Help Your Golf Swing, Help Your Golf Score
Most golfers will say the hardest part of their game is focus. The mental side of golf is often misunderstood. Do you have a friend that golfs well on every round? Why is that? Practice, they practice. What they don’t tell you, is what they practice at. When you are talking about a game that is referred to as 90% mental and 10% talent you have to work on your mental toughness. When overcoming that mental side of golf, do you try to change your equipment, the time at which you play, maybe even they guys you play with. Here we go, some tips that are going to help get you on your way to being a better golfer.
The tempo of golf is often a distraction for golfers, you are stuck behind a slow foursome DISTRACTING or maybe the guys behind you are rushing you DISTRACTING and you feel that pressure to golf faster. The tempo of the course should never affect the tempo of your swing. The tempo of your swing is so important; to achieve the desired results. How do I find MY tempo you ask? A golfer can find their tempo by doing these simple things:
SLOW DOWN!! People often think that if they can swing faster and hit the ball harder they will get results, this is not the case at all. SLOW DOWN and focus on YOUR tempo not the tempo of the game. This is true is some instances, but, for the sake of this article we will not be discussing those concepts. The tempo we are going to discuss today, is going to deal with how you approach every single shot in your game, you need to have the same back swing, contact, and follow through on every swing. How are you going to practice this TEMPO? Go to the driving range and practice with one club at a time. First hit 20 range balls with your driver, next hit 20 range balls with your 9 iron, Next your 3 wood and your 8 iron follow this method until you have hit every club in your bag. To perfect your back swing come to the same position every time. No matter what club you are using the ball wants to be hit in the same place at the same speed every time. People often think that the club should dictate your tempo, this could not be further from the truth. If you focus on your tempo you will see that by swinging all of your clubs the same your accuracy will improve drastically. When you are working on your follow through it will be the same as your back swing, you will want it to be the same with every club. How you follow through directly affect your accuracy. When you focus on these three techniques you will find that your mental game will improve.
After you have put in your work at the range, head on over to start working on your chipping. Start by working with your wedges, then move on to you short irons. Practice 100 chips with each club. Start with your wedges in the deeper grass and focus not on getting in the hole but just putting the ball on the green. When chipping just focus on your tempo, using the same stroke every time. Remember chipping should be another tool in your arsenal and not the final result. Many careers have been made from singles and doubles hitters it is not just the home run hitters that decide how games turnout. Stay focused and you will hit the green every time. The 8i and 9i will be used to work out the tempo of the bump and run technique. Tempo is still your main focus you are just using a club for a different shot, the tempo is still the same though. Find your tempo and stick with it!! It would be like you are still hitting one of your wedges, you change clubs not the tempo!!
Putting Putting Putting! This is not rocket science but yet very misunderstood? We have now gone from Driving range tempo to chipping tempo to putting tempo the TEMPO does not change only the environment. While practicing don’t worry about how far or where the ball goes work on keeping your tempo the same every time. You are never going to change your swing for a putt. The only part about putting that changes is the distance. Start by sinking 10 putts in a row from 1ft away after you have done this, move out to 2ft, repeat until you sink 10 in a row from 10ft away. Keep the same tempo.
The goal for these exercises is to teach your to go through the same steps every time. You are trying to create a tempo that you are going to follow, now matter what is going on around you. If you focus on the tempo you will see results!! If you want the proven results of the pros you need to create a time line in your mind (90% mental) that you will follow no matter where you are, or whom you are playing with. When your body starts to do the same thing every single time, your mind will become more focused on the task at hand.