Dear Tim,
Thanks for the info. With regards to training juniors, I would offer these observations and suggestions:
Most juniors are pretty open to suggestion about how putting at a high level is "put together," so to speak. They don't have much baggage or biases or prior instruction. The way I teach putting, tempo is the foundation of touch and targeting, so that would take priority.
The big majority of juniors are far too active physically and visually and mentally on the green, so getting them to calm down (which is different from relaxing) would be a big help. It might help to get the kids to sit down at the edge of the green when you explain things to a group. To help get them to slow down, have them walk barefooted on the green at some point, perhaps putting barefooted for one half an hour or so early on in the putting lessons. The physical contact with the turf (temperature, moisture, sponginess) not only helps eliminate distractions, but trains the golfer to think on the surface about the roll of the ball across the grass. The sooner this basic focus can get encouraged, the better. Another way to get kids to slow down is to have them learn a one-second tempo by allowing a putter to swing back and forth, perhaps to a metronome, so that the timing becomes well-known. Test this by having the golfers toss and catch a golf ball at this same tempo. Also, after a certain introductory period, it would probably be a good idea to pair off the kids and have one monitor the other's tempo, and serve as a "teacher" of sorts. This responsibility role is a great method for allowing the kid to explore the concepts and actions involved for themselves, which is a method of teaching that gets deep learning pretty quick.
In terms of month-to-month, I would suggest a program that starts with tempo, and moves to distance control in straight putts. This would not especially have anything to do with putting to a hole or judging skill by sinks or misses. Typical drills are my "core putt," putting to the fringe, rabbit and hound where the golfer putts one ball and then tries to touch it with the second ball, Leadbetter's one long putt followed by as many just-short-of-the-last putts as the golfer can manage working back towards his position with any putts too long stopping the process, and perhaps the ladder drill where balls are placed at various distances out along a breaking path and then the golfer putts the nearest ball in, then the next nearest, etc. Another is placing a string behind the hole or target so that balls do not cross the string. Some drills would work with uphill and downhill slopes, and tiers, to show how these contours affect speed control. The whole process would be intended to show that distance control can be gained as a matter of tempo and targeting, so that it becomes "automatic" and "instinctive" right away, leaving twice as much mental resources for actually reading and making a good stroke and thus increasing the chances of a sink. I would accompany this module of distance control instruction with some "psychological innoculations" about expecting too much for actually sinking putts in the 15+ range, explaining that pros only make about 1 in 7 of their 20 footers, so while the intent and hope is to sink every putt, the golfer ought to feel positive about a good close miss. This way, distance control really gets salted away and is not much of a concern.
I could go on ad infinitum about each aspect of putting. But I thought it might be more helpful to give you a rough outline of what I believe are the important principles for training great putters at this stage of their lives at the DLGA. I've placed this all on a separate webpage at
http://puttingzone.com/Science/juniortraining.html. Take a look at that and then let's talk more. I really appreciate the opportunity to express my views on a subject so important to your work.
Let me know if I can be of more help.
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
The PuttingZone.com
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