Goal 1: Building a Fundamental Foundation
Goal 2: Establishing a Baseline for Putting

Whats required this week:

→ 1 day, 1 hour at the golf course (2 days at the course would be great!) If you have a second day at the course this week, please try and play at least 18 holes, so we can get a target score to start with. If you know your average score for 18 holes, you don’t have to do this step.

When you play, the key swing thought should be only on tempo! You can add one swing thought in your pre shot practice swing from the video analysis (if you decide to upgrade to that option). Never have more than one swing thought when hitting a golf shot!

→ 4 days spending at least 30 minutes at your home or office doing drills inside. Can do more if you want! We don’t want to start to fast in order to avoid burnout. 

→ Follow the practice plan with consistency!

After realizing your strengths and weaknesses with the self evaluation worksheet can now tailor a practice plan to develop the key full swing fundamentals used by all the best players in the world.

What needs to be done first:

→ Refine the basic key fundamentals
→ Develop consistent contact, part 1 
→ Find your personal tempo and make it repeatable

Do you know what most PGA Tour pro’s check first when they start hitting the ball poorly?

→ ALIGNMENT!

Yes, alignment seems very simple, but you would be amazed with how bad golfers are at setting up correctly. I would say 99% of my golf students line up on average 15-20 yards away from their intended target. If you are reasonably athletic, your mind sub consciously is aware of where the target is even though are you not consciously aware. How do you improve your awareness? This is discussed in the complete game plan (next program for your development).

In the setup, 2 things are important:

1. Alignment – Read more here
2. Awareness  

Below are all the key fundaments for addressing the golf ball for a full swing ↓

Week 1 Practice Checklist Download

Set up check #1

Grip

Grips are very personal and effect your feel. 

This is why: Golf is an art, which is creative and involves feel. If your grip is creating issues, and a qualified golf professional can tell you WHY to change it, try to model the grip above. I am one of the few coaches that will not change your grip first.

Set up check #2

Stance

Neutral stance is shoulder width apart. This creates the correct width to turn properly and stay in balance

Stance varies in width, but it is very minor adjustments. Driver is slightly wider because it is a faster swing, so we need more stability by getting our feet wider.

If you get too wide, it is hard to turn. Too narrow, makes it hard to stay on balance

Weight distribution should be slightly on your front leg (for right handers, left leg).

We want to do this because it will promote us to hit more down on the ball, creating more back spin and help us keep the face more square. Most amateurs try to help it up in the air, HIT DOWN.

Set up check #3

Alignment 

Most golfers put a club down for the feet and point their feet directly at the target. This causes your your club face to be pointed to the right of the intended target (for right handers). Make sure your club face is pointed at the target on all golf shots, and set your feet parallel to the club face.

Set up check #4

 Ball Position

1. Start with the shortest club (sand wedge/Pitching wedge middle of the stance and the ball progressively moves forward in the stance until it is inside the left heel for the driver). You may see professional golfers put their wedges behind middle of stance for full swing shots, but this is advanced and we will not address it until the next program.

Set up check #5

Posture

1. Get in an athletic position, like you would defending someone in basketball or a short stop in baseball. Weight should be in the middle of your feet (in your shoe laces). Most amateurs look like they are sitting in a chair, with too much knee flex and their weight on the heels or too far on the toes.

Day 1: or whichever day you can get to the golf course

Objectives:

1. Refine Fundamentals
2. Improve sequencing of swing (tempo)

Phase 1:
Complete Putting Test – Download PDF and take to the course with you

1. Measure each putt to the appropriate distance. It is ok to hit the same putt every time from each distance to save time.
2. Hit as many putts from each distance as the sheet says
3. Bubble in the circle when you make the putt, put a dash through it if you miss
4. Review the sheet when complete and you will notice an area of putting that you are weak in. Make this distance weakness 60% of your practice time when putting. The strong areas split up practicing in the other 40% of the putting practice.

It is ok if you don’t live up to the averages listed on the sheet. These are PGA Tour averages. Although these averages are their stats from tournaments, under pressure, hitting a different breaking putt every time. But it is all relative. By the end of the program, our goal will be to match those averages!

Phase 2:
Warming up the full swing ( 10minutes)

1. Warm up the full swing properly
   1. Place alignment sticks down for proper alignment and ball position
   2. Drill one: Practice half swings (hip high on back swing, hip high on follow through)
      1. Can add impact ball to use with, my favorite training aid! Impact Ball

Phase 3:
Full Swing work (15 minutes)

1. Feet together tempo drill – see below for instructions
   1. Slowly progress to full swing by doing this first
   2. Focus on consistent tempo, same pace on backswing and same pace on follow through. Swing tempo should feel like 60% of your full speed.
   3. Heels of feet touching.
   4. Ball position directly in the middle
      1. Benefit of this drill 
         1. Establish consistent tempo 
         2. Improve contact – because your stance is narrow, it makes you stay centered and in balance, increasing your chances of consistent solid hits. 
2. Set up routine practice – go through the 5 steps described above before each shot. This is your total focus for this aspect of full swing work. 
3. Block practice 
   1. Spend half of your full swing time working on block practice (no set up routine)
   2. Block practice is when you are hitting the same club, without going through your set up routine, focused on one technical swing thought at a time. Most of your swing changes will be made at home with our at home practice plans.
      1. From your swing analysis listen to the 2 swing corrections we suggested
      2. Hit 10 balls working/thinking about only the first swing correction
      3. Hit 10 balls working only on the second swing correction

Phase 3: Play 9 holes on range – imagine 9 holes at your home course (30 minutes)

1. Hit a different club, shot
2. Go through set up routine on every shot
3. Imagine where your ball went and change your club and shot accordingly
4. You skip putting because you are on a driving range!

If you have more time at the course than one hour, repeat this cycle of practice as many times as you can. Its about quality, not quantity. Be focused and aware with every shot you hit!

Congratulations on completing your first efficient practice at the course! If you have more time, start with phase 1 and keep going through this routine with as many times as you can. 

Proper Pitch Shot Technique

2 feet together drill

Main focus for days 2-5: Refining your technique

Whats required of you: 30 minutes at your home or office. Follow todays plan exactly how it is described!

Day 2-5: at your home or office 

*Makes for an entertaining work break!

Objectives:

→ Improve Fundamentals on putting

→ Improve set up and full swing fundamentals

→ Develop tempo

Phase 1:
Putting Technique (10 minutes)

1. Find a 10 foot putt on thin carpet (or hardwood, which would simulate your next round at the Masters)
   1. Option 1: Lay down alignment sticks like you did on day one for alignment
   2. Option 2: Lay down alignment stick for feet direction and use a putting arc or mat to train you on the proper putting stroke. (Make sure you line the ball up in the center of the arc.)
2. Go through your set up routine before each putt.
   1. Ball position – middle of stance to a hair forward 
   2. Stance can be shoulder width or a bit more narrow than full swing
   3. If your putting grip works for you, don’t change it. See below for fundamental putting grip and how it differs from full swing grip.
   4. Putter face pointed at target. Focus on straight putts, helps improve alignment.
   5. Make sure shoulders, hips and feet are all pointing down the target line (square set up)

Phase 2:
Pitch shots ( 10-15 minutes)

1. Learn how the proper technique for hitting pitch shots. If you can learn how to hit a pitch shot, it will improve your ball striking. Its all about the proper impact position. A pitch shot is just a smaller version of the full swing, but better. Pitch shots are a better way to practice because it is slower and smaller, allowing you to ingrain and feel the proper impact position. 
   1. Practice the 5 set up fundamentals before each pitch shot swing
      1. Make sure you are aiming at something. Best if you can focus on the landing spot. This will help you develop feel for when you go back to the golf course 
      2. Add on – get soft practice balls and hit them against the wall or in your back yard. Soft Practice Balls
      3. Add on 2 – Just like above, using the impact ball trains you on how to get in the correct impact position
   2. Hit 20 pitch shots into the wall with soft practice balls

Phase 3:
Full Swing Technique (15 minutes)

1. Very slow practice swings. When I say slow, I mean very slow! Stop at each check point position to make sure you are in the right position. Do NOT hit golf shots, just rehearse the proper positions without a golf ball. Reason: Allows you to focus on correct movement because you are not worried about the result of the shot. 
   1. 3 sets of 10 swings (5 swings super set)
      1. Pause for 3 seconds at each position in swing (see video)
      2. After each set do 5 slow motion swings without pausing
      3. 30% full speed practice swings. Be aware of the correct positions throughout the swing
   2. Add on – I require all of my students to purchase the momentus heavy club.
      1. Benefit of heavy club – improves your technique 10 times faster than a lot weight club
      2. Beware – go slow with a heavy club! Going fast will mess up the sequencing of your golf swing when you go back to a normal club
      3. Heavy club is designed to improve your swing changes faster. If you are looking to improve your swing speed, that is a completely different method, which we will discuss in the complete game plan.

Repeat this practice routine at least 4 days this week. If you have more time repeat this practice cycle as many times as you can!

As you can see, it doesn’t take much each day to improve. Follow this plan all week and we will see you in week 2 for your next practice plan!

Heavy Club Drill

Get the recommended training aids!

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Alignment Sticks
Impact Ball
Soft Nerf Balls
Putting Arc
Heavy Club
Grip Molding