Give Juniors The Correct Equipment
11:15 AM PST - 12/3/2007
by: Joe Buttitta
Thousands of junior golfers are flooding area golf courses this summer. That's the good news.
The bad news: Most of them are using equipment that doesn't fit their bodies or skill levels.
Well-meaning parents think their sons/daughters can get by with a cut-down grown-up's club. Those clubs are generally too heavy and the shafts are way too stiff for juniors to swing effectively. Many juniors (kids 8-15 years old) have trouble getting the ball into the air with any kind of distance. The problem is a shaft that is too stiff to provide the "power kick" on the downswing.
Do yourselves and your child a huge favor by providing them equipment with which they can succeed. Equipment that will make golf more fun to practice.
If I had to cite an example of what many kids are swinging today it would be like a little leaguer swinging a major league size bat. It just doesn't work.
And don't think that kids need a full set of clubs. They don't.
To have fun and play the course effectively they should always play from the junior or red tees and carry no more than a wedge, 7-iron, 5-iron, very lofted fairway wood and a putter. Keep drivers out of the hands of beginning junior golfers.
More important than anything else, though, is to equip them with clubs that are light-weight and shafts that are appropriately flexible. Then they'll never quit playing this great game!
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