The Swing...Make it Repeat!

One thing you want to do when you're developing your golf swing, is find a swing that you can rely on to repeat. What I mean is, become comfortable with your swing so that it does the same thing over and over, when under pressure on a difficult shot, or relaxed with a chip from the edge of the green, make sure you have a reliable swing that you are comfortable with.

Now, the one way to do this is through practice, and a lot of it. This is where range time comes in well. You can spend your time at the driving range developing a repeating swing, building it into your muscle memory until it becomes a part of you. I can't begin to tell you how many balls I have hit at the range, or how many swings I have made until now it's simply a part of me that I don't have to think about. But you don't have to limit yourself to the driving range for practice.

Many time I'm at home on my day off and don't have time for the range, so I do a lot of practice in the back yard. I have a flag stick on a small green area, a practice net, and a wonderful coach by the name of Tanner, my Golden Retriever, who loves to chase the golf balls. Fortunately I have quite a big yard, but you really don't have to have much room for this. You can set up a driving net anywhere, and hit full shots into it to develop your feel and swing, to make those muscles begin to memorize what you want them to do. You can also use a small practice net to hit chip shots into to develop your sense of touch and feel for the finesse shots, which I'll get into on another post. And a lot of times I'll use those plastic whiffle balls to hit full shots to the flag stick with different irons, just to train my muscles for the swing plane and ball striking. You will be surprised, these won't really go that far, but you will get the same sort of trajectory that you would from a real golf ball. I personally think it's a great way to work on your swing.

Whatever method you want to try, just make sure your practice is done in these types of surroundings. You don't want to go to the golf course and wait until you're in a game to try to learn new techniques, that's what the practice range is there for, Then you can take those shots to the course and amaze yourself at what you've learned. I think you'll be surprised.

Try these couple of tips to see if your swing improves, I bet you it will, and faster than you think!