Major regression in months

[Belmont148]

I'm at a loss currently with my sons ball striking/swing. He isn't any kind of top tier player, but can easily play bogey golf, make a few pars a round and once in a while make some birdies. His strengths are putting and driver. However, in just a matter of two months his swing and game has gone downhill dramatically. I'll offer up some details below, but just wondering if others have seen such a rapid decline, and any help would be appreciated.

 

11 years old

hits driver 175-200, slight out to in swing with a fade

19* heavenwood was a strength, hit it off any lie about 135-145

plays 6i-GW, always made solid contact, and straight shots came naturally

chipping took some practice, but was ok

putting, no issues

 

What has happened recently, is he cant even hit the driver with any distance, and wants to slice. Hitting irons/hybrids = fat/duffs, or off the toe and going just about 90* right. Fwy shots are low/thin. Chipping is per usual, and putting hasn't changed. My observations is that he has shortened his swing dramatically, and is not rotating. But he says he can't really do it. Like he is tight or not flexible enough. He has grown a lot lately and we have had a wet couple of months. Coupled with end of school testing and a lot of studying, and Fortnite seems to have taken over the household. I didn't discourage it because it was end of the year and he made a 99 average in all subjects, plus it was kicking off summer and all of his friends were playing together.

 

Just trying to figure out if I should do anything, or just get him in more shape/flexible and let it go form there. He is still having fun playing, and doesn't want to stop obviously, just wondering what I should do as a concerned parent that doesn't want to see him develop something that will be harder to reverse.

 

For reference, we played 18 holes in April, and he almost beat me. I play to a 15-16. He never lost a ball, played bogey/par golf all day and several birdie putts. Today, he can't even get to the green in 5 shots on a par 4. Obviously a dramatic difference, but it all comes down to his swing/contact. Not his ability, or golf IQ.

 

Thanks for any help!

 

Here is a picture of the amount rotation he was getting two months ago. It's probably 65%-75% of that now. I know he is leaning back off the ball in this pic, and not staying over the ball, but that has kind of been his swing.

 

 

[wildcatden]

After a long-ish winter break, my kid was having trouble because he was "reverse weight shifting" on the backswing (he would move his weight to his left side....he is right handed). I "fixed" it by giving him two swing thoughts: 1. Extend your arms (on backswing). 2. Weight shift (to his right side on backswing).

 

Didn't you get new irons this spring for him(Cobra AMP's)? If he has been through a recent growth spurt, that can be hard for kids to adjust. Perhaps have his lie angles checked on the clubs?

[BertGA]

I’m guessing you are posting here b/c he doesn’t have a regular instructor? If he does, what have they said? There are certainly members here with experience guiding their kids all the way up the ranks, but I would suggest professional junior instruction at this point, if he doesn’t already have that.

 

My opinion- his hip flexors are too tight from sitting in that gaming chair all night. ;)

[Belmont148]

Yeah, he has an instructor. He was working with him the other day but it happened to coincide with my wife starting to get more instruction from the same pro and he only had 5-10 minutes to work with him.

 

He did get new irons, but right away had no trouble with them and actually played better with them in March/April than his old set. So the clubs aren't the issue, although a lie angle check would be good. That doesn't make a duff shot or toe miss that goes 90* right.

 

He has a clinic tomorrow afternoon and will obviously be working with his instructor on it. I was just curious if others have seen this with growing kids, sedentary periods of school work/bad weather, etc. and could offer some tips to get him back free swinging. We are going to start some physical training today as it is definitely time for him to start getting some more athleticism if just a few weeks of limited movement affects him that much.

[kcap]

i went through something similar earlier this year and although my son is playing better golf, i still think he was playing and swinging better last fall then today. I got a lot of good advice from fellow WRXers but importantly he and you will realize, as did I, that regression is normal especially if your child made swing changes, growth spurts, new clubs etc.

 

It sounds from your message that it is swing mechanics and I would leave that to a swing coach. I assume he has a swing coach, if yes, then let the professional handle the swing mechanics. You, the parent be a supporter, but also encourage your son to spend time on the range going over drills/practice to fix ball contact.

 

 

What really helped my son and me was trying to isolate the issue and work on it and not ignore it. I could go on but in short, get a professional for the mechanics, and you just make sure your son works his butt off on the range to fix the swing - also put the x box away :)

[BertGA]

He has a clinic tomorrow afternoon and will obviously be working with his instructor on it. I was just curious if others have seen this with growing kids, sedentary periods of school work/bad weather, etc. and could offer some tips to get him back free swinging. We are going to start some physical training today as it is definitely time for him to start getting some more athleticism if just a few weeks of limited movement affects him that much.

 

I buy into the philosophy that we all have our own unique swing with consistent faults that we fight to conform to a workable ideal swing.

 

So if your son has now developed some new misses, I’d be willing to bet it has more to do with growth/puberty than 3 weeks of relaxation. But either way, some stretching/resistance/coordination routines should help him work through it.

[Skaffa77]

How much is this regression bothering your son?

[kcap]

How much is this regression bothering your son?

Does it matter?

[Belmont148]

How much is this regression bothering your son?

 

Enough

[Skaffa77]

To answer the questions...yes, in my opinion it does matter.

 

Partially because the mental and stress side of the game can impact the swing dynamics more than some folks are willing to give it credit. I almost gave up the game when I hit a major regression early in my golf days. I got so stressed with my lackluster results and inability to fix my swing that I was ready to walk away. My G/F at the time bought me a lesson to help. Ironically, the instructor spent almost zero time on swing fundamentals and more on my mental approach. His observation was that I was so worried and stressed about every swing that I couldn't relax...I still remember, "your veins are popping out your forearms when gripping the club...there's no way you can put a good swing on the ball". Within a week of "letting go" of the stress, I was back to my normal game.

 

The other aspect is that as parents/adults...we want to help, but the desire for improvement or change needs to come from within. In the original post...it sounded as if he was still having fun playing and maybe wasn't looking to play competitively. Sometimes, we all forget that golf is a game for enjoyment and if someone enjoys playing the game regardless of how their swing looks or how they score...it's okay to let them play their way through it and figure it out.

 

Just my $0.02.

 

All that said...if he does want to try to address the changes in his golf game or swing, it sounds like it's a physical change potentially related to the growth and body changes (I remember that awkward age). If the goal is to avoid ingraining bad swing flaws...I think a good instructor would provide the best instruction based on his potential and/or physical limitations.

[tiger1873]

Has he grown a lot since you brought him clubs? With kids this is one the first things you need to ask yourself. It could be something simple as a lie adjustment on the clubs or perhaps he needs new clubs. I been going through an issue with my 11 year daughter because she was overpowering her shafts.

 

He could be too close or too far away from the ball. Both things will cause problems. A few lessons from a good junior teacher should help. Sometimes you just need someone else to take a look and figure it out for you. Make sure you get someone who knows what there doing. A good instructor will have them swinging better then they did before otherwise there wasting your money.

[Belmont148]

Not height wise. He has started puberty I believe and has started growing larger, and heavier. Not really putting on weight, I just think his physique is going through changes, and the sedentary habits lately may have compounded it. His shoulders are getting wider, chest starting to develop. You know, basically starting to look like a small man instead a boy. The lankiness is going away.

[BertGA]

Not height wise. He has started puberty I believe and has started growing larger, and heavier. Not really putting on weight, I just think his physique is going through changes, and the sedentary habits lately may have compounded it. His shoulders are getting wider, chest starting to develop. You know, basically starting to look like a small man instead a boy. The lankiness is going away.

 

When I first signed my daughter up for lessons a couple years ago, I remember the instructor discussing how young kids tend to have better swing habits because they lack the upper body strength to swing a club around their body, thus they are virtually guaranteed to use their legs and core.

 

 

Now that he has developed an upper body, maybe he's trying to use these new muscles to power through the swing?

[heavy_hitter]

Sometimes has nothing to do with the swing. It is physical and needs to see a TPI trainer. My kid had trouble this weekend. Couldn’t get his body to do what he wanted. He saw a TPI trainer on Monday and got him fixed in an hour. Saw swing coach next day to reinforce.

[Belmont148]

We had a good workout today and focused on flexibility. Followed by some swing mechanics in the garage simulator. His swing looks 10x better and once we got the flexibility back in the swing coupled with the right swing movement his speed jumped up a good bit since last time we checked. I think he is just growing and the video games didn’t help. We’ll see what his instructor thinks tomorrow evening. Thanks again everyone.

[Palmetto Golfer]

Let me start by saying that I am not a swing instructor...I am just passing along info that we have learned over the years from an instructor. My son's teacher over the years favorite way to cure a large in-to-out or out-to-in swing is to put objects in the way to force the golfer to fix the swing. I am a big fan of this b/c I believe this keeps the golfer athletic. Just telling someone to swing more in-to-out rarely helps. They need to feel it to understand what that means.

 

Try this...put a head cover inside the golf ball such that he has to swing straighter or he will hit the cover. You can also put the cover inside and a little forward of the ball. I am not saying this will solve all of your problems but it will force him to straighten out the path. he will adjust his swing athletically to make this work.

 

Another idea is to spray foot powder on the face so that he can see where he is hitting the ball. Sometimes just my son seeing that will help him straighten out as he will try to hit the driver in the middle of the face.

 

Let us know how is goes.