Ethan Franciscotty - How To Teach Your Junior Golfer The Full Swing

Ethan Franciscotty
How To Teach Your
Junior Golfer The
Full Swing

It Starts With Equipment And Realistic
Expectations
The last few issues I tried to point out ways to
help the junior golfer in your life gain experience
with developing their short game, putting, and
ways to do this as a family. After all, working
together is the key element. Now we move on to
full swing mechanics for juniors, what to avoid,
and provide a few basic full swing drills to
encourage the development of your growing
child.

GET THE RIGHT GEAR: Let’s start with the most important piece that many
look over when they first get their child involved: Correct equipment. The
most impressive part is the club not only acts like a true club but is weighted
correctly to allow the club to stay connected and let the child swing the
club, instead of the club swinging the child.
GET IN BALANCE: Once the clubs are selected, the first thing you MUST
work on with your junior is balance and footwork. That’s it. Don’t be
concerned with any other thing that comes up just yet. Having the correct
clubs for your child ensures that the club will most likely be rotated around
the set-up, and fall close to a plane line. Priority is letting the child swing
hard but around a balanced swing. Don’t get too concerned with direction,
the focus should be contacting the ball and getting height.

GET RIGHT WITH THE GROWTH CURVE: One last thing to consider is being a
junior, their bodies are continually growing, shifting, getting stronger and longer.
Their leg, core, arm ratio is always changing as well. These changes can occur
literally overnight. So, to expect them to have the same motion day in and day out
is not fair. Their coordination is always being challenged as their brains adapt to
their changing bodies — which, again, is why the main theme of the swing for
them is balance, and footwork.
DRILLS FOR SUCCESS: A great warmup motion to begin the day is taking your
golf swing with a club extended across the shoulders and turning back and
through. If you see Benji in the photo, he is doing this before his session. He is
focusing on keeping both feet planted at impact, then he lets the turn of his body
and momentum take him towards the target allowing his trail foot to come up. I
would not suggest getting the feet to fire too soon and lift off the ground before
impact. Remember it is about balance and, at impact, having both feet planted
then allow the momentum to take them to the target and finish.

JOIN A JUNIOR CLUB: Junior clubs and programs have become very popular. Not
long ago, juniors weren’t even allowed on some golf courses except certain times
of the day. I remember watching Tiger win the 1997 Masters with my dad, and
how it was all over the broadcast that he was 2 years old when he started and
golf would earn him millions upon millions. Tiger and I are the same age although
he started younger then I did, and obviously was much better. He was the perfect
blend of golfer and discipline.
NOW IS THE TIME: With so many junior development academies, programs,
tours, equipment and schools available, now is the best time to get started with
your child. Just remember it’s only a game and the value of its life lessons is more
important. I see too many parents expecting miracles from their children.