THE PLAYERS COACH

Goal Develop a smooth transition
Main Focus Transition, tempo, and feel
Maintenance Putting, impact, short game

Full Swing Practice

Drill 1, Feet Together Drill This drill is great for you to establish good tempo for the day and get your swing on plane with relaxed swings.

  1. 20 shots with 8 iron
  • 10 shot  1/2 swings. Club should only go hip high on back swing and follow through swing
  • 10 shot 3/4 swings. This should be like a knock down swing
  • 10 this at 50% of full speed to find a smooth, rhythmic tempo

Step 1: 1/2 Swing

 

 

A great drill to piece it all together! 
 
 
 

Drill 2, Gabe swing trainer – It is the best swing trainer I have found for tempo and transition! While I was working with Gabriel Hjerstedt at Scottsdale national, he introduced me to his new invention. It is perfect for what I emphasis in every lesson I give and what I work on every time I practice personally. 30 players on the PGA Tour now practice with this tool daily.

  • Hit 25 shots following using the swing trainer properly (see video description)
  • *If you don’t have the Gabe Trainer*
    • 3 sets of 10 with 2 second pause at top of swing with your 7-iron.
 
Example of PGA Tour Pro using the Gabe Trainer

Drill 3 Tee shots simulating fairway

  • Hit 10 shots with a driver (or club of your choice)
  • Record your score, how many balls do you get inside your imaginary fairway boundaries
  • Watch video below
 

Short Game Practice

15 shots with impact ball from 25 yards

Bunker drill for bottoming out – This is our first introduction in this program for how to properly hit bunker shots. For good players, bunker shots are the easiest shot on the course. It’s the only shot where you don’t actually hit the golf ball!

  1. Set up for bunkers:Slightly open stanceDig your feet in – helps you get feel of the sand. Also sets you below the sand so you will be more likely to chunk it (which is what we want)Open the club face – this gives you the proper amount of bounce, so your club will not stick in the sandBall position – slightly forward of middle of stanceA bunker shot is similar to a pitch shot swing.
 

Putting Practice
10 sets of 3 with eyes closed
– This drill really helps you dial in your feel. They say people that are blind have a great sense of feel and smell. Hitting putts with your eyes closed makes you really aware of what your putter head is doing.

Instructions –

  • Grab 3 balls out of your bag
  • Go to a random distance from the hole, let’s just say 15 feet.
  • Read the putt
  • Stare at the hole while taking your practice strokes
  • Set up to the first ball, get set up properly with your eyes open
  • When you are all set, give the hole one last look. When your eyes come back to the ball, close them and stroke
  • Keep your eyes closed for a count of 3 after you hit the ball
  • With your eyes still closed, ask your self if it was short, long, left or right
  • Now open your eyes and see the result of the putt and how accurate you were
  • Step into next putt with no practice strokes. When you are set up, close your eyes hit again.

Do this drill from 10 different distances. You will learn a lot about your feel, I promise!

Final Putting Practice Checklist

Made 10 putts in a row straight from 3 feet 

Towel drill for speed, 5 in a row on the bath towel, 30 feet

 

At Home Practice

What I learned today worksheet
Full Swing Practice
Orange Whip – 20 swings
Gabe Swing Trainer – 3 sets of 10 swings

Putting
Putting arc 50 strokes
50 putts with alignment sticks down

Short Game Impact Drills
30 shots with impact ball hitting nerf balls

Get Psyched App, Visualization Playlist – This is what I have all of my players do in order to enhance their relaxation skills on the golf course. It may seem cheesy, but you will feel completely relaxed when you complete each visualization playlist.

  1. Go to the App Store on your iPhone or click the link below the picture
  2. Download it to your phone
  3. Open the app and fill in the registration details
  4. Go to the “tools” on the bottom menu
  5. Under visualization playlist, there are 8 different visualization exercises
  6. Perform visualization playlist 1
  7. Perform a different playlist each day
  8. When you find a playlist you like, use this for future visualization practice

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