Hand Dexterity for Young Golfer

I have a 4-year old who's a natural lefty (meaning, he will eat, draw, write, brush teeth, drink, etc. with his left hand), but is ambidexterous when hitting a whiffle ball. I'm wondering from others who have been in a similar position, whether you have purchased a lefty beginner set for your child, or a righty one. He's young enough to learn from either side, so is there an advantage one way or another?

Growing up playing Baseball, there was a premium placed on good lefty pitchers, so do courses set up better for a certain dexterity (there are more righties out there), or is it simply based on the dominant hand?

Any thoughts on this from PGA instructors / those with experience with this subject?

I want this to be natural for him, so I'm leaning towards the lefty set, but his younger brother is a righty, so the set would get more use that way ( )

Hey, maybe the young one a lefty as well?!

Any input on this would be great, thanks.

Put a Bullseye putter in his hands and see what side he goes to first.

Having a college baseball background and now an avid golfer and junior instructor, I would suggest the best of both worlds if you can pull it off. Throw how it comes natural but realize throwing lefthanded reduces the number of positions he will be able to play.

When it comes to hitting a baseball, two words, LEFT HANDED. Teach your son to hit a baseball left handed because left handers just have it easier and they have that beautiful stroke. Teach him to hit a golfball right handed. Whoever said that hitting a baseball and hitting a golfball are the same swing either did not play one or the other or was certainly lacking skills at one or the other. The fundamentals of a baseball swing are completly different from a golf swing and if you can possibly pull it off seperate them early. Having him hit a golfball right handed just opens up the equipment market big time. Lefty golfers get the short end of the stick from equipment manufacturers.

So it will be tough to do but I know someone who does this. He never had to fight his baseball swing while hitting a golf ball like the rest of us had to. Like I said its the best of both worlds.

Our 2 year old throws left-handed a good portion of the time, but anytime he swings a bat or club he's right-handed. So, I bought him a set of right-handed clubs. The one advantage I can see for a righty is more clubs seem to be available in right than left.

ok this is just a side question, but where will it end? what if he doesnt even want to play golf, baseball, or any sports? i have a cousin that is in 7th grade and his dad (my uncle) paid a bunch of money to bring him to some sports doctor. they measured his bones and can predict how tall he will be. my cousin doesnt even like football, but his dad did this to make him the qb of the team. i think sometimes parents try to give their kid as good of oppurtunities as they can, but it should be up to the kid whether he wants to play or do something or not. i am by no means offering parenting advice, but the kid is 4!?!?! let him grow up a little and decide for himself whether he wants to swing righty, lefty, or not at all. i think trying to make him one way or another is like trying to determine the sex of a baby in the womb. at some point we all have to let go and let nature take its course.

sorry if that seemed a little harsh. my cuz just told me what my uncle was doing the other day and im still a little pissed about it.

I did that at the putting green last week (but with a Ray Cook Classic I), and he picked it up, looked at the blade, and put it down in the righty position, but strangely, he took a reverse grip from the right side, and he looked lopsided like he was fighting it. When we went the next time, he did the same thing.

I tried this in the spirit of the dominance tests that people do to determine the strong eye, hand, etc..

No offense taken; you're entitled to your opinion. Being the father of four, and having been involved in sports and other activities my whole life (school, church, community), I see my role in this area as a motivator, coach, counselor, and support fan. I have an obligation to my children to open their minds to what life has to offer, to provide opportunities to explore these eye-opening experiences, to encourage creativity and individualism, and to support them in whatever activities "they" decide to explore. I never push an activity onto any of them; rather, it is a pull activity, meaning, they pull me along with whatever they want to do. I have coached them in several sports for the past 6 years, while also being actively involved with them in several church and community volunteer endeavors. My only rules are: 1. You must commit to the activity for its duration, that being a season, session, whatever the unit of measure happens to be for the activity. Once that session has completed, they can decide not to participate in it again, and there is no problem (this has happened a few times already, and is perfectly fine - I want them to have a passion for what they do as it is their life). 2. While they are commited to an activity, they need to give it their best effort at all times, and not take shortcuts (skip practices, games, etc. injuries or sickness aside). 3. They MUST be having fun, and learning to the fullest of their capacity. My 4 year-old absolutely loves Golf, and has been hounding me to play for weeks, so I decided to take him to my club's putting green for a little putt-putt. He loves it, and keeps at it even in the backyard, so this is an opportunity I have to spend quality time with him doing something that we both seem to really enjoy. If he wakes up tomorrow, and never wanted to touch a golf club again, I would be perfectly at peace with it. I, however, will continue to torture myself with this game.

very good rules to have and pretty similar to the way i was raised. it just aggrivates me to see parents pushing their goals and dreams onto kids. you obviously are not and should be commended! heres a dancing banana.

Lay a cut down golf club on the ground in front of him and let him pick it up and see which hand is on the bottom. Whichever way he picks it up will be natural for him. Of course sometimes you'll see a kid who'll pick it up one way one time and differently the other. However over time he'll sort it out for himself.

When I was a kid up until the age of 7 or 8 I used to write left handed and play any sport involving a bat right handed, that's quite common. After 7 or 8 I started writing right handed and continued playing sport right handed. Don't ask me to explain the switch, I've always played sports where getting hit in the head is pretty common so maybe that had something to do with it

This is what I did with the putter the very first time (except that it was not cut down), and he used a reverse grip (left hand on bottom), but he noticed that the blade side was a righty version, so he stood on the right side. I paid a lot more attention to his grip, which really intrigued me, since he made this decision by himself, and made me think that he was naturally approaching it as a lefty.

This does seem like a lot of work, but much more importantly, it will be fighting his natural tendencies, which doesn't feel good to me (kind of like the nuns forcing a few my elder family members back in the day to write as a righty when they were natural lefties). But, he is at the age where the two can probably be seperated somewhat easily. I was thinking that he could be a switch hitter, and then be a righty for all other sports.

Again, this is my initial gut reaction, but I'd rather he make the decision on his own. Your points are well taken, and have given me food for continued thought, so thank you.

According to a Lasik website: "The dominant eye is the eye that looks directly at an object. The non-dominant eye is the eye that looks at the same object at a slight angle. This small difference provides depth perception.

Being right or left handed will not necessarily determine if you are right or left eye dominant ". I'm curious as to your source or reasoning for your statement as it's interesting to me (is it based in science or your experience)? Thanks all for your help - much appreciated!

I can't speak for iacas, but I assume his reasoning is that when setting up as a righty, it's the left eye that has the best view of the ball at the top of the backswing, and as the ball starts along its flight. If he's left eye dominant, he will find it easier to develop the hand-eye coordination involved in striking the golf ball well if he sets up righty. If he's right eye dominant, he'd have an easier time setting up lefty.

-Andrew

I'd probably have him swing righty, because the equimpent (especially junior clubs) is tough to find in LH. There are examples of people who are righty and swing lefty (Phil Mickelson) and people who are lefty and swing righty (Trevor Immelman), so I would imagine that it doesn't make a huge difference as long as it's consistent.

Being a lefty, I can tell you that access to equipment has increased tremendously in the past several years and I would only expect it to get better going forward. There are several tour players out there now who play left handed, and that will only help the cause. I don't think access to equipment should be that big of a deal in making your decision.

As for course setups, whether they are set up for lefties or righties I don't know. I wouldn't think that would be a consious design decision, but more based on how a right handed designer might "see" a hole versus a lefty designer. I can tell you that I find myself in just as many situations where I think I am at an advantage being a left hander versus being a right hander (being able to hit a cut into a back left pin position for instance).

In the end I would go with the "eye dominance" or the "whichever he's more comfortable" suggestions. In fact, who's to say if he's more comfortable as a right hander, it's not subconsciously because of his eye dominance?

I pretty much went through the same thing as a kid.
If i were you I'd definately make him learn to bat left handed(might not see as much success at a younger age since lefties usually have the longer, slower stroke but once they get older they usually smash the ball, as how it was with myself and many other kids i know) Do you already have a righthanded set from an older son he could use?

also, keeping his baseball swing lefty and his golf swing righty may help him keep the two swings apart

No, I have yet to buy junior clubs for him. I'll probably hit a few stores later in the season, and also eBAY. After him is the baby, and he's a natural righty - the kid's like Bam-Bam! There is absolutely zero subtlety with him.