As a professional golfer and an ambassador of the game I have a responsibility to grow the game for generations to come. The question I get asked from a lot of parents is how do I get my kids started? What I say to these parents is that you really have to pay attention to what is happening in these 'golden years' especially if you have aspirations for them to go on as a professional golfer. You want to make sure that what you do today benefits them in the future and if you take a look at the top level tours today you will see that the game is increasingly becoming about power. Year on year the average ball speed is increasing and infact the average ball speed of the NCAA is higher than the PGA tour so it's easy to see why players like Matthew Wolffe and Viktor Hovland are coming straight out of college to join the winners circle. So what you want to do is focus on speed with your kids, the reason I have called it the 'golden years' is because testing has showed us that it's a lot easier to develop speed at a young age than it is as an adult. This isn't to say it's impossible but its definitely a lot harder, so give your kids the head start.
So, how do we do this. Give your kid a golf club and tell them to hit it as far as they can, I don't care if they're off balance, their grip is wrong or if it goes offline. If they've connected with the ball and its gone 50 yards for example I would he happy they've hit it 50 yards! Technique really doesn't matter for a number of years, they can always learn how to hit it straight in the future but the chances are they won't be able to learn speed. Another thing you can do is allow them to play other sports, this helps them to become an athlete first. Playing other sports allows them develop skills that they wouldn't be developing with golf but actually benefits their golf game. There's a reason Dustin Johnson and Gary Woodland two of the longest hitters on tour can impressively dunk a basketball and carry the ball over 300 yards. They're athletes.
If you would like to learn more on this subject then Dr Greg Rose does an excellent job of explaining this in greater detail on the TPI website. If you have any questions then post them below and I'll answer them as best as I can.
Enjoy.
