What Are The Best Golf Practice Drills For Winter? (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Are The Best Golf Practice Drills For Winter? (Video) - by Pete Styles

So the question I get asked an awful lot particularly the – a particular time of the year is Pete what should I be working on as we go into winter, you know the season is finished, I had a decent year but I really want to push on for next year. What should I be working on? Well the simple answer is; depends on what the -- the weakness in your game is really. But I think a lot of people they overemphasize the long game through the winter, they stand there for hours on the drive bench because they can't get on the golf course so much, depending on where you live in the world or where you live in the country. A lot of people they can't get on to the golf course all the time. So they think the next best thing is to hit the range and they just bat the ball all winter long with the driver. They come out to the spring time; long game is fine, shot game has gone to pieces particular the putting. Because if you are not on the golf course chances are you are not doing a great deal of putting, but actually putting is the easiest thing to practice in the winter because even if you can't get to the golf course you can't get to the driving range even, maybe you are snow bound and there’s no range is open there you, you can always putt, because you can putt inside as long as you have got a little bit of carpet you can practice your putting.

So the plan would be as you go into winter look at last season, look at where your strengths were, looking at where your weakness were, focus on some of those weakness, be it in long game be it in the short game, but don’t underestimate the importance of practicing your putting. Best and simplest little putting exercise something that you can always do in the house, it's just a little tramline exercise, I will just describe it to you here, lay a couple of canes down, this could be just golf clubs if you don’t have alignment poles. Club goes down in the middle and then just grooves your stroke, simplest exercise in the world just grooving your stroke trying to keep up and down as close to the middle of that line as possible. And just that little simple exercise five 10 minutes a day you come out and to the start of the spring season in April and suddenly the putting stroke feels great, the ball is rolling through, and the ball is going in more often. And if you haven’t gotten the alignment canes or the alignment poles this could even just be a skating board, just put the tower of the golf club up against the skating board and just practice rocking it along the skating board up and down so its rolling in a nice smooth line, then if you pull the club away from the skating board by half an inch make the stroke back up and down it should bang into the skating board. If you’ve got an outward stroke you would hit the skating board or an outward follow through you would hit it. Or if you pull very much in a way from the target line you pull in from the skating board you would see the club moving inside the line. So just grooving your path back up and back down as close to that skating board as possible. And I promise you five minutes a day like that through the winter season when you are not on the golf course you are not on the putting green, you will come out at the start of the season you will be running really quickly with you putting game, and you will surprise a lot of people in the early season.
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So the question I get asked an awful lot particularly the – a particular time of the year is Pete what should I be working on as we go into winter, you know the season is finished, I had a decent year but I really want to push on for next year. What should I be working on? Well the simple answer is; depends on what the — the weakness in your game is really. But I think a lot of people they overemphasize the long game through the winter, they stand there for hours on the drive bench because they can't get on the golf course so much, depending on where you live in the world or where you live in the country. A lot of people they can't get on to the golf course all the time. So they think the next best thing is to hit the range and they just bat the ball all winter long with the driver. They come out to the spring time; long game is fine, shot game has gone to pieces particular the putting. Because if you are not on the golf course chances are you are not doing a great deal of putting, but actually putting is the easiest thing to practice in the winter because even if you can't get to the golf course you can't get to the driving range even, maybe you are snow bound and there’s no range is open there you, you can always putt, because you can putt inside as long as you have got a little bit of carpet you can practice your putting.

So the plan would be as you go into winter look at last season, look at where your strengths were, looking at where your weakness were, focus on some of those weakness, be it in long game be it in the short game, but don’t underestimate the importance of practicing your putting. Best and simplest little putting exercise something that you can always do in the house, it's just a little tramline exercise, I will just describe it to you here, lay a couple of canes down, this could be just golf clubs if you don’t have alignment poles. Club goes down in the middle and then just grooves your stroke, simplest exercise in the world just grooving your stroke trying to keep up and down as close to the middle of that line as possible. And just that little simple exercise five 10 minutes a day you come out and to the start of the spring season in April and suddenly the putting stroke feels great, the ball is rolling through, and the ball is going in more often. And if you haven’t gotten the alignment canes or the alignment poles this could even just be a skating board, just put the tower of the golf club up against the skating board and just practice rocking it along the skating board up and down so its rolling in a nice smooth line, then if you pull the club away from the skating board by half an inch make the stroke back up and down it should bang into the skating board.

If you’ve got an outward stroke you would hit the skating board or an outward follow through you would hit it. Or if you pull very much in a way from the target line you pull in from the skating board you would see the club moving inside the line. So just grooving your path back up and back down as close to that skating board as possible. And I promise you five minutes a day like that through the winter season when you are not on the golf course you are not on the putting green, you will come out at the start of the season you will be running really quickly with you putting game, and you will surprise a lot of people in the early season.