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Biggest mistakes I have witnessed
• Pushing the child beyond their dreams or motivation. Remember, if this is not their dream, no matter how much talent they have, it will not end well.
• Giving rewards based on scores and not effort
• Focusing on mistakes made rather than positives
• Taking on the role of coach and worse yet, contradicting the coach. If you don’t like what your coach is doing, speak with the coach.
• Getting advice from too many coaches, leading to confusion for the athlete.
• Having the child specialize in golf too early in life. I believe and a lot of research supports this belief that children who specialize too early are overly susceptible to injury as their body will develop imbalances. I coach with the mind that kids should develop movement skills first and then sport specific skills later.
• Making the child use ill-fitted equipment, typically too long and heavy. Along the same lines, moving up to adult clubs too early, because the child wants the “cool” clubs.
• Rushing to get a “full set” of clubs. Kids learn a lot of creativity and game management skills when they only have a partial set.
• Moving the child to longer courses before they can shoot under par. PLEASE, let your child play the front tees as often as possible until they regularly shoot under par. To be great someday, they will need to comfortable with being under par.
- Joseph DiChiara; IPGA Director of Instruction