Andy Little

Location: Club Fourteen Golf Studio 

Andy has been coaching for over 20 years and he is recognised as one of the very best teachers with children. He is the UK's only Level 2 coach having travelled to the US Kids' headquarters in North Carolina and he works predominantly with children from 4 to 11. 

Teaching philosophy:

I need to keep my teaching as simple as possible, and make it as fun. This will ensure the children who come to me for a golf lesson are going to be encouraged, engaged, and given a good experience. Most importantly they will experience the joy of golf and the desire to return week after week.

How to ensure clear communication:

With my groups I keep the ratio to 6:1, so I know I can give every child some attention. When I’m talking to a child or the group, I make sure I have everyone looking at me and most importantly when I’m talking to a child, I get down to their level, so my eye line is at the same level. This involves being on my knees or sitting down next to them. The language I use also has to be very different from traditional coaching, I need to keep the instructions simple, so the young audience I have in front of me can understand what I’m asking them to do.

Biggest challenge:

With children, success is so important, they want that emotional high from doing something well, getting praise from either myself or their parents. They want a buzz from hitting a good shot. Therefore, a challenge I face is creating an environment and lesson that will offer that ‘high’ as soon as possible whilst trying to challenge each child within that group. If a child is not gaining that confidence or more importantly enjoying the game/challenge that they are playing they will start to lose their overall enjoyment of golf and may, over time want to stop all together. A similar challenge to this is the need for success from parents and maybe more from non-golfing parents. I feel non-golfing parents don’t appreciate how difficult golf can be. Which golf professional hasn’t heard the cry of ‘focus’ ‘concentrate’ from a parent to their child along a driving range?