March 15, 2024 • 11 mins
Chris goes over what juniors should be focusing on at different ages to set them up for success in the future. He also shares questions you should ask when looking at junior programs, what the best junior program looks like, and busts myths about junior golf fitness.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad podcast with Chris Finn,
a production of P for S Golf. Welcome back to
the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad. My name is Chris Finn.
I'm your host, and today we are going to diffuse
some myths about junior golfers when they should be doing fitness,
(00:21):
what they should be doing, and ultimately what is the
best plan for a junior golfer to develop, to be
successful in the game of golf, to be healthy and
to ensure longevity, whether that means they want to play
in college and beyond at the professional levels, or they
just want to play, you know, at a high level,
enjoy it and just be a player for life recreationally
as an amateur. So let's let's dive right into it.
(00:43):
It's going to be, you know, pretty quick to the
point episode, you know, as we always try to do
on our shorts hear. The big thing that I want
to start with is that let's first dispel the myth
that lifting weights stunts growth. There has been so much
research on that that that is just done not true.
So so first and foremost, if a junior lifts weights,
(01:03):
it does not stunt their growth. Let's just be clear,
there's no debate on that whatsoever. Now we've got over that,
that doesn't mean that juniors should necessarily be lifting crazy
heavyweights right off the bat. Okay, there are prerequisites that
the juniors should. The best program that a junior should
be on should first and foremost are sure that a
(01:24):
they're mobile, which most juniors don't have that much issue with.
And when I say mobile, obviously i'm talking about hip rotation,
shoulder rotation, trunk rotation, neck rotation. Okay, so the four
roadary centers from a golf perspective, but also from a
movement's perspective, that they can hinge correctly, which means can
they bend down and touch their toes with good hips
going backwards and not just falling forwards and arching around
(01:46):
the upper back right. One of the important movements in
golf is the hip hinge or like a deadlift type movement.
And if a junior, which a lot of times, particularly
in boys, they don't have good movement and when they
go to touch their toes they just kind of fall forward.
So just if you ever want to feel what it
feels like to be a like a preteen or fourteen
(02:07):
fifteen year old boy, Go stand with your heels against
a wall, right, so button heels around the wall, and
maybe put your feet like three inches off the wall,
so your heels or maybe there's three inch gap between
your heels and the wall the butt is on the wall.
And then try to bend down and touch your toes
and you'll feel that your hips can't go backwards because
the walls in the way, so you just basically have
to fall forward like a wet towel. Right. So that's
(02:30):
how a lot of boys, particularly preteen and early teenage,
just that's how they think they're supposed to move. It's
just it's puberty that's they're awkward, they don't move well,
and so if you try to load that pattern of
somebody who moves that way with beload, you're going to
hurt them. So that is probably the number one area
(02:50):
where like deadlifts get a bad raptors. Oh I got
hurt doing deadlifting. Don't do deadlifting. Deadlifting is bad. No
doing bad deadlifting is bad. Okay. So you, for instance,
wouldn't put a kid or a junior who moves poorly
like that under a lot of load. They'd be stupid.
That would be absolutely just the stupidest thing to do
in the world. So I think the best program for
(03:12):
a junior, number one, is to make sure that they
that they move well. They have the mobility in their
rotary the four roadary centers. They could bend over, touch
their toes. Their extension pattern or bending backwards, reaching backwards
over their head is good. And then you start to
teach the fundamental patterns of squatting, of hinging, of pressing,
and of pulling right, and then you know, obviously there's
(03:33):
some rotational work too, but that's where we start. A
junior should start in doing that. And you can start
with a junior doing that those elements at ten years old.
And obviously there's chronological age and then there's developmental age. Right,
so we all see this. You know, I have my
oldest is ten years old at this point, right, and
when he goes out and plays basketball. There's some kids
they are all ten, but there's some kids that move
(03:55):
like they're thirteen or fourteen, and there's other kids that
move like they're eight. Right. Then there's some kids that
move like they're tent. There's kids develop at different rates.
So chronologically, generally, ten is a safe age, but you
always want to look developmentally. If you have an eight
year old who's like super athletic and very far along
in the developmental pathways, eight maybe a good time if
they can focus and there and they're mature enough to
(04:16):
go do it. But generally ten, ten, ten, eleven is
kind of a good time to start with that sort
of programming. Then you're obviously the goals are not load.
You will use some like kettlebells and dumbbells, and you know,
as they progress to eleven and twelve, you may you'll
introduce them to barbells. You know a light barbell, maybe
(04:36):
you know a thirty five pound barbell, something along those lines.
Just that obviously, as they're able to and as they're
able to maintain good technique and good form, the whole
goal for a junior golfer pre puberty is just foundational
foundation building, making sure there's good movement, making sure that
they understand and can move well. Then they note you're
prepping them that when puberty hits and they actually have hormones,
(04:59):
that then you can creaseload and actually they'll have a
hormonal response to that to actually get grow stronger and
bigger and build more muscle. Until then, it's really tons
of neurological training. It's speed and explosion training, particularly agility,
reactive speed training. That those are the huge focus points
that in the best program for a junior are occurring
pre puberty. Now we hit puberty, then to our shift.
(05:21):
Hopefully at that point they're all moving well. They squat,
they have good squat patterns, good hinge patterns, good press patterns,
good pull patterns, they can rotate. Right then you're starting
to really look at you know, adding load and increasing
their ability of force production, particularly vertically through the legs,
you know, pressing through the upper body, pulling as well.
That's where you're starting to increase load and it's starting
to build some musculature. There's probably some discussion around diet,
(05:45):
and that's always tough, but that age group is starting
to educate them. At the very least, you usually have
to tell them about one hundred and fifty thousand times
and then eventually something will happen, like they show up
having not eaten and they almost pass out and like
then all of a sudden boom, the light bulb goes off,
like oh, I should eat and the importance of that
to performance. Sometimes it happens more on the course. You
(06:07):
should definitely we start talking about, you know, how to
eat and drink and keep your body uh, you know
up and moving on the golf course. Uh, and so
that it's ready for you know, can recover, you're staying hydrated,
that you have the energy. There's obviously those kind of
conversations that are occurring that should be occurring and kind
of the the ideal kind of what I don't call
(06:28):
gold standard junior program. You know, through this, you know,
particularly the high school stage, and then obviously you get up,
you know, seventeen eighteen into into the collegiate world, you know,
junior you know, golf stops calling them juniors. In my mind,
you're still developing until they're about twenty five. That's when
I would consider them like a full quote unquote adult.
So that's where you're just continuing to build on that
(06:49):
those foundations that you laid. So I think the best
junior program in the world is going to start probably
around tennis. You know, if you're looking what is the
absolute best thing I can do for my kid, particularly
if they're not playing any other sports. Right, So if
you have a multi sport athlete that's phenomenal, particularly ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
have them keep playing all those other sports. Having a
(07:09):
specific straining conditioning program isn't probably as important. It's a
great additive to it, but certainly not like essential if
they're going to play at the highest high levels. If
you have a kid who's only playing golf one hundred percent,
they need to be into a program like this when
they're ten, because we need to make sure that they're jumping,
that they're skipping, that they're hopping, that they're doing it,
(07:30):
you know, side to side, lateral explosive movement, reactive stuff,
all the stuff that you get in team sports that
you don't get in golf. Right, So, because there is
definitely studies when, particularly if you look at long term
athletic development around kids who miss out on those developmental
markers kind of peaking and they're great when they're thirteen
and fourteen, but then when all the real athletes show
(07:52):
up at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, you never hear about those
guys ever again. So I think one of the greatest
stories I've ever heard is back when Sergio Garcia was
a junior, there was him and another top Spanish junior
and that they were always you know, one two at
all of the junior events. The Sergio also was a
(08:12):
big soccer player. This other kid was not. Was just
all he did was golf. And then basically, you know,
once they got to puberty fifteen, like sixteen, seventeen h
you know, fast forward, everybody you know who Sergio Garcia is.
Nobody knows who the other guys, right, because he kind
of fell off the map. He didn't have all of
(08:32):
those other developmental markers that had been hit Agilian, all
the other athletic foundational skills, you know, weren't as developed,
and so he kind of peeked out and was gone.
So that's where you see there's tons of stats the
number of twelve year old world champions who actually play
on tours, like five or less, I believe, right, like,
it's crazy low over sixty seventy years. So being great
(08:56):
at twelve is not a predictor of being great later
on in life. But if you want you to give
your kid the best chance to play at the collegiate
level or these high levels, you know, the best junior
program in the world is going to focus on building
fundamental movement patterns, making sure that they have good movement
and rotational mobility, and then starting to tell us when
as puberty starts to hit, you're starting to actually focus
(09:18):
on load and getting stronger. That doesn't mean you avoid
the load when they're ten, eleven, twelve, You just you know,
at some point you know they're using the weight they're
going to use. You're not going to continue to add
you know, twenty pounds every month on these guys because
they just physiologically, hormonally are not there. So you just
kind of you end up the best place to be
is kind of in a little bit of a holding
(09:39):
pattern where you're not necessarily adding a load. You're just
making sure we maintain patterns and qualities and all the
explosive speed. Those sorts of things are incredibly important that
prepre beest in age. Puberty hits. Now we start working
on loaded force production, continuing to work on planometric type stuff,
but obviously forced production becomes much more achievable, and then
(09:59):
there's obviously then you know, getting up to collegiate level,
there's a lot of the discussion and trainings around nutrition.
How do you travel correctly, you know, on the course
off the course, everything starts that comes into play in
high level golf should be learned and screwed up on
in junior golf, so that way when they get to
those high levels, they know what they're doing and they've
already made the mistakes and they're not making them at
(10:20):
the at the masters, let's say so. Anyway, hopefully that
was a helpful got a little outline of what you
should be looking for, questions you should be asking if
you have a junior and you're looking for a good
program for them to be in. Obviously uh at you know,
part of success we have, you know, our local program,
but as well as we also work with juniors all
over the world. And even if you just need want
(10:40):
questions to ask, you know, just what should you be
looking for about means? Give us a call, happy to
help you guys out. The number one thing we want
that I want is for you to be educated and
make right decisions for your kids. So I got three.
I want them to do the right thing, and hopefully
this has helped you. And if you're a kid listening,
hopefully this helps you make the right choice for you.
So thanks a lot for hanging out and I look
forward to catching on the next episode,
Welcome to the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad podcast with Chris Finn,
a production of P for S Golf. Welcome back to
the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad. My name is Chris Finn.
I'm your host, and today we are going to diffuse
some myths about junior golfers when they should be doing fitness,
(00:21):
what they should be doing, and ultimately what is the
best plan for a junior golfer to develop, to be
successful in the game of golf, to be healthy and
to ensure longevity, whether that means they want to play
in college and beyond at the professional levels, or they
just want to play, you know, at a high level,
enjoy it and just be a player for life recreationally
as an amateur. So let's let's dive right into it.
(00:43):
It's going to be, you know, pretty quick to the
point episode, you know, as we always try to do
on our shorts hear. The big thing that I want
to start with is that let's first dispel the myth
that lifting weights stunts growth. There has been so much
research on that that that is just done not true.
So so first and foremost, if a junior lifts weights,
(01:03):
it does not stunt their growth. Let's just be clear,
there's no debate on that whatsoever. Now we've got over that,
that doesn't mean that juniors should necessarily be lifting crazy
heavyweights right off the bat. Okay, there are prerequisites that
the juniors should. The best program that a junior should
be on should first and foremost are sure that a
(01:24):
they're mobile, which most juniors don't have that much issue with.
And when I say mobile, obviously i'm talking about hip rotation,
shoulder rotation, trunk rotation, neck rotation. Okay, so the four
roadary centers from a golf perspective, but also from a
movement's perspective, that they can hinge correctly, which means can
they bend down and touch their toes with good hips
going backwards and not just falling forwards and arching around
(01:46):
the upper back right. One of the important movements in
golf is the hip hinge or like a deadlift type movement.
And if a junior, which a lot of times, particularly
in boys, they don't have good movement and when they
go to touch their toes they just kind of fall forward.
So just if you ever want to feel what it
feels like to be a like a preteen or fourteen
(02:07):
fifteen year old boy, Go stand with your heels against
a wall, right, so button heels around the wall, and
maybe put your feet like three inches off the wall,
so your heels or maybe there's three inch gap between
your heels and the wall the butt is on the wall.
And then try to bend down and touch your toes
and you'll feel that your hips can't go backwards because
the walls in the way, so you just basically have
to fall forward like a wet towel. Right. So that's
(02:30):
how a lot of boys, particularly preteen and early teenage,
just that's how they think they're supposed to move. It's
just it's puberty that's they're awkward, they don't move well,
and so if you try to load that pattern of
somebody who moves that way with beload, you're going to
hurt them. So that is probably the number one area
(02:50):
where like deadlifts get a bad raptors. Oh I got
hurt doing deadlifting. Don't do deadlifting. Deadlifting is bad. No
doing bad deadlifting is bad. Okay. So you, for instance,
wouldn't put a kid or a junior who moves poorly
like that under a lot of load. They'd be stupid.
That would be absolutely just the stupidest thing to do
in the world. So I think the best program for
(03:12):
a junior, number one, is to make sure that they
that they move well. They have the mobility in their
rotary the four roadary centers. They could bend over, touch
their toes. Their extension pattern or bending backwards, reaching backwards
over their head is good. And then you start to
teach the fundamental patterns of squatting, of hinging, of pressing,
and of pulling right, and then you know, obviously there's
(03:33):
some rotational work too, but that's where we start. A
junior should start in doing that. And you can start
with a junior doing that those elements at ten years old.
And obviously there's chronological age and then there's developmental age. Right,
so we all see this. You know, I have my
oldest is ten years old at this point, right, and
when he goes out and plays basketball. There's some kids
they are all ten, but there's some kids that move
(03:55):
like they're thirteen or fourteen, and there's other kids that
move like they're eight. Right. Then there's some kids that
move like they're tent. There's kids develop at different rates.
So chronologically, generally, ten is a safe age, but you
always want to look developmentally. If you have an eight
year old who's like super athletic and very far along
in the developmental pathways, eight maybe a good time if
they can focus and there and they're mature enough to
(04:16):
go do it. But generally ten, ten, ten, eleven is
kind of a good time to start with that sort
of programming. Then you're obviously the goals are not load.
You will use some like kettlebells and dumbbells, and you know,
as they progress to eleven and twelve, you may you'll
introduce them to barbells. You know a light barbell, maybe
(04:36):
you know a thirty five pound barbell, something along those lines.
Just that obviously, as they're able to and as they're
able to maintain good technique and good form, the whole
goal for a junior golfer pre puberty is just foundational
foundation building, making sure there's good movement, making sure that
they understand and can move well. Then they note you're
prepping them that when puberty hits and they actually have hormones,
(04:59):
that then you can creaseload and actually they'll have a
hormonal response to that to actually get grow stronger and
bigger and build more muscle. Until then, it's really tons
of neurological training. It's speed and explosion training, particularly agility,
reactive speed training. That those are the huge focus points
that in the best program for a junior are occurring
pre puberty. Now we hit puberty, then to our shift.
(05:21):
Hopefully at that point they're all moving well. They squat,
they have good squat patterns, good hinge patterns, good press patterns,
good pull patterns, they can rotate. Right then you're starting
to really look at you know, adding load and increasing
their ability of force production, particularly vertically through the legs,
you know, pressing through the upper body, pulling as well.
That's where you're starting to increase load and it's starting
to build some musculature. There's probably some discussion around diet,
(05:45):
and that's always tough, but that age group is starting
to educate them. At the very least, you usually have
to tell them about one hundred and fifty thousand times
and then eventually something will happen, like they show up
having not eaten and they almost pass out and like
then all of a sudden boom, the light bulb goes off,
like oh, I should eat and the importance of that
to performance. Sometimes it happens more on the course. You
(06:07):
should definitely we start talking about, you know, how to
eat and drink and keep your body uh, you know
up and moving on the golf course. Uh, and so
that it's ready for you know, can recover, you're staying hydrated,
that you have the energy. There's obviously those kind of
conversations that are occurring that should be occurring and kind
of the the ideal kind of what I don't call
(06:28):
gold standard junior program. You know, through this, you know,
particularly the high school stage, and then obviously you get up,
you know, seventeen eighteen into into the collegiate world, you know,
junior you know, golf stops calling them juniors. In my mind,
you're still developing until they're about twenty five. That's when
I would consider them like a full quote unquote adult.
So that's where you're just continuing to build on that
(06:49):
those foundations that you laid. So I think the best
junior program in the world is going to start probably
around tennis. You know, if you're looking what is the
absolute best thing I can do for my kid, particularly
if they're not playing any other sports. Right, So if
you have a multi sport athlete that's phenomenal, particularly ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen,
have them keep playing all those other sports. Having a
(07:09):
specific straining conditioning program isn't probably as important. It's a
great additive to it, but certainly not like essential if
they're going to play at the highest high levels. If
you have a kid who's only playing golf one hundred percent,
they need to be into a program like this when
they're ten, because we need to make sure that they're jumping,
that they're skipping, that they're hopping, that they're doing it,
(07:30):
you know, side to side, lateral explosive movement, reactive stuff,
all the stuff that you get in team sports that
you don't get in golf. Right, So, because there is
definitely studies when, particularly if you look at long term
athletic development around kids who miss out on those developmental
markers kind of peaking and they're great when they're thirteen
and fourteen, but then when all the real athletes show
(07:52):
up at sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, you never hear about those
guys ever again. So I think one of the greatest
stories I've ever heard is back when Sergio Garcia was
a junior, there was him and another top Spanish junior
and that they were always you know, one two at
all of the junior events. The Sergio also was a
(08:12):
big soccer player. This other kid was not. Was just
all he did was golf. And then basically, you know,
once they got to puberty fifteen, like sixteen, seventeen h
you know, fast forward, everybody you know who Sergio Garcia is.
Nobody knows who the other guys, right, because he kind
of fell off the map. He didn't have all of
(08:32):
those other developmental markers that had been hit Agilian, all
the other athletic foundational skills, you know, weren't as developed,
and so he kind of peeked out and was gone.
So that's where you see there's tons of stats the
number of twelve year old world champions who actually play
on tours, like five or less, I believe, right, like,
it's crazy low over sixty seventy years. So being great
(08:56):
at twelve is not a predictor of being great later
on in life. But if you want you to give
your kid the best chance to play at the collegiate
level or these high levels, you know, the best junior
program in the world is going to focus on building
fundamental movement patterns, making sure that they have good movement
and rotational mobility, and then starting to tell us when
as puberty starts to hit, you're starting to actually focus
(09:18):
on load and getting stronger. That doesn't mean you avoid
the load when they're ten, eleven, twelve, You just you know,
at some point you know they're using the weight they're
going to use. You're not going to continue to add
you know, twenty pounds every month on these guys because
they just physiologically, hormonally are not there. So you just
kind of you end up the best place to be
is kind of in a little bit of a holding
(09:39):
pattern where you're not necessarily adding a load. You're just
making sure we maintain patterns and qualities and all the
explosive speed. Those sorts of things are incredibly important that
prepre beest in age. Puberty hits. Now we start working
on loaded force production, continuing to work on planometric type stuff,
but obviously forced production becomes much more achievable, and then
(09:59):
there's obviously then you know, getting up to collegiate level,
there's a lot of the discussion and trainings around nutrition.
How do you travel correctly, you know, on the course
off the course, everything starts that comes into play in
high level golf should be learned and screwed up on
in junior golf, so that way when they get to
those high levels, they know what they're doing and they've
already made the mistakes and they're not making them at
(10:20):
the at the masters, let's say so. Anyway, hopefully that
was a helpful got a little outline of what you
should be looking for, questions you should be asking if
you have a junior and you're looking for a good
program for them to be in. Obviously uh at you know,
part of success we have, you know, our local program,
but as well as we also work with juniors all
over the world. And even if you just need want
(10:40):
questions to ask, you know, just what should you be
looking for about means? Give us a call, happy to
help you guys out. The number one thing we want
that I want is for you to be educated and
make right decisions for your kids. So I got three.
I want them to do the right thing, and hopefully
this has helped you. And if you're a kid listening,
hopefully this helps you make the right choice for you.
So thanks a lot for hanging out and I look
forward to catching on the next episode,
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