Contrary to popular belief, the winter season has been proven to be the best time to train for many golfers. Training indoors can speed up the learning process and allow for lasting swing improvements that may not come as easily during the warmer months. Remember, every sport has an offseason when athletes train harder to prepare themselves for the upcoming season. So why wait until the weather breaks to grab your clubs out of the garage? Wouldn’t you rather invest the time and effort in your game and be ready to play once the season hits?
I put together a short list of exercises that you can do in your home throughout the winter to train better golf motions without having to hit any balls. The misconception is that you need to hit balls and see ball flight to improve, but that isn’t always true. It all goes back to my mentor Jim McLean’s Elimination Theory. When you train specific motions, you want to eliminate certain elements so that you can focus on the task at hand. In this case it would be eliminating the ball so that golfers can improve awareness of the club and body motion. If you can improve your motions and awareness, then the ball will react differently when hit.
Try these five simple drills throughout the winter, each of which I recommend golfers perform for 5 minutes per day. I think everyone can spare between 5-25 minutes a day if they’re truly serious about improving their golf games.
1. Grip the Ruler
All you need is your hands and a 12-inch ruler.
Start with the edges of the ruler facing up.
Place your hands on the ruler in the same fashion you would to grip the golf club.
The edges of the ruler should run through the base of your fingers in each hand. You will notice that it is extremely difficult to place the edges in the palm, and therefore the ruler should fit naturally through the base of your fingers.
Now grab one of your golf clubs and see if your can replicate the placement and feeling on the handle of the golf club.
You can perform this exercise on your couch while watching TV. Make sure to repeat the processes a few times. This will allow you to switch back and forth from the ruler to the club and gain an understanding of the placement of your hands.
2. Chipping Runway
Find a spacious carpeted area or a floor mat in an open area.
Place either two pens or pencils on the carpet like a “runway,” a little wider than the width of the clubhead.
Take your normal chipping set up with weight slightly forward of center and place the clubhead in the runway between the pens.
Swing the club back and through to about knee height brushing the carpet between the pens.
The goal is to control where club bottoms out and hits the carpet. You want to hit the carpet in the center of the “runway” without disturbing the arrangement of the pens. The nice part about practicing on a carpet is that you can see the mark of where the club struck the ground.
After each swing check to see where the mark is. Be sure that it is directly in the center of the runway (front-to-back and side-to-side). Start off swinging slowly so you can gain awareness of where the clubhead is throughout the entire swing. Gradually increase your speed, but remember these are chip shots — you are not practicing 250-yard drives.
3. Swing Plane Wall Drill
Take your normal address position with a 7-8 iron and place your clubhead at the edge where the floor and wall meet (the edge will serve as your target line).
Now choke down to the bottom of the grip where the steel or graphite is exposed. The excess of the grip club should be under your left forearm. The clubhead should be hovering above the floor about the length that you choked down.
Swing the club back to the three-quarter position and have the grip end of the club point to the edge of the wall (your left arm and club shaft should form an “L”). Hold the position for a few seconds and check to make sure the position is correct and not pointing to the middle of the wall or at your toes.
Then slowly swing down through impact to a three-quarter follow through. Again, the grip end of the club should point to the edge of the wall (right arm and club shaft should form another “L”). Hold this position for a few seconds, and again, check to make sure the position is correct, not pointing to the middle of the wall or at your toes.
It’s important to make sure you are going through these motions slowly to create awareness of what your body and arms should be doing. Going faster will not speed up the learning process. It will only hinder your ability to understand where your golf club is in relation to your body.
4. Body Motion Wall Drill
Assume a balanced set-up position with your backside against the wall and your arms across your chest.
As you begin to make your backswing motion, feel your right back pocket rotate slightly toward the target (not slide away from target) and your chest and shoulders turn down and away from target. You should feel your weight on the inside of a braced back leg, your left shoulder underneath your chin and your back pointed to the target. This creates resistance between the upper and lower body; therefore, creating an explosive position for power.
As you begin the downswing motion, keep your back to the target and allow your left back pocket to shift toward the target. During this transition from backswing to downswing, your backside will remain on the wall, but slide toward the target. Do not allow either pocket to come off wall at this point. You will feel the pressure/weight shift into your front leg.
Once you feel the pressure shift into the front side, you can begin to rotate. Push your back left pocket into the wall and allow your right back pocket to come off the wall as your left leg begins to straighten. Once you complete your rotation/pivot, you should feel 90 percent of the weight and pressure on your front foot. You also want to have a slight spine tilt away from the wall. This shows that you remained in your posture.
At first, break this exercise down into segments: backswing, shift/transition and follow through. Perform each a few times as separate motions. This will allow you to learn each motion correctly. Then when you feel that you understand each movement, you can piece them together into one fluid motion.
5. Floor Mat Putting
Establish a balanced putting setup and place the toe of your putter against the edge of a floor mat.
Swing the putter back and allow the head to arc inward and away from the edge of the mat.
Then swing it forward and allow it to brush the mat as it passes through the impact area (where the ball would be).
After it passes through impact, allow it to arc back inward and away from mat again.
Do your best to make the stroke an even length on the back and forward swing. You can use your feet as a guide for stroke length. Swing back to the right foot and through to the left. Also, be sure to keep the tempo of the stroke consistent back and through. You don’t want to go back slow and through fast, or vice versa. Keeping the tempo the same back and through will encourage consistent speed control, which is the key to eliminate three-putts.