 | Ball Push: Put a ball about six inches behind the ball you are going to hit. As you take the club back, you should knock the ball. This is great for getting the start of your swing right and really good for people who “pick” the club up early. |
Chip with the knees: Many great chippers feel the shot with their hands, feet and knees. The rotating motion that the knees and stomach provides during the stroke is like the engine of the shot. It provides the energy to propel the ball and allows the hands to stay soft and feely. |  |
 | Belt buckle to target on Chips: Make sure that you turn your belt buckle through to the target on a chip. This keeps your stike solid as it keeps your body and therefore your arms moving and gets the club to bottom out after the shot for a good strike. |
Drag and set: If you struggle with the start of your swing, try this. It is called drag and set. The drag part is where you feel like you move the handle first to get the swing going. This creates the width. The set part which comes next makes sure the club gets loaded and up on plane. |  |
 | Feeling of Impact: Try this when you are at the shops or range to improve your game. Great feeling of impact. |
Hands lead: To promote a good strike. Get the image of skipping a stone or ball in this case. This gets the feeling of hands leading through impact and the club creating lag. |  |
 | Head monitor: Purch your sunglasses on your nose. The frames act like a picture frame and allow you too be more aware of excessive head motion. |
Juggling: This is a sign of a misspent youth hanging around Pro shops! But this is great for your hand/eye coordination and also impresses your friends! |  |
 | Restricted Backswing: Desperate times call for desperate measures! Get creative and try this in practice! |
Right arm only: One of Nick Prices favourite drills. Try this to feel the freedom and function of your right arm and to improve coordination. |  |
 | Right bounce: Make sure you have the right bounce on your wedges. Too much and you will thin it, too little and you will dig in the bunkers. The bounce on a Vokey wedge is the second number on the club. So a 58.08 is 58 degrees loft and 8 degrees of bounce. Put simply the bounce is the difference in height between the front and back edges on the sole of the club. Too much raises the front edge up and makes life hard on tight lies. Too little and the club digs. Consult your pro for the best one for you. |
Right foot Back: This is a great drill for many things including reducing coming over the top and promoting more or a draw. It can also improve strikes as it makes your chest work harder through impact. |  |
 | Slopes and how they can help your swing: Slopes are one of the best ways to change your swing. If you slice it, go and hit balls with the ball above your feet. Then come down to the flat lie and you should be slicing it less, the opposite slope for a hook. The slopes change the plane of your swing for you without any technical thought. |
Wind Middle: Wind your hips against solid knees. The knees will move but provide resistence against the hips. This creates torque and ground pressure that leads to distance. Feel like you are screwing yourself into the ground. |  |

 | The perfect grip: The grip does many things. It connects you to the club, allows you to load the club, to create and transfere energy, allows you to create the correct plane and sequence, it also allows you to control the face. Clearly, the grip is a crucial element in good golf, but it is often overlooked. Here are a few pointers to make sure your grip is sound. You can see in the initial photos that the wear mark on the glove indicates a palmy grip. This is common and makes life hard as it is difficult to make the wrists function correctly with this grip. Try holding it more down in the fingers of the left hand. Make sure the top of your hand is not off the top of the club and you can see a triangle of light as illustrated. Also, make sure your thumb is connected to you hand and that it goes slightly down the right half of the shaft. You can now control the club better. Obviously, check if you face is square as shown. Then connect your right hand using this innovative drill that makes sure it is on the side of the grip and not too far on top as many people do. How you connect the hands together is not as important as people think, so long as they are unified that is what counts. So get that grip together and see your shots improve. |
Swing sequence: In a correctly sequenced golf swing, you need all the components to arrive at the top at about the same time. As each component has a different length of journey to travel, they should all go at different speeds. For example, the club has a long way to travel, yet the chest does not. In order to stay in-sync, the club must go faster than the body. I have given the components approximate speed ratios in relation to one another to give you and idea. One of the most common things I see in Golf swings that are out of sync and poorly sequenced is that everything goes together at the same speed, early on. This makes things get out of sync later as the body has completed its short journey, whilst the arms have some way to go. Therefore, the body stops and the arms continue, making for a out of sync downswing. |  |
Pre Shot routine: Your shield against pressure and external distractions. Imagine it as a bubble if you will. You retreat inside it and focus so that nothing can get at you. I could write a lot here, but I want my web stuff to be brief. Firstly, get all the information on the shot that you will need including yardage, lie, wind, pin position etc. Once you have done your homework and made a plan, now it is time for your pre-shot routine. Stand behind the ball and face the target. Take a practise swing or two to feel what you are trying to do in your swing. Then pause for a second and try and picture the shot you are trying to hit. Some people look from above, some like a TV camera. Find out how you do it best. Then take a breath and walk into the shot, focused on the target. Set up around the ball whilst constantly engaging the target. You are trying to let your instincts kick in here, you have trained your swing, now it is time to trust it. Take a waggle or two to reduce tension, engage the target and pull the trigger. It is important that your routine is practised and it is automatic. It is the bridge between what you are doing on the range and being able to do it on the course. So practice it on the range also. Your post shot reaction is as important as your routine. No matter what the outcome, tell yourself you did your best. If it is a great shot, pat yourself on the back. If a bad one, let it go and move on.  |
Damage limitation: Making par more often A great way to drop strokes is to have some sort of plan or stratergy. I bet that you have walked onto a tee with your driver, to look up and realise that it is a par 3! Well, you need to plan each hole a little better. It starts at the tee, decide what you options are and play to your strengths. It may be that a 3 wood is the best club or a long iron, it is not always the driver that is the best option. Next use the tee to your advantage. If you have trouble on the right as I do here, tee on the right and hit away from it. If you slice tee on the right and slice it back in. Whatever your shot shape use your brain off the tee and it makes the hole much easier. Like a game of chess, the first moves are vital. When faced with option on you second shot, you have to consider the risk reward factors. Does the shot you are contemplating have a huge risk and no reward? Will you pull it off two out of ten times? It may work for the guys on TV, but will it lead to an eight for you? Start to think of the percentage plays. Something less risky with more reward, like laying up. When laying up, plan where you are going to leave the ball. Like snooker you should think one shot ahead. Play to leave it at a yardage that is your strength, then you have a good chance of knocking it in close. All you have to do then is the make sure that you make you 6 footer! Your reading and routine are keys here, keep them consistent and stay calm and in the present. Simply roll the ball at the required speed along the line you intend and it will drop. That is a smart way to make par and if you do that more often your scores will tumble without any technical changes!
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