When it comes to speed training for the youth golfer (<13) you have to understand some major key differences between kids and adults. If you miss those details, you’ll waste a lot of time, create a lot of frustration, and most importantly, you won’t get anywhere.
Body size, lever length, and maturation level
In kids, you must understand the role that growth and size plays in swing speed. The length of the levers in a system set the stage for what amount of speed is even possible. If your child is undersized then it’s unlikely they will produce speeds beyond that of their peers, especially if they are playing tournaments against golfers older than them. You cannot out-think puberty and no amount of training, exercises, or techniques will change that. If other children are ahead in their biological development, thus larger, then the likelihood of keeping up with their swing speed is pretty low.
In addition, there is a three-year difference in chronological age (the number) and biological age (maturation level). This means that if you child is 10 years old, they could be developmentally closer to 7 (this is not bad, they will catch up later). If they are competing against another child that is also 10, but they are on the faster end of the maturity curve, they are developmentally closer to 13. You would never expect a 7 year old to outdrive a 13 year old. Expecting a late-developing child to hit it farther than an early-developing child is unfair and unrealistic.
If you get carried away with unfair expectations or are constantly working on unattainable speed with a child, they will end up hating golf. I’ve seen it happen before. A previously excited youth golfer is worried about not hitting it far enough…when they’re 10 years old their only worries should be what cartoons to watch tonight.
Athlete first, golfer second
If there is one thing I see that holds teenage golfers back, it’s a lack of overall athleticism. Usually they lack a diverse sport or exercise background, playing only golf, lacking the stimulus for power development that kids get from running, jumping, and throwing throughout their childhood. Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) covers this topic extensively in their youth golf training coursework, which is the main reason for the 513PT youth long-term athletic development classes I run.
Hitting long drives requires a golfer to produce force. If kid, or golfer of any age, cannot product force then they are not going to have much swing speed. This is developed primarily in childhood when kids are often running, jumping, cutting, and moving in every which direction as they play a variety of sports. However, it doesn’t have to be developed with organized sports. It can be developed shooting hoops in the driveway, throwing frisbee at the park, or rock climbing on the weekends. There are no specific rules but to have fun and move!
You want to develop these skills early because some data suggests that we cannot do it later. That’s a point of contention, but if some groups are believed, the window to develop maximum speed and athleticism closes by the teenage years. Miss it? Be slow forever.
Jump high, hit it far
Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) has studied clubhead speed a lot. What they’ve found? The best predictor for speed is vertical jump.
This is exemplified in many high-level youth golfers that hit it far. I can almost guarantee that if you show me a youth golfer that leads in distance for their age, they are jumping in their swing. This is something I have discussed with a couple of the best golf instructors in the country. The reason this happens is actually because of what youth golfers lack. They don’t have long levers (see beginning of post). They don’t have big muscles (because muscle growth is extremely limited pre-puberty). That means they only have their technique and athleticism to really on, so they push the ground hard, producing the same vertical forces that occur during jumping.
If you want a junior golfer to hit the ball bar – JUMP! It teaches them to be explosive and to use the ground. This can be done as part of a sport, such as basketball. It can be done playing games, such as hopscotch. It can be done during other activites, such as jumping on the trampoline or playing on the jungle jump. It doesn’t matter how, just jump!
The body adapts to the stresses placed on it
The last thing I want to see from a young golfer is an extremely stable, limited body movement. I want to see a child primed to explode. I happen to think this is what kids want too. They don’t mind swinging so hard they fall down, but too many parents mistake that for a negative thing. Greg Rose, the TPI founder told me the first thing he would do if a kid swung hard enough to fall is help them up and say “do it again.”
Greg knows what I’m going to say next, the body will adapt to the stresses placed on it. When kids swing fast, they recruit type 2 muscle fibers (often called “fast twitch” fibers). That recruitment eventually becomes efficiency and the child recruits them easier. This is exactly why the previous section about athleticism is so important. Being athletic teaches children to awaken and develop those explosive muscles. After that, they just need to work it into their swing.
That doesn’t mean youth golfers cannot be accurate too. Absolutely work on putting the ball in the fairway, but make sure they work on speed too, and definitely never discourage those hard “swing for the fences” types of swings. Have fun with them. Encourage long drive contests. Laugh when the ball goes 50 yards right. Pick them up when they swing hard enough to fall. Then throw in a few fairway finders later if you must.
In summary…
My last point is simple – keep it fun! Swinging hard is fun for most kids. Playing sports is fun too. Use those things to develop a great young golfer. Understand what you can’t change and be patient if you have a late developer. It all gets sorted out in the end. Nobody knows who the best youth golfers even are – do what will make them best when it matters, enjoy the ride now!
– Dr. Joe Combs