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Full Swing - Lesson
1
Effective
Practice
Develop and Execute a Full-Swing
Training Program
This lesson will:
| 1. |
Show
you how to define your own full-swing
practice routine to make sure you’re
getting the most out of your time. |
| 2. |
Give
you a few practice routines that will
almost certainly improve your full
swing. |
| 3. |
Show
you how to create journal entries
for every practice session so you
never forget what you’ve learned. |
Developing
Your Program
The Aspiring Golfer system
was developed for advanced golfers. These
golfers are beyond the stage where they
believe they just need to find one magical
swing tip to make them a much better golfer.
Advanced golfers know how hard it is to
continue improving. Going from a 30 handicap
to a 20 is much easier than going from
a 10 to 0. It’s the same number
of strokes, but it is a much, much different
task. As an advanced golfer, you understand
(you may not like, but you understand)
that improvement will come in small steps
and is largely proportionate to the amount
of effort you put into it. Yes, you’ll
have to put in some time and effort, but
we’re going to help make sure what
time you do spend is spent efficiently
and produces the best results possible.
So, first things first.
You need to practice your full swing.
You need to develop a full-swing training
routine and stick to it. You’ll
do that using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Program box, select Full-Swing Practice
from the first drop down and select
Edit Program from the second drop
down. Click Go>. |
| Step 3: |
Define the objective
to your full-swing practice. You can
simply put “to increase confidence
standing over a shot” or “to
increase the number of greens I hit
in regulation” or whatever else
you’d like to be the primary
focus of your practice program for
now. You can always change this as
your needs/desires change. |
| Step 4: |
Define a schedule that
you will be able to keep for your
full-swing practice. We recommend
spending at least 120 minutes a week
(three sessions of 40 minutes) working
on your full swing. Ultimately this
is up to you, provided you spend enough
time to adequately complete the routines
we recommend or routines you develop
on your own (or with an instructor)
that produce positive results. The
more time you spend, the more you
will likely improve though. |
| Step 5: |
Define routines for
your practice schedule. We have a
few routines that we recommend, which
can be completed in roughly 30 to
45 minutes. These routines are to
be done as often as possible. They
will develop a feeling of comfort
and confidence in making repeatable
swings and bringing your “range
game” to the course. If you
would like to try our routines, please
see the section below (Sample Full-Swing
Practice Routines and Drills.) |
| Step
6: |
Define
your favorite drills. If you have
drills you like to do with your full
swing practice, go ahead and put them
here. Or, you can try some of the
drills we recommend that are included
in our practice routine. If you would
like to try our routines, please see
the section below (Sample Full-Swing
Practice Routines and Drills.) |
| Step 7: |
Define your keys for
improvement. These are for you to
determine based on your lessons learned.
You might also want to add some obvious,
but easily forgotten ones such as
complete focus during practice session
and commitment to training schedule. |
Executing Your Program
Now that you’ve defined your training
program, you need to execute it. You need
to hold yourself accountable for spending
the amount of time you committed to in
your schedule. You also need to learn
from your training sessions so that you
can maximize your full-swing improvement.
You’ll do these things
using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system as well.
**Before
every practice session, print out your
full-swing training program (or keep a
copy in your golf bag) and take it with
you to your practice session.
After every practice
session you have, you’ll take the
following steps to create a training journal
entry. You’ll use these training
journal entries and lessons learned in
the future to ensure you learn from your
experiences, both good and bad. You can
print them out and bring them with you
when necessary.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Journal box, select Add New Entry. |
| Step 3: |
Complete the form by
entering the date of the practice
session and the duration of the session,
selecting Full-Swing Practice for
session type, entering an overview
of the lesson, and finally entering
lessons learned. For each lesson learned,
you should give it a descriptive title
so you can reference it easily in
the future. You will assign a priority
ranking to it (1 – 999) that
will allow you to quickly see the
lessons you feel are most important.
You’ll also choose whether or
not to share the lesson with other
members. This is encouraged if you
feel it might be able to help others
with their full swing as well. |
Sample Full Swing
Practice Routines and Drills
Routine A: Learning from
the Past
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Take some
time to analyze your statistics from
the last few rounds you’ve played
and notes from previous practice sessions
(lessons learned). Select one lesson
learned and one area of your full
swing game that you feel you need
to work on the most. |
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Stretch properly for
5 minutes. Warm up by hitting a handful
of wedge shots and then 7 irons. |
|
Spend 15 minutes working
on the lesson learned you have selected
and 15 minutes on the area of your
full swing most needing work. For
example this might mean you spend
15 minutes working on making sure
your hips rotate through impact and
15 minutes working on hitting your
long irons. |
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Spend 5 or 10 minutes
hitting various shots to different
targets. |
Routine B: Fundamental Drills
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Stretch
properly for 5 minutes. |
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Perform the “feet
together” drill (see below,
Sample Drills.) |
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Perform the “positions”
drill (see below, Sample Drills.) |
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Perform the “ladder”
drill (see below, Sample Drills.) |
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Spend 5 or 10 minutes
hitting various shots to different
targets. |
Routine C: Practice Like
You Play
|
Stretch
properly for 5 minutes. Warm up by
hitting a handful of wedge shots and
then 7 irons. |
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Now play a course in
your mind. If you have a regular course
you play, imagine you are playing
that. Or if there’s a famous
course you know well, use it. Visualize
and play 18 holes. Pick the appropriate
club for each shot and pick imaginary
targets. Hold yourself accountable
for shots and keep score in your mind.
You obviously can’t putt, but
you can do just about everything else.
If you miss a green by 15 yards, hit
a 15-yard pitch shot. If you miss
a fairway left and the hole has out
of bounds, take your penalty. If you
hit it into the trees, play a low
hook back to the fairway. It’s
more of an art than a science, but
this type of visualization and creative
thinking can do wonders for your mental
game on the course. |
Drill 1: Feet Together Drill
Purpose: The purpose of
this drill is to free up and relax your
arms and to eliminate swing flaws caused
by an over-active, ill-timed lower body.
With your feet together, you can’t
shift your body too much laterally, which
is a common swing problem.
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Begin by
hitting half shots with your 7 iron
with your feet no more than 4 inches
apart. Work your way up to full swings
and then begin to widen your stance,
hitting a few shots at each position. |
Drill 2: Positions Drill
Purpose: The purpose of
this drill is to engrain two of the most
important positions into your memory,
the impact position and the top of the
backswing. The impact position is really
the key to a good swing. How you get there
is of little importance, as proven by
the likes of Jim Furyk or Chi Chi Rodriguez.
However, while some unconventional methods
of getting the club there work for some
people, they are more difficult to learn
and less reliable for most people. Therefore,
it is also important to look at the position
at the top of the backswing. Getting to
a good position at the top and making
a smooth transition give the golfer the
best chance of getting to the appropriate
impact position.
Position at Top –
A very common swing flaw of golfers is
that they “overswing” on the
backswing. Either their arms collapse,
or their spine angle is lost, or they
slide their hips to the right and straighten
their right knee. All of these things
are usually a result of rushing the backswing
in an effort to get maximum distance.
The Position at the Top drill can help
fix this.
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Using a
wedge, get in a good setup position
WITHOUT a ball. From here, swing the
club forward a couple of feet and
then swing it back and to the top
very smoothly. Feel the position.
Your right knee should be flexed just
like it was at address. Your spine
should be at the same angle it was
at address. Your left arm should be
relatively straight (but not necessarily
rigid). Your elbows should be about
as far apart as they were at address
(right elbow should not “fly”).
Note this position and hold it for
5 seconds. If you’ve done it
right, your club is probably short
of parallel. Repeat this 5 times. |
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Now, using a wedge,
get in a good setup position WITH
a ball. Making a smooth backswing,
get to the same position at the top
and pause for 1 or 2 seconds, ensuring
good position, and then make a smooth
swing at the ball. Don’t try
too hard, just make a nice smooth
downswing. Repeat this with 10 or
15 balls, but alternate between swinging
without the pause and with the pause. |
Position at Impact –
The moment of truth in the golf swing
is that fraction of a second where your
club strikes the ball. If you’re
out of position here, you can’t
hit a good shot and vice versa. In an
effort to engrain the feeling of the proper
impact position, use the Position at Impact
drill.
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Using a
wedge, address the ball and make a
slow motion backswing and downswing.
Stop when your clubhead has reached
the ball. Here, your head should be
behind the ball. Your hips should
be open to the target line so that
your hands are in line with your right
hip. Your shoulders should be square
to slightly open to the target line
(but not as much as the hips). Your
hands should be ahead of the ball
slightly. Your spine angle should
be similar to it was at address. Your
right knee should be bent. Your right
elbow should be relatively close to
your right hip. Take note of this
position and hold it for 5 seconds. |
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From the impact position,
take a normal backswing and hit the
ball. Repeat this with 10 or 15 balls,
but alternate between swinging from
the impact position and swinging from
a normal setup. |
Drill 3: Ladder Drill
Purpose: Rarely do
we get to play a round of golf where we
end up in the middle of the fairway with
perfect yardages all the time. Often we
are between clubs. Often we have trees
to go over or under or around. We have
wind to consider, elevation changes, greens
that slope away from us or drastically
towards us. As an advanced golfer, it
is important that we learn to play a variety
of shots, controlling distance, trajectory
and spin. The ladder drill is designed
to help with this.
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Using one
club, such as your 7 iron, hit to
targets of 4 or 5 different distances
(eg. 120, 130, 140, and 150). Pick
another club and do the same thing.
Repeat this with several clubs. Experiment
with trajectory and try working the
ball slightly right to left and then
left to right. |
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Using a variety of
clubs (PW, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5), hit shots
to the same target. Pick one target
and hit a shot to it with 3 different
clubs. For example, you might pick
the 150 yard sign and hit your 8,
7, and 6 iron to it. Using the same
clubs, hit to something 130 yards
away. Repeat this with several targets.
Experiment with trajectory and try
working the ball slightly right to
left and then left to right. |
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