GOLF DRILLS & TIPS

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 Warming up to your golf game.

Dont risk injury, take a few minutes to do a few simple warm up exercises and basic stretches.You've probably been sitting in a car for 20 minutes or more, so get out and walk around a bit.Shake your arms and hands for 30 seconds. Put a golf club behind your back and hook your arms around the club at the elbow joint and do some easy turning and mock golf swings. This is a goodway to help you limber up. Swing 2 clubs for a minute or two. Now use 1 club, put your feet togetherand swing normally for a few minutes. You are basically warmed up and the muscles are stretched too.Try to do them before every golf outting.

Keeping fit and Injury free

Coming soon!

BALANCING YOUR GAME

  1. MAKE A SHOULDER WIDTH STANCE
  2. BENT KNEES SLIGHTLY
  3. BALANCE WEIGHT EQUALLY ON THE BALLS OF YOUR FEET
  4. HOLD CLUB OUT IN FRONT OF YOU IN BOTH HANDS AS IF FISHING

    COMPLETING THE TRIANGLE

  5. LOWER YOUR ARMS UNTIL THEY TOUCH YOUR CHEST
  6. BEND FORWARD FROM THE HIP AND WAIST UNTIL THE CLUB TOUCHES THE GRASS
  7. (DO NOT HUNCH OVER OR BEND NECK)
  8. WHERE THE CLUB TOUCHES THE GRASS IS YOUR BALL POSITION
Using this guideline everytime you hit a shot will give you many advantages: consistency of setup & preshot routine and proper balancing & posture. You will gain confidence that you have the ball placed at the exact spot your body needs it in for maximum contact and power.

POSTURE

Stand Up for your right to play better GOLF

The way you stand over the ball at address is sometimes overlooked. It is one of the key fundamental / foundational elements for a good and consistent golf swing. It is a determining factor for balance, weight shift, swingplane. Improper posture can contribute to many of the swing faults: including slicing, hooking, dubbing, chili dipping, and inconsistent / irratic and varying problems. So as you can see its worth careful consideration and could be thecause of a multitude of problems including having a good shot followed by a bad shot, having a good round 1 day followed by a bad round, or of late round problems due to fatigue causing improper posture. In general a good posturestarts with the proper shoulder-width stance, flexing knees and a straight spine. The bending is forward at the waist only. Avoid bending the neck and spine as the diagram shows. Standing straight up with .shoulders squared up with the feet to the target line, look down at the feet slowly bend the knees until they cover the shoelaces of your golfshoes. Let your arms hang down; they should be pointing at the tips of your shoes,adjust the waist angle to achieve this. Move the hands together: this is where the club should be held with a good posture, get very used to and very comfortable with where this point is. With a club in hand, after the posturesetup, allow the club to come to rest on the ground, this is the final ball placement, it may be the same or different from the "General Ball Placement Procedure" above. An additional posture check is to imagine a line running from the ground thru your instepthru the knee joint thru the elbow joint and finally exiting thru your shoulder joint. These should all line up on both sides of your stance.

Here's a look at a grip You have a choice with how to connect the dominant hand on the club:
1.Baseball grip- hands are separated,yet thumb of undominant hand is still under dominant hand for all 3 choices.
2.Interlocking - the undominant's index links through the dominant's pinky and ring fingers.
3.Vardon / Overlapping- the dominant's pinky overlaps between the undominant's index & middle finger knuckle region. If you practice with them : one of the 3 will feel the best for you.
Note the V-shape crease made by the thumbs and hands, roll your hands to point these Vees at the dominant hand's shoulder. This is a good (neutral to strong) grip. Since the majority of golfers complain about slicing a (neutral to strong) grip can help them counter-act the slice.
Here are diagrams of the 3 grip positions.(Right Hand View, Left Handers should reverse diagrams)
A Strong Grip favors a Draw Shot / Neutral Grip favors Straight Shot / Weak Grip favors a Fade Shot

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Please note: The club head is fixed behind the ball, aiming at the hole during this check.


Finding the right grip sizeTo check to see if your grips are the correct size is simple. For a right handed player (left-handed use the opposite hand) place your hands on the club in your normal manner. Then, remove your right hand and take a look how your left hand is seated on the club. The fingers of the left hand should just touch the palm. If you have a gap your grip is too big or if your fingers are 'digging in' your palm your grip is toosmall. Another sign of a grip that is too small is excessive glove wear. Remember incorrect grip size cancause many problems within the swing so take the time to check this simple point. Did you know you could use your grip to dial in a fade or draw?

Want to build an inexpensive swing plane trainer.?
Equipment :

  1. Some kite string or old clothesline
  2. A wooden stake or large nail
  3. 1- 8foot2x4 board
  4. 7 nails
  5. Something to anchor the board to the ground (U-shaped rod, heavystones wooden stakes etc.).

Assembly: Tie some string or clothesline to a stake in theground, make a good postured stance and address a ball 3 or 4 inches inside the stake, have a friend stretch the string over a branch or pole so that when tawt the string grazes your neck and is just above your shoulder.

 

GolfCents' Famous Broom drill

try for 1 week minimum @ 20 minutes a day , 5 minute sessions)(This is one of those curealls for Most golf problems, the most complex problems usually have a very simple cause and an even simpler fix.)Take a heavy wisk broom , go out on the patio or walk(I recomend thesidewalk so you can use the line of the walk as your target line) hold thebroom handle like a golf club(proper grip) address a point on the line you can (mark the spot with chalk)and swing the broom like a golf club.
Swing that broom every day for a week, your only thought is to have it sweep down the line consistently and hit the spot along the way , what will happen is your body will try to make this heavy object as easy and efficient to swing as possible, you may not notice it right away but your body will optimize: balance, timing, weight shift, swing plane, proper arm and shoulder motion, increase and stretch the proper golfing muscles, it will eliminate over-use of the wrists, and about 10 more things... Even if you try to swing it wrong you will immediately get the feedback: in the form of losing your balance, sore wrists,grounding the broom,or falling over.
Do you see where this is going yet?One simple drill, inexpensive too, so howcan it be any good if its virtually free....try it for 1 week and see for yourself.

 

GolfCents' Famous 3 Leaf Drill

{Corrects swing path/plane problems,flight curvatures and alignment errors )Establish a target and the line to target. .Lay a rope or spare club on the lineto target, butt your feet to the line and also align shoulder at target too. You are now square to the target. Place three leaves on separate line to target:leaf #1 is the imaginary ball, leaf #2 is 5-6 inches in front of leaf 1, while leaf #3is placed 5-6 inches behind (leaf #1) target<<<.........#2..........#1............#3.Practice : address leaf #1 and make a short backswing and follow through ,your goal is to hit all 3 leaves: Hit leaf 3 on the takeaway/backswing, and hit the middle and front leaves(#1 & #2) on the downswing, slowly add more length to your practice swing , until you progress to a full swing.
Try this with the different clubs , the only change is for irons leaf #1 is in center to rear of center of stance , and the wood shots are more forward, towards the inside heel of the front foot.

GolfCents' Famous Cutting the Weeds Drill

(I'm not the only one to endorse this one, The Great Harvey Penick also did calling it "clipping tees")
(As a kid I made many yard/landscaping tasks into mini swing training sessions) This one is easy to do if you have an old style weed cutter (it looks like a hocky stick with a sharp leading edge, if you dont have one try an eight iron ).
Your quest is to hold and swing it like a golfclub, with the target or victim being tall grass, weeds and dandelions. Your quest is to sweep through the target, NOT AT IT!!!! Get the feeling of cutting right through the stem or blades of grass. This drill helps the golfer learn to hit through the ball and not at it. You simply swing club and the grass / ball gets in the way of the cutter's / golfclub's, swing path.
Many golfers lose distance and shot crispness because they dont accelerate through the ball.
[[ See Ball Postion or Irons versus Woods , for positioning of the ball within the stance. ]]

GolfCents SwingPlane Drill :

Ok whats this swing plane jargin??? There is an imaginary plane or line that the arms-hands and club follows. Think of your head popping out of the slope of your roof,like a chimney. Your swing plane is on the same angle as the roof line and should remain parallel to it during the swing. We can simulate this by forming a right triangle. Your heels are at the right angle, the hypotenuse or longest side(the roof slant)is slanting across your neck to a point about 3 or 4 inches further than the ball position. Your Posture setup works together with the swingplane. So if you seem to be out of plane recheck your posture. You can check your swing plane with very little effort or cost. See diagram. This is the correct angle of your swing plane at the point of impact & address . At this point you can add more strings to check your self at different points in your swing arc. To do this connect several strings to the same point(purhaps connected to a large washer) on the string that is stretched over the branch or pole( it should resemble the support strings on a hammock). Next : Place an 8 foot - 2 by 4 board along the target line but about 3 or 4 inches further from your feet. Put in 5 or 7 nails or screws spaced out equally from the center. The center screw will get the original 1st string that was staked into the ground. Connect the extra strings to the nails and pull tawt.(Note you will have to anchor the 2 by 4 into the ground. )You should wind up with a string with several strings fanning out from one point to the points on the 2 by 4, but on and forming your predetermined swing plane. ///|
Gee wiz, when am I going to get a scanner for pictures. You now have a swing plane training aid , COST is under $3.00 , if you need to buy the equipment.
Once you have made your swing plane trainer, practice making full swings,I recomend using the broom in combo, and or a club with the 3 leaf setup in combo. Your goal is to never go outside the swing plane guide, yet staying parallel to it throughout the swing arc. Ive seen swing trainers for $1000, what a rip off!!!

GolfCents Chipshot Drill :Benching or Bagging your chipshots. What exactly does this mean??? Well the school of thought for many teachers is that great chip shots are on the ground and rolling ASAP!!! I believe in this too unless there is an obstacle: a series of mogles, groundwater, damaged turf, sprinkler head, etc., between you and the hole.
One of the ways to help people get the feeling of getting the ball rolling As Soon As Possible is to block out the possiblity of hitting a high chipshot. To to this use the blocking device of your choice: chipping under a bench, a chair, the lower rail of a fence, or one of my favorites, if you dont like calling attention to yourself chipping through th slanting legs of the golfbag holder.
The choice of club should be whatever club you can accomplish this with, I recommend a 7 iron to start.( NOTE:the hands lead the club at impact with no wrist-action!) You should forward - press your hands in front of the ball. The ball is played in the center to rear of center of your stance and should be hit before the club hits the ground. (NOTE: the hands lead the club at impact. Try to make equal backswing and follow through and keep the tempo / timing the same. Think one.......... and ............two. Let the backswing length control the distance to the cup, DO NOT add power or wrist snap for more distance. This will only make your chipshots in consistent. I also believe that different clubs should be used depending on the circumstances. For instance lets say you have one foot of fringe to go over and forty feet of green to the hole: I would say a 7 or 8 iron chip and run would be appropriate. Now lets say you have 3 feet of rough and 2 feet of fringe to get over and the pin is another 10 feet away: in this case a softer wedge shot is needed. Experiment with unique situations and you will start to select the proper club and type of shot with greater ease and with better results. Remember having to chip is not a negative result of missing or coming up short of the green. It's just another shot at the target. Look at the chip shot as an opportunity to hole out and impress your golfing buddies. If you believe the chip shot will go in, it has a good chance to do so. Visualize the ball rolling in just like a putt, then make the shot. Also remember to read the break of the green just as in putting, pick a spot to land and let the ball follow the contour of the green into the cup. Practice will make you better.

GolfCents on Putting Breaks

Many golfers see a golf hole as tee to green and forget its tee to cup. They plan out where to place a drive, and a 2nd shot on a par 5. They have a few minutes between each shot to organize or recompose their thoughts, on the green, however the putts come very quickly. " I always say "on a green you gain the most strokes in the shortest amount of time" and its true. Take the timeto read the green: as you approach it, as you mark your ball, or pull the flag , or fix a ball mark .You can sneakily get several views of your putting line without doing the pro-walk.
What's the PRO WALK? The pro gets a view from back of ball , then walks to the side, then all the way around the hole , then he gets up to the hole and looks back to the ball , then around the other side and completes the cycle back behind his ball again. Try this one time on your course and not only will your golfing partners yell at you , but the ranger will throw you off the course or worse yet the groups being held up behind you will start hitting warning balls at you. The point is you can get a couple of views without holding anyone up. Try to be the good neighbor and pull the flag , this is the most important view, the curves nearer the hole will affect your ball more because it is rolling slower by then and forward momentum is minimum. While your there take a look at the cup's surrounding area.
A lot of amateur greenskeepers cut a new cup the wrong way, that is, they pull the cylinder of dirt out of the ground with out the hold-down plate. This creates a volcano that slopes on all sides of the cup. Guess what, the speed just before the cup is at itsslowest point and if you are one of those finesse putters(let the ball die into the cup) you are in for some disappointing results. The volcano's slope deflects the ball away from every direction .Youve seen this before: a perfect putt that stops just before the hole or veers off just before the hole, even when its a flat line to the cup and it seemed as if the putt had more than enough to get there. What they didnt see was the 3 inch perimeter of the hole that was transformed into a tiny green volcano. I wonder if they do it on purpose

Putting Technique

Putting techniques vary among golfers, so here are some of the tips I 've heard from people I consider to be great putters: