Mark Caldwell, the 2012 Western Chapter of the Southern Texas PGA Section’s Junior Leader, and US Kids Golf Master Coach is the Director of Instruction at Total Golf Performance at the Canyon Springs Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas.

Mark Caldwell on the importance of measuring your juniors routinely during growth spurts to aid with clubfitting:

One thing that I’ve found that many teachers of low-handicap junior golfers miss out on is taking body measurements around growth spurts. I usually do this every three weeks, and while you’re always looking at growth spurts as a time to note swing changes it’s vital in terms of clubfitting. What I’ve learned is that arms and legs can grow differently and at different times, with sometimes one side of the body outracing the other. I’ve always been intrigued by the body, and do a lot of 3D Swing Analysis with 4D motion. Especially with juniors, as you want to build ball-flight consistency and center clubface contact, understanding how different parts of the body impact the chance of a repeatable swing is vital.

Mark Caldwell on the business impact of measuring your juniors routinely during growth spurts to aid with clubfitting:

First things first: When I do my initial baseline measurements, I want to make sure that everyone is wearing the actual golf shoes they play in. The heel heights can change everything, so this process is all about attention to detail. Two individuals come to mind instantly as examples of why continually measuring is so important. A 13-year old male golfer has a goal of playing high school golf. So I was doing the baseline testing and saw that his right arm was 1.25 inches longer than his left. His dad agreed to show me his growth chart so I could see if his growth patterns were average or if he was spiking. What can we anticipate as we look to get his son into the best clubs? How does this impact his swing plane? It took 2.5 years for his arms to be the same length, which suddenly changed his clubs’ lie angle. In the meantime, however, we found clubs that would work for him and worked on a steeper-then-normal full swing that fit his body type. Importantly, though, we also did a lot of short game work as he knew he’d have to make up for those full swing deficiencies. He now has a fantastic short game. I had a 15-year old female who went from shooting 110 to 90 in just eight weeks. She went home to Mexico for the holidays and came back and her swing was totally different. Her posture at address was perfect, her legs, hips and spine in ideal position. Well lo and behold her right leg grew 1.5 inches. Consequently we evaluated her clubs, made the necessary adjustments and are now working on full swing drills. The bottom line is that if you aren’t measuring your students on a routine basis you are missing out on their ebbs and flows. And those changes, seemingly minor to many, can make a gigantic difference.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email Mark@mjcaldwellpga.com.