Putting – Distance Control (Coaster Game)

Teaching a child to understand how hard (or soft) to hit the ball is very delicate.  I have often found myself in a tournament messing things up by “teaching with words.”  For example “Ally, you are going uphill… you need to hit it harder” … followed by a big whack and the ball going 20 feet past.  Or “be careful, this is a slick one… hit it easy”… followed by a dainty stroke that is left on the top side of the hole.  Net-Net… when I used words to tell my child how hard to hit the ball… nothing good ever happened…

This past week, I created a “game” which ended up being very effective in teaching my daughter turning effective distance control and put some meaning to the “words” I was saying… she could effectively process the distance and hit great putts… let’s call it the Coaster Game.

Overview of Coaster Game

1. The paper Coaster becomes your “new hole”… where ideally if your ball rolls over the coaster with a tiny amount of momentum, you will have great distance
2. For downhill example – find a very steep putt on the putting green (ideally one that if you drop the ball, the ball will roll past the hole).  Drop the ball to show the child where the ball goes if it barely rolls over the top of the hill.  Put the coaster at this point and have them make strokes.
3. For uphill example – find a uphill putt that requires the child to hit the ball with some pop (2X as hard as a flat putt).  Ask your child, where you should put the coaster… ideally they will say 4-5 feet behind the hole.

This Coaster game really started to click as my daughter started to find different places on the green (uphill and downhill) with the goal of placing the coaster in the right spot.  Often times, she would hit her first putt… then go move the coaster to a better place.

Net-Net… this was the first time she actually ever learned how to properly read a green… everything else had been by feel.  This game provides “feel plus strategy”… which is a winning combination.

Take Dead Aim!