Golf is a sport which requires performing multiple complex movements simultaneously to produce desired outcomes, whether that’s a high draw, a low fade or just a straight shot! Many of the fundamental movements associated with the golf swing are present in other sports, junior golfers especially can learn fundamental skills from sports which include throwing, jumping and swinging (tennis etc). This provides juniors with a baseline of skills which can be transferred into the golf swing.
Since I have arrived at CH3 I have trained a variety of junior golfers of all abilities, some of which express excellent movement and sport specific qualities and others who are less developed in these crucial areas. Developing these fundamental sport specific skills is a large focus in our junior development classes both in physical fitness and within golf instruction. Having an ability to jump, throw, rotate and develop speed creates a platform to build an efficient golf swing upon. If a junior golfer does not poses such qualities, this could be potentially caused by physical limitations or just simply not been exposed to a variety of sports which develop these skills and qualities.
Learning to train, training to train and training to compete are three key stages of the long-term athlete development (LTAD) framework which outlines the specifics of what training stage a junior should be at respective of their age. During the learning to train (8-12) juniors convert fundamental movement skills into fundamental sport skills, this stage is defined as the optimum window of learning for specific sport skills. The training to train (11-16) stage junior golfers gain and understanding and experience the benefits that golf specific training can have, developing strength, speed and power qualities. The training to compete (15-23) stage aims to maximise all of the physical, mental, cognitive, and emotional capacities of the athlete. By doing this we ultimately create better Children, better Athletes and better Golfers.
