Consistent Golf Gazette – 5th February 2012

I need your help if you can.

You see, I’m looking at reviewing software for tracking games of golf. You know…the type of software that tracks your greens in regulation, putting average, fairways hit etc. etc.

So if you use some software like that I would like to know what it is and what you think about it. I don’t care if it’s online software you use or software you download to your computer, Mac, ipad, iphone,….

Just reply to this email and let me know what you’re using, why you like it and anything else you want to add if you’ve got the time. A link to the software would be very handy too.

OK, enough chit chat, let’s get into this week’s great instruction pieces….

[divider_bar]Insert Your Text Here[/divider_bar] [headline_arial_large_centered color=”#990000″]The Best Drill To Get The Most Speed…At Impact![/headline_arial_large_centered]

You want to swing the fastest right at impact….right? You don’t want to swing fastest at the top of your backswing or at the end of your follow-through.

Nope, when you impact the ball you want your golf club swinging at max speed.

But how on earth can you learn to do that?

Well, today you’re in for a treat because I have for you the best drill to teach you how to do exactly that.

Now interestingly this drill doesn’t involve swinging a golf club, but instead you will be swinging a rope. And doing this will give you get instant feedback as to whether the power in your golf swing is NOT at impact. For example, if you have a lot of power at the end of your swing you’ll get hurt – and that will be great!

Why would getting hurt be great?

Because us human beings learn quickly to avoid pain. So when you do this drill you’ll quickly learn how to apply the most power to the impact zone. This will result in much longer golf shots.

Sound good?

OK, to do this drill you’ll need to get a 3 and 1/2 foot rope. And you’ll need a pretty thick rope (roughly an inch or so thick would be good), thin rope won’t work for this. You’ll also need some duct tape.

Once you have your rope then put some duct tape around one end of the rope where you’re going to be holding the rope like a golf club (enough that your hands will be holding duct tape not rope) and then a smaller amount down the other end.

After your rope is ready then setup to an imaginary ball with your rope, holding it at the end where you have the most duct tape. From your setup position make your normal backswing move with your body. But here’s a tip – you should start your backswing with the big muscles of your back and shoulders to get the rope moving away smoothly.

Once you get into your final backswing position then STOP so the rope is resting on your back. Then from this top of the swing position you then need to start your downswing.

To do this you must:

Start your downswing by moving your weight from your right foot to your left foot. At the same time move your hips laterally to the left and turn them as fast as you can.

This should all happen very quickly however so you won’t be able to easily distinguish the difference between your weight being transferred and your hips moving and turning.

If you don’t start the downswing correctly with a weight shift and a lateral shift and turn of the hips you will get hurt doing this rope drill.

The rope will come through very fast at the finish of your swing and hit you – and that will hurt.

But like I said at the beginning of this article, pain is great feedback and you’ll probably only do it once!

To help you so this probably won’t happen make sure you don’t do anything with your hands after they’ve reached the top of the backswing position. Your hands are simply pulled through the downswing by your powerful lower body.

Also do nothing with your shoulders and arms. Because like the hands they are moved as a result of your lower body movements. There should be no conscious thoughts as to how to move them in the downswing, or follow-through for that matter.

And when you do this drill correctly the rope will lightly tap you at the end of your swing. It won’t hurt you at all.

Why?

Because with the correct transition from the backswing to your downswing the majority of the power in your swing is generated at the bottom of your swing — which is just where it should be.

At the end of your swing the rope should be moving very slowly as it should have very little power. That’s why this is such a great drill because you learn to use your body to get the club moving the fastest just where it needs to….through impact.

[divider_bar]Insert Your Text Here[/divider_bar]

Question

I have trouble lining up my long putts because I tend to just hit the ball straight at the hole and the break takes the ball either too far to the left or too far to the right. Do you have any special tricks to help me hit my putts on the right line better?

Answer

Special tricks? They’re my specialties as you’ll see in a second! 🙂

If you have trouble lining up your putts you can do something really simple that will greatly help. What you do is get one of your playing partners to hold the pin and ask them to stand on the high side of your putts.

Then you can aim at some part of their body. For example, their right foot.

Naturally this will work well for long putts that have a couple of feet of break to them. But it will still help you for bigger breaking putts as well. Because what you can do is imagine the persons feet as the hole. By doing this you’ll allow more break on your putts and that will probably serve you very well because scientific research has proven that most golfers under-read putts. So by over-reading a putt you’ll probably putt a lot better.

But try it and see the results and adjust accordingly.

Another great thing you can do when lining up long putts is to visualize the line of your putt in chunks. So if you have a 30 foot putt see three 10 feet segments. For some unknown reason when you do this your mind will not pick a straight line to your putt (unless it’s a straight putt). Instead, you’ll see a curved line that your ball needs to travel on to go in the hole.

So there you go. That’s two good things you can do to improve the line you’re hitting your long putts on. Those two things again were:

1. Getting one of your playing partners to hold the pin for you when you putt and aim at some part of their body when you putt. Make sure they are standing above the hole however.

2. Visualize your putts in segments. That way you’ll see the real curve of your putts so you’ll know the line to hit them on. By they way, the longer the putt the more segments you should use.

OK, that wraps up this issue. I hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you do that rope drill. It really is the best way to train swinging fastest at impact. The next issue will be sent to you next Sunday. But please remember to send me comments about any software you’re using to track your game stats. Thanks!

For Consistent Golf,