How do you know if your child is a future sports star?

My husband and I believe in exposing our kids to a wide range of sports at an early age for a few reasons. With a couple of energetic kids on our hands, it’s a way to put that energy to good use and we also want to give Isaac and Gillian the chance to try things we never did as kids. Mr. P’s childhood in northern Manitoba and mine on a farm didn’t allow for easy access to soccer, basketball, gymnastics and golf beyond school hours. We won’t lie: Both of us wonder if we could have been above average in any sport that we attempted if given the time and opportunity.

 

This brings us to golf. Isaac was given a set of golf clubs last year for Christmas and he’s been to the driving range with Mr. P a few times and whacks balls in the yard for fun. When a private golf academy opened in town we were both curious to see if Isaac would enjoy it and be any good at the sport. We signed him up for a series of introduction to golf lessons to see what would happen. 

 

And what happened was awesome — he loved it. During the lessons he focused like a little laser beam and hit ball after ball, listened attentively to the instructor (who was so patient and amazing), and has a natural swing that even me as a non-golfer is in awe of. Even the instructor was pleased with him. And no, the instructor doesn’t say that to all the parents. So we’ve signed him up for more lessons, not only because he seems to genuinely love and be good at golf, but it gets me out of signing him up for hockey.