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Golf Coaching Guidelines

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KidsGOLF

"COACHING GUIDELINES"

AGE APPROPRIATE SKILL LEVELS

As children grow older, they also grow in strength, coordination and understanding. This allows them to physically perform motor skills with increasingly better control. With this in mind, realise that in every group there are those whose motor skills are slow to develop, as well as, those who have natural talent for sports and excel early and quickly. Identifying where your students are in ability and age, and knowing what can reasonably be expected, will help you in setting appropriate expectations that challenge rather than frustrate the student.

In addition, the research today suggests that the differences in motor skill abilities between boys and girls can be linked to the different expectations and different opportunities each has encountered. With the increase in popularity and available sports opportunities for girls, similar expectations can now be applied to both boys and girls in early and middle childhood.

The below is a reference point for general age characteristics and baseline skill expectations for children playing GOLF: -

Kids Golf ages 5 to 12 hong kong

Aged 5 - 7 Child	Role of the Coach
Short attention span	Limit instructions to 3-5 minutes. Start quickly
Like to play games, activities they know and like	Provide activity more than once
Large muscle control is not developed. Strength and stamina is limited	Offer periodic breaks
Need activities/demonstrations that help improve understanding of spatial awareness and safety zones for swinging clubs	Emphasize HOOP CLOCKS and Boundaries – Safety first!
Very individualistic and “I” centered	Emphasize sharing, taking turns and gracious winning and losing. This decreases as students approach age eight
Noisy and want attention	Use positive praise and reinforcement
Hand-eye coordination is just beginning	Make it east to hit targets have lots of fun!

GOLF ASSESSMENT (AGE 5-7)

Can demonstrate proper “HOLD” using modified golf clubs
Can demonstrate the process of the 4 swing patterns, Roll, Chip, Pitch and Launch
Understands the objective of golf is about hitting targets
REWARD for the process is more important at this stage.
*NOTE – Control of distance and force is inconsistent at this age! The execution of each swing may be awkward and inconsistent until age 8 onwards where it will become more smoother with repetition and training.

MOTOR SKILLS (AGE 5-7)

Able to swing in circular motion
Able to set-up the ball and follow all 4 swing patterns
Able to throw the ball at targets
Able to hit targets within 10 feet (Maximum 30 feet)

Aged 8 - 12 Child	Role of the Coach
Attention span increasing	Increase the amount and depth of instruction
Large muscle control improving	Continue to refine skill execution and stress fundamentals
High interest in sports and enjoys challenges	Introduce competition in drills
Social skills growing	Stress playing by the rules and consideration for others
Extremely vulnerable	Always use positive praise and encouragement
Continue to increase expectations of skill execution and results	Record skill based drills and track improvements

GOLF ASSESSMENT (AGE 8-12):

Can demonstrate proper grip and understands grip pressure of the golf club
Understand the proper stance and set-up when addressing the golf ball
Has a solid foundation in the short game first then working into the long game
Understands the basic rules of golf

MOTOR SKILLS (AGE 8-12):

Increases ability to control the force, distance and ball trajectory
Developing golf hand-eye coordination to strike the ball consistently
Able to hit targets within 25 feet onwards

“GOLF is the closest game to the game we call life. You get bad breaks from good shots; you get good breaks from bad shots-but you have to play the ball where it lies.”

-Bobby Jones

In order to lead a healthy, balanced life we must practice “LIFE SKILLS” that help us to maintain that balance and quality. With such a parallel between the game of golf and game of life, it seems fitting to introduce the following skills to our students: -

LIFE SKILLS	PARALLEL WITH GOLF
Setting Boundaries	Safe Zones / In bounds and Out of bounds
Making Decisions	Target Orientation
Resolving Conflict	Rules & Regulations
Coping with Stress	Shot accuracy & Tournament Play
Obtaining Help	Role of the Coach, Caddie & Manager
Setting Goals	Increasing skills, better scoring and better tournament play

As these skills are practiced throughout our lives we can learn to protect our individual rights while taking responsibility for our actions. It is also important that children are taught these skills so that they may discover how each one can be used in a variety of circumstances they face each day; at home and school, during sports and play, and while interacting with family and friends. As each child moves through life they take control of and responsibility for their choices and behaviours more and more. In this process it is necessary to develop valuable and necessary strategies to continue toward growth and maturity.

Each of the above LIFE SKILLS will be presented, in progressive order, a lesson with practice activities. Through discussion, demonstrations from the coaches and role-play, children can gain a practical understanding of each skill and how to adopt them into their lives.

Our purpose is to EMPOWER students to learn and use the LIFE SKILLS they will need to grow into emotionally healthy and responsible adults.

Expectation of our COACHING STAFF

COACHES' PROMISE:

-Always be encouraging
-Always have a lesson plan
-Always be respectful to the students and to the game of golf
-Establish RULES to each lesson and emphasize discipline to the students
-Be a role model