2 Week Tmnt Prep or Just keep on the usual?

[hangontight]

Does your junior do anything different to prepare for an upcoming Tournament, say 2 weeks out?  Or do they just keep on their normal practice/play schedule?

 

Not talking about single day events, those are just sprinkled in and he typically considers most of those just another play golf day during the week.   This summer he has about 1 multi-day tmnt a month ...so 3-4 weeks apart, that he's looking at as "important".   

[MahalNeneng]

Refer to his stats and look for where you gain the most strokes in addition to keep on with the normal.

[wildcatden]

Continue practice as normal working on the areas that they need to improve based upon previous rounds.  If that next big tournament was at a course with known conditions, perhaps  tons of bunkers, then maybe some extra work on from the sand.

[iteachgolf]

I think one of the big keys to performing at your best for kids is not placing a bunch of added importance on an event before it even starts.  Should be constaoworkimg on weaknesses and overall improvement. This should be no different.  Golf creates enough of its own pressure that you don’t need to add to it if you can prevent it

[Righty to Lefty]

You should continue on as usual because improvement shows up on course on a lag so work that you do right now might not show up on course for weeks or longer.  That tournament should be no more important than any other tournament because the effort level shouldn't be any higher than the effort already being given.  I practice with the same intensity that I play on course with because I am trying  to reduce the "importance" of golf shots being hit on the course and the faster your normalize things and make every golf shot you hit equally important, whether on the range or on the course, the better in my opinion.  

[hangontight]

14 hours ago, iteachgolf said:

I think one of the big keys to performing at your best for kids is not placing a bunch of added importance on an event before it even starts.  Should be constaoworkimg on weaknesses and overall improvement. This should be no different.  Golf creates enough of its own pressure that you don’t need to add to it if you can prevent it

Great point @iteachgolf .  Never hype any tmnt up too much, as they know which ones mean the most to them anyway.  How about tune up lessons?  No major changes or anything...but keeping sharp on setup/alignment/checking tendencies.  How close to a tmnt do you get?  I can see it both ways - just before a tmnt could potentially help build confidence...but you also want to be PLAYING golf leading to a tmnt, not grinding on some swing thought.    Thoughts?

[iteachgolf]

1 hour ago, hangontight said:

Great point @iteachgolf .  Never hype any tmnt up too much, as they know which ones mean the most to them anyway.  How about tune up lessons?  No major changes or anything...but keeping sharp on setup/alignment/checking tendencies.  How close to a tmnt do you get?  I can see it both ways - just before a tmnt could potentially help build confidence...but you also want to be PLAYING golf leading to a tmnt, not grinding on some swing thought.    Thoughts?

To me lessons should be on a somewhat consistent schedule.  If that’s not possible I generally try to make any changes 2+ weeks before a big event.  But as they get older and events tend to run together, which is why I prefer a more consistent pattern so it’s just another thing that’s a part of the process and not something adds emphasis to one specific event

 

As an example Kaitlyn Schroeder played the North & South Am last week, US Girls Junior this week, and then is playing the Evian (LPGA Major) next week.  We did our last tweaks about 7 days before the North & South and her last event before that was the ANWA which allowed us to change some things up with plenty of time between events.  I think players should have some sort of “offseason” where they have time to make improvements and decompress a bit

Edited July 20 by iteachgolf
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[RmoorePE]

Grinding before a tournament has never worked for my daughter. 

 

Confidence comes from consistency. I tell her she should play/practice as much as she can when there is nothing to play for. That seems to be where the biggest growth happens.

[MattM97]

Drastic changes for any athlete before a bigger event rarely if ever work, some do decide to try but hopefully their mental state realizes it could be bad. 

 

I will just say focus on the weak parts in practice that could help scoring and reenforce the strong areas. 

[Jkhogbear]

20 hours ago, iteachgolf said:

I think one of the big keys to performing at your best for kids is not placing a bunch of added importance on an event before it even starts.  Should be constaoworkimg on weaknesses and overall improvement. This should be no different.  Golf creates enough of its own pressure that you don’t need to add to it if you can prevent it

This is so accurate.  There will always be another tournament.  No need to make the next tournament the Super Bowl of golf.   The grind should be to keep improving your game and just make small improvements over time.  You would be surprised how much slight improvements over time add up.  It’s almost like interest on money.  It snowballs

[TroyB123]

Agree with all the comments about downplaying it and keeping the same routine.  One thing to add if they can go play a casual round at the tournament course, that is probably a good idea.  If not, try to find a different course with similar greens to play.   We're in an area with a mix of bent and bermuda greens, so we play a local bermuda green course a day or two before the tournament if it is a bermuda green course.

 

In general, mixing in other courses as often as possible is a good idea.  Being able to instinctively pick up green speed quickly on courses they're not familiar with takes experience.  I know a few kids who play 99% of their rounds at their home course and their game just doesn't travel well.

[jj9000]

This reminds me of the part of Harvey Penick's book where he compared/contrasted the different approaches he took with Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw.

 

I'm paraphrasing here, but, each day he told Tom that he'd meet him on the range to bang out a couple buckets of balls.  Reps followed by reps.  Whereas he told Ben to just go play 18 each day, and meet up afterwards.

 

So what's my point here?

 

I think it depends on the kid, and what they're most receptive to.  I've tried both approaches and found that continuing to just play golf is far more beneficial to grinding on mechanics prior to an event.

 

But, again, this all depends on the individual, and what they respond best to.

[J_Tizzle]

While I'm not a jr or have a jr golfer, I do play tournament golf.

 

The worst thing (in my opinion) is treat a tournament round differently than you do any other normal round.  I've played in enough of these and get to the course 1.5hrs before I tee off, hit a long warmup session, hit a ton of putts etc..  Then when I play my weekend rounds I get there 45 minutes before, hit 30 balls, hit putts for 5 minutes and go. 

 

I heard a quote from a LPGA player (can't remember who) is that you have to practice with the ultimate focus and attention to everything, then play your rounds like you don't care at all.  And that really resonated with me for some reason (maybe because its true).