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.

Good golfers have a very consistent one.

Pre-shot routines are more than just a ritual or habit that is performed before you hit the golf ball; they actually serve a very important purpose in your game.

When you approach your golf shots with the same pre-shot routine each time, you are significantly increasing your focus on each golf shot. And with an increased level of focus on the task at hand, your shot will be much less susceptible to any outside distractions or variables.

Whenever I get asked the question about developing a pre-shot routine, the first answer I give is very pragmatic… find one that works for you. No two pre-shot routines will look the same; and even if they appear to look the same, what is going on mentally will be different for each golfer. Having said that, I won’t leave with such a general (but true) answer, so let’s take a look at a couple of different areas and ideas.

Again, the bottom line for any pre-shot routine is to get you into a positive frame of mind for your shot. Now, how you arrive there is strictly personal preference, but most will involve, picking the target, a couple practice swings, stance, grip, and perhaps a deep breath.

The details within each of these items aren’t as important as just making certain you do the same thing each and every time.

Keep in mind that a good pre-shot routine isn’t time consuming. It is quick, concise, and repeatable. Go through your routine, trust it, and then pull the trigger with your golf shot.

O.K… I lied. Remember when I said it really doesn’t matter what your pre-shot routine is as long as it works for you.

Well… there is one aspect that I insist upon when working with people; especially higher handicappers or those just beginning to get their golf swing under them; and that is your line. Somewhere as part of your routine you must include alignment to your intended target.

I work with so many golfers that waste relatively good swings and good contact by not being aligned properly to their target. I see so many golf shots head for the rough, the trees, the traps, and the water; only because that’s exactly where the person was lined up to hit the ball!

Don’t waste your precious good swings on bad alignment.

Make alignment to your target part of your routine… and don’t just trust the fact that you ‘think’ you are lined up properly; make sure.

If you’d like more detail on ensuring that you’re properly aligned, sign up for my newsletter and you’ll receive my free mini-course that covers this in more detail. Just check the menu down the right of the page for the newsletter sign up!

I am often asked how to achieve consistent timing in the golf swing.

Quite frankly, if you are consciously thinking about your golf swing timing you probably aren’t going have it for that outing.

Timing in the golf swing is really a product, an end result. Not a conscious action that your brain fires to your muscles at just the precise moment. Not at all.

With all the physics involved in the golf swing and propelling the golf ball down the course with maximum efficiency, it would be impossible for us humanoids to consistently ‘pull the trigger’ on the golf club at precise moment in the swing to achieve the best results.

Not only impossible to do so consistently, but toss in all the various distances and it now becomes even more than impossible.

So, proper golf swing timing; how does it happen?

Remember, I started out with the premise that you have begun to understand proper golf swing mechanics and you have and are applying them through practice.

If so, you are becoming aware of timing’s closest friend and ally… rhythm. Just like the pendulum is to an old reliable grandfather clock, so is rhythm to your golf swing. Tick – tock.  The proper timing of your golf swing won’t show up with out his good friend rhythm.

Your golf swing should be executed with your shoulders and your upper arms taking the club back on your target line with your forearms and hands remaining quiet and enjoying the ride. Your legs control your weight shift and distribution and they anchor your full turn inside your body line.

As your legs begin to transfer your weight from your back foot to the front your hands must

remain quiet and calm. It is at this critical juncture, that you must resist the urge to ‘fire’ the hands and club head at the golf ball. Be patient. Your hands and club head will catch up; and catch up in a big way.

Remember, your rhythm will bring your timing in your golf swing and as a result evoke the immutable laws of physics. This will bring everything together and release a vast amount of stored energy at the precise moment with very little conscious effort on your part.

Its tick-tock, back foot-front foot; Tick-tock, back foot-front foot. It’s the comfort of a metronome like swing that your golf swing timing will consistently flourish in.

Work to establish a consistent rhythm in your golf swing. Learn to trust your swing timing as a product of your mechanics and rhythm.

The fundamentals of the golf swing itself are the takeaway and backswing, the transition to and the downswing, and the impact and the follow through.

Within each of these segments are sub actions and categories but let’s take high level look at these basic foundations of golf swing fundamentals.

The takeaway and the resulting backswing is where it all begins. This is what sets up the rest of your golf swing and the results that your swing will produce. Tempo, body rotation, and arm extension are three very important aspects of this part of the golf swing.

Tempo is established at this point. The tone of your swing is tempo. Even with all other physical aspects in reasonably good shape, bad or inconsistent tempo will only allow for spotty results at best. Work on a smooth rhythmic tempo.

Probably the most difficult part of golf swing fundamentals (from a physical aspect) for every golfer is making the transition from the backswing into the downswing.

At the top of the backswing, and poised for striking the ball, the biggest mistake made (especially by higher handicap golfers) is to initiate the downswing by accelerating the hands and forearms toward the golf ball. This is wrong end of the body and nothing much good can happen when you do this.

The backswing to downswing transition is always… always initiated from the ground up with

your weight beginning to transfer from you back foot to your front. This is followed by your hips beginning to rotate with the occurring weigh shift. In fact, your upper body and ultimately your hands and arms should feel a slight delay behind the actions of your feet, legs, and hips.

Although certainly an important part of the golf swing fundamentals, the impact and follow

through are a result of the backswing – transition – downswing.

If you haven’t completed the first actions in good fashion, your impact and follow through have little chance.

If however, you’re still on track, at impact your weight should be just on the outside of your front heel and on the inside of your back foot with your left hip rotated and clearing the path for your right hip, arms, and hands to track down the target line.

The physics and fundamentals of the entire golf swing is an exercise in creating resistance and tension in the body then transitioning it and releasing it at the most precise time; all the while being effortless, smooth, and with good tempo.

By definition this is an awkward movement for your body to create with great consistency. But with great consistency and dedication to your practice routine, your golf swing fundamentals and your score will improve over time.

It is indeed an elusive animal, but let’s take a look at what gives you the best opportunity to improve your golf swing consistency.

The first aspect that comes to most people’s mind when trying to improve the consistency in their golf swing is to immediately start looking at and discussing the mechanics of the golf swing.

Although this is indeed a vital part of swing consistency, let’s take a small step back and consider what it is that executes your golf swing and what it is that effects your play more than any knowledge you may posses or any equipment that you may carry in your golf bag.

I am referring to your body and the physical condition that you are in.

Now don’t run off… or should I say ‘click’ off just yet.

I’m not going to spend a vast amount time suggesting or laying out an exercise routine for you.

But, if you are seriously looking at your game and you know that golf swing consistency improvement is a goal for you then I simply suggest that you honestly evaluate your current strength, flexibility and stamina.

Honestly, even if you completely and competently understand and can even replicate excellent golf swing mechanics; can you maintain that precision throughout an entire round or rounds of golf?

You want the same consistency on the last tee box as you had on the first don’t you? Consider getting yourself on some stretching exercises 3 to 4 times a week. And do some walking a few times a week as well.

You should take a look at GolfGym PowerSwing Trainerif you want to personalize specific exercises, or if you are seriously dedicated to your game take and want a more comprehensive fitness approach thenFitness for Golfin an excellent resource and would be the best for you.

Either way, improving your strength, flexibility, and stamina, is the first step toward golf swing consistency improvement. Your body is the machine that’s swings your golf club.

As you probably well know by now if you have been working on your golf swing or just beginning, this thing we call a golf swing is a very complex set of movements and dynamics that have to come together at a fairly precise moment in order to produce a good golf shot.

And not only that, this incredible chain of events doesn’t only just have to happen once; it has to happen again and again in order to produce a satisfying round of golf for you.

So, if you have decided to indeed improve your golf conditioning with your own program or perhaps an even more serious approach with an overall golf fitness program, that great! You are definitely on your way.

Since you are officially underway on your quest toward golf swing consistency improvement, I would like to discuss with you a moment about setting your expectations on this endeavor.

First of all, a thought on practicing.

As you work on your golf swing, practice with a purpose. Don’t just go to your local practice range and pound buckets of balls.

This will do you more harm than good. In the early stages of your learning curve it is extremely more effective to adopt a strategy of it’s not how much I can practice at one time; it’s how often I take the time to practice the consistency in my golf swing in short focused sessions. Hitting ball after ball until you mentally and physically tire is very counter productive.

This next part is extremely important.

Whether you are just beginning or perhaps have been playing awhile and are seriously now trying to improve your golf swing consistency, you need to understand that your proper practice is going to bring about change, and change will bring about some ugly golf shots. And, unfortunately, ugly golf shots will bring about some doubt and maybe some lack of confidence. Know that you are not alone or unique in this experience.

Hardly. Everyone will go through it from the amateur to the professional golfer.

If doubt or lack of confidence begins to overwhelm you, take a step back and get a lesson or lessons. Work with your teaching professional. But, don’t give up. The golf swing is complex and it isn’t learned (or changed) just by hoping so.

Golf swing consistency improvement is a project always under construction. Don’t give up. And do just ‘go back to the way I was hitting the golf ball’. You’re not standing on the practice or have read this article because your are happy with how you were hitting the ball.

Be patient and persistent with yourself and your swing improvements will come.

First of all, remember this… your driver isn’t always the best club for you to hit. Now knowing this and being disciplined enough to keep the driver in the bag may be two different things. Don’t get me wrong…

If you’re hitting the driver well, it’s the right choice. But don’t let your ego get involved in your score.

Approach each tee shot with a plan.

Pick out a spot where you want to play your next shot from then picture yourself hitting that spot. Remember, if you’re having an off day with your driver, hitting your 2nd shot from the fairway is much better than taking strokes to recover from a wayward drive. So, if you need to pick out a spot a club or two down from your driver then do so.

After you’ve stood behind your ball and picked out your target from the tee, then pick out a shorter intermediate target on your line that you can line yourself and your clubface up to. When you do this you accomplish a couple of positive things. Number one and most obvious is that you have confidence that your alignment is correct. And since you have been practicing your alignment you now have confidence in your perceived confidence!

Secondly, there is a very beneficial side effect that picking out a shorter intermediate target has; it works for me and I continually see work with those golfers I work with.

By picking an intermediate target you’ll find that you will take a lot of pressure off your swing. You won’t feel as though you have to ‘reach back for that little extra’ to get to your target. As such your rhythm and tempo will be better. You won’t have such a tendency to over swing; because you’re just trying to get your shot started down the line that you know is correct.

Rolled up, what all of this means is that you’ll provide the swing and let the club do the work instead of trying to get too much out both your swing and the club.

Remember the fairway is, over all, more important than extra distance.

The object here as we’ve discussed these tips is for you to stand on the tee box with a plan and with confidence. As part of your plan, you will pick out a target that coincides with where you want your tee shot to end up. This will trigger your focus and help eliminate other visual variables that the golf hole throws at you. Picking an intermediate target will help get you aligned and keep you swing within yourself know that the club will do good work when you allow it to do so.

Head off to practice now and continue on that rhythm and tempo thing… and just getting the ball started toward your target. You’ll soon find that you can have both good distance along with accuracy.

To become a consistently good or even improved player (key word consistent), you have to posses a good short game. It doesn’t matter who your are, there are going to be times (even days) when you aren’t hitting the greens… hello short game!

Believe me… it is within one’s short game, where by improving it, you can quickly and easily shave numerous strokes off your golf game.

For this time around I want to work with you on developing some touch with your various clubs. In the past I’ve mentioned how important it is for your short game to get the ball on the green and get it rolling toward the hole as soon as possible. The purpose of this next drill is to get you an understanding of the flight and roll characteristics of each of your clubs.

From just off the green and varying distances, pick out a landing spot on the green. You could even stick a tee into the practice green to mark your spot.

Next, with varying clubs, work to chip or pitch your golf ball to hit your landing spot. The idea here is to not only begin to learn the various ball flights of each club, but to also understand the roll characteristics of the ball after it hits the green. Again, we aren’t trying to necessarily get the ball to the pin…

we want to hit the landing spot and learn what the ball does (or doesn’t do from there).

In doing this practice drill you’ll soon begin to get a feel for what each club will do. This will develop your ‘touch’ around the green and it will get those of you who have become locked in to using the same club around the green no matter what the circumstance off of that bad habit as well.

You will also develop a very good sense of what your favorite club to use is under what type of circumstance the shot demands…

and under pressure you’ll confidently know that this club is indeed the club for the job at hand.

A side note hear is that once you have practiced this drill for a while and your understanding and comfort level is good, begin to challenge yourself further by deteriorating your lies a bit.

Remember, on the course you won’t always get a nice cushy lie to work with so once you begin to groove your short chips and pitches, then you’ll want to add some degree of difficulty with less than perfect lies to your practice routine.

The biggest problem that I see time and time again with people who struggle with executing any type of pitch shot is that they decelerate their clubhead just before impact.

One concept that will help you begin to execute crisp pitch shots is to think of a shorter backswing with a longer follow through.

Now, I don’t mean to take an abbreviated short backswing and then a rapid jab at the ball with a semi manufactured follow through, but we do want the concept of a consistent lengthy follow through.

Many times the cause of deceleration just before impact is because the golfer has taken much too big of a backswing… and at the last moment the brain tries to adjust to the perceived too much distance by decelerating the club……. and yuk… or is that yak.

As you practice your pitch shots work to keep your backswing as short as necessary to get the job done with a smooth tempo. With the longer pitch shots make sure that your left hand leads the club through the shot and you don’t ‘flip’ the club at the golf ball.

As we mentioned in a previous lesson work your pitches to a static target using different clubs so you’ll begin to develop that all important ‘feel’ for your clubs and what they are (or aren’t) capable of. As you do this you’ll begin to develop a nice rhythm to your pitch swing and your confidence in this shot won’t be far behind.

The key to developing those deadly pitch shots lies in how much practice you allot for this part of your game. Remember, work to shorten you backswing and extend that follow through. Deceleration is the kiss of death for a pitch shot.

Your success is directly related to your time spent working on this shot.

But if you’re struggling with your golf game and your golf swing, looking at the prospect of playing golf for a lifetime may seem more like a sentence than a vacation.

Look, you know there are all kinds of golf training aids out there. We offer many of the most effective and popular training aids and practice equipment.

Including the very popular – in fact chosen by golf pros as the #1 swing trainer club in the world Medicus 2000 Dual Hinge 5 Iron and the Medicus Dual Hinged Driver

Many of them are very useful and if used prudently will lower your golf score. Golf-ology.com will hopefully help you as you navigate around. But, let’s be frank. The best golf practice aid for you is you.

There is no amount of money spent on golf instruction that is going to by default suddenly improve your golf game. If this were the case, my game would be impeccable and all the millionaires would be scratch golfers!

So you see the common denominator is you.

Golf is like any other activity. The more consistent time you are willing to spend on improving your golf game the more your game will improve. And only you can determine this.

Of course the standard approach to playing better golf is to seek out and take some lessons. Getting some qualified golf instruction is a good place to start.

Starting out on the right track with a good understanding of the golf swing and the physics of it will help you to begin to develop the right muscle groups for the golf swing and your balance.

Once you have an understanding of the mechanics of the golf swing, then it’s time to practice. Don’t take on too much information early on. I can’t emphasize this enough. Get a basic understanding of the golf swing then work to reproduce the swing consistently. By this I mean don’t worry about different golf shots, drawing, fading, hooking, or slicing the golf ball. Don’t worry about what club does what. Focus on the reproduction of a solid golf swing.

Get your swing to a good comfort level by developing the proper muscles used in the golf swing. There are many great strength and flexibility exercises you can do. Golf exercises are very, very important. Don’t put a high value on results early on. Learn just the swing. Get your body comfortable with the golf swing. Not golf shots. The shots will come with a consistent swing.

Even now, when I am not getting the results I want from my game, I get back to the swing. Not the clubs, not the golf shot. I work to get comfortable and confident with my swing. The irony is that I work to get my swing back to where I am not thinking about my golf swing when I am standing over the shot. I want to know the swing is there, so I can then focus on the specific shot.

If you’d like some help from some of golf’s greatest, players and instructors such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Butch Harmon, David Leadbetter, and many more. Simply choose your favorite from this fabulous list of Golf Instructors!

Also, take some time to look around the website. We have many helpful articles on many aspects of the golf game both physical and mental, and for all levels. But remember, the best golf training aids start and end with you.