As you begin to look towards your future as a junior golfer, it’s never too early to start developing a game plan. While it’s still early for the actual college recruiting process for most freshman and younger, there are many ways you can begin preparing for it and insure you are ready when the time comes. Many families believe the college recruiting process begins junior or senior year but it begins the day you decide it begins. When you reach junior year and your expectations don’t match up to your athletic and academic resume it can be very disappointing. Now is the time to be focused on goal setting, time management, practice routines, tournament schedule, fitness, work ethic, mental toughness and assertiveness.
As we near the end of 2015, it is a great time to set some goals for the upcoming year. Write down a few big outcome goals you have in mind, but remember the important part of setting goals is to develop a game plan and specific short term process goals that will help you stay on track and see your progress. Focus on time management and better practice habits. These are two areas that many junior golfers struggle with, so the sooner you can develop better habits the better chance you will have of reaching your potential.
While the winter time provides players the chance to take a little break make sure you don’t get too far behind. Don’t let the cold weather scare you away, make the most of your practice time when the weather is decent enough to be outside. There are some great indoor drills you can work on to keep your fundamentals in check. A hitting and chipping net, putting aids and a mat, foam golf balls, tempo swing trainers and many other aids can help you when the weather outside is too extreme for practice.
Also, the winter time is a great chance to get in the gym with a TPI certified trainer to work on your fitness. As long as you are with a certified coach who knows what they are doing it’s never too early to develop some agility, strength and conditioning that will help with your overall athletic ability as well as your golf game.
You can also take advantage of the down time to gather the information to put your resume together, while it may be too early for some players to send out intro emails, it never hurts to go ahead and have your resume together so you can update it and keep track of the necessary information as you move along with the process. Plan your upcoming schedule and identify tournaments that fit your goals and expectations.
You can’t just put work into your golf game; it takes working on your grades, nutrition, fitness and the college recruiting process. Always remember that you can’t go back and work harder but you can always start working harder today. So set some goals, make a game plan and achieve your dreams.
If you would like assistance with building your resume, developing your game plan for 2016, or any of these other areas check out the RecruitPKB packages or contact Brandi directly to discuss her full time programs.
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