Junior golf development - It takes time not talent

Junior golfers are competitive little things. Junior golf lessons mainly evolve around competition, who can hit is furthest? Who can get the most ball in the hoop? Who can go lowest around the putting green?
These little competitive edges are great and essential as a part of a junior golfers development.
What is also common however is feeling the need to succeed. This tends to become more apparent in junior golfers once they start to take the game up on a more serious level. There is always a role model. Someone that the junior golfer will look up to and often compare themselves to. 'When he was my age his handicap was 15'....... 'She has been playing since she was 4 so i will never catch her up'.....a couple of common phrases no doubt heard on the range or golf course with junior golfers.

It isn't a race for junior golfers to achieve their ultimate goal

Junior golfers, and adults for that matter, do not need to be in such a panic. If you take the 10,000 hour rule for instance, then you may just be making your way nicely into becoming an expert player at golf. The theory of the 10,000 hour rule was devised by Anders Ericsson in the early 1990's. His beliefs also fall in line with the beliefs of , Daniel Coyle author of the Talent Code. This is a must read by the way, describing how talent isn't something that you are just born with, it is something that is grown and developed.
Basically bith these guys are saying that developing talent and becoming an expert takes time. Taking this time is acceptable and beneficial in regards to future success. To break it down to more understandable figures then the 10,000 hours could be averaging 4 hours practice a day over 2500 days. This amound of practice would take about 7 years. If 4 hours is unrealistic then 3 hours will equate to about a 10 year window.

Golf is not all about who gets the lowest handicap the quickest. Okay so one 13 year old plays off 3 and the other off 18. But there is no reason for the higher handicap player to catch up down the line of their golfing development. In fact, those who improve gradually over a longer time period tend to achieve more in the future at elite levels. One of the key reasons for this is a constant, but gradual learning that allows them to accept failure better and develop patience and belief. In general a more level headed look at the golfing past, present and future. Constant success early on obiously feels great. But what happens when you lose or people catch up? How and how well do you deal with this? Gradual success teaches you to deal with this mentally. This links back to goal setting in previous posts of mine. It is important to feel challenged and learn to except failure at times.

As always there are going to be some exceptions. Tiger Woods is the obvious one in the golfing world. Tiger Woods was very good very young and continued to develop well throughout his junior development phases. This lead to him ultimately becoming the worlds number one player and may lead to him becoming the most successful golfer of all time.

Tiger Woods has was certainly one of the exceptions...

However Nick Faldo is an example that you do not necessarily have had to start playing the game at a ridiculously young age in order to succeed. 4 years after taking the game up at the age of 14 he was crowned the English Amateur champion. And look at Ian Poulter, not much of an amateur resume to be scared of. However he has gone from pro shop assistant to a Top 10 player in  the world.

Golf undoubtedly is a sport that requires skill to be developed. It takes practice and plenty of playing to improve and step up to the next level. But there do not have to be any time barriers. No races to be at a certain level at a certain age. Patience is a hard thing to develop in golf, but use the 10,000 hour rule, or 10 year window as a positive. Your long term goals can be achieved and you can succeed by being patient and improving yourself gradually over time.

One final note though. Obviously this doesn't mean just play golf for 10,000 hours or 10 years then you will just turn pro. This is a theory, and the theory assumes that you are practicing the right thing, with the right people, with the correct targets.

Good luck. Prfactice well, play well and be patient.

Dan Gale PGA Professional

Dan is a PGA Professional and TPI Certified instructor

Check out his website at www.dangalegolf.com