Jolf - Junior golf

We had professional coaches form Jolf (Junior golf) come into one of our workshops for a practical session. They came in to coach me and other students on the course one of their introduction sessions to golf and show us the way they coach them.

To start the practical the coaches gave every student a double sided sheet of paper which consisted of various activities. The first activity consisted statements, we had to agree or disagree with these statements. Some examples of the statements are below:

·         At the beginning of a session the coach should demonstrate and explain the techniques that s/he would like the group to learn.

·         When setting up golf games for children it is important that we set them up so that they can hit the target most of the time. High success rates are important.

·         In group golf coaching, children should be put in groups according to how well they play golf; for example, beginners with beginners.

(JOLF, 2012)

For the second activity session we were split into four groups, two groups who participated and two groups who observed. My group was the participation group so we were partnered up and each group went to an activity (numerous activities had already been set up prior to us turning up). For the first ‘coaching session’ the Jolf coaches didn’t give us instructions on any of the activities therefore the activities were open for were as easy or as hard as the participants made it. At each activity station there were three different sized and weighted balls and also numerous sized and weighted clubs. This again allowed the participants to use their imagination on the difficulty. I thought this was a good way of coaching as it allows the participants to think on their feet and be imaginative. Each pair went round each of the activities and then the session was complete. The coaches then gave us questions to reflect on the session and asked how it went. For the participants who took part in the activities first they would have found that the coaches were standing off and observing the sessions rather than getting involved and speaking about right/wrong techniques etc. This is because one of their coaching philosophies is that they disagree with the term ‘it is important that children hold the club using the correct conventional grip right from the start. We do not want bad habits to develop’ (JOLF, 2012). Within reason I can agree with the Jolf coaches on this but with a technical sport like golf I personally believe that technique is a very important factor which can improve performances and therefore if a child has bad technique I feel that coaches in golf should help correct their technique.The third activity was the same as the second activity but the groups were now switched over so the people who participated in activity two now observed and visa versa. This time what I observed was that coaches were talking to participants and giving them ideas in which they could develop the activity if they felt the participants could go on and do something harder.

The fourth activity was then questioning on how the session went and they gave us their coaching philosophies. These were what we either agreed with or disagreed with at the beginning of the session. Therefore it was to see if we had the same views as them and then the coaches explained on why they coach this way, such as not correcting technique etc. 

I enjoyed the session as it was different from the normal practical coaching sessions. Like I said I didn’t agree with everything they said about their coaching philosophies such as the technique one. I also thought the coaches were fairly quiet which is not good as I was struggling to hear them for parts of the session and therefore I was losing interest and focused on other things rather than what they had to say. I feel that the Jolf coaches should be vocal and ensure everyone can hear them so that people like me pay attention. 

References 

JOLF – Junior Golf. 2012. JOLF – Junior Golf. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.jolfisjuniorgolf.co.uk/. [Accessed 20 November 2012].