Before we get into the mindset of Visual Golfing, I figured it is important for our fellow golfers to know that this blog is not telling you to throw all you have learned so far - no, not at all. This blog about doing a few things in addition to what you might/should be doing. Let's list out a few things that are already considered good golfing practices - you may be doing few or all of these. Of course, one would try to do all of these for consistency and longevity of your game.
1. Stretch
Most golfers do just a few air swings before they start hitting balls. But a good golfing practice is to stretch methodically. Here are some tips.
Some golfers hold a club horizontal over their shoulders, and then gently turn their torso left and right.
Some hold multiple (3 or 4) irons and lightly do practice swings - the extra weight of the swings gives a gentle stretch to all the muscles you use during your swings.
I personally like the swing trainers like the Orange Whip and the Callaway Golf Swing Stick Lag trainer. You can start with small swings to get into the rhythm, warm up. As you move from your irons to woods on the driving range, try to inject a few more swings with the trainer. Go deeper in your back swing and rotate your torso faster and faster gradually to feel the stretch. For 40+ golfers, this warm up will keep you injury free.
Add squats during the initial 15 mins of your driving range session. Hit a few shots - do a few squats. This helps prevent sudden stretch injuries to your muscles by giving them time to relax between shots. Plus the squats stretch your leg muscles to get strengthen them and get them start to fired up.
2. Pitching Wedge, Irons, Hybrid, Driver
Going along with the stretching theme, don't start your range warm-up session with a driver. The chances of injury are just too high. Start with a short distance club and work yourself up.
I highly suggest this pattern:
Hit a few of shots at each level then move on to the next.
3. Aim at a target
The goal of Golf is to get the ball in the hole - in most cases not in one shot, but via successive shots but eventually you have to aim for the hole. So your practice on the range is not really practice if you don't aim. Pick a target for EVERY shot. The result of your shot compared to what you aim for is your real feedback - nothing else.
Sometimes you just want to hit straight - then pick a target and do your best to hit in line, regardless of the length.
Sometimes you want to practice distance control - in this case, I would argue that you can't ignore your line. You still want to hit it straight but also control your distance.
4. Tweak your distance
In the game of Golf you constantly need to adjust your distance with the same club. The 60 yard shot is rarely exactly 60 yards. Few knobs you can try to adjust are listed below:
If you hit a 58º wedge or pitching wedge for that 60-ish shot, make small changes to where you grip your club to tweak your distance.
Change the placement of the ball between your feet - an half of an inch forward or behind your normal ball placement spot is sure to alter your length.
Open / Close the club face a smidgen - watch for the change in direction with this adjustment.
Slow down your back swing.
Reduce the arc of your back swing. 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 of your regular back swing are possible adjustments for an average golfer. If you can adjust to anything more granular than that, consistently, you will benefit significantly.
5. Simulate your round
If you are warming up before you play 9-holes or 18-holes or even just a short 9-hole par 3 course, it works wonders if you simulate the first few holes. Use the same club numbers you plan to use for those initial holes, play the distances you target to hit. If you play the first couple of holes well, it just puts you in that positive mindset which influences the rest of your round. Play games with your mind don't let it play games with you!
6. Rest between shots
During a round of golf, you rarely ever get to hit two shots within one minute - unless you completely chunked your shot or could not get it out of a bunker. Mimic that time gap between shots while on the range. Step away from the ball, walk a few feet back and play each range shot as you would do during a round. Do the first thing this article suggests, stretch. More time between shots resets your muscles in subtle ways and the shot result is closer to what you see while playing a round.
You may not have the time to wait for 5 minutes between shots on the range, but at least wait longer than 20 seconds!
7. More time on chipping and putting
Golf is super deceptive game when it comes to scoring - why do I say that ?
A 2 inch putt is counted as 1 shot and a 200 yard drive also counts as 1 shot.
If you hit a 200 yard drive 10 yards short or 10 yards long, you still have the next shot to make up for it, without adding to your score card.
If you hit a 2 inch put 1 inch short or long, you have dropped a shot.
A weak short game has a much higher likelihood of resulting in a big score than a weak long game.
I go by these simple metrics:
If a chip does not get you close enough to 1 putt, you have dropped a shot.
If a 10 foot or shorter putt does not go in, you have dropped a shot.
So it makes a lot of sense to spend the limited practice time you have on those parts of your game that can damage your score more.
8. Lining up accurately
It breaks my heart whenever I see someone who hits perfectly straight shots but in the wrong direction. Yet you barely ever see people practice the routing of lining up to their target. It is boring, but super important for your score. Your choice.
You often see golfers put the lining sticks down on the mat. Ok good, but are you able to put that lining stick down during a round. So you MUST also practice your lining up without the stick.
As an exercise, place the ball on the mat/turf. Line up to your target. Do not hit the ball, but place your club down slowly on the ground in the line that you think you would hit the shot. Walk back and check, is the alignment what you think it was ? Surprised ?
Try walking behind the ball, hold your club and arms out in front to line up, then walk to the side, setup, again slowly leave your club on the ground, walk back behind the ball to check your alignment. Rinse & repeat till you figure out how to align perfectly without any aid.
9. Swing Confidently While Chipping
If you spend 20 mins on the practice chipping green, just observing golfers, it is hard not to run into golfers who have a nice practice swing, but hesitate when they take a chip shot. Generally, it is a symptom of not being confident of the point of contact of the club with the ball.
In a separate article, we will talk about how Visual Golfing can help with chipping. For this article, let's just say plan to play chip shots in a way that you are confident of doing the swing. If you hesitate, that going to lead to a bad result for sure. Practice the chip shots you are confident in. Choose to chip in a way that you are comfortable with - resulting in a confident shot and a good result.
10. Putt Confidently
This suggestion is a debatable one, but if you try it out, practice it and employ the technique during a round with your buddies, they will be impressed.
Here I'm referring to putts shorter than 6 feet will little to no break. One tends to get tentative about these shots, often leaving them short. Even if the speed is just right for the ball to trickle in, it often happens that minor undulations near the hole cause the ball to break at the last couple of inches. The last second break to the left or right is because the ball speed is too slow.
The suggestion here is to hit these type of putts at 120% of the speed what you currently hit. Don't let the minor breaks and undulations make the ball drift. With sufficient speed, the ball will be less subject to undulations, it will hit the back wall of the hole and drop in. As your aim improves, this technique becomes very effective.
Practice these methods regularly. Don't let the boredom of employing these techniques get the better of you. It is worth the effort and investment when you easily see a few shots getting shaved off that score card. Play on!
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