range or putting green.

 

My high school team growing up never had a single "practice day". We were either on the course playing, on the course qualifying, or on the course for a tournament/match. FWIW we won 5 state championships in 6 years.

 

 

[heavy_hitter]

Our boy's practice putting and short game then play.  Coach will mix it up playing.  Will play stroke, match, 4 ball, 4 man teams take 2 lowest.  Always keeps it interesting.

[weavej1]

On 6/9/2022 at 9:16 PM, dgarland said:

I am once again coaching the golf team at my school. I’m looking for ideas for practice. So if you coached or played organized golf let me know what your practices looked like. 

You never gave us your year end summary … what worked, what didn’t work, what you will add new for this season