Today’s Youngsters Are Honest With Themselves

Many young golfers grow up thinking that, if they can learn to swing the golf club well, they will shoot lower scores automatically.

They spend hours on the range hitting shots, quite often without purpose and without an end result in mind. I spoke recently about the 10,000-hour rule and how important it was to get your time in, but that time needs structure and purpose and, most of all, understanding.

Here at the Core Golf Junior Academy in Orlando, we talk frequently to our students about the importance of using your time effectively and getting the biggest improvement from time spent.

We have recently sat down with each student and did an Improvement Plan by reviewing a number of areas that they need to work on each day.

As part of that, we had each student rate their performances on where they felt they were today and what the game plan would be for improving the areas that we both felt could use some help.

The most interesting thing in this process was how close our students came to seeing themselves as we do. After working with them in the fall, our coaches have a very good idea of their strengths and weaknesses.

Experience has shown, at least in the adults that we teach, that perception and reality are often two different things, yet here are some young people who have managed to get a much truer sense of their identities and who they are as people.

Now, how did they do that?

We aren’t sure, but personally I feel that today’s social media plays a part in that. We all are shocked at times with what information is circulated in the electronic world through Facebook, Twitter and the Internet in general.

People will put the most personal of information out there for the world to see without, seemingly, a second thought about its eventual impact. That innocence or naivete is what also allows today’s kids to look at themselves honestly and assess their strengths and weaknesses without judgment and to be open to plans for improvement.

Look at the number of good young players we have coming up – Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Jamie Lovemark to name a few; all doing things that young golfers in their teens and early 20s aren’t suppose to be doing on the PGA Tour.

Why?

The information they have at their disposal, the expertise that is available today, as well as the willingness to not get caught up in the self judgment nor limitations that we used to put on our athletes or society in general. This helps lead to them to success early in their lives.

A coach’s relationship with a student is not just technical but can lead to students seeing themselves as we seem them, encouraging open communications on how they can improve and then putting into place a clear and concise plan to achieve the end goal.

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