Sideline Sessions

Ross Romano: [00:00:00] Welcome in, everybody. You are listening to Sideline Sessions here on the BE Podcast Network. Thanks, as always, for being with us. I'm pleased to be bringing you another conversation here about the sport of golf. We've talked about it a little bit [00:01:00] before with Troy Basham, but here we'll really be digging into a lot of things, in particular, that are really useful for parents to understand about the sport, about how to get kids involved in it, about some of the opportunities that are involved as they move from the youth levels up even to college and beyond, and really getting a better understanding of, of what You know, what's involved in participating in this sport.

So my guest is Lee-Anne Gilchrist. Leanne is a motivator and educator who has worked with hundreds of athletes and their parents in the quest to athletic success in college and on professional golf tours with a dream to create a unique environment for athletic development. Leanne was a founding partner of two successful junior golf academies, and she is currently the CEO of the Golf Performance Center and Academy in Ridgefield, Connecticut, working with young people from all over the world to nurture Intrinsic Motivation, and Unlock Human Potential.

Her daughter, Caitlin, is her greatest inspiration and her proudest accomplishment. Leanne, thanks for being here.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Thanks, Ross. It's [00:02:00] fantastic. Super excited to be with you today.

Ross Romano: And this is a great one. I think it's a sport. You know, there's a lot of people I'm sure out there like me who would be really interested in how to get their kids involved in it, right? And may not have had direct experience themselves. And also, as with everything you know, there's so much change over time as far as what are the types of opportunities to get involved.

So let's start at the beginning. How do you get involved? Kids involved. How do you introduce kids to golf? Or is there a general age range when it's most typical? Is there, you know, what's the starting point?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Well, so with most sports I think it's golf is very similar in that you want to just have kids have some fun with it, right? Experiment with it without any sort of, you know, Stress or tension or pressure. It's just a lot of kids that get good at golf, learned with their parents. They might have gone with their dad to [00:03:00] the golf course and, and I've, I've heard this many times.

They wanted to spend more time with the parent that played. So they went along to the golf course, right? So, There are many roads that lead to Rome, so to speak. So there's just so many different ways. Some kids go with their friends to the golf course, a grandparent took them to the range. I think that in that very broad beginner kind of introductory to the game stage, it should just be very fun. And you know, so if you as a parent want to get your child into golf, my suggestion would be to You know, take them to a range, try and, you know, book a nine hole round and, and just let them experience the golf course. One of the traps I think we do fall into with golf is we don't play enough.

There's a lot of like range practice type you know, activity without a lot of golf course activity. I would say go to the golf course as soon as [00:04:00] possible, because that's really where you can fall in love with the game itself. Go

Ross Romano: Yeah. Can anyone learn to be a golfer? I mean, not necessarily professional, but is there, you know, are there certain kind of indicators of, of the overall potential? Do you just sort of know that once somebody starts playing the game and what's their determination to keep improving but, you know, it's, it's kind of, I mean, it's.

It's unique in the sense that, you know, maybe there's a couple other sports that, that are similar, but certainly it's, it's a lifelong game, right? People of all ages can play you can play for, for leisure, for competition, et cetera. But yeah, how, how do you, how would you describe right. It doesn't have to be that somebody's goal is to necessarily become pro, but maybe they're open to the possibility.

But can anyone basically learn the game and then learn to have some [00:05:00] success?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: I would say absolutely. And I think it's one of the great things about the game of golf, to be honest. It's such a, it's a social game, but you can go and play on your own, right? So it's a lot more sort of open than a, than a lot of other sports. As far as predictors. Of course there are some predictors to success in golf.

It, you know, maybe 52, 50 years ago and onwards, it wasn't as physical, but in the last 20, 30 years, it's become an extremely a, a power sport, right? And very physical. So athleticism has always been a predictor for golf success, even though you didn't see it. in sort of that muscular physique and the power game that you do today.

But even those players of old that we look back on, right, they were very athletic. So, so [00:06:00] I guess there were two questions there. Anyone can play, anyone can learn and get some value out of it, being outside, being in the fresh air. playing golf with your friends. I think from a business standpoint, it's very valuable.

So there's so much value to golf. If you want to play competitively, it's an extremely challenging and mental game. So I think the predictors there would be grit, resilience, determination, you know, basic athleticism and skill and the ability just to, to stick with it when it gets hard. It's not an easy game. (ad here)

Ross Romano: Yeah, and I imagine there, even though it doesn't necessarily have a general reputation as a sport built on conditioning,

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Right.

Ross Romano: but that flexibility and, and generalized kind of strength training that, that's important to being able to perform at a [00:07:00] high level to stay healthy, avoid, you know, the, the injuries that come with any kind of physical activity.

And. Thinking about the preparation that would go into being out there on the course and, and. Turning it into the kind of thing where yeah, where, where, you know, that it's going to be a positive experience, right?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Absolutely. I mean, it's like you said mobility, stability, those physical attributes are extremely important because when I say that golf's become a power game, it's really, it's not how strong you are. You can, if you watch, you know, some players, they could look, you know, pretty, you know, strong. You know, pretty slim, or you wouldn't expect them to hit the ball as far as they hit it, but it's really about the energy, right, in the swing, and the efficiency of the swing, and with the technology that we have today, [00:08:00] Like at GPC and at our academy, you know, we have so much technology that we know exactly what's happening throughout the, the, the movement in, in the swing.

It's called the kinematic sequence, right? And, and where you might be losing energy or, or leaking power, so to speak. So with the advances of technology there are so many, more enhancements to the game, you know, even the ball, uh, equipment, the ball physical conditioning, all those things have just made it so much easier to hit it further and, and to become a, a power game for sure.

Ross Romano: So let's basically spend, you know, the majority of the rest of our conversation talking more in the context of of young golfers who may want to participate competitively in some fashion whether they're youth, High school, you know, or looking at beyond what, what are some of [00:09:00] the kinds of opportunities that are available to young golfers today once they reach, you know, whatever age where they, they might start to get involved in some type of competition be, be involved with some type of program, whether it's at a school or an academy, what are, what are some of those opportunities?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: So the great thing about golf in the US, we are the world's biggest golf market. followed by Japan. So we are the biggest market. There are so many opportunities for young golfers, aspiring golfers, which just makes, you know, the access is obviously the key. And we're very fortunate in the U. S. to have a lot of access.

For younger kids, that are in, you know, elementary and middle school. Their options are sort of the, the programs like a U. S. Kids kind of program where you can get equipment for younger kids. You know, you've got a, a three year old, right? You can get, [00:10:00] you can get equipment for, for little kids now that is just great to get them You know, feeling the game and the movement of the game.

So I think for younger kids, if parents are going to need to be more involved take them to camps. There's camps all over the U. S. Starting with a summer camp. I always advise parents a summer camp is always just a fantastic experience and exposure to the game, right? Because they'll make friends, maybe they go back the next year.

They fall in love with the game because it's fun learning the new skills. And just, it's just a good exposure away from mom and dad. I think summer camps are a really good starting point. When kids move into high school and even, even under high school, most states have some really good development tournaments.

So most of my experience is in Florida, the Carolinas, and, and those [00:11:00] areas Georgia, there are tours all over the country, developmental tours that help kids go and learn how to compete. Like I mentioned to you earlier, We, the game is played on a golf course, but it's practiced on a range, and if they over practice and become, you know, over analytical, then they might not have that instinct to just go play.

So playing in tournaments early, I would say, would be some key advice. Just, just the compet, the, the social aspect, learning how to compete learning the game in a tournament setting is just great experience. So move, then, then a young, a junior would move through those tour stages. So you start with the developmental tours, there's private tours, state tours, then you'd start to play tours like like the Hurricane Junior Tour.

Bye bye. Or, I mean, there's just so many you know, the AJGA has a [00:12:00] younger age group that's, that's, that's under 15s, and then they have the open tournaments, but you could move through, like, MB3, for example, they're another great tour, that's, that's pretty national. You just move through the tours.

basically to see where you want to go with the game. Does that make sense? High school golf's also absolutely fantastic. I think high school golf has really done a lot to help get kids excited about playing golf and engaged. So I, I do encourage kids to play for their high schools. And yeah, yeah,

Ross Romano: I mean, certainly I think some of those aspects of the social element of it, right, for younger kids to see it as something they could be doing alongside some friends and making friends along the way. You know, playing in tournaments, it gives you, it kind of forces you in a position to, to take a [00:13:00] variety of shots, I'm sure, right?

To feel a little bit of pressure, to just put it into practice, and you know, like you say, there's, with the technology around training, with what training might look like, there's, there's a time, in place in preparation and training to evaluate and analyze your swing and what's working, what's not, and to try to get that right.

But once you're out there on the course, You can't think you have to just be able to, you know, have the repeatable skills and, and sometimes forcing yourself into that position. Because I'm sure there can be a perfectionist streak among a number of golfers to, you know, keep wanting to work to get it just right.

And, and sometimes it's time to just get out there and perform. Are there, I'm thinking about, like, motivation and motivators for, for a young, young golfer and what might be [00:14:00] unique in comparison to other types of sports and things, but I guess the, how a coach or a parent might go about motivating

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: right.

Ross Romano: around their, you know, their skill improvement, their training et cetera.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: I mean, it's a very interesting subject that could be a whole session is motivation. And I'm kind of studied motivation as a, as a amateur, you know, not, not, you know, Not in the professional, academic sense, but I'm really interested in motivation and what drives us, right? What drives us to do the things we do. And intrinsic motivation is, is really the way to go with anything, with any, and so, To the extent that a person is controlled, they're probably going to have less autonomy or less [00:15:00] intrinsic motivation. So the, the, the encouragement really is to create an environment that's motivating and to tap into every child's sense of autonomy and sense of purpose and their sense of joy and whatever they're doing. So I know that can sound a little bit that could be frustrating for some parents and they're like, no, but I want my child to play golf and I want them to be a good golfer, right? The external controls and the external motivation, it can get, it, it, it absolutely can get results, but whether that's, you know, gonna be, is gonna sustain, probably not.

And there's a lot of research in the last, you know, decades to, to. to support the theory, right? So I think the big, the big key, that's why when, when kids are new to golf, the concept is enjoyment, pleasure, fun. Let them have positive [00:16:00] associations. If there's something, if they're going to a coach that they don't like or they're getting some, if they're exposed to something and it's negative, I would remove them from that environment, right?

And don't keep forcing it. Just remove them from that and then try to associate it with enjoyment. Now, obviously learning a new skill is hard and perfecting a skill and mastery of a skill takes a long time. It takes effort. It's not fun. But if the internal driver motivation isn't authentic to someone, then they're not going to do it anyway, ultimately.

Does, does that make sense? So when kids are young, let them play lots of sports. You know, we not. fans of early specialization. There are some cultures that really hone in on, on specialization and I think it's absolutely fantastic for kids to play multiple sports. It's great [00:17:00] for their motor skills.

It's just, it's good from in, in, in every way. So yeah, that's kind of would be my advice. Let the child themselves be the sign for the motivation. It's, let them sort of lead that process. And, and of course we can help and we can support. Uh, we could, but I would say by providing a motivating environment, that's the best way we could do it.

Ross Romano: Yeah. And that intrinsic motivation piece that you referenced is so powerful. And a lot of that just, shows up by being in position to be in some sort of competition and learn through experience that somebody who's going to ultimately be really interested in a particular sport or any endeavor is naturally going to feel motivated to keep getting better, to have better [00:18:00] results to, you know, by winning such as it is, right?

That nobody else can really make you care about that. And, and ultimately, if they try to force you into it or pressure you to, to worry about winning and losing before you're ready, it's going to have the opposite effect. And it's going to say, well, then I don't really want to do it. And, and Yeah, I think the experience can be so, again, like not, it's not exclusive to golf, but the experience of, you know, being outside and the courses and, and just being able to perform well enough to have an opportunity to participate, right, whether it's, you know, socially playing with friends or in some type of competition to say, want to be able to continue doing that.

That means that I have, I basically need to, to be able to play well enough to do so. And once I really feel like I'm getting [00:19:00] better and better, then how much better can I get? How, you know, what can I work on? Are there, but for parents, so for parents, who are getting their kids, you know, involved in a golf or their kids are starting to get involved.

What should they be prepared for as far as what to expect regarding as a kid maybe moves up the levels, what type of commitment, you know, what type of travel might be involved or costs or things like that, that the parents should be prepared for. Planning for and kind of getting an understanding of, okay, here's what it's going to look like as we move through this sport.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: I mean, it's a time consuming sport, obviously, because a round of golf takes, you know, four to five hours, a competitive round, plus preparation, plus travel. Most junior events are fairly affordable. I would say entry freeze, depending on the level of [00:20:00] the tour. anywhere from, you know, 100, 150 to 250, that sort of range.

So there are, of course, costs involved. But again, I think all of this, like in the, in the developmental stages when they're younger, fairly inexpensive, Unless you are joining a golf course, if you're not already a member of a course, most golf courses do have great junior membership rates, so that's fantastic.

Even if mom and dad don't play, you know, they could get their child a membership so that they can be out there practicing playing. Great experience. So, as, as a junior golfer gets older, it, it can be, it can be a pricey sport, for sure. You want to approach tournaments very strategically, playing the right events to suit, you know, to suit the child's game.

I kind of support a one third [00:21:00] concept, which is, you know, play a third of tournaments right in your level play a third that are a stretch and are going to be difficult and maybe some that are easy, right? So that you're mixing it up. You want to be challenged. You also want to build confidence by playing well and being able to win.

And, and, and that can, it can be expensive when you start getting competitive for sure.

Ross Romano: Is there. a certain timing when a young golfer is sort of determining what their pathway may be. For example, you know,

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Yeah.

Ross Romano: for a place like Golf Performance Academy, right, where you, where you are You know, is there a certain age or timing when a young golfer would be getting evaluated for their potential to, to go to an academy like that, to really be thinking about, okay, my goal is to play, you know, to get a college scholarship or to compete maybe for a professional tour [00:22:00] versus I love playing the sport.

I want to continue getting better, but, you know, It's going to be something that is, is maybe a little more recreational.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: So golf is pretty special in this way. And it's a luxury because some other sports, you don't have this luxury, right? You've got a very narrow sort of trajectory, but with golf it's a lot more flexible. There is a perfect sort of plan or trajectory, I would say, in that, You are getting into the game in middle school, you're building up some skills, as a freshman in high school, you're starting to play some tours, by your junior year you already kind of have an idea where you'd like to play college golf, you're competing in the AJGAs, Hopefully, you know, you're getting invited to AJGA Invitationals.

You signed for college the summer of your, you know, rising senior year, and [00:23:00] that's sort of the perfect trajectory. The reality is it, it doesn't work like that a lot of the time. A lot of kids come to golf late, but they're talented. They're athletically talented. The skill acquisition may be a little on the low side and they're building on some skills.

So it's so individual. I have known, like, I mean, I've helped hundreds of kids get into, into college golf, right? And I can just regale you with story after story of different situations. Kids that came to the game really late, they might've played at a junior college, played really well, transferred into a D2 and went on to be a pro.

You know, you can look at all the guys on the PGA Tour today and some of them played D3 golf, right? It, the, it's so individualized based on your current, you know, your ability Your athletic ability, your mindset, your mental, [00:24:00] and your goals, what you really want. And then the drive and the motivation and the work ethic and those are the things that you build on to get to your goals.

So it's, it's an imperfect It's an imperfect journey, which is a beautiful thing. But I think that the people that have been most successful in my experience, I've been so fortunate to, you know, guys like Morgan Hoffman, like Shen Shen Feng, Ah Yan Yi Tseng, I've, I've, you know, been around them as they developed.

And the common denominator is Just a lot of skill and talent, a lot of hard work pretty mentally aligned, knew what they wanted, just went after it, and very motivated. You know, there are predictors like that.

Ross Romano: yeah. What, what, what is the, what's the scholarship environment like at the U S colleges and universities? Yeah. Is the, like, yeah. What, what types of schools offer golf [00:25:00] scholarships relatively? What's available,

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Yeah, I mean, there's 2, 000 golf programs, right? So there's, there is a lot of opportunity in college golf. There's, there, we have D1, the NCAA Division 1, 2, and 3. There's NAIA which is their own You know, their own organization and then junior college. So I think anybody who, who wants to play college golf, almost anyone who really aspires to play college golf pretty much can, you know, if you have, if you shooting, you know, In the, you know, the range for D one, for top level D one is, is under par scratch players, right?

And, and then it, it goes up from there. So if, if you really have that goal and that desire, I think there is a program for anyone. You know, there's, there are a lot of factors. There's academic factors, there's budget [00:26:00] factors scholarships are not as easy as they used to be because there's a lot more kids playing golf.

It's very competitive. So, so, you know, getting a full scholarship, those are very, very hard to come by.

Ross Romano: Yeah.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Not, not easy, but having the opportunity maybe with a smaller scholarship in year one and working your way up and proving yourself to the coach that's just a very, very doable and realistic, realistic goal.

Ross Romano: Aren't there like, so in the junior golf development world Are there particular challenges that are, that are kind of more significant in the, you know, that you're facing today with the, you know, in that junior development area?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Definitely. So there's two, there's two ways to look at this. And when I look at anything, I look at the strategy part of it, sort of the practical part of it, and then the psychological part of it. So [00:27:00] just practically speaking I would say junior golf development in the U. S. is very fragmented. So the USGA did start their national team and the US development program, but it's only for a handful of young people.

And so that doesn't really help us as you know, a whole. I think there's a lot of People, good people out in the golf world that are trying to pull something together, but it is it hasn't really happened. So I think it is an area that needs a lot of attention. Some of the best minds in junior golf should come together and, and say, okay, how can we address this?

this situation. So on, on, on that side, we, we're not doing that well. I would say with junior development, we could be doing a lot better. On the soft side or the psychological side, I think this is where we really need [00:28:00] parents to step up and do a much better job. In our, in the world today, in this generation with Gen Z we're, we, you know, our kids are the most anxious, the most depressed, the most suicidal generation to date, right?

So those are real things. Those, that real A situation that we faced with is probably because of technology. Technology plays a big factor in isolation of our youth and I think parents almost don't know how to deal with some of this. And so if if the, if our first line of defense would be at home, right, I think parents, instead of asking their kids, you know, why are you so lazy?

Or why don't you work hard? Or why did you three part on that whole, right? Parents need to learn how to shift their paradigm as a parent, [00:29:00] right? And at home, right? At home, we should create the conditions that will motivate and inspire our kids to be their very best. Because in my experience, that's where things really do break down is, is in the home unit with parents.

It's the, it's the pressure, the negativity, the unrealistic expectations, not understanding the personality of their child, right? If you've got a high powered type A parent, with an introverted sort of gentle child. Can you imagine that communication and the miscommunication and, and young kids don't know how to articulate how they feeling.

So it just sort of gets bottled up or whatever. And then what will more than likely happen is they give up golf or, you know, worse, who knows what could happen. So, so while we are working on a [00:30:00] development program, you know, Us here at the Golf Performance Center and Golf Performance Academy, we have PDI, and I don't even know if we've talked about PDI, but the Player Development Index, and we're hoping to get PDI into everyone's hands because it's just a tool to help manage manage your development.

And if kids know, you know, they might shoot high scores, but if they don't really understand how to get better and, and the reasons why that's happening, be very demotivating. And then of course the parents don't help, right? I would love to do more parent seminars, parent education, and really focus on, on that aspect of this industry. (ad here)

Ross Romano: yeah. If you, if you were, if you had a magic wand and you were in control of all youth golf development nationwide, what's the first thing you would do? Is it get everybody in PDI? [00:31:00] Is it one of the other things you've referenced?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: You know, I'm not, I mean, I think PDI is great just because for, for 20 years, I never had a tool like this, right, where I mean, if I went back to think of all the athletes we've worked with in the past, I don't have one place where all their information is. And what PDI does is it measures the physical, the mental, the golf skills and golf scores, puts it all together and tracks development over time.

So a fantastic tool. It doesn't matter if it's PDI or something else. I'm not, I'm definitely not saying, okay, this is the be all and end all, right? What I'm saying is we should all come together with a common goal, not, not promoting self interest, but a common goal to say, okay, we're a massive country with a lot of private business enterprise, you know, how can we all do the right thing to help this next [00:32:00] generation?

And. Together with that would be a big piece of helping parents of athletes just do a better job you know, parenting their kids or, or raising them the right way when it comes to sport.

Ross Romano: Yeah. So Liam, you shared a lot, you know, a lot of valuable things here for listeners to be thinking about looking into at different parts of this journey. Do you have sort of a final takeaway for, for listeners in particular, I think our parent listeners but, but it could apply to, to coaches as well about just.

Some advice on, on supporting your child in, in success as they get involved in athletics and, and what you, you know, you've seen a lot of it over the years, right? And, and been involved in it. And if you're really excited about, about what potential there is in, in sports, right? And, and all the opportunities that can open up.

Yeah. What, what are some, [00:33:00] you know, final tips to be supportive of that journey?

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Sure. So I, I think it's very difficult for parents to multitask and be coach. Mental Coach, Physical Coach, and Parent. So I would encourage parents to, to embrace the role of a parent and then hire a coach and trust the professionals in those areas. So don't try to then either contradict the professional or, because what that does, it just causes confusion, right, for the athlete.

We kind of, you know, you want to be aligned, you want to be a team so there's no sort of conflict there with, with bias. So that would be you know, I, I would say try to parent and as a parent, it's, it's conditional love, understanding, acceptance of your child, [00:34:00] try to see their uniqueness and accept it.

And and then as far as some practical things that parents can actually do, like talking conceptually is one thing, but to go out and do, is I would encourage every parent to read the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. It's an absolute tenant of, of our business and of our approach to player development and, and, you know, a human potential, unlocking human potential, because There are two basic mindsets.

You know, I don't know how much you know about the book, Russ, but if you haven't, okay, good. Because you can see when young people have a growth mindset and things are difficult and they push through, right? And they embrace the challenge versus avoiding the difficult things and just trying to prove how good they are.

When you start seeing that [00:35:00] happening in a young person. You know, that's a red flag for a parent to say, okay, what can I do to really nurture and encourage a growth mindset in my child? And it's the questions we ask them, you know, when they finish a round of golf or any type of sport activity, it's the questions that are curious.

that, that promotes self awareness, that promote learning, nothing, not negativity or criticism, right? And it's not easy, it's not easy to do, especially for parents that are high powered executives or that have performed at a high level themselves. It's a whole new set of skills that they need to learn and embrace.

Ross Romano: Yeah. Awesome. So yeah, a lot there to think about. If you're listening, we'll also put some links below to the golf performance academy, golf PDI. com. Some resources you might want to check out. Maybe, you know, if you already have a young golfer in your, in your care, or if you're interested in [00:36:00] learning more about that, a lot there Leanne, anything else in particular that you'd recommend listeners check out?

Yeah.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Um, wow. No I mean, I would check out your local area, your state, and just look for the tours, like we said find a good coach that can help with the instruction, because learning the skill is obviously extremely important, but we want that to be a, a fun and exciting experience. You know, a journey, not a negative journey.

So find a good coach keep encouraging them and like I said, start competing, get them competing early. I think that's a great way to fall in love with the game.

Ross Romano: Right. Yeah. So listeners try those things, check it out. But if you're interested in the sport of golf, a lot there again, we'll put those links below to make it easy for you to find some of those resources. And then there's others you can look for locally and in your local area. Please do also subscribe to Sidelines Sessions if you haven't already.

Continue to bring you [00:37:00] insights from diverse coaches, stakeholders, others involved in sports, kind of across the sporting landscape here. A lot of different ideas for supporting the young athletes in your life. Leanne, thanks again for being here.

Lee-Anne Gilchrist: Thanks so much, Ross. Take care.