Coach Nick Duffy, a former professional golfer who as a young golfer played in two USGA junior events, represents the change he wants to see in the students via his drive for constant self-improvement. Nick is an avid reader and sacrifices time to study and educate himself. Here are some images of Nicks most recent reads.
Coach Zach Parker brings his passion and energy every day to the athletes. The expectation and standards he sets for each athlete in respect to their personal development is represented in his planning and organization. By showing the athletes his commitment and dedication, he creates a culture of accountability and respect.
Coach John Montgomery loves to compete with the kids at BGGA. He plays them for push-ups, squats and hill runs. This makes them more engaged because nobody wants to do extra exercises! When the match is close and the pressure is on, that’ s when you get to see the kid’ s true character. When John find himself in these situations in front of the kids, he always conducts himself as a professional. He exudes a lot of emotion and passion when playing but never in a negative way. It’ s important to show good examples of how to handle failure. Nobody likes losing but it happens a lot in golf. There’ s one winner in a field of 100 + golfers sometimes. The better they become at learning from their failures, the faster they can become winners.
Mahatma Gandhi once said,“ Be the change you want to see in the world.” At BGGA, we are trying every day to be the change we want to see in our students. The reason for this is research has shown that home environments can change human potential. Benjamin Bloom carried out significant research on mastery learning, showing that it is not‘ innate talent’ that allows one to succeed, but rather hard work. Bloom’ s work stressed that attainment was a product of learning, and learning was influenced by opportunity and effort. Finally, Bloom’ s work stresses the most significant influence in helping children foster increased effort is the family and more specifically the parents.
At BGGA, the coaching team understands that our students are spending time away from their family and sacrificing the positive influence that a parent can have on their child. So, while as a team we are aware that we will never replace mom or dad, we also realize that we have an obligation to be more than a person who talks about a golf swing or on course strategy. We must help our students by giving them the level of guidance and leadership that can be undertaken in a home environment that would cultivate drive, grit and resilience. We can do this by exuding these qualities ourselves.