Starting After-School Program

[HitAndGiggle]

I am looking into starting an after school golf program at my kids' school that would apply to middle-school most likely. Anybody have experience with this kind of thing. Will fill in w more info here on this later. 

[dkolo]

7 hours ago, HitAndGiggle said:

I am looking into starting an after school golf program at my kids' school that would apply to middle-school most likely. Anybody have experience with this kind of thing. Will fill in w more info here on this later. 

I don't, but I wanted to chime in to say thanks for helping to grow the game among the next generation!

[amoline]

As a teacher in a non-golf area -- Teach them to enjoy golf for fun and not let it become a semi-job, ESPECIALLY at that age. There will be kids who become passionately interested in it without any extra coaxing, and a great many of them will have mom and dad "forcing" their interest in something like golf anyway, so the last thing they need is any sort of golf mentor going down that line too. 

When I was in middle school and younger, I still remember the fascination and excitement that I had going to the course and driving range with my grandfather, and just how cool it was to watch the ball machine fill up the bucket with balls. Now, when I practice sometimes, I put tokens in the machine like it's punishment and haul off with my buckets of balls. Yikes. Not what I want to do really. Trying to get back to that first feeling. 

Boils down to this: Teach fun first and hard work follows as a natural result. Teaching hard work like it's a job will not produce fun.

Just my two cents.

[Papa Steve 55]

I assume this will be a volunteer thing and not for profit? If its for profit, do you have info that a need exists?

 

[jamo]

When I was in third grade, I did an after school golf club. They got a bunch of mats outside (I have no idea how or where from) and set them up facing the side of the gym. They must have gotten some used clubs somewhere, and we just practiced hitting whiffle golf balls.

I don't know if that would work for middle schoolers - they probably want to hit real golf balls. That would make things much more difficult though.

[HitAndGiggle]

This is for fun, volunteer. If I do it I'll emphasize fun, will use whiffle balls on campus probably one afternoon per week and may work in the occasional session at a range. School is sending me a packet of forms/info. Eventually I'd want to educate on the grip, stance and basic swing - and basics of chipping and putting. It could be a lot of fun.

Thanks for the input...

[jkelley9]

Sounds like a good idea.

My wife is an elementary school music teacher who does after-school music programs, and they perform once per semester. Even the specified programs (music-related, sports-related, art-related) are kind of used as a "babysitting" service, when offered. Which is not taking advantage or anything, I mean, they're there. I'd probably do the same if I had kids. But you can still bring a lot of value to a child even if that's the intention of the parent(s). Sounds like since you're volunteering it (like my wife does, she gets paid $0 extra to stay late for these programs) that your heart is in the right place and you could positively impact some childrens' lives.

Start a donorschoose.org project. My wife has had MASSIVE success with getting instruments, supplies, and other fun things for her class with that site. We love it. There's some rules on what you can buy and how, but you might be able to find a used club vendor outfit selling a bulk pack of random clubs and be able to post that lot as what you want to buy and people to be able to donate.

Good luck!

[golfintheworld]

Hey Hit,

I'm a Big Brother and I run classes like Get Golf Ready for BBBSLI. For the big/little matches, golf brings them to a level where they have fun together. It's interesting how many bigs play but aren't sure how to get their little interested. My advice to you is the same to them: They love learning! Show them the grip. Then start with putting. There's nothing like putting the ball in the hole and getting praise for it. I did it at a local course. My father ran clinics at the Boy's/Girls Club. He hit off mats into netting with real balls. I believe it was max of 4 at a time. He gave them something simple to do and praised them regardless of the swing. That's all you need. Amoline is right-the only thing that matters is you make it fun! The ones that are interested will let you know.