14 Year Old Son Playing On The High School Golf Team

[ks8829]

My 14 year old son has finally decided to play for the High School golf team. The secret was to convince his other 2 friends to join the golf team and keep him company.

We shall keep you posted, his first practice was rain out so off to the driving range tomorrow and play 9 holes on Thursday.

[Stacey_E]

Congratulations! Will you be coaching him? I dont mean to sound presumptuous (sp?)...but I see soooo many people at the range "teaching" youngsters. They bark 5 or 10 swing thoughts at them between swings. It frustrates me so much to hear what these kids have to go through. Those "teachers" (most of whom are fathers and grandfathers) frustrate me so bad I have to leave the range almost every time they start up. It is like my dad when he was teaching me to drive. This isn't coming from a 20 year old either. I'm 36 and still feel like I want to yell at these guys and tell them to stop ruining the game for the youngsters.

Anyway, I know that sounded like a mild rant. And I didn't mean to imply that it would pertain to your golfing relation with your son. Just if I may ask, please keep things light hearted and simple. If you've ever seen the Karate Kid, think about the difference in Miyagi and the senei at the Cobra Kai dojo. The best way to teach (anything) is not through a flood of intsructional factoids but by opening the student's mind, in a tactful and surgical way, to those few fundimentals that will put them on the path of a solid foundation.

Again congratulations!

[LongballGer]

  Stacey_E said:

Congratulations! Will you be coaching him? I dont mean to sound presumptuous (sp?)...but I see soooo many people at the range "teaching" youngsters. They bark 5 or 10 swing thoughts at them between swings. It frustrates me so much to hear what these kids have to go through. Those "teachers" (most of whom are fathers and grandfathers) frustrate me so bad I have to leave the range almost every time they start up. It is like my dad when he was teaching me to drive. This isn't coming from a 20 year old either. I'm 36 and still feel like I want to yell at these guys and tell them to stop ruining the game for the youngsters.

I feel you on that.

It still amuses me when my father is trying to explain to me how to play golf when he can't even break 110.

[ks8829]

Thanks for the feedback, I will be mindful to try to let him enjoy the experience. His coach play college golf and is a scratch golfer, so I will try my bet to leave the coaching to him. I did catch my self trying to correct his shoulder position during a fun putting contest this evening, so I will bit my tongue next time and keep quiet.

I just glad that he is on the team and with practice 5 days a week he can't help but get better if he wants to.

I experience his growth and development in basketball and realize that there were three distinct jumps in his skills and will try to remember to let thing develop for him at his own pace and try to keep it fun for him if we ever go out and play 9 or 18 holes.

[play4him]

Did they have tryouts ? My son is going to try out for his High School golf team. Their tryouts are coming up shortly. They only keep 12 for an A & B team. So, depending on how many try out it could be a little tough. I hope he makes it just so he has the opportunity to play each night. It makes a big difference having that chance.

[ks8829]

The team does not have try outs. They have 15 players total for both the JV and Varsity team and the head coach is very flexible, his goals for the kids is to simple improve. I know that this is unusally and try out are the norm.

Ideal environment for my son who reluctantly join the team.

[kingofcars08]

Good luck to your son, it isnt by chance Sacred Heart is it? Im from Marin and thats the only School I know in the city.

[thr33]

I remember when I was around 13, my dad dragged me out to the course literally 5x a week for the whole summer for 2 years. Although I would love to do that now, at the time i hated it. My dad, although a very good player, was not the most gentle of teachers. He eventually turned me away from the game due to my dislike of playing with him. As long as you emphasize on him having fun, I think this sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Best of luck!

[ks8829]

  kingofcars08 said:

Good luck to your son, it isnt by chance Sacred Heart is it? Im from Marin and thats the only School I know in the city.

Yes, good guess. Does you kids go to SH? Is he on the golf team?

[ks8829]

  thr33 said:

I remember when I was around 13, my dad dragged me out to the course literally 5x a week for the whole summer for 2 years. Although I would love to do that now, at the time i hated it. My dad, although a very good player, was not the most gentle of teachers. He eventually turned me away from the game due to my dislike of playing with him. As long as you emphasize on him having fun, I think this sounds like a wonderful opportunity. Best of luck!

Thanks for the feedback. I tend to do this and have to watch myself.

[Doctorfro]

Well, I hope your son (and you) have an enjoyable season. My son played as a freshman last year and played every spot on the team. His game was that erratic. Painful to watch in the struggle matches, a true blast to watch as he shot a career and team best in the conference final. He shot an impressive +1 yesterday in the first day of tryouts. He's primed for a fun season.

As a parent and a former high school golf coach I recommend that you become the best cheerleader you can be. I do not give instruction to my son. I found a skilled teacher to do that. Not that I won't give my opinion on something if my son asks but I find it best to stick with one point of view. High school golf coaches should be nothing more than an administrator, organizer, cheerleader, etc. If you rely on the high school coach to teach swing mechanics then that is a recipe for trouble. In other words, too many cooks can spoil the soup.

Hope you all have a fun season.

[Quinn07]

I don't currently have any children, however I am hoping for the day where I will be able to cheer them on while they play sports (hopefully golf). I was lucky enough to have a father that was able to come and watch me play on my competitive teams growing up. I can't wait to do that for my kids. Good luck to you and your son.

[rckwd]

  ks8829 said:

My 14 year old son has finally decided to play for the High School golf team. The secret was to convince his other 2 friends to join the golf team and keep him company.

Congrats man, I know you were hoping for that outcome!

[flanagan]

It's really tough being a parent at a high school golf tournament. Last year when I would go pick up my daughter after practice, cold or not (and it's often really cold here in March/April), she would want to go play as many holes as she could get in. Never played so much golf in a stocking cap, or had as much fun doing it. What was actually more fun was "scouting" the courses they would be playing their substate matches at the weekend before, i.e. taking off for a little drive and a round of golf because she wanted to see what the courses would be like, etc. That was a blast and a lot more give and take when talking about yardages and strategy (I stay as far away from swing advice as I can), than when just playing our own course.

It's important to be excited about what your kids are excited about, but that is easy if it's golf (I do my best at being excited about dance, but really can't fool them).

[JonnyGolf]

My son's a junior in HS and he is either #3 or #4 on varsity. What drives me up the wall is that he doesn't seem to have a passion for playing. He got the opportunity to play a great course ($300+) for free on Tuesday, but never took the time to use Google Earth to even look at the course before he played even though I told him it would help familiarize him with the layout. In fact, he wasn't even ready when I came home from work at lunch to take him to the course. It just drives me nuts because he's got a great opportunity, but he seems content to waste his time and talent.

I think that if he couldn't play golf this year, it would be a bigger impact on me than on him. I keep hoping that he'll get some competitive fire (the subtext of this is that I wish he would be more like me), but nothing gets him revved up.

BTW, I think most HS coaches only provide swing advice if requested or for the real newbies, they know most kids at the varsity level already have a swing instructor.

[Mully]

  JonnyGolf said:

My son's a junior in HS and he is either #3 or #4 on varsity. What drives me up the wall is that he doesn't seem to have a passion for playing. He got the opportunity to play a great course ($300+) for free on Tuesday, but never took the time to use Google Earth to even look at the course before he played even though I told him it would help familiarize him with the layout. In fact, he wasn't even ready when I came home from work at lunch to take him to the course. It just drives me nuts because he's got a great opportunity, but he seems content to waste his time and talent.

In regards to this, I think it's important to understand that he probably has a lot of other stuff going on right now. School is tough enough as it, social life included. He may just want to take a relaxed approach to golf. If he's not pursuing a professional career, then I don't know if he's "wasting" his time not practicing. I don't know the circumstances, but I'd say that your son probably has a lot on his plate right now, especially with college looming.

[Chas]

Ahhhh, this thread brings back memories of the Old Man trying to encourage me in my game (which I never had as a young lad - nada). He didn't play himself, never hit a golf ball that I know of, and didn't really know the first thing about the game but watched a lot of golf on TV (in England, in the 60s and early 70s). By doing so and talking about it he got me interested in the professional players of that era - we watched a heck of a lot of golf together (Trevino, Nicklaus, Player, etc etc).

Anyway, he would always say to me swinging my mother's Louise Sugges clubs in the back yard, "you have such a natural game, just swing naturally and you'll do great." Of course he never suggested I get an actual golf lesson , nor did he ever buy me an actual book on golf technique . No, to him it was just a case of relaxing and swinging naturally ......

In another life, I couldabeenakuntendahhhhh .... sigh ....

[shakogolfer78]

congrats! In MN we have great golfers few and far between but during my junior season we had a seventh grader make the high school squad, and he played #1 spot varsity. He even won all-conference in his first season, and had a scoring average of under 80. Kids are getting better at a younger age, and I can't wait to play with this kid for my senior season this year.