Children can find their OWN way to golf – or to whatever excites them!

I enjoy getting to watch what excites my wonderful grandchildren – Emerson, Madux, and Julia.  This past summer, I was watching TV and Julia said "Gramps, can you turn golf on, I LOVE to watch golf!"  Well – I could have immediately said – hey, this is great. I can build her golf clubs, get her lessons to play golf.  Maybe she will be a great golfer, and get a scholarship to college.

Well, yes – I did build her a putter and a wedge to play around with (and all of the grandkids have some types of golf clubs available to them).  But thinking that I should actively push her toward golf – sorry, not for me.

The past few weeks, I had the opportunity to watch two very interesting movies that provide a contrast on children developing talents and becoming athletes.

The first was "The Book of Manning."  This was an ESPN video largely about Archie Manning – who was a star quarterback at the University of Mississippi –  and his NFL pro football quarterback sons – Peyton and Eli.  

The second was a Netflix video "The Short Game."  It was a movie about a group of eight 7 and 8 year old golfers who played in the Junior World Golf Championships at Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Both videos were great to watch.  But there was definitely a contrast between the two of them.

In terms of the Mannings, Archie would not let his sons play organized football until they were in the 7th grade.  And he never pushed them to be football players.  When they became interested in football, he did what he could to help them based on his experiences.  And he was always in the background at their high school and college games.  

In terms of the golfers in the Short Game movie, a number of them were being "groomed" to perhaps become professional golfers.  Some of them had their parents caddy for them in the tournament, and the interactions on the golf course between parents and children were not always enjoyable to watch.

The wonderful book "The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born, It's Grown, Here's How" by Daniel Coyne talks about a process called Ignition as important to talent development.  Ignition is not something that can be manufactured.  In my own life, I experienced ignition when the Sputnik satellite was launched in 1958 – and I became an engineer.  And I experienced it when I had my first club fitting from Richard Hess in Oak Ridge – and I became interested in custom club fitting.

At the end of both of the movies, there were some very interesting parallels.  On the way to going to Old Miss for the first time, Archie Manning asked his dad what he thought he should study.  His dad told him to find something he was good at, and be a good guy.  At the end of the Short Game movie, Jack Nicklaus said he does not really think it is important what people do, just that they are the best at what they do.

Hum…………interesting that pretty much the same advice noted at the end of both movies.  Pretty good advice in both cases, I believe.

Rooting For YOUR Golfing Success!

Tony

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