Swing advices - parent to child?

[golfexplorer]

Hi,

I am curious to hear how much swing advice you give to your kids? Do you leave that entirely to your junior club pro? Or do you hit google for YouTube videos on how to fix your child’s swing fault? 😊 

Edited May 31, 2023 by golfexplorer

[Pepperturbo]

My son is now grown... hasn't played much golf.  When he was a youngster we lived in a gated community, on a fairway, and we were at the club all the time.  I got him lessons with our club pro, and supported him practicing and playing when ever he chose, or not.  His last golf event at 12, he came in 2nd in the kids club championship. 

 

The only time I give him advice was when he asked me.  Though I was playing to a 2 index, I was not a teacher, so most of the time I referred him to the pro.  Now, he's beginning to see the golf value provided him as a kid.... he's wanting to play more now.  The other day, during a round driver was consistently 295+ and blade 5i was over 200yds and shot a 90. 

 

Just be a good role model, don't try to teach him.  Let the teaching pro do that job; your son will be more accepting.  What he comes to you with a question, answer if you can, otherwise tell him to call and speak to his teaching pro.

[wildcatden]

There's no right or wrong answer here. IMO, there is wrong or right action.  As far as the answer, you can teach them (assuming you know something about golf, have played golf competitively, etc...) OR you can pay someone to teach them. Or some combination of these.

 

As far as wrong or right action, the wrong action is not being supportive. The wrong action is yelling at your junior golfer on the course, in the parking lot, on the ride home, or in the house about golf. Probably a few other wrong actions, but you get the point.

[iteachgolf]

Massively depends on the individual, their personality, relationship with parent, skill level (of both parent and kid) and overall goals.  More often than not Dad being Dad is much safer than Dad also being coach.  The role of coach can be highly critical (while also supportive) and can be misconstrued when that person is also a loved one.  Without a lot of experience it’s a very tough tight rope to walk. And that’s assuming the Dad knows enough to truly help the player.  

[caligolfer2103]

Lol. I'm a type A, tiger parent. It's in my nature to be overbearing, although I try really hard not to be. My son is now 12 and while it's been a long process, I feel like we've finally found a good "working relationship." Specifically regarding your YouTube question, I'm not a good golfer and what I've now realized is you can't teach golf without truly understanding a swing. I'm actually really good at seeing something is "wrong" but where it gets tricky is when I try to fix it... a lot of times, what I perceive to be the issue is actually caused by something far earlier in his swing so if I use a YouTube video to correct him, I may not even be correcting the right thing bc I'm just addressing a symptom rather than the cause.

 

Depends on the kid, but my son just gets annoyed when I try to correct him or fix things. But now, I just let him practice and I make sure that he's analyzing his swing, thinking through what he needs to work on, implementing any changes his instructor has taught him and generally building good habits. And if he asks me, I'll give my opinion. But his game has long surpassed mine so it almost seems silly trying to teach him.

[caligolfer2103]

And everything else that @iteachgolf and @wildcatdensaid... More sacred to me than anything is that he has fun and never loses the spark. My son loves golf and while he's not perfect in his work habits, he really does grind and has tremendous desire to improve. I've learned to appreciate that and not ride him, if anything, go the other way and make it clear that this is supposed to be fun. Only time I've ever yelled at him was when he miscounted his score after a tournament bc I'm a finance guy and numbers are everything to me 🙂 And only time I've gotten on his actual tournament play was when he hit the same high pitch shot 3 times even though there were branches overhanging the fairway... SMDH.

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

1 hour ago, juniorparent01 said:

My boy didn't start to win until I started to take golf seriously and make him practice every day.   Parents who do not go out and take control of there kids games are the kids who lose week in and week out.

 

As for swing advice I get a list of things from the coach and my job is to stand over the boy and make sure he does it correctly.

Wonder who this is. 😉

[leezer99]

5 hours ago, TripleBogeysrbetter said:

Wonder who this is. 😉

Bad grammar ✔️

 

 Misspelled word(s) ✔️

 

 Being controversial for no reason ✔️

[kekoa]

I've realized a big part of this journey is for the parent to actually play golf.  If you can't play then why expect your kid to play lights out every time they tee it up.  At the end of the day, its just not realistic.  Golf is very very hard.    On top of that you should not be giving your child advice.   I'm a legit 4 index, but have no doubt my 13 y/o can beat me.  We both accept that and realize that I pay very close attention to his lessons.  As a 4, I do know a thing or two about the swing and can help my son stay on track after a lesson.  The key is, for him to realize this. 

[Bizzle80]

It’s so funny to me to watch parents that can’t play a lick of golf ride their kids about the swing/chip/putt etc. 

 

we were playing w another girl who was telling us how hard her dad is on her. When asked if dad could beat daughter, the girl laughed and basically said not even close. I told her that next time he was giving her grief, she should tell him to carry the bag, clean the clubs and keep his mouth shut. 

[Tugu]

1/ Can the parent play? Does he/she know physically and intellectually what the YouTube teachers are advocating?

 

Does one pull down arms with lats? Does one rotate early and keep arms up? Does one shift left from p3 onwards? Should one strive for parametric acceleration? Is contra lateral stretch ideal for all clubs? Etc etc etc...

 

It's a deep rabbit hole to send a kid down if said parent doesn't know much beyond the latest YouTube videos.

 

2/ What are the goals for the child? 

 

If the goal is to just have some fun and pick up a good habit for a lifetime, the methods are very different than if said kid is primed for high level competition.

Edited June 4, 2023 by Tugu

[leezer99]

16 hours ago, kekoa said:

I've realized a big part of this journey is for the parent to actually play golf.  If you can't play then why expect your kid to play lights out every time they tee it up.  At the end of the day, its just not realistic.  Golf is very very hard.    On top of that you should not be giving your child advice.   I'm a legit 4 index, but have no doubt my 13 y/o can beat me.  We both accept that and realize that I pay very close attention to his lessons.  As a 4, I do know a thing or two about the swing and can help my son stay on track after a lesson.  The key is, for him to realize this. 

 

My ugly mug is up on the wall at Industry Hills for winning the city championship one year, does that count? 

[kekoa]

2 hours ago, leezer99 said:

 

My ugly mug is up on the wall at Industry Hills for winning the city championship one year, does that count? 

Did it happen in 1973?  If so, no it doesn't count .  lmao!!

[leezer99]

4 hours ago, kekoa said:

Did it happen in 1973?  If so, no it doesn't count .  lmao!!

Ha, 2010 maybe! I don’t remember. 

[TripleBogeysrbetter]

I realize early on my son was better than me.  Always been a hack myself. He had just finished playing baseball which I was fairly good at and we formed  a bond.  Him and I would trade jabs over catching positing and batting.  When he gave it up for golf.  I tried to help him at first but realize it was better for him to just have a PGA pro.  The pro which he actual works for over the summer would say listen.  I am giving you and your dad homework.  It might be on foot position or something.  Usually it was just me recording videos.

 

I didn't want to risk our golf friendship for a potential scholarship.

[RmoorePE]

The answer is highly subjective. My youngest daughter is far better than me at golf. I have to get about 9 strokes if we play the same tee. Its crazy that she is so much better than me, I practice all the time, but whatever.

 

Anyway she is self taught, and is TOO coachable. So whenever she had a lesson it was always a disaster. She does whatever her coaches ask, whenever they ask and it does not work well for golf. She takes every single thing she is told seriously, tries it instantly, and it just causes a mess in her brain. She has her own way of feeling things and the 3 coaches that she has tried were great, but ultimately she took less away than she wanted from coaching. Her HS coach took over half the season to work out a way to talk to her that worked. They had several long conversations to sort out what works best between them.

 

She has told me that she prefers my coaching to anyone else. Which would be surprising in that I have no formal training and am not good at golf. But it is not surprising because I only have like 3 things to tell her and we have worked those out in advance. I.e. she is struggling on the range and then has an a ha moment, I just ask, "what was it" and then we work out the verbal cue.

 

For example, her body will get quick in transition leaving her hands behind, causing blocks or toe hooks. It is pretty obvious to me after all these years. The verbal cue is not "Tempo", or "smooth transition", it is "leave your back to the target longer". That is what triggers her best feel. Putting and chipping she likes the same cue "release the toe". These may be nonsense, or even bad advice to everyone else, but to her they connect to a very particular feel.  So yes, I think you can coach your kid, but you need to be careful about it, and let their voice be louder than yours.

 

When she was younger I was only positive, never technical as a coach. Ages 8-12, my advice and coaching was same. "That was awesome!" "Great shot" or "Blast this ball as hard as you can". "See if you can hit it over the tree". Watching her develop the skills to do that stuff through her own athleticism, was incredible.

 

My middle child got back into golf last year and she likes me coaching her. She often wants me to give tips, and in that she is not a competitive player, just high school, I can give her plenty of pointers to help. She is also very bold and will instantly say " I hate that talk, tell me something else."

 

 

[MikekiM]

I stopped giving my kid much advice when he practices.  I got tired of paying the coach to repeat what I had already said.  Now I just pay him to say what I'm thinking.

 

I'm leaving more and more of the ownership of his game in his hands now just to see how much he wants it.

 

 

[ChipNRun]

This relates to husband-wife golf instruction.

 

I was the golfer, my wife learned once we got married. Game plan: we always used the same golf instructor. That way, our swing language was uniform, and we had common points to watch in each other's swings. We used the points mainly in range sessions.

 

During actual rounds, we limited comments to serious static set-up problems of the day.

[killer21]

Interesting topic.  I will add a couple comments.  I think girls learn very different than boys.  Boys figure it out by relating to golfers, watching on tv, relate to pros.  I think girls don't get it naturally or at least my daughter doesn't and I have to always re-enforce the lesson and remind her of what she learned.

 

We as Dads have seen almost every shot good and bad your kid has hit in there lifetime and probably know every tendency and unfortunately remember every mistake so you definitely qualify you to have an opinion on what or how they are being taught and what your kid needs to improve and if the coach is seeing that or even has the time to see that.  Nothing worse than the feeling the coach is not addressing the correct areas needed to improve.

 

From what your coach is teaching, you can learn a lot and see a lot on Instagram to know if he is in the right direction and also take if further with more information that can be very helpful for drills etc to re-inforce what your coach is teaching.

 

Remember ANWA - Bones and Chamblee ripped Rose Zhang's Dad for caddying and not being qualified?  When she won, the first thing she did was thank her Dad and said she couldn't have done it without him by her side.  So the most important thing is what your kid thinks and no one else.😀

[Bizzle80]

4 hours ago, killer21 said:

I think girls learn very different than boys.  Boys figure it out by relating to golfers, watching on tv, relate to pros.  I think girls don't get it naturally or at least my daughter doesn't and I have to always re-enforce the lesson and remind her of what she learned.

 

Not to be rude, but this is a pretty silly/sexist statement. I would think girls also learn by watching the pros on tv and relating to them. Maybe your daughter doesn't, but I know mine and others do... My 10 yo emulates swings she sees on tv and watches short game tutorials on instagram. I don't think watching pros and copying is a boy/girl thing...any more than golf is for boys not girls.

 

 

[killer21]

On 6/12/2023 at 2:41 PM, Bizzle80 said:

 

Not to be rude, but this is a pretty silly/sexist statement. I would think girls also learn by watching the pros on tv and relating to them. Maybe your daughter doesn't, but I know mine and others do... My 10 yo emulates swings she sees on tv and watches short game tutorials on instagram. I don't think watching pros and copying is a boy/girl thing...any more than golf is for boys not girls.

 

 

I stated at least my daughter doesn't but Point taken.  😅