Miss The Middle Golf Game (Video) - by Pete Styles
Miss The Middle Golf Game (Video) - by Pete Styles

This is a fun game for the driving range, this game is called Miss the Middle. So what I've done here is I've put my impact tape on the golf club and I’ve drawn a small circle in the middle. Now in the UK, we use the coin to draw around that. So in the UK, I’ve used the 5-pence piece coin, that might be a dime out in the States. So if you can draw around that, color it in, you get quite a small impact mark in the middle. Now the aim of this game is actually to miss that middle area, to go around that area, trying to hit balls in the toe, in the heel, potentially in the bottom or even on the top. Now you might question what’s the validity in doing this game, why would I do this game, if all you are trying to do is miss the middle? Well, this works on the principle that if you can deliberately hit bad shots, you can stop doing those bad shots accidentally. So if I take my setup and I deliberately try and hit the ball in the toe, I then become very aware of the movements it makes, the movement it takes to make that shot happen. Then if I hit that shot by accident on the golf course, I can kind of know what I've done wrong and then I will have to correct it. So as I setup to the ball, I am going to try and miss the middle. Now some people would say, I just use my normal swing for this. But that would be very unkind of them. So I am going to try and hit this one right out the toe. There you go, it’s kind of a slappy shot, it doesn’t sound particularly clever and if you can see that on the camera there, the little gray area there towards the toe is away from the red area, which would be the center. So that was a nice toe shot. Now I can understand what I did to create that to make that happen. I should therefore be able to correct that shot if it happened out in the course. The next shot I am going to try and hit would be a shank, I am going to try and hit it down in the heel part of the club. Now it’s quite important that I am not cheating this setup, I am not setting the ball up off the heel or off the toe. I am going to set it up right in the middle as you would do for a normal shot. But then I am going to make a pull swing and hit it out of the heel. And there you go, right shank straight down the right hand side and so bad it hasn’t even left a mark on the club face, it was so far off the heel, it didn’t even leave a mark on the tape. So that was a nice extreme shank. Now let’s try and hit one that actually makes a mark on the tape. Yeah, down in that bottom corner. So I've managed to hit it away from the center line towards the heel spot. Now there's probably a bit more room to get another one in there. Now my first one was too much on the heel, that one was probably too centered actually, I could try and get another one that goes into that heel point. Now using those mishits, I can start to then judge the feeling in my swing and the feedback that comes off the golf club, I can actually start to understand how to hit the ball out of the middle. So we've got two games, two videos I have just done that, two games; one is deliberately trying to hit the middle, one is deliberately trying to miss the middle. Try and do both games, see which one you are most successful at and then practice the other game. And hopefully, you are hitting it out at the middle much more consistently on the golf course. 2015-07-02

This is a fun game for the driving range, this game is called Miss the Middle. So what I've done here is I've put my impact tape on the golf club and I’ve drawn a small circle in the middle. Now in the UK, we use the coin to draw around that. So in the UK, I’ve used the 5-pence piece coin, that might be a dime out in the States. So if you can draw around that, color it in, you get quite a small impact mark in the middle.

Now the aim of this game is actually to miss that middle area, to go around that area, trying to hit balls in the toe, in the heel, potentially in the bottom or even on the top. Now you might question what’s the validity in doing this game, why would I do this game, if all you are trying to do is miss the middle? Well, this works on the principle that if you can deliberately hit bad shots, you can stop doing those bad shots accidentally. So if I take my setup and I deliberately try and hit the ball in the toe, I then become very aware of the movements it makes, the movement it takes to make that shot happen. Then if I hit that shot by accident on the golf course, I can kind of know what I've done wrong and then I will have to correct it.

So as I setup to the ball, I am going to try and miss the middle. Now some people would say, I just use my normal swing for this. But that would be very unkind of them. So I am going to try and hit this one right out the toe. There you go, it’s kind of a slappy shot, it doesn’t sound particularly clever and if you can see that on the camera there, the little gray area there towards the toe is away from the red area, which would be the center. So that was a nice toe shot. Now I can understand what I did to create that to make that happen. I should therefore be able to correct that shot if it happened out in the course.

The next shot I am going to try and hit would be a shank, I am going to try and hit it down in the heel part of the club. Now it’s quite important that I am not cheating this setup, I am not setting the ball up off the heel or off the toe. I am going to set it up right in the middle as you would do for a normal shot. But then I am going to make a pull swing and hit it out of the heel. And there you go, right shank straight down the right hand side and so bad it hasn’t even left a mark on the club face, it was so far off the heel, it didn’t even leave a mark on the tape. So that was a nice extreme shank.

Now let’s try and hit one that actually makes a mark on the tape. Yeah, down in that bottom corner. So I've managed to hit it away from the center line towards the heel spot. Now there's probably a bit more room to get another one in there. Now my first one was too much on the heel, that one was probably too centered actually, I could try and get another one that goes into that heel point. Now using those mishits, I can start to then judge the feeling in my swing and the feedback that comes off the golf club, I can actually start to understand how to hit the ball out of the middle.

So we've got two games, two videos I have just done that, two games; one is deliberately trying to hit the middle, one is deliberately trying to miss the middle. Try and do both games, see which one you are most successful at and then practice the other game. And hopefully, you are hitting it out at the middle much more consistently on the golf course.