Junior Tips
Junior Equipment
James Beattie – Junior development co-ordinator – John Letters Golf Academies.
It is very important to purchase golf clubs that are suitable for your child’s height
and ability. Children whom use ill-fitting equipment develop swing faults which are
difficult to correct. For example, if the shaft is too long or the club head is too
heavy, or a combination of both. The best advice is to do some research, know your
child’s height and ability level and try as many different clubs as possible to
find the ones which suites your child the best. It is OK to have a small
percentage of “growing room” as the child can grip down the shaft a little,
but this should be only an inch or so.
Shaft Length
As a good rule of thumb to use when purchasing a club for your child, the butt end of
the driver shaft when stood in front of the child should be somewhere above the belly
button but below the chest area.
Grip
The thickness of the grip should be a consideration. These should be undersized and the
child should be able to wrap the hand around the grip so the fingers touch.
Shaft Weight
Shafts for children should be made of graphite which is light and flexible. Again,
as a general rule of thumb, as a child progresses and improves the shaft becomes al
little heavier and a little stiffer, however should remain graphite.
Club Heads
Loft – try and go for club heads of a decent size to inspire confidence and also with
a good amount of loft to get the ball airborne.
Set Make-up
Again, dependent on your child’s age and ability it’s not important to have 14 clubs
in the bag, only that there is a decent spread of loft and shaft length so that some
clubs will go longer and others higher. In fact I would encourage young players to
have less clubs and experiment with hitting shorter and higher shots and lower
and longer shots with the same club.
Junior Equipment NO NO’s
Under no circumstances should your child use your old cut down clubs as a starter set.
Cutting clubs down severely decreases shaft flex which is hugely important in the swing,
particularly for height and power.
I have come across older junior players that have bought second hand equipment from good
professional tournament players, with extra stiff shafts and bladed heads which are
completely unsuitable to their level of ability.
James' Junior Tip
“My top tip for juniors is to ENJOY the game!
Dont get too SERIOUS too soon!
Its great to watch top professional’s play the game from a technique and etiquette perspective
and learn from this.
SMILE on the golf course –
Remember that top pro’s are playing for huge amounts of money and you are playing for FUN!
Watch Phil Mickleson on the US Tour and Alvaro Quiros on the European Tour – both are good
examples of top players who look like they LOVE to play golf!”
James' Junior Tip
Putting
When coaching juniors the fundamentals of putting, one of the most important tips is
to get your eyes over the ball.
You can use a simple drill to see how well you do this, by taking your posture and dropping
a ball from between your eyes.
If the dropped ball hits the ball in your set-up you can be sure that you have your eyes over
the ball and target line and then all you have to do is make a good pendulum stroke!
Tip 1 - Lets Take Aim!
Aiming the club face at the target is an important skill to learn early – in golf every time we strike the
ball we are aiming at something, whether that be the hole, a flag or tree in the distance...
1) The first part of the set-up is to aim the club head at the target
2) Place the club head behind the ball
3) The leading edge of the club head should be at 90 degrees to the target line
The easiest way to think about this is to imagine a tee peg stuck to the club face
which instantly shows the direction which the ball will travel in when struck...
Tip 2 - Get a Grip
1) Friendly - with your top (glove) hand shake hands with the top of the grip.
2) Fingers – Hold the club in the fingers of your lower hand.
3) Fit – Make sure both hands fit snuggly together.
As we progress we will try different ways of joining the hands together -
the interlocking and over-lapping or Vardon grip. However for now, we will use the baseball grip.
How to play
The key to enjoying good golf is to learn the basics...
This series of basic coaching tips is designed to give you something to practice on the driving range,
short game area or putting green.
Tip 3 - "Drive for show - Putt for dough!"
This common phrase basically means that if your putting is not up to scratch then it is unlikely that you
will shoot lower scores and lower your handicap!
Practice you’re putting more and you will lower your scores. Here are some great tips!
Sport Unlimited Case Study
Sport: Tri-Golf
Location(s): 10 Kirklees Primary and Secondary Schools
Date: April to July 2010
Please outline what the programme consisted of?
The programme consisted of 10 weeks of golf coaching - 6 weeks in an after school setting and
4 weeks at the John Letters Golf Academy, Stadium Driving Range, Huddersfield.
Briefly explain how you thought the activity ran?
The activity on the whole ran very well and we achieved our targets in terms of registered
participants and attendances. In particular we were surprised at the retention of children
when the sessions switched to a driving range setting.
How many young people attended?
180 kids were coached during the programme
Was it as successful as planned?
I think that it was a more successful project than we had hoped for
Have the young people moved into the exit routes?
Certainly some of the young people have accessed our coaching programmes and in
the summer we are introducing those young people to a golf club.
Can you please provide a quote on your thoughts regarding the activity?
James Beattie, Junior development co-ordinator said John Letters Tri Golf Project has been
a huge success on a number of levels: the numbers of attendees were high, as was retention
and in particular, girls accessing the project was higher than average. Tri-golf is ideal as a
sport unlimited project because it offers something non-traditional, something new to most and something in which girls and boys of any ability can compete on an equal footing.
