Advice from the_coach #1

After Vikram started hitting his 100y drives, I reached out to the_coach for advice on how I can help Vikram. Here is the transcript.

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Had a quick look-see at the vid – good stuff he gets into a real nice position halfways down in his downswing !

I am not sure how old your boy is now – the main thing is too keep the whole thing fun –  & so any ‘teaching’ at a real young age should be real minimum in kinda technique terms sure it would be useful to get the hands closer together in ten finger butted up hold – but time can be taken to get there

Thing is at a young age even if the clubs are measured for size in terms of both shaft length & weight early on the driver is pretty near as tall as they are young kids just don’t have the arm or upper body strength to support this real good – so they ‘naturally’ work out they have to have soon spread between the hands to feel they have some control of the clubhead during the motion.  This is the reason, why most kids are lower body dominated in their swing motions until the mid teens – especially if they are slight in build

The other thing that kinda dictates the split hold & their natural motion – is often times (as seems with your boy) naturally their focus is very much the ball at this stage – so the effort & intention is put into the ‘hit’ at the ball, to move it, which is why there is no ‘follow through’ to a finish

A good ways to encourage this is getting them to watch some good swings that show that good ‘end’ position – & just asking them ‘hey do you think you can swing all the way like that’ you’ll often by surprised after a few goes at a practice swing no ball – they start to get through to a fuller finish – but remember at first nothing has to be exact don’t try to work to that they won’t get it – but the more they do it over time the better it goes short bursts to keep it fun & to match their concentration spans

If you still got your garage set-up at first get him to try this with the plastic balls – less resistance to the ‘hit’ swing so gradually it’s easier to get to that ‘remember that finish we looked at on the vid … can you do that you think…’ the other thing that would help in that set up is getting a full but ‘plastic’ mirror so he can swing without any ball towards the mirror & see himself at the end

Here’s a vid of Alicia she around 9&1/2 here – she started in small chunks having fun no great instruction but around just maybes over a year giving her some little ways more ‘instruction’ but nothing too heavy & working at her speed
driver swing here which she now hits 175 yds mostly straight

Just show him the vid – don’t tell him ‘she’s good’ or anything no judgement – just again ask an open question – you think you can swing something like this – probably take a few tries overtime with him over this maybes but should help some

you got any other Q’s with this just send no problem – let me know how he gets on – good stuff good to see the kids having fun enjoying it & wanting to get involved without any pressure. (excuse any typos – not got time to check over)

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