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GOLF TIPS: Doing Your Homework

By • Fri, Feb 11th, 2011
Try practicing home without a ball
Try practicing home without a ball
Courtesy Photo

Remember, my job is to educate you as a golfer to help you move forward. Then it’s up to you the golfer to focus on the difficult characteristics of your swing and repeat certain moves until it feels more natural. It’s important to provide you with a solid foundation of the basics and to motivate you to such an extent that you take on the responsibility to work on your game. In practical terms, that involves designing drills and exercises. That’s the best thing about drills and exercise, they not only spice up your practice time but they amplify that obscure component of "feel" and so speeds up your improvement.

 

Many of you are puzzled when I suggest you practice at home without a ball, simply rehearsing your swing and doing drills. So many of my students are under the false impression that constructive practice has to involve pounding thousands of balls. On the contrary, the majority of golfers would improve their game extensively if only they would set aside a few minutes during the week to run through some chosen drills at home. Without the concern of making a “hit at the ball”, it’s easier to focus on the finer points of technique, develop a repeating method and build so-called muscle memory through repetition of good moves.

Part of the skill in learning the game of golf is to understand your own tendencies and weaknesses, and using your practice time wisely. When you are making contact with a ball and working on a new move, try to focus on the execution of the new move at hand and not so much on the result of your shot.