My Favorite Practice Drills to Improve Your Golf
04/22/2019
If you run a search on the internet for golf practice drills you will come across thousands.
This makes it difficult to understand which may work for you and which would ony lead to more problems in your game.
There are however some very basic drills that are almost universal in their use.
My personal favourite and one all of my clients would have used at some point is the feet together drill. This is so simple it almost seems too good to be true but it will definitely improve your golf.
Place your feet and knees together. (If possible)
The ball should be opposite the “V” created by your feet.
Using half swings the aim of the exercise is to maintain your balance, which will mean great rhythm.
Great rhythm and improved balance will lead to better contact with the ball and more distance and accuracy to your shots.
Some golfers see a marked difference in the distance they achieve with just the half swing.
The second exercise requires a little more effort, but is great to train yourself to feel your swing and where it is. (A video or practice buddy is needed for this drill to begin with.)
Take your normal posture position.
When you reach the top of your back swing, say out loud “BACK”. When you hit the ball say out loud “HIT” and when you finish your swing say out loud “STOP”.
The aim of the drill is to say each word when the actual “act” happens.
The closer you can get each of the words to the actual event the more aware you become of your swing and what is happening at each moment.
It is a great drill to improve rhythm, but even more impressive is the drills ability to teach you to deal with pressure.
Many golfers, especially high handicap golfers or those that may not be reaching their potential handicaps is holing out and this drill is directed to improving this aspect of your game.
The Compass drill, as I call it, is a pressurized way of practicing putting and more importantly holing out. Easy to set up, the drill can take many different forms, from the distance at which you place the balls to the difficulty of the location you choose.
To begin take 12 balls to the putting green. Select your hole and place a ball on each point of the compass at a distance of 1 foot from the hole, repeat this at each point increasing the distance away from the hole by a foot each time. (So you will be practicing a 1, 2 and 3-foot putt.
Starting at the north point putt the ball into the hole, obviously starting with the ball closest to the hole.
Continue to make your war around the points in order (North, east, south and west).
To move onto the next ball, you must hole the ball. Miss and you start again.
In the long run the aim is to hole all 12 balls in a row.
To add even more pressure, do this with a friend and put a wager on it.