Needless to say so much focus and topical time is given to the golf swing and all the elements that surround and go into making and executing a golf swing.

Our series here is no exception, but we need to discuss an element of playing better that really does contribute a large part to the success of your golf game (or the lack of it) and that is getting yourself properly warmed up and prepared before you hit your first golf shot.

Last time we talked about the importance of our pre shot routine… now let’s talk about the importance of a good pre round routine.

First of warming up is essential if you are serious about getting your handicap down. Even if you’re the type that say’s “it only takes me a hole or two to get loosened up”, then how many strokes do you lose in the process? And don’t they all count? So don’t bemoan your score and your round if you are going to just toss caution to the wind on the first couple holes as you get loosened up.

Your pre golf round routine will return benefits in the form of strokes if you:

• Warm up. Take short walk to the driving range. Tell your buddies to go ahead if they are in the golf carts already. Or, leave the golf cart by the clubhouse and walk to the range. Even on a warm summer day your muscles need the circulation and they need to warm up. Taking a couple extra practice swings on the first tee doesn’t constitute warming up.

• Do some stretching.  Again, get some heat and circulation going in your muscles. If you are not worried about the strokes, at least do some golf stretches so you don’t injure yourself.
• Once you get to the driving range, hit a few golf balls. An entire bucket is not necessary; nor is breaking out every single club. Start with a short iron, the go to a mid iron or two, then a few drives. Hit some pitch shots and even some long chip type shots. Finish back with the short irons getting back to rhythm and feel and swing confidence.

• Then allow some time for the putting green. Start by knocking in some very short ‘gimme’ type of putts to get a good mind set. Then get yourself back a ways and get a feel for the speed. As an amateur, many of your approach shots will leave you a good distance from the pin; so it’s very important to have a good feel for your distance control in order to avoid the three (or four) putts.

• Know that warming up before a round of golf is not practice. It is not ‘working on something’ so, don’t try knew shots, swing keys, or anything else. Avoid this temptation. If your swing doesn’t feel quite right, now is not the time to go into repair mode. If this is the case work on one thing and one thing only – smooth rhythm and timing. Put all else out of your mind.

Understand during your warm up what your golf swing is trying to tell you. If you seem to be fading the ball and struggle to draw it (even though you usually do), don’t fight it; go with your fade for the day. Don’t fight with yourself. Be pragmatic.

Probably 90 plus percent of amateur golfers don’t bother with any type of pre round warm up, let alone any type of pre golf round routine. I’m hoping if you don’t; then you’ll soon make an effort to do better with this. If not, then you’re not really committed to playing better golf.

Committing to getting yourself warmed up and in touch with your swing before you stand over the golf ball on the first tee will take strokes off your game before you even hit that first one of the day. And certainly nobody wants to start the day with a double bogey or triple bogey.

O.K. so pick out a target of your scenario distance and get that golf club,

Do your pre shot routine and go after the target.

Then go back to the driver and pick out a different target line that gives you a different visual perspective.

Do this each time as part of your golf practice routine aiming for targets that are to the left of you natural line and to the right and so on.

The point here is to change targets and golf clubs frequently; get yourself comfortable and confident with going from a long shafted golf club to a shorter one and vise-verse.  As I just mentioned, changing your visual perspective of the target is important as well.

Tee boxes on golf courses aren’t so magnanimous that they align you perfectly with the fairway so you must get used to these visual changes that courses throw at you. You always here the expression of how a golf hole fits or doesn’t seem to fit a players eye. Golf course architects are like that.

I’ve mentioned your pre shot routine a couple of times.

If you’re not sure you have one work on finding one that feels comfortable to you and use it before every shot.

This doesn’t (and shouldn’t) be some long and drawn out routine that adds another hour to your (and everybody else’s) round of golf. Keep it simple and easy to replicate and get into the habit of doing it.

Hopefully you’ve gotten the gist of this part of your golf practice routine.

You’ll note that I said ‘part’ of your practice routine. Certainly if you are just starting to learn the golf swing you will spend more time with just one club in your hand.

But as you advance in your swing and your game there may come a time when you begin to lament that you can’t seem to get your golf game from the range to the golf course. If this is the case then these tips will certainly help you get over that hump.

I debated with myself as to where to include this in our lessons.

Certainly much could be discussed later on in this course.

However, I wanted to at least pause for a moment at this point and discuss golf swing fixes in the context to what we have learned thus far.

If you haven’t taken a look at the 9 rules of ball flight, you’ll want to do that before reading ahead here.

For the purpose of our discussion here on golf swing help, I want to go over with you how to get your golf swing back on track in the early stages of your learning curve.

First and foremost if you begin to struggle with your swing and the results thereof, take a step back and review your grip, stance and alignment, and what your swing path is doing. Especially early on, reviewing these golf swing elements along with revisiting your practice drills will get you back on track.

Probably the biggest hurdle for golfers at this level to get over is the ‘patience with one’s self’ hurdle. When you’re fist learning it is incredibly important to give yourself time and stick to the concepts and drills outlined.

Along with the patience factor, there is the confidence factor. Anytime you are learning a new physical skill, the mechanics of it are going to feel awkward and funny (as in strange). This will hold doubly true if you are trying also to correct some bad habits in your swing that have, over time, become a part of your golf swing. The difficult aspect about the golf swing for all of us is that one gets to experience the results of their efforts immediately; and if they’re a bit on the ugly side it gets to your confidence.

A great many problems that have people working on golf swing fixes stem from a loss of confidence in their swing. Getting back to some basics and repetitively working on drills will do much to get your confidence back. Whether it’s solving problems or first learning the golf swing, solving problems can be a lot like losing weight; in that it sure seems a lot easier putting the extra .lbs on than it does taking them off. The point being, don’t expect immediate results. Once you determine the problem and learn the fix, you’ll need time, patience, and practice to right the ship.

If you feel as though you aren’t making headway, don’t just haphazardly look for a fix for your golf swing trying this and that. This is not a solution and will only make your frustration level rise, your confidence drop, and your interest in the game evaporate.

Don’t allow this to happen.

Simply get some golf swing help from your local golf professional. Everyone working to improve their game (at all levels) takes occasional lessons.

In summary, do some self diagnostics on your swing, get back to basics, apply them through repetitive drills and practice drills, but if you get stuck trying to fix your golf swing then seek additional help.

We all do the same, and so should you.

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.

Teaching the mechanics of a good golf swing to someone with a bad golf swing is a challenging task. Of course, we know that a bad golf swing will result in a bad golfer, but how do you get to a better golf swing?

This is a question that I would ask myself as I would take an initial look at someone who had come to me for help. After a while, and witnessing many bad golf swings, I began to realize that these golf swings (or lack thereof) did have some things in common.

Basically almost all bad golfers and their subsequent swings have some basic similarities. These are deficiencies in their grip – their stance or set up – their posture – and their weight shift during the swing.

If you want to improve your golf game, you have to improve your golf swing. And to improve your golf swing your have understand the aforementioned areas.

The interesting thing that we as teachers often times do is to go over the grip, stance, posture, and the weight shift. Then we have the golfer take a couple practice swings with all this new information, and drop a golf ball down and look for the results. This is fascinating.

The game of golf is so focused on end results.

Where did the golf ball go after I hit it? I’ve done this when working with someone… I would venture that we as instructors all have. A curious technique to be sure. We see the practice swing knowing that it’s … well not too good, but yet we still want to hit the golf ball (I guess only to verify that it is indeed a bad golf swing).

The point here is that once you initially get with someone to help you understand the various parts and aspects of the golf swing, then take a step back (from the golf ball) and work on the swing. Work on the muscles that execute the parts of the swing. Get comfortable with gripping the club, your stance, your posture. Swing the clubs over, and over, and over, without the hitting the ball.

Work to where you can just sweep the top of the grass or the practice mat over and over with a consistently executed golf swing. Once the grip, stance, posture, and weigh shifting through the swing become second nature, only then introduce the striking of the golf ball. Then get back with your instructor and have them evaluate your progress on the golf swing, not the results at this point.

A bad golf swing is going to produce bad golf shots. Work on your swing first and the shots will follow.

Many professional and teaching professional would argue that a good reliable and consistent golf swing is built from the ground up.

Jack Nicklaus being one.

An interesting mind set that we humans have when it comes to achieving longer golf drives is that we must accelerate our hands faster or have our hand and forearms accelerate the golf club faster in order to gain more club head speed and distance.

With the golf swing, nothing could be further from the truth.

So without, gaining greater acceleration on the club head, how does one gain greater distance on their golf drives you ask? Well, it’s not that you don’t have to increase your club head speed; it’s that you don’t accomplish this by ‘firing’ the club head at the golf ball with your hands. Yet, this is probably the one biggest peccadillo of average golfers.

Your legs are unquestionably stronger than your hands and arms. And if you will learn to properly use the strength of your legs in unison with the proper turn of your hips and shoulders to propel your golf shot you’ll see distance and accuracy that you never thought you had.

And did I mention consistency.

Proper footwork and the use of your legs creating a grounded foundation for the hip and shoulder rotation results in torque or stored energy, that when simply released at the proper time will create more club head speed naturally and a more repeatable golf swing for more consistent golf shots.

If you’ll notice, to this point, nowhere in our discussion on this tip for golf have I even alluded to doing anything with your hand or arm speed to generate more club head speed.

This is not by accident.

Creating stored energy and releasing it at the proper moment just before impact is a result of proper footwork and body turn. The resulting paths and actions that the arms and hands take during the golf swing are a result not an action.

Glad you’re still with me!

Up next let’s take a look at some detail as to how the lower body works in the golf swing with Tips For Golf – The Backswing!

I hope this has spurred you on a bit to take a close look at your short game scoring opportunities.

For the next series of articles, I want work with you on your short game to help you understand the basics of it and to give you some golf drills that you can work on that will help to improve your short game and shave strokes from your golf game.

Let’s start with a simple tracking drill for your chip shots. The basic chip shot requires a low finish with the clubhead as it extends straight down the target path.

To establish your target line simply lay a couple of your clubs down in a parallel fashion pointing at your intended target… just like a couple of train tracks. This ensures that you not only align properly for your chipping stroke, but it also enables you to focus completely on the execution of the shot and make good crisp contact.

Good crisp contact by administering a slight descending blow into the golf ball; but remember the swing is a brushing motion through the golf ball, not a jabbing or hitting motion.

NOTE: contacting the ball with a slight descending blow is not to say that we are looking to put backspin on the shot… not at all. We want the descending blow just enough so the ball will pop slightly up on the clubface on contact and clear the turf long enough to get to the putting surface and begin rolling.

With the chipping stroke it is all about clubhead control. For the vast majority of the chip stroke the clubhead should remain square to the golf ball. It will only open slightly at the top of the backswing and only close very slightly (and naturally) on the follow through.

As you practice your chipping make certain that you NEVER are decelerating the club through the swing… in fact, start slowly then and just a touch of acceleration if you must. Your follow through should actually be longer than that of your backswing… this will ensure that you aren’t decelerating the clubhead.

Start with shorter distance chip shots that require a very short putting like stroke… again work on making good crisp contact. Then, gradually increase your distance which will in turn require a slightly longer swing. Stay with each distance until you can consistently get that crisp ‘click’ sound the ball makes coming off of a well executed shot. Don’t go to a greater distance until you master the former.

Keep in mind that you are not going to learn to be a good chipper of the golf ball all in one marathon practice session… just make this simple golf drill a part of each of your sessions.

Remember it is not how long you practice at each session… the benefit comes with how often and consistently you do practice.