Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work with several talented collegiate players and many junior golfers (ages 13 – 18). One of the biggest challenges I face with coaching these juniors are their parents. The parents always mean well, and many try to coach the juniors themselves. This should be left to golf professionals, which is a separate topic in and of itself. But the challenge I face is that the parent is giving their own lessons to the students that I’m coaching. I’ll sometimes overhear the parents coaching (many times in a firm tone of voice) ideas and suggestions different than mine.
Obviously this is nothing new, and there is no way I can stop it. But it can be VERY destructive for the student, because they are getting, more times than not, too much instruction, conflicting ideas, and much of what comes from that source is uneducated and ineffective – in other words it gets in the way of the student’s progress. What I try to do, provided the junior is comfortable with it, I invite the father, mother, uncle, or whoever is the person that spends the most “golf time” with the junior, to the lesson. What this allows me to do is make certain that the adult understands what I’m trying to accomplish with the student and he/she can actually act as a “second set of eyes” when the junior is practicing or playing. It also helps me emphasize, to the adult, the areas where the focus needs to be and to not introduce any other ideas.
If you’re a parent, trust in your coach to guide your child, and try to stay out of the way. I know you mean well and are just trying to help, but if you are giving advice that is different than the coach it’s not going to be helpful. Or if you don’t like the progress you and your child are seeing with the coach, you might want to consider finding another one.
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