The Kid’s Triathlon at Myers Park CC starts with swimming pool laps, followed by a bike ride through the golf course and then a running segment that ends at an inflatable finish line set up on the 18th hole.

At Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte, N.C., a Kid’s Triathlon has been held each year since 2015 for children ages 5 to 14. The event, held in mid-September on a Sunday afternoon, starting at 4 p.m., begins with swimming in the pool, followed by a bike ride throughout a portion of the golf course, and finishes with a running segment, to cross a special inflatable finish line that’s set up at the 18th hole by the main clubhouse.

THE GOAL: Offer an athletic event on Myers Park CC’s golf course that brings families out in droves. THE PLAN: Host a Kid’s Triathlon that includes swimming laps, bike riding and running, ending with an inflatable finish line set up on the 18th hole. THE PAYOFF: An event that brings out the whole family to enjoy the outdoor awards ceremony and buffet, with winners gaining special recognition in the club’s newsletter.

The competition is divided into four age groupings: 5 to 6 years, 7 to 8, 9 to 11 and 12 to 14. Covering the entire course takes 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the age groupings, which have different distances to cover (those in the youngest group swim 25 yards, bike .55 miles and run a half-mile; the oldest group swims 100 yards, bikes 1.5 miles and runs a half-mile).

The event, which has drawn from 65 to 80 participants each year, brings out the entire family, with everyone enjoying an outdoor awards ceremony and buffet after the last race.

 

Each participant receives a t-shirt and medal, and the boys and girls with the fastest times in each age group get trophies and their photos in the club newsletter.

All-time records set through the years by boys and girls in each age group are also commemorated on a board posted outside the club’s sports complex.

Myers Park relies on staff and parent volunteers to help with child check-in and to serve as organizers on the pool deck, race starters, bike-rack attendants and keeping the competitors pointed in the right direction.

The club also shuts down the back nine of its golf course two hours prior to the race, to set up bike racks, a few sets of stakes and some caution tape that also helps to define the course.

INSTANT IDEAS The tennis staff at The Country Club of Virginia (CCV), Richmond, Va., created a Tennis Drill Book that its teaching pros can use to share their favorite and most popular teaching drills with each other, while at the same creating a template for rotating practice activities to continually engage players at all levels. CCV’s Tennis Drill Book helps tennis staff stay up-to-date on best on-court practices. The club’s Elite College-Level Practice Clinic is designed to help Junior players work toward competing in a college program. The book has helped each of CCV’s coaching professionals, regardless of their seniority or experience level, stay up to date with the best on-court practice exercises, while also giving each of them a wider set of tools to help tailor drills to a player’s particular set of skills. For its elite Junior tennis players, CCV’s tennis staff created an Elite College-Level Practice Clinic as a high-intensity, academy-style program that focuses on fitness drills and work ethic. Designed to spark interest in, and motivate, Junior players at the club to work towards competing in a college program, the clinic focuses on the group as a team, and has helped to maintain interest among teenaged players who might have otherwise aged out of the club’s teaching programs.