Golf Swing Drills-The Driving Range

In another discussion we talked about some thoughts on taking a golf lesson from your local teaching professional and how you can get the most out of those lessons and golf swing drills.

For today, I’d like to give you a couple of ideas on how to get a bit more out of your practice session and have a bit more fun while practicing your golf game.

First of all, the most common problem I see with golfers on the practice tee or driving range is that they just hit a shot – reload – hit another shot – and on and on with no purpose (at least that I can determine) to what they are doing. Actually this is an outstanding way to develop some really bad habits in your golf swing.

To make your practice session more productive and interesting play a round of golf as you practice.

By that I mean (after proper warm up) approach your first shot as though you’re standing on the first tee.

Pick out a target down the fairway and hit your drive (did you hit the fairway or not – make notes of fairways hit).

Then pick out a target of shorter yardage for your approach, and select your golf club for the distance (did you hit the green or not – make notes of greens in regulation).

To Get the most from these golf swing drills, you must be completely honest.

If you really want to make it interesting take along your score card from your course and play each actual hole in this manner. Then evaluate your stats.

The idea here is from a couple different angles.

First, this will heighten your focus. It will also put a small element of pressure on your golf swing and shot making.

It will force you to vary your distances.

Doing this will also help you emulate a real round of golf where you’ve only one chance to hit the shot that you want to hit. Down the road this will help you in an area that so many golfers struggle with… getting their range golf game to follow them and show up at the first tee.

And probably most importantly, from what I see the vast majority of golfers on the driving range doing; it will slow you down and keep you from rapid firing golf shots down the range.

Remember, it’s very important to be honest and no mulligans!

Make sure before each shot you go through your pre-shot routinebefore executing each shot.

Give these golf swing drills a try and have some fun.

Golf Swing Distance-Accuracy

As I thought about these three terms Golf-Distance-Accuracy and jotted them down and looked them over, I thought, I’m guilty of getting golf swing distance and accuracy in the wrong order even when I write them down!

It’s beyond the truth.

I see it all the time with golfers. Whether they are trying to pick up the game or they have been playing for some time, the golf club everyone wants hit is their driver.

Oh it feels so good to put that ball in flight way out there doesn’t it.

When I first began playing I would go out to the local course and always find a game in the afternoon and more often than not, I would get paired up with a couple older gentlemen usually retired (in the middle of the afternoon during the week it was primarily retired folks playing).

For the longest time I couldn’t figure out how these old duffers could keep up with a young buck such as I. My drives, the distance on my irons was impressive (notice I said distance). But the older gentlemen would usually end up beating me or stay with me right to the end. How could it be I used to ponder?

Finally, it occurred to me.

One word. Accuracy.

The easiest shot in golf is the shortest shot.

The longer you intend for your shot to travel the more accurate you have to be with the ball off of the club face.

When you are practicing your golf game work on your accuracy first. Start with the shorter shafted shorter distance clubs and work to hit your target.

Master this activity. Hit your target.

Each club’s shaft gets longer as you make your way to your driver. The pure physics of this make your longer clubs more difficult to control and therefore the last to achieve consistent accuracy.

Don’t get frustrated by a wayward driver. If you’re honest with yourself and have a look at your shorter clubs, they probably aren’t that accurate either. They just aren’t as glaring at the shorter distances.

This may come as a surprise to you but if you are having trouble hitting the greens 100 yards out, what makes you think you’re going to be able to stripe your drive down the middle of the fairway some 280 yards out?

If NASA couldn’t hit the moon with a rocket do think they would then assume they would have better luck at Pluto?

Therefore, properly written it should be Golf: Accuracy-Distance.

And it then follows that this should be your mindset when it comes to your golf practice sessions. Start short, start small. Refine your swing with each club as you gradually work your way to the Holy Grail of golf swing distance… your driver. Be accurate first and distance will come.

If the accuracy of your golf shots is consistent, your golf scores will drop, and your wins will increase. Your golf swing distance will come in time.

Golf Slice-The Golf Grip

OK…

Now that we have ourselves properly aligned we need now to put the golf club in our hands and discuss the golf grip and what role it plays when it comes to getting rid of your golf slice that you have.

The traditional type of golf grip will have the thumb of your left had down the shaft of the club.

The area between your left index finger and your left thumb that forms a ‘V’ shape should have the point of the ‘V’ pointed back up toward your right shoulder.

Your right hand should wrap over your left with your left thumb coming to rest in the palm of your right hand. The ‘V’ created with your right thumb and index finger should also be pointing toward your right shoulder.

Essentially, with this grip, if someone is standing directly across from you they would be able to see the first two knuckles of your left hand (your index finger and your middle finger knuckle).

In the picture to the right, the student’s right hand is rolled under slightly out of the way to demonstrate the two knuckles of the left hand golf grip.

As far as golf grip pressure goes, probably the best description of proper golf grip pressure that I have ever heard (from one of the best – Sam Snead) was to hold the golf club as though you were holding a small bird. Firm enough that bird cannot fly away, yet not so firm as to harm the bird. A good analogy.

I don’t know if that is helpful for you, but I have always remembered it and thought it was a good way to describe your golf grip pressure.

When it comes to the grip and curing your golf slice the common mistake with the grip is to have what is termed as a weak grip.

By that, I am not referring to the pressure of your grip, rather the positioning of your hands.

A weaker grip will have your left hand rotated in a manner that has the ‘V’ we discussed pointing more toward your left shoulder instead of your right.

The illustration to the left is a bit of an over exaggeration just to show you the direction of the rotation of the hands and hence where the ‘V’s’ are pointing more toward the right shoulder.

When your grip is set up this way a couple of things occur during the execution of your golf swing.

First the club face will have a tendency to open at contact and secondly as you contact the ball you will not be able to get as much rotation of your hands which will have the affect of not getting the club face to begin to close as you pass through the golf shot. This causes not only to impart a slice spin upon the ball but if your swing path hasn’t compensated for this you’ll get the direction going right with the arc flight of the ball taking it even further to the right.

Let’s talk about putting your golf stance, and your golf grip, together with some basic swing mechanics and get that golf slice under control with your golf swing mechanics next.

Fixing A Golf Slice

For the majority of us golfers one of the first major undertakings of our golf game once we consistently are getting the ball air born is correcting a golf slice.

We all seem to be blessed with this natural ability when we first begin learning about the golf swing.

For some it may be a runaway hook, but for most (and for the purpose of this article) we’ll discuss correcting a golf slice.

Slicing the golf shot for many is a ritual in frustration for many golfers simply because they don’t know what in their golf swing and mechanics causes it.

They only know that it continues to happen.

If you are frustrated by the constant golf slice, then you also know that if you are ever going to develop any consistency in lowering your golf score, you know the slice must be cured.

So, let’s take a look at few tips and techniques to get you started on the road to recovery.

First and foremost is you alignment to your target. Your golf stance. The width of your stance should be about that of your shoulders.

The alignment of your shoulders and hips should be one of pointing straight down your target line.

Your feet should be in line with your shoulders and hips with your toes just slightly pointed outward (duck footed) allowing for an easier full hip and upper body rotation.

This slight outwardly point of your feet will allow for an easier rotation of your torso. In other words, once you are setup in your golf stance, your nose should be pointing a perpendicular line to that of your target.

From a position of proper alignment is where all of your practicing should begin. Don’t give in to any old habits over what you know is a proper alignment.

Getting comfortable with you golf stance will take some time and some pretty ugly looking golf shots. But, this is what the range is for. I can’t over emphasis this enough… stick with proper alignment.

Getting used to properly aligning yourself to the target not only will take some time getting used to physically, but mentally as well.

Even as your body gets used to this new golf stance and set up, your visual perception of your target will change, and so will you mental perception as you execute your golf swing. Both of these perceptions will seem uncomfortable and out of sync for a while, but again give it time.

Your golf stance and setup are the foundation from which you give your swing to work from, let’s make a solid one.

Up next on correcting the golf slice, let’s discuss your golf grip and what causes what.

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