Recording and Reviewing Your Child's Swing: A Simple Guide

A simple video log of your child's swing, done consistently, is one of the most useful things a parent can do to support their coach.

You don't need to understand golf swing mechanics yourself to make a genuinely useful contribution to your child's development - filming consistently, in a simple and repeatable way, gives their coach a valuable record to work from between lessons.

Keep the Setup Consistent

Film from the same two angles each time - face-on and down-the-line - from roughly the same distance and height, ideally waist height. Consistency matters more than fancy equipment, since it lets a coach compare footage across sessions rather than dealing with a different angle every time.

Film a Few Swings, Not Just One

A single swing can be an outlier in either direction. Filming three or four swings in a short clip gives a more honest picture of what your child's swing actually looks like on a typical shot, rather than their best or worst attempt.

Keep a Simple, Dated Library

Save clips with the date in the filename or a simple folder structure, and try to film at a similar interval - say, monthly - rather than only when something looks wrong. This turns your footage into a genuinely useful progress record, not just a troubleshooting tool.

Share It the Way Your Coach Prefers

Ask your child's coach how they'd like footage shared - some prefer a specific app, others are happy with a text or email link. Getting this right means the footage actually gets used, rather than sitting unwatched on your phone.

Should I comment on what I see in the footage myself?

It's fine to note things you notice as a parent ("he looks a bit rushed today"), but leave the technical assessment to the coach - your value here is mainly in providing consistent, useful footage, not in diagnosing swing faults yourself.