Another key aspect of our teaching is our healthy habits. This includes managing our Physical, Emotional and Social health. These are less obvious life lessons that the game of golf can teach, and our program helps make our students aware of that and how to manage all aspects of their own health.
For Physical health, we teach the importance of having a balanced diet, exercise and safety. Our kids learn how the choices they make about when to eat, how much to eat, and the types of food and drinks impacts the body and brain’s ability to perform and succeed. Lastly, we focus on physical safety, which includes setting boundaries so we don’t get hurt by swinging golf clubs or flying golf balls. It also includes stretching before participating in a physical activity so we can keep our bodies flexible and avoid injury.
For Emotional health, individuals learn how to learn from the past and present and apply those learning lessons to improve and develop a plan for their future. Our teaching highlights that although we might not be able to control how we feel we can control how we behave; we refer to this as self control. Our behavior has a distinct impact on our emotions and can be utilized in a positive manner to help one succeed on and off the golf course. Lastly, we focus on the importance of team effort.
For Social health, maintaining healthy relationships starts with managing one’s own emotions and leads to our interaction and impact on those around us. Unique to the digital challenges that face our newest generations, we teach how we impact others extends to the digital environment such as texting and social media. One of the quintessential components of our curriculum connects what we learn on the golf course can also be applied at home and at school. This begins with a class discussion about the core value of the day, and kids are asked how it can be applied on the golf course, at school and at home.
Several years after our founding, we now deliver 20 weekly golf classes, offer on-course playing opportunities, tournaments and more year round. All of our non-after-school golf classes amount to just $15 per hour- among the lowest in the state- and we haven’t raised our prices since we started. We offer need-based scholarships for all of our classes to reduce the class fees or eliminate them altogether. We offer subsidized golf shirts, hats and golf clubs for our families in need to encourage kids to practice outside of golf class. Today, our website is home to our eLearning portal “Golf at Home” where we have instructional golf videos, homework and quizzes to enable kids and their parents/legal guardians to continue the learning process with them off the golf course.
How we solve the problem
Since we started, we have introduced golf to thousands of participants and provided hundreds of scholarships. We have weekly golf classes where kids can progress through our 7 levels of instruction from age 4 to age 18. We offer scholarships which eliminate the class fees for families in need, provide golf clubs, golf clothes and the permission to practice at the golf course outside of class free of charge. We have playing programs to introduce kids to the golf course. We have competitive tournaments where kids can participate in competition. We offer targeted programs to reach low income communities, including minorities and girls. We provide targeted instruction for kids with disabilities and terminal diseases. Lastly, we offer virtual learning programs on our website to encourage kids to continue the learning process in the comfort of their own home. We continue to break down barriers and reach kids with the unique opportunity of learning the game of golf that matures to success in adult life.
