Getting kids started in junior golf is all about making sure they have fun. As they start to really enjoy their time at the golf course they’ll seek more and more competition, with this comes a subtle shift in their practice. Often I see the training go one of two ways, it either remains in the fun zone and improvement is minimal and can lead to frustration in competitive golf or it becomes way too intense too quickly. All of a sudden this child begins to be treated like a tour professional and often leading to burn out. At this critical stage in a junior golfer’s training there is a technique that works very well to improve their games for competition without losing the fun, competition with self, or self-competition.
Self-competition is where players practice various challenges and score their results in those challenges. The training comes from the constant attempt to improve on their previous high scores in the challenges. This is a particularly effective form of practice because it gives the junior an achievable goal for each part of their practice but the challenges only last a couple minutes allowing a mental reprieve from focused practice. When I see juniors start trying to compete and taking that into their practice I see their focus being on repetition, they’re just follow what they see from tour players. The difference is the tour players are never taking mindless reps, it may look like it because they hit so many golf balls, but each and every swing has a purpose AND a goal. For juniors just starting this is a muscle or skill they need to develop, no one can spend multiple hours with intense focus on practice right off the bat. That level of focus is learned. Through consistent self-competition juniors can begin to develop this skill while also improving their games right now!
Self-competition is for everyone, not just juniors! The reason it is so important for juniors at the precipice of competition is that by learning good practice habits they can find enjoyment from golf forever. It is a sustainable practice habit that can also take their games to new heights. For every other golfer my hope is that they can use self-competition to find enjoyment from practice, time spent at the driving range does not need to be work, it can be as fun as the time you spend playing on the course because practice should be focused on play.