Let them play

Something strange happened to me last week. Twice I received an email that went pretty much like this:

My 2 sons aged 3 and 2, love
playing golf. One is left handed but plays right handed and the other is
the opposite, should I encourage them to switch to there dominant side
or just let them go

My advice is to let them play. Don’t get in their way at such an early age because they’re still learning and developing their style.

And it’s important you do this because kids don’t need to have their minds filled with technique and mindless rules. They’ll be free to explore their potential without having to worry about doing anything wrong. They’ll develop much more quickly and have more fun. This is so much more important than giving them some grip advice (or whatever else we think) that WE think is right.

As a side note: I’m actually a natural right handed player but play left. My brother is the opposite. I can remember when I first picked up a club a friend of my Grandparents insisted that I play right-handed because there were no good left handed players.

I’m really glad I didn’t listen to him because I turned out ok 🙂

A final point: While it’s unusual for me to get two similar emails like this in a week, I have been asked this kind of thing before. My advice is always go with your gut instinct and when it comes to your kids, just let them play – chances are they’ll be beating you in a few years anyway.