In this article that I have decided to write, I will try to show you how important the correct material is for a junior golfer.

You heard right, this article is intended for children.

Specifically, the importance of children taking the appropriate clubs for their level, height, physique, competitive interest and the expectations that their coach sees.

And of course to others that we will treat so that you, if you are a parent, tutor or coach, can understand the reason for many things that can happen to children.

In the content that I am going to put in this article, it is endorsed in my academic training.

Not as a fitter and clubmaker, but as a specialist in Physical Education and personal training.

Later I will explain how I apply my knowledge as a fitter and clubmaker to the whole process, not in vain, I have been working with junior golf players since 2007.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT A JUNIOR GOLF PLAYER IS?

He is a miniature golfer, until physical maturity, since he is in the growth phase until his development has finished and therefore his bones, joints, muscles and tendons are constantly growing.

Therefore, any type of repetitive movement that is carried out with inadequate weights, flexibilities and lengths, may in the long run cause physical problems and injuries.

Working from the base with material that is more or less suitable for the player, will generate a higher level of quality in technical execution in the long term.

WHAT TYPE OF INJURIES CAN A JUNIOR GOLF PLAYER HAVE FROM WEARING IMPROPER EQUIPMENT?

BACK INJURIES

I think this type of injury in a child who plays golf constantly is the most common.

When I talk about the back, I mean from the neck to the lower back.

Muscle overloads, pain problems in the neck and intercostal muscles.

That is due to physical stress produced by the stick in the body before repetition.

MY WORK PHILOSOPHY IS SIMPLE

Juniors are different from adults in the following fields:

• HEIGHT
• WEIGHT
• CLUB SPEED
• BALL HEIGHT
• PHYSICAL STRENGTH
• ELASTICITY

So…

Why do many guys play brand name clubs with Lady, Senior and Regular shaft settings and flexes?

With shorter lengths with the same weight of a head that an adult could play.

WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SWING WHEN A PLAYER PLAYS AN IMPROPER CLUB IN A JUNIOR (BOY OR GIRL)?

MISTAKE 1: PLAYING HEAVY GOLF CLUBS

Backswing and downswing movement is slow.

It generates a large energy expenditure.

As a consequence I often find kids who in order to make distance have an overswing and a reverse back angle.

Here the intervertebral discs suffer a lot.

loss of angles.

When you see how many children are placed on the ball and begin to raise the pole, you see them get up from the position and sink down as they go down.

Sway and slide.

The rotational movement of the hip during the raising and lowering of the stick is a rotational movement, but when a stick is too heavy, players have a tendency to vascular having some Sway.Ç

On the way up, or Slide, on the way down.

Consequence: Breakage of the kinetic chain at impact because it reduces the speed with which it will reach the clubface.

very direct angle of attack

When I say direct, I mean that the angle of attack is very negative, and the main influence we have is that the club enters too directly at impact and loses speed at the moment of impact with the ball.

Consequence: Possible micro-injuries in the joints of the shoulders, elbows and wrists, since in many children the tendons and joints are still growing.

MISTAKE 2: PLAYING LONGER GOLF CLUBS

Incorrect stance placement

stance correctly is one of the dimensions of the golf swing.

In children, it is very common to find players whose clubs are about 2″ longer than they are, in addition to the placement in the stance it will have an effect on the lie of the clubs, the placement of the heel of the club predominating in the duel .

Flatter backswing

When a player plays a very long club, it is normal for the swing plane to be flatter and tend to make the swing longer than normal, which will not help the correct execution of the kinetic chain.

Influence of lie on impact.

When the club is long, the head is usually resting on the heel, therefore the face will be much more difficult to enter square at impact.

Off-center hits will come out without explanation.

3rd MISTAKE: THE HARDNESS OF THE SHAFT

Lack of distance with the clubs.

When a shaft is hard, the player goes straighter but they sacrifice distance, as the club comes to impact with a lack of energy.

Lack of ball height

The trajectory is usually a little lower than what a player can get when the club has the right flexibility.

Raises the threshold of fatigue.

When a player plays harder clubs, the energy level it will take to get performance out of them will be much higher, thus putting the body at a higher limit that his body can go to.

The threshold of possible inflammations of tendons, joints and ligaments is opened.

These are the main problems that I face when a young player comes to me, and unfortunately we only found one brand that is a specialist in clubs for juniors, plus what we have in the catalog of what the brands manufacture.

AND HOW DO WE MAKE THE CLUBS FOR JUNIORS GOLF PLAYERS AT HANDMADE CUSTOM CLUBS?

At HCC we work with junior GOLF PLAYERS in the same way as with a professional player, we follow the same protocol.

In our case, when we work with juniors, we have as PRIMARY OBJECTIVES, from the initial level, HEALTH (40%), FUN (40%) and PERFORMANCE (20%).

In the case of working with Juniors of a certain level of competition, the objectives that I set are defined as HEALTH (35%), FUN (25%) and PERFORMANCE (40%)

THE PLANNING PROCESS IS CRUCIAL IN JUNIOR IN THE EVOLUTION FROM LEARNING TO HIGH PERFORMANCE AND FOR THIS, WORKING TOGETHER WITH THE COACH AND THE PHYSICAL TRAINER IS ESSENTIAL FOR ME. WITHOUT FOLLOWING THAT PROCESS, PLAYERS WILL LOSE PERFORMANCE AND CHANCES OF GETTING HIGH IN THEIR PERFORMANCE.

I have to tell you that the follow-up that I carry out on a junior player is a continuous follow-up, especially in the age groups of greatest physical growth and later when a player stabilizes his growth and is in the puberty phase, where he increases muscle mass, due to the estrogens (girls) and testosterone (boys) is where the work begins to equate to that of an adult player.

Working on the weight of the shaft and the hardness that allows each change of rod and setup that we make to allow them to maintain performance, from day one and feel an evolution in their game in a few weeks.

PROBLEMS THAT THE MARKET POSES

I want you to know that I am a clubfitter and a clubmaker who works with all levels of players as you can imagine.

But... do you know where I am a specialist?

In it fitting, construction of materials designed for performance in children, women, seniors and master seniors.

Would you like your son to play soccer with shoes 4 sizes larger in case he grows out during the year or years to come?

That is what I usually find with parents and then they don't know where to go to help their children.

When they work with me and see the amount of material adapted to children that I have in my studio, their vision directly changes and, above all, they understand that for their children they must prioritize continuous evolution.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Length: It should not be longer than 1 inch long enough for the child.
• Weight: It must be the one corresponding to the level of growth and his physique. At HCC working with shafts from 30 to 130 grams, with a wide variety of material, therefore the options are very wide and the sep up options are infinite, adapted to each player.
• Flexibility: The rods are a very important factor in the selection, since the 85% of the choice of the rod will allow the player not to have injuries and can have a high quality training time. A fitter when working with juniors should look for the lightest and most flexible shaft that he can control..

OTHER PROBLEMS…. WHAT WE HAVE SOLVED

At first when I started fitting for juniors I was HEADS that they let me make all the adjustments and on top of that they were light, as well as quality.

I solved that thanks to my good friend Eric, CEO of BFG (Big Fish Golf) They have within the line of products that they work with forged heads with head weights adapted for children and then I also use them for senior players and women who are heads that hit the ball hard, with a very elegant design and a high level of tolerance.

• 

But there aren't many manufacturers that give you the option of making the heads lighter, but I take care of making the appropriate setups, playing with the different mounting and adaptation techniques to be able to make a club adapted to any junior player with ANY OF THE BRANDS available at HCC.

What I understood from the beginning that it should have is an offer for juniors with SHAFTS of different types of weights and lengths of irons, as well as different materials.

It is the only way to be able to have an appropriate level of adaptation to which a player deserves.

At HCC we work with brands of shafts with a line designed for juniors such as:

• Aerotech (Rods mixing Graphite with steel fiber).
• Aerotech by BFG (specific shafts for juniors of 30 and 40 grams).
• Accra (it has shaft models from 40 grams onwards).
• Mitsubishi Chemical (we find shafts from 40 grams).
• Graphite Design (with shafts from 40 grams).
• Nippon Shafts (steel shafts from 60 grams)
• Veylix Shafts (pure carbon shafts from 45 grams, very stable)

Where the market is really very limited and I have probed many brands is in the GRIPSSince the junior market is not too big and therefore the production is smaller, these brands are Lamkin Grips and Golf Pride.

And to finish here comes the final climax, the effects on performance.

EFFECTS ON THE ORGANISM

MUSCLE LEVEL AND INFLUENCE ON MUSCLE CONTRACTION

Swing Speed Loss.

You will have seen or experienced that some boys or girls, when changing clubs, go from playing very well to doing different distances and trajectories and the player does not manage to coordinate so well.

That is produced by low sacomeric contraction.

The muscle fiber when we move a heavy body the muscle contracts with less speed and therefore the club moves with less speed (lower Club Speed).

The problem that entails that if from a very young age he does not have a correct development when it comes to increasing the contraction, then he will be able to achieve it but the level of training will be much higher, and it will affect the work that the coach does with his student.

BIOMECHANICAL LEVEL

Loss of stability and angles in the swing.

It is a problem that is usually found biomechanically, since when a player must make a much greater effort than his body and his muscular and joint structure are not really prepared, he usually comes out.

The body suffers an effect on the center of gravity and therefore the player in the kinetic chain cannot perform the levers and forces efficiently.

Loss of reaction force with the ground

The vector resulting from the force will be on the left or right depending on the parameter that the player has as a problem or problems identified in the fitting.

QUALITY, DURATION AND EFFICIENCY OF TRAINING

Reduced training time and poor performance in the golf round

It has happened to your son that when he goes to train there is a given moment where the quality of the training and the technique begins to decline, it is something that usually happens because he plays inadequate weight and hardness for the boys.

When a player carries the wrong club in his bag in competition under pressure, it all adds up to performance and subtracts when we have something in our bag that doesn't help us at all.

I will explain myself when a boy or a girl already has a certain level and they have to train 4-5 days a week, a couple of hours of golf every day and then they dedicate themselves to the competition at the national level, when the material is not adequate in hardness, weight and length there comes a time on one of the competition days, where the performance and swing is not so fluid and the result does not come out.

We must bear in mind that the previous points can be studied in detail, but the intention is really for you to see how it can affect something that perhaps we have not given the importance it really has.

Broadly speaking, it is something that I wanted for you if you are a young junior, coach or parent to keep in mind that not always despite the high knowledge of the teacher, without the appropriate material the teacher or coach cannot advance.

It is very important to have an open mind when it comes to fitting, to have a synergy with your fitter and that your coach is involved in the process and the continuous evolution.

© Miki Rapado ®, 2020