My Favorite Junior Golf Exercise

Spoiler Alert: it has nothing to do with hitting a golf ball

 

When I start working with families, I like to go through a little exercise with kids (and ideally parents, too), and it usually plays out like this:

 

Me: Can you control what you shoot? 

Most kids: (thinks for a few seconds…) 

Me: If you can control it, it means that you get to choose what happens…

Kids: oh, no, definitely can’t control what I shoot!

Me: Right, no way we can control score! If we could, we’d choose to shoot 54 (birdie on every hole) every time we played and golf would be absolutely no fun. So let’s work backwards, can you control where the ball goes?

Kids: Mmmm, sometimes? 

Me: Well, but can we choose where the ball goes? Everytime?

Kids: Oh, right, no we can’t do that.

Me: Right, if we could we’d put every approach shot right next to the pin and sink every putt.  Plus, you know, sometimes you hit a great shot and get a bad bounce… or a gust of wind comes and knocks the ball off line. We can hit great shots but not get the outcome we want. Can we control what we do in our swing?

Kids: Yes, we can control the swing.

Me: We’re getting closer, but think about it…  has your coach ever asked you to do something new, and as much as you try to do it, your body just doesn’t listen right away? It takes some time and practice to ingrain the new motion?

Kids: Yeah, that totally happens to me.

Me: So when we break it all down, and we think about what we can control on the golf course, we’re left with being able to control what we are trying to do in our swing. That’s it. The thing you can control is how well you try to do the things you are working on. Your mental game, posture, pre- and post-shot routines, are also under your control and definitely impact scoring, and when we score well, we typically do all of these things well. So that’s what we should be focused on — the things that are under our control, that actually and positively impact scoring. Thinking about score itself is counterproductive though.

 

This exercise makes an important point, and I love when both kids and parents can really let it sink in, and move forward together with shared understanding.

There is SO much that we can’t control in golf — and score is at the very top of the list. When you are in the habit of evaluating your success by what you shoot and who you beat, you waste a ton of energy focusing on things that are out of your control.

Kids become acutely aware of “scoring” when they are in communication with coaches during the recruiting process (which, ironically, makes it harder to score well). Coaches watching adds pressure, and they know and understand that their presence often doesn’t bring out the best in kids, but at the end of the day, kids still need to be able to perform under those circumstances. The pressure kids feel is very real, and at exactly the time when they want to shoot their best scores, many kids struggle to play to the level they are capable of.  So don’t get me wrong — I care deeply about scoring, and part of my goal in working with kids is absolutely to help them shoot lower scores. We just need to be smart about how we do it. 

To help combat this, it’s essential to develop a process focus, which both removes stress and often positively impacts score. Focusing on your process is the thing that will actually produce lower scores.

So here is the advice I wish more people took to heart: focus on your process. Don’t wait. Start now. The more time you spend in a “process mindset” the more progress you’ll make earlier, the farther you’ll get, and the less you’ll be phased by coaches evaluating you when it really counts.

Developing a process-based mindset is one of the primary things I work with kids on during the Junior Golf Development program. 

Sure, we talk about tournament selection, how to practice more effectively and efficiently, and I help them start to explore college golf, but learning how to focus on what you can control makes the biggest difference when it matters the most. And in my experience, the kids who do this well, have the best recruiting outcomes.

To learn more about the Junior Golf Development program, click here, or shoot me an email at claire@psacollegecounseling.com