Golf: Huish has juniors in zone for campaign

Huish, one of the first pros to come on board with the junior national programme clubgolf, discovered Heriot Watt University's indoor Golf Academy - which has driving bays, chipping zones, an adjustable height bunker and two practice greens - two winters ago.

This year the weekly junior sessions grew from 13 to 19 and last year's Scottish Boys' champion Grant Forrest has been lending a hand by coaching the youngsters.

"When you bring the Scottish Boys champion into a coaching an event like this then the kids who aspire to be Scottish Boys or Girls champion suddenly have somebody of a similar age who they can relate to," said Huish, who ran the coaching with clubgolf Level 2 coach, Ric Foulner.

"He gave a lot of the demonstrations and some of the explanations which really cemented what we were already telling the kids.

"Watching Grant going through practise regimes, playing bunker shots, chips and shaping the ball, showed them how professional he is with his whole setup and what level they would have to get to.

"It also gives them an added level of confidence that they are doing the right thing."

The coaching is already having an effect. One of his juniors, Gavin Wait, recently won the first medal of the season at North Berwick, shooting 69, and Tantallon's Calum Hill had a great run in last week's Scottish Boys' Championship, reaching the semi-finals at Dunbar.

"Gavin is five shots under his handicap already," added Huish. "We are starting to see already kids who came to the coaching and are making handicap reductions."

Just as important as the technical coaching is the support Huish creates for juniors and coaches. Mentoring features throughout his coaching set up, be it for the junior or the coaches alike.

At all of his 12 indoor coaching sessions he has encouraged his more advanced players - Hill, Ewan Bowden and Clara Young - to take an active role in coaching the younger players, leading warm-ups and demonstrating technique.

He also used the final indoor session as a mentoring workshop to prepare his clubgolf volunteer coaches for the season.

"Mentoring makes a huge difference because the kids can relate to other kids," said Huish.

"We spent two hours with all our clubgolf coaches indoors, covering how to enhance their sessions, how to adapt games and use equipment to make things fun for the kids."

Huish plans to resume indoor coaching before Christmas, third time around with more youngsters.