There was a time when kids had to make do with whatever sports equipment was laying around, including golf clubs. There were no video games or private cell phones; years ago the phone was on the wall in the kitchen and children had to have permission to use it, something that would horrify today's youngsters. In those days there was a live operator and you would tell her the number you wanted to call then she would connect you and usually listed in on the conversation to see if there's anything to gossip about. It's debatable whether kids have too much in the way of freedom and material goods today because many of the parents never had any of these things as children. If dad was a golfer several decades ago a child taking up golf would be given dad's old hand-me-down golf clubs. The shafts would be chopped down and duct taped to match his height but unfortunately the heads would be too heavy since they were adult-sized. It's very difficult to control a swing when there's a huge wooden driver head on the club. The golf club sets would often consist of clubs scavenged from many sources. Today, specially built junior golf clubs are available to be balanced in length and weight. They have comfortable hand grips so that the clubs won't slip and fly in the air after the swing. Now the young golfers can have a matched set of well-designed clubs that are especially for junior players. The height of the golfer is taken into account, along with some leeway for growth so that the clubs can last a couple of years. The lightweight club heads make it easier to develop a good swing. The morale becomes more positive and this is essential to golf; it can be a frustrating sport if you don't connect with the ball perfectly. One centimeter off-center can spell disaster once the ball takes off because it's not going to go anywhere near the intended direction so the golfer has to go find the ball on either side of the fairway. Often the club will strike too high up on the ball and bounce it thirty or forty feet in front of the tee instead of downrange in a good position for the second stroke. There are irons with different weights and club face angles to correspond to the estimated distance and elevation you wish to achieve. Club selection is learned through trial and error. There is a club called a sand wedge that is very slanted so that it can dig under the ball a little bit and stop suddenly, jarring the ball upwards onto the green. This is a technique that can backfire easily and professional golfers are plagued by failure to escape from sand traps. It's easy to over-swing or get the wrong angle so the ball will soar over the green, perhaps into more trouble like a water hazard or second sand trap. It's more embarrassing if the ball jumps but fails to make it up to the green, and instead rolls back down to the feet of the golfer. With a young teen golfer facing a lifetime of club-throwing, cursing under the breath, moaning to the sky, and turning purple at every lost golf ball, it's a bonus to at least learn properly with a comfortable set of clubs that will help develop a more accurate swing. He or she may not become a pro but being able to play proficiently will keep the pastime tolerable and reduce the temper tantrums that are a basic part of golf.
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