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GolfRx: Drills to Help Your Game

To have a complete game of golf, you need to practice the complete game. Simple drills can make a difference when it is time to step off the practice area and onto the course. Here are a few tips for the complete game.

FULL SWING:

The most important position in the swing is when you impact with the ball. Working on the club position just before the ball (referred to as the slot), and just past the ball, is a great way to improve your impact position. This is where the wrists do the work and release the golf club to the ball. A drill that will improve your release through impact is to hit balls with your feet together only using your wrist action. It is easier to improve the whole swing working on it in small parts.

With your feet together take the club back by breaking your wrist only (Photo 1). The wrist break creates a 90% angle between your left arm and club. Your hands should not go much past your leg. Swing through only using your wrists to hit the ball. Look for the club to be out pointing to the target with the toe of the club pointing to the sky (Photo 2). Check your left wrist; it should be flat. The motion will feel more like a rotation than a wrist break in the follow through.

This drill will teach you to release the club at the ball which is where you want your maximum club head speed to be. Most players “cast” the club. This occurs when your wrist is releasing the club early in the down swing and using up your club head speed before you get to the ball.

The action of the club rotating so the toe points up to the sky is the club squaring up. If the ball goes to the right the club is not turning to the to the toe up position. After some practice time with the drill add shoulder turn to this action making it a full back swing and follow through.

SPEED DRILL:

Speed is good. The faster the club is moving at impact the father the ball will go. The problem with most golfers is they do not recognize the difference between club head speed and moving their body faster. I like to say that there is good speed and bad speed. Good speed is club head speed at the ball. Bad speed is moving the body faster that does not transfer into club head speed or having your maximum club head speed before impact. To work on club head speed and the timing of that speed use the swish drill. Take your driver and hold it upside down, swing it listening for a swish of air made by the swing of the club (photo 3). The air sound represents speed where the sound is tells you where the speed is. Try and make the swish happen just past the ball in the follow through. Most player swish is made before they get to the ball. As you practice you will find that to increase the your speed you will have to relax your muscles so the your wrist and arm move freely. Relaxed muscle can produce more speed than tight muscles.

CHIPPING AND PITCHING:

The number one fault players make when hitting pitches and chips is to break down in the wrist. This scooping is a player’s instinct telling them to get under the ball and lift the ball up with the swing. Keep a picture in your minds eye that the loft on the golf club gets the ball in the air, not the wrist action scooping the ball up. A good drill to prevent your wrist from breaking down is to hold a second club so that it extends upward (Photo 4). Make some chips or short pitches if your wrist start breaking you will hit your side with the second club. Look for the club head to stay low to the ground in the follow through so that the loft of the clubface can hit get the ball in the air. You will notice that the bad wrist brake brings the club high off the ground. Keeping the club low also is stopping the wrist from breaking down. After some practice time with the second club try to feel the same motion with out it. Hold you finish position and notice where you are. Look for that flat wrist and low clubface.

As with any drill limit you practice time to 20% or 30% of your total practice time. You need to make the transition from drill to full swing. Remember practice is not only about improving your swing technique but also about finding that one common feeling that you have when you hit your best shots. That’s what you take to the course.

Hope these drills help your game.