Ever wondered which other sports produce excellent golfers and why? Or maybe how the sport you excelled at as a kid may have given you the skills to hit the ball long off the tee, or have the mindset to play elite if not professional golf? Why does she hit it so far? There are often a few dynamic rotational sports nestled in the background of some super talented golfers.
Use Your Childhood Sport To Improve
When I coach I constantly ask my pupils questions, so I can find out as much information as possible to know how best to coach them. One of the most relevant questions is, “Do you play any other sports?”
The reason is because you will not find a good golf coach who doesn’t connect those sports to aiding improvement in a player’s swing. More often golf is not that player’s first sport. It may have been football, tennis or ice or field hockey. Whatever it was, it taught that player to use their body to create power and transfer energy from the ground up.
Often, familiar sporting muscle memory will relate to a player’s faults. A decent batter on the cricket pitch may well adopt a slice if they are both a right-handed batter and golfer, left handed batters don’t struggle as much.
When coaching, I’ll have a ball or a racket and ask that player to show me how they use it in their chosen sport. Proving a hockey swing isn’t that dissimilar to a short golf swing will help a good field hockey player with impact positions.
Keeping the ball low instead of flicking it up is vital in their mind. The mind has to know how to make the action happen, the loft on the club does all the work and hey presto, the ball rockets up and forwards. Olympic Gold Medalist Alex Danson-Bennett found golf was a great fit when she learnt to play golf, and all hockey players make excellent and powerful golfers.
Catch Them Young
Sport creates great golfers before they’ve picked up a club. One thing you cannot teach a golfer is the way a child learns efficient transference of energy. Give my son a tennis racket and he will make an excellent action through the forehand.
On the golf range I encourage him to really hit the ball hard, but I don’t push just golf. I want him to play football, tennis and basketball. Multi-sports develop speed, so he’ll be working on his golf when he’s smashing…
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