Junior Golf Heat Safety: How to Coach Kids Safely Through a Heat Wave

Your 10-year-old just missed her third shot in a row and she's not talking much anymore. She's not distracted. She's not being difficult. She's hot, and her body is starting to struggle in ways an adult's usually isn't yet.

That's the thing about this month's heat wave headlines. They're a good excuse to talk about something coaches and parents both need to be on the same page about: a hard practice and a good practice are not the same thing.

Why Are Kids More Vulnerable to Heat Than Adults?

Kids overheat faster than adults because they produce more heat relative to their body weight, sweat less efficiently, and take longer to adjust to hot conditions.

That's the plain-terms version, and it comes from the EPA's own guidance on kids and heat. Add in a body that's proportionally more surface area than mass, and heat just builds up faster in a kid than it does in the coach or parent standing next to them.

On top of that, junior golfers often don't recognize the early signs in themselves, and even when they do, plenty of them won't say anything. They want to finish the drill. They want to make their coach or their parent proud. A ten-year-old who feels dizzy is a lot less likely to raise a hand than a grown adult who feels the same thing, so it's on the adults around them, coach and parent both, to catch it first.

What Should a Junior Golfer Bring to Practice on a Hot Day?

On a hot day, a junior golfer needs more water than usual, sun protection, and one easy way to cool down between reps.

This is the five minutes of prep that makes the rest of the day easier. Before you leave the house, pack:

Four things, packed the night before. That's the whole list, and it covers most of what actually matters on a hot day.

How to Adjust a Golf Practice Schedule for Hot Weather

The three schedule changes that matter most are earlier tee times, shorter sessions, and shade breaks built into the plan instead of added after someone's already struggling.

You don't need a heat policy binder to handle this well, and these work whether you're the one running the session or the one driving the kid there. Move tee times earlier. Even 90 minutes earlier changes everything about surface heat and sun exposure, and it's an easy ask for a coach to make and a parent to support.

Cut session length instead of cutting content. A tight 45 minutes of good reps beats 90 minutes where the back half is just kids standing in the sun losing focus. Build shade breaks into the plan itself, not as a reaction to someone looking wobbly. If a parent knows the plan has a shade stop every 20 minutes, that's one less thing they need to watch for on the sideline.

How to Build a Culture Where Kids Feel Safe Asking for a Break

Kids ask for breaks more honestly when the adults around them normalize it before anyone needs one, not after.

This is the part that takes real intention from both sides. Coaches want structure. Parents want their kid pushed a little. Both of those things can still be true if the culture around breaks is built right.

Coaches, say the phrase yourself, out loud, as part of your normal language. "Anybody need water, just say so, no big deal." Do it before anyone asks, so it's not a special allowance, it's just how practice works. Parents, back that up at home. If your kid mentions they took a break, that's not a red flag, that's the system working the way it should.

And when a kid does ask for a break, treat it the same as you'd treat a good swing thought. No sighing, no "already?", no comparing them to the kid who didn't ask. That's how coaches and parents together build junior golfers who trust their own signals instead of pushing through them to please the adults watching.