Nine-Ball Test will Improve Your Shotmaking (Video) - by Pete Styles
Nine-Ball Test will Improve Your Shotmaking (Video) - by Pete Styles

Here’s an old test that will keep your practice nice and feel nice and enjoyable in those long winter moments when you can’t get out on the golf course to too much. And it’s a very useful test employed by a lot of golf coaches to check the understanding and the player ability and the shotmaking skills of their pupils. And it’s called the Nine-Ball flight test. To consider this nine different ball flights we might be able to have. So we’ve always got straight, but then we can go high and low and then we can go left and right. So we’ve got high and straight, middle and straight, low and straight and then we’ve got high and left, middle left, low left and then high right, middle right and low right. And ideally all of those shots would ultimately finish on a flag or on a target green. So they go – three go to the right side; one high, one middle, one low. Three go to the left side, one high, one middle, one low and three go down the middle; one middle, one high and one low.

Now the way you would play all those shots we’re going to just talk about how would alter your technique, but a lot of this really comes down to you standing on the driving range, basket of golf balls in front of you, sticking with the same club maybe just the mid iron and experimenting and working at how you can feel the higher and lower ball flights. How you can feel the left or the right ball flights. So I consider that if I take the ball back in my stand slightly encourage my hands and body weight to be more ahead through the impact position, there’s my low one. If I play the ball slightly more to my front side encourage my hands to be back, my body to be back and add a little bit more loft of the club face, there’s my high one. So, I’ve got high, I’ve got middle and I’ve got low using that technique. Likewise if I have my swing path heading more to the right and my club face heading more to the left, I’m going to put draw spin on the ball, right to left spin. So, my swing path would be down the right hand side, my club face would be aiming more left than it and the ball would move from right to left. Likewise if I wanted to fade the golf ball my swing path would be moving more to the left, my club face would be slightly more to the right down the path and the ball would fade. Then I can have those combinations together. So, I could try a high left to right and a low left to right. A high right to left and a low right to left. And then all the middle versions of those. And if I’ve got these nine ball flights worked out through the winter period it sends me on the golf course in the summer with quite a nice idea that I’m a bit of a shot maker now. I can hit a low one under the wind; I can hit a high one to a tied flag - I can draw one round a tree; I can fade one into the wind. I’ve got all these shots because it’s something I practiced through the winter month on the driving range. So, if you’re feeling confident about your game and you want to improve and take your game to the next level and become a shot maker, practice the nine ball flight test and see whether you can hit all the shots. 2014-01-20

Here’s an old test that will keep your practice nice and feel nice and enjoyable in those long winter moments when you can’t get out on the golf course to too much. And it’s a very useful test employed by a lot of golf coaches to check the understanding and the player ability and the shotmaking skills of their pupils. And it’s called the Nine-Ball flight test. To consider this nine different ball flights we might be able to have. So we’ve always got straight, but then we can go high and low and then we can go left and right. So we’ve got high and straight, middle and straight, low and straight and then we’ve got high and left, middle left, low left and then high right, middle right and low right. And ideally all of those shots would ultimately finish on a flag or on a target green. So they go – three go to the right side; one high, one middle, one low. Three go to the left side, one high, one middle, one low and three go down the middle; one middle, one high and one low.

Now the way you would play all those shots we’re going to just talk about how would alter your technique, but a lot of this really comes down to you standing on the driving range, basket of golf balls in front of you, sticking with the same club maybe just the mid iron and experimenting and working at how you can feel the higher and lower ball flights. How you can feel the left or the right ball flights.

So I consider that if I take the ball back in my stand slightly encourage my hands and body weight to be more ahead through the impact position, there’s my low one. If I play the ball slightly more to my front side encourage my hands to be back, my body to be back and add a little bit more loft of the club face, there’s my high one. So, I’ve got high, I’ve got middle and I’ve got low using that technique. Likewise if I have my swing path heading more to the right and my club face heading more to the left, I’m going to put draw spin on the ball, right to left spin. So, my swing path would be down the right hand side, my club face would be aiming more left than it and the ball would move from right to left.

Likewise if I wanted to fade the golf ball my swing path would be moving more to the left, my club face would be slightly more to the right down the path and the ball would fade. Then I can have those combinations together. So, I could try a high left to right and a low left to right. A high right to left and a low right to left. And then all the middle versions of those. And if I’ve got these nine ball flights worked out through the winter period it sends me on the golf course in the summer with quite a nice idea that I’m a bit of a shot maker now. I can hit a low one under the wind; I can hit a high one to a tied flag – I can draw one round a tree; I can fade one into the wind. I’ve got all these shots because it’s something I practiced through the winter month on the driving range.

So, if you’re feeling confident about your game and you want to improve and take your game to the next level and become a shot maker, practice the nine ball flight test and see whether you can hit all the shots.