Planning Your Way to a Better Golf Game

It’s the time of the year when many of us take a look back and assess the previous 12 months to learn and prepare for the next year. It can be a very useful exercise, especially if you follow these simple steps which have been tailored to the needs of junior golfers.

Perform an Annual Review
This process will enable a parent to look back and celebrate the victories (I’m not necessarily referring to tournament victories), evaluate the failures, and decide on the changes or shifts that are necessary to make 2018 more successful for a young golfer. This can best be done by writing the answers to the following three questions.

1.       What went well in 2017?
2.       What didn’t go so well in 2017?
3.       What does your son or daughter need to do differently so that 2018 will be successful?

Create a System and Forget about Goals
Most of us attempt to set some goals but struggle year after year to accomplish what we outline on paper. A far more productive approach is to commit to a process of improvement – in other words a system for accomplishing goals.

Here’s an example:
·       Your child’s goal is to win a tournament. Their “system” details what they do at practice each day.

You can keep things simple and reduce stress by focusing on the daily process and sticking to a schedule, rather than worrying about big, difficult-to-achieve goals. Goals are strangely at odds with long-term progress. Goals are about short-term results. Systems are about the long-term process. Goals suggest you can control things that are uncontrollable. Forget about predicting the future. Build a system that is reliable and signals when adjustments are necessary.

In summary, goals are good for planning your progress. Systems are good for actually making progress.

Prepare Your Child’s Tournament Schedule in Advance
After completing an assessment of 2017 and putting together an improvement system for 2018, it’s time to plan out your son or daughter’s tournament schedule. Preparing the schedule in advance increases the chances that your child will perform well when it counts the most and will help you save on travel and other expenses.

When exploring which tournaments to play, it makes sense to follow these guidelines:

·       Register for a mix of tournaments so that your child can be tested by strong competition in some events and then can compete to win in other events. I recommend competing on one of the regional tours like the Texas Junior Golf Tour (tjgt.com). They have a variety of tournaments to test competitors of every level.
·       If your son or daughter plays high school golf, be sure to check the team schedule to avoid doubling up on events. Also check their exam schedule. It’s hard to compete when preparation or sleep are in short supply.
·       Make sure your child’s instructor knows which tournaments are the most important so that he or she can ensure that your child’s game is peaking at just the right time.

If you follow the three steps outlined above, you will be putting your junior golfer in position to have a successful and rewarding 2018.