Beginner Golf Tip: How to Make a Proper Practice Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
Beginner Golf Tip: How to Make a Proper Practice Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

One thing I see with golfers on the golf course is they have a massively underdeveloped part of their routine, and it's their practice swing before they hit their ball, and I don’t know why this is. Maybe its because when you're on the driving range, you just have a basket full of balls, you have the same club, and you just hit and hit and hit, and you don't take many practice swings, or maybe its because when you're on the golf course you're worried about the speed of play issues, so you're looking over your shoulder, the group behind, you're running around the golf course as fast as you can, as soon as you got tee ball you just get a hit.

But the problem with that is you might often hit a bad shot, so if you could take a practice swing and then hit a better shot, maybe the practice swing would actually save you time and not cost you time, so practice swing has a couple of different issues really, a couple of different reasons for it. When you arrive at the bull, chances are you didn't hit this club for your last shot. Chances are the ground isn’t perfectly leveled and also we got to look where our target it, so all these different issues can get wade up very quickly in a practice swing.

So I arrive at my ball, I pull out my 7-Iron instead of the drive I used to tee off with. My ground might not be perfectly leveled, but to look at my target, I make a little practice swing, and I skim the ground. And if I skim the ground, I now know that I'm used to the length of the club, the weight of the club, the feel of the club and the ground conditions. I'm pretty confident that I can walk, but hit the ball quite nicely.

If it with my first practice swing I get to the ball, and I don’t hit the floor because my swing is too high, then I wouldn't then step forward and hit the ball because I haven’t quite found the level, likewise if I step to the practice swing and duff the ground here very fat, I wouldn't then step forward and hit the ball. I would take to know the practice swing just to get my level just to skim the surface then I know I'm ready to hit the golf ball. The other reason for taking a practice swing is if you're working with your golf coach or you're working on the videos that you're watching here, and you're trying to incorporate the new movements into your swing, that practice swing is a great way of reminding yourself the technical movement, so you might just make your practice swing, and it might be something like a straight left arm.

So you make your practice swing, check your left arm is straight, hit the ground, then I know I can hit the golf ball probably a with a better feeling of keeping my left arm straight, so I would always encourage you to take practice swings on the golf course, not too many. Don’t rush them and don’t have too many different swing thoughts in your head. One simple swing thought, one little click of the ground, and then go ahead and hit that shot better to because of the practice swing.

2013-09-13

One thing I see with golfers on the golf course is they have a massively underdeveloped part of their routine, and it's their practice swing before they hit their ball, and I don’t know why this is. Maybe its because when you're on the driving range, you just have a basket full of balls, you have the same club, and you just hit and hit and hit, and you don't take many practice swings, or maybe its because when you're on the golf course you're worried about the speed of play issues, so you're looking over your shoulder, the group behind, you're running around the golf course as fast as you can, as soon as you got tee ball you just get a hit.

But the problem with that is you might often hit a bad shot, so if you could take a practice swing and then hit a better shot, maybe the practice swing would actually save you time and not cost you time, so practice swing has a couple of different issues really, a couple of different reasons for it. When you arrive at the bull, chances are you didn't hit this club for your last shot. Chances are the ground isn’t perfectly leveled and also we got to look where our target it, so all these different issues can get wade up very quickly in a practice swing.

So I arrive at my ball, I pull out my 7-Iron instead of the drive I used to tee off with. My ground might not be perfectly leveled, but to look at my target, I make a little practice swing, and I skim the ground. And if I skim the ground, I now know that I'm used to the length of the club, the weight of the club, the feel of the club and the ground conditions. I'm pretty confident that I can walk, but hit the ball quite nicely.

If it with my first practice swing I get to the ball, and I don’t hit the floor because my swing is too high, then I wouldn't then step forward and hit the ball because I haven’t quite found the level, likewise if I step to the practice swing and duff the ground here very fat, I wouldn't then step forward and hit the ball. I would take to know the practice swing just to get my level just to skim the surface then I know I'm ready to hit the golf ball. The other reason for taking a practice swing is if you're working with your golf coach or you're working on the videos that you're watching here, and you're trying to incorporate the new movements into your swing, that practice swing is a great way of reminding yourself the technical movement, so you might just make your practice swing, and it might be something like a straight left arm.

So you make your practice swing, check your left arm is straight, hit the ground, then I know I can hit the golf ball probably a with a better feeling of keeping my left arm straight, so I would always encourage you to take practice swings on the golf course, not too many. Don’t rush them and don’t have too many different swing thoughts in your head. One simple swing thought, one little click of the ground, and then go ahead and hit that shot better to because of the practice swing.