#jrgolf2017

The Genius Of PLAY 

The difference between these    photographs: one is a great learning environment for kids, the other . . .    not so much

The genius of play is a term coined by Michael Hebron (mentioned in the last issue) which describes how important it is to

play to learn

and not

learn to play

The distinct difference between the two is simply how it has been framed in our head. Play to learn makes us believe that we can learn a game by playing first with the details coming later. This concept is incredibly important when introducing a child to the game. If a kid is at play, learning and growth increase esponentially. PLAY with your kids, don’t allow yourself to get overly technical with swing mechanics, those will come on their own as long as they are playing and having fun.

What is ‘right’ for your Jr. Golfer?

 From our Head Professional, Cameron Morton: I suggest that you assess your child’s game and desire to improve first and then decide what might work best. To help you organize your thoughts you should consider the 3 levels below and accurately assess your child as you begin to develop a plan.

 Level 1 - Beginner with a desire to learn and try out the game. Frequent, simple one on one 30 minute sessions are great for this as well as group clinics such as our PGA Junior League and PGA Sports Academy.

Level 2 - Experienced player with a desire to improve but not a lot of time to practice or somebody who simply wants to play a lot of golf with their buddies and when doing so play slightly better than them.  Playing lessons, green reading lessons, club and putter fittings, distance measurements (to figure out exactly how far each club goes) are just some of the things we offer which will help you achieve this goal as they don’t require any technique change or practice.

Level 3 - Experienced golfer who enjoys practicing and is serious about improvements and has clear goals in place of playing in and competing for championships.  Lesson packages and season long coaching are the way to go here.  We will do everything from dialing in your distances, to creating weekly practice schedules, to tracking your statistics. This option requires a decent time commitment from both coach and player and has limited spots available.  

Footnote: All 3 of Lake Valley’s professionals are now certified by US KIDS GOLF; the leader in junior golf equipment and coaching. There is no better place to have your child learn the game than at Lake Valley Golf Club. There is more information on US Kids in the Technology Spotlight section of this issue.

Understanding Growth Spurts

Growth spurts are unavoidable. All children go through them, and these changes in body proportions drastically affect the coordination abilities of a child.

At age 2, a child’s legs make up 2/5 of their body. By age 7, their legs are now 1/2 of their body.

At age 7, a child’s arms are 2.75/6 of their body, but by age 14 their arms are 3/7 of their body.

Imagine if I added 3 inches to your arms and asked you to swing a golf club. Your swing would be all over the place. Of course, a child’s arms do not lengthen 3 inches overnight, but the growth process affects coordination and movement skills. Furthermore, when bones grow quicker than muscles, subsequently stretching and stressing the tissue, a child’s abilities can also be affected.

Don’t make growth spurts harder on children than they already are by expecting them to maintain the same level of performance they had before their growth spurt. It won’t be long before your child is feeling confident in his or her body again.

With anything in life, there becomes a time when performance plateaus and the journey to the next level may not be as quick as the previous journey. For example, reducing your handicap from 28 to 20 may have been reasonably easy, but the lower your handicap got the harder it was to reduce it, right? For a child, a common plateau occurs when they cannot hit the ball any farther. And in most cases, we need to wait for a child to get stronger before worrying about more distance.

Like periods of growth spurts, there will also be long periods of no growth, where a child’s strength may not increase for a period of months. So, if your child is struggling with gaining distance, do not get over concerned and let their bodies grow. To me, this is another great example of times when development supersedes instant success. While there may be no instant successes of hitting the ball farther, other valuable sport and life skills can be developed during this time, such as work ethic, team work, goal setting and important social skills, to name a few.

The relative age effect discusses the chronological age (how many years old the child is) and the biological age (actually how old/developed their body is).

Let’s say an 8-year-old named Billy and an 8-year-old named Johnny play against each other. Johnny might hit it 30 yards past Billy off the tee, but Billy’s relative age is only 6. Chances are, Billy won’t be 30 yards behind Johnny for long.

Research has shown that a child’s movement skills are heavily related to their ability to process information. For that reason, it’s common that young children can sometimes not grasp new movements, despite all our efforts to help.

In this case, we have to allow time for a child’s mental abilities to improve before expecting any changes in movement. Moreover, a young child is often more interested in looking at the clouds than listening to your swing tips. So quit the advice and let them play, fail and learn.

When was the last time a top athlete thanked their parents for their coaching? That rarely happens, but they almost always thank their parents for their support. As parents and coaches, we must understand that the development of a child is a highly diverse process and crucially, it is not always about golf. Sport is a great tool to help children develop in a variety of ways, and it is important not to judge them on only their sporting skill. So the next time you’re frustrated with the development of your junior golfer, remember all the reasons they could be struggling.

Success     does not follow a straight-line pattern.

A     child has no control over growth spurts, which can dramatically     hinder their performance.

Performance     plateaus again cannot be avoided in some areas of the game. Remember, there     isn’t one world-class athlete who hasn’t hit a performance     plateau. What’s the worry?

A     6-year-old can hardly add 12 and 15 together, so it makes sense that they     won’t always understand the leg, knee and arm positions of the golf swing.

Developing     your child into a well-rounded, respectful and mannered individual is most     important.

Remember     that as parents, you are there to support… not coach.

On a final note, if you want your child to become the best golfer in the world (and they better share that goal), understand that you have 20+ years to achieve it. Believe me, there is little value in being the best 10-year-old golfer in the world.

Technology Spotlight - US Kids Golf

When young players play with clubs that fit, they quickly develop golf swings that will last a lifetime. The proper club length and weight are keys to solid fundamentals, and that's why players are fit into U.S. Kids Golf clubs based on height, not age. US Kids has three lines of golf clubs that are designed to offer options for every skill set: Yard Club, Ultralight, and Tour Series.

US Kids has a unique fitting system to ensure that every junior golfer gets clubs that are properly fit for them. It is as simple as knowing how tall you are; there are 9 different sizes in the yard club and Ultralight Series and 5 sizes in the Tour Series.  

An  article from Dr. Bob Rotella

Dr. Rotella is a world renowned sports psychologist and author of golf book greats like Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect. He works with PGA Tour players including Rory Mcllroy, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke. Dr. Rotella also works with the Virginia golf programs as a volunteer assistant coach. Internationally known for his work in the area of applied sports psychology, he is consistently recognized as the Top Sports Psychologist in the world. The following is an excerpt from an article he wrote for Golf Digest that we thought would be a great introduction to this month’s Teaching Times.

Golf is a game of confidence and competence. I am not about to tell anyone that a player who lacks physical skills can transform overnight into a winner by changing his thinking. If you trust a bad swing, it's still going to produce bad shots. (Though it will produce fewer of them than if you don't trust it.) You have to attain a level of physical competence to play well.

Having said that, I believe it's impossible to overestimate the importance of the mind in golf. There is no such thing as "muscle memory." Your muscles have no capacity to remember anything. Memory resides in your head. Therefore, no matter how long you practice a golf swing, no matter how skilled you become, your muscles alone can't remember it and execute it when the need arises on the golf course. Your muscles and the rest of your body are controlled by your mind. Unless your mind is functioning well when you play golf, your muscles are going to flounder. If your head is filled with bad thoughts, your scorecard is going to be full of bad strokes.

Having control of your mind and using it properly can separate you from the competition, whether it's at your club or on the PGA Tour. I believe every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills.

 Lesson Opportunities at Lake Valley

Junior Golf Registration at Lake Valley is NOW OPEN! We have a fantastic program this year with a better teacher to student ratio, an extra hour of time each week, and of course more fun! Whether it is our Junior Sports Academy for 4 to 7 year olds; or the PGA Junior League for ages 8 to 13, whatever your child’s age, we have something for them. There is a load of information on our website about these programs so please visit http://www.lakevalley.com/Golf-Shop/Junior_Golf.aspx. You may also contact Jeff McNair [email protected] for more information or to sign up.

With the golf season looming, we feel that this would be a good time to keep you up to date with your PGA Professionals’ lesson opportunities. Each has his own prices and philosophy but all are dedicated to making you a better player and making sure you have fun doing it. There will be various clinics throughout the year but for now, here are the individual lesson prices for adults:

Cameron Morton, PGA Head Professional

[email protected]

$60.00    1/2 hour $100 1 hour $250 Series of 3 $400 Series of 5

Coaching $200/month

 Tyler Winslow, PGA Apprentice

[email protected]

$35.00    1/2 hour $60 1 hour $125 Series of 3 $225 Series of 5

Coaching $30/week

 Jeff McNair, PGA Apprentice

[email protected]

$40.00    1/2 hour $65 1 hour $175 Series of 3 $275 Series of 5

Coaching $150/month

Talk to your professional about individual junior price, playing lessons and much more!

Your body is present, is your mind?

What do you consider to be a solid pre-shot routine? Does it involve a practice swing? Lining up behind the ball? A few waggles of the club? Some people might say that a good routine involves all of these, but PGA Tour pros see it in a very different light. . . The following article will delve into what a solid routine actually feels like. One secret I will let you in on now is that it involves a lot more than what goes on in the time between selecting your club and setting up to the ball.

OSVEA. . . gibberish right? WRONG!! This is an acronym for the basic mental routine all good players go through on every single shot. O.ptions S.peculation V.isualization E.xecution A.cceptance. Let us go through and explain each one of these steps.

·        Options: What are the options presented for this shot? Can you hit it right at the flag or should you go for the center of the green? Is the green even a possibility? What club and shot type should you use? Do you lay up to a certain yardage to make your next shot easy?  This is the step where every possibility and outcome should be considered.

·        Speculation/Selection: This is where you consider the consequences of the option that you chose. Where will this shot leave me? What do I need to focus on? How is this ball going to get to that target? This is also where you must WHOLLY COMMITT to the shot at hand. These first 2 steps will tend to blend together as you speculate upon the options.

·        Visualization: Probably the most important step in the entire process is how you visualize the shot you have selected. Everyone has a different way of visualization, but people who are best at it see and feel as much detail as possible. During this process, they feel the elements of weather, the ball coming off the club face, the clothes on their back, the ball flying, bouncing, rolling, etc. Visualizing is like a mental rehearsal of the physical activity and all physical activity happens in the brain first anyways so there is really nothing better you can do for your game than detailed, consistent visualization.

·        Execution: This is where a good player lets their mind go quiet and allows their body to do what it is prepared to do. Allowing the swing to happen rather than making the swing happen is the key here. Executing a motor pattern as complex as a golf swing must be a product of autonomy (what most people think of as ‘muscle memory’) and not forced movements.

·        Acceptance: Another incredibly important part of this process is understanding that the result of a shot must be accepted absolutely. Once you start brooding about your next shot or about the poor execution of your last, you have taken yourself out of the present moment. It is important to keep your mind in the same place as your body; your body is here, is your mind? People who are skilled at this understand that golf is a game of mistakes and believe that the only shot in existence is the shot at hand. Accept whatever the outcome and you will enjoy your round more and play better golf.

  Technology Spotlight

We are very excited about the newest addition to the Lake Valley Golf Shop; the Edel Fitting systems. For those who are not familiar with Edel, they began as a putter manufacturer in 1996 and have been growing ever since.  David Edel and his staff are highly acclaimed and hold numerous patents including one for the single length iron set Bryson DeChambeau played last year. We recently acquired Edel’s fitting systems for wedges and putters and will soon be getting the iron one. Once we do we will be the only place in Colorado to all have all three! What this means to you is that we have now have the most comprehensive putter fitting available.  For more on the putter fitting click here.

Please take advantage of this technology as many members have already. Almost everyone who has gone through a fitting has immediately seen the benefits. We are confident that it will help you with your golf game.