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Padraig Harrington played alongside his son, Ciaran, at the PNC Championship. In an interview with Golf Channel, this experienced golfer talked about the importance of involving children in sports, specifically golf. Harrington believes that a stress-free environment is best for children.
“The best way, if you want to get your kid into the game of golf is bring them somewhere where you’re not stressed. That’s very important. Kids pick up on that.”- he said, as quoted by golfmonthly.com!
The most important thing is the fun factor. If he is not there, then it is very difficult to force the children to do something. It is necessary for them to be fearless, relaxed, and happy to play sports.
“Let them do what they like when they’re there. Have a bit of fun. If they want to hit one shot, two shots, 10 shots, playing the bunker, look at the water or whatever they want to do, let them do, and generally, bring them home before they get tired.”
Harrington revealed what the best thing is.
“So the best thing you can do with a kid early on in golf is say: ’Hey, we have to go home,’ and don’t wait to get tired and hate it. Wait till when they’re actually enjoying themselves, go home.”
Harrington’s advice
Harrington spoke about the importance of building a relationship on a parent-son basis. He recommends that after finishing sports activities, it is important to sit down with the child for coke and ice cream. These are moments that your kids will always remember and that will be engraved in their memory for the rest of their life. These are ways to make children fall in love with sports. When they become professionals, such moments will keep them playing sports and striving for success.
“When you’re finished, take 10 minutes to spend with your son or daughter and go and have a Coke, a Pepsi this week. Go and have a Pepsi in the bar, wherever it is, and sit there, have an ice cream, and spend 10, 15 minutes.
If they have that 15 minutes alone time with you, just you and them, for the rest of their life, every time they play golf, they’ll remember the 15 minutes they had with their father or mother and that’s what keeps bringing them back to golf.
It’s a long career, and every time they play golf it’s bringing that happy memory of when they were a kid and they just got a bit of alone time, a bit of quiet time, a bit of big boy time, you know, where they’re sitting there in the clubhouse and enjoying it, so it’s very important, stress-free environment. Don’t bring them to the nice country club. That’s no use, that makes them soft anyway.”
