How To Make Practice Enjoyable For Kids

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In the current day and age, getting kids into golf can be tricky. If you’ve managed that, keeping them interested is the next challenge. However, where there is a will there’s a way, and in the video and article below, Nick Dougherty shares some of his advice with promising junior and Golf Monthly reader Josh Jackson on how to make practice more enjoyable for kids…

As Nick says, for juniors especially, practising is the boring bit. They want to be out competing with their friends, but sometimes you’ve got to work at it. That’s how you hone your skills and ultimately make the game more enjoyable. So, what’s the best way to do that?

Avoid mindless range sessions

Many amateurs don’t utilise their time at the range wisely. They get bogged down with trying to hit as many balls as possible in the shortest amount of time, thinking that’s the route to improvement. However, as Nick says, this sort of mindless approach won’t help you get better, and it might even sap the fun out of the experience. 

“When practising, it should be conscious and you should be engaged with it. That’s how you make it fun and enable kids to develop their on-course prowess. If you were to put any amateur in the world on the first tee during the BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am at Wentworth, how their body feels will be completely different to sticking them on an empty driving range with a hundred balls.