[bambam]

I found a cool training aid for my 2 year old - masking tape!

My son likes to hit his golf clubs, but he does a couple things that keep him from hitting good shots and getting hooked on golf. He stands to the ball different on every swing, and he has a funky left hand low grip that I've not been able to get him to change. He rarely makes good enough contact to hit the ball well. I haven't been pressing him to play golf, but I found something that worked on the first try.

I was at my brother's and he had some tape on the floor so his daughter had a reference point to put her feet when she hit golf balls or baseballs. I looked at it and thought no way my son has the patience/focus to line up to that tape...in fact, he'll probably just try to pick the tape off the floor. Man was I wrong! He took to it instantly. We put down a line of tape for the stance line and a couple smaller, perpendicular pieces where his feet go (think dowels minus the risk of the kid smashing stuff with the dowels). I put a little "X" so he could place the ball, also. He loves lining up to the marks with his feet and getting the ball exactly on the "X". He immediately started making consistent contact with the ball. I figured if it worked for his stance, it would work for his grip, so I put a piece of tape where his left palm touches and a piece where his right palm touches, and that fixed his grip - I'm going to put two different colors on there so he can do it himself a little easier. After about 3 solid shots, he was hooked. I put the ball on the "X" for him for quite a while today; he even had this nice little finish swivel with his new grip!

He's hollering for me to hit more balls (seriously)...