Pre-Shot Routine - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Pre-Shot Routine - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here, let's look at pre-shot routines and how important a pre-shot routine can be for your golf. Sometimes when you watch the pros on the television, you won't really acknowledge they have a pre-shot routine because they'll be setting up to the golf ball and the attitude will cut to that live shot. You'll see the swing. You'll see the ball later and then the attitude will cut away again.

But actually, what goes on before that is maybe a 10 or 15-second long process that would happen for each player, not necessarily the same for every player but certainly that play would have the same routine right away through and that routine would be exactly the same pre-shot routine they would have on the driving range, on the practice ground just before they tee off on the first tee or on the 18th tee whether that playing a social game or whether they're winning a competition.

The one thing I see for club golfers, amateur golfers when I play with them is often, they have a routine but it's not always the same and it varies and it changes and some people force their routines to try and copy somebody else which doesn't really work although people don't really have one, they just kind of wonder up to the ball and whack it and they wouldn't know why it wasn't a consistent shot.

You have to understand that the golf ball is a direct result of what you do. So, if you can do the same thing every single time, it should start to do the same thing every single time. So, your pre-shot routine can be nearly as important as the way you actually swing the club because if you can set up the ball the same way, you can start to swing the club the same way.

So, for most people, a pre-shot routine with something like you know, that start may be behind the ball looking down the target lines to work out where they want to aim their shot maybe even picking a little intermediary point in lined with where their golf ball is and then lining up with that spot, shuffling their feet, gripping the club carefully, maybe a little waggle, a little look, a look waggle, a little look and then going ahead and pulling the trigger and hitting the shot.

Now, the important thing isn't necessarily that you copy what I do or copy what's in like Steve Stricker as Steve Stricker has got a great routine. He does the same thing every single timer without a fail. But it's not necessarily important that you would copy what I suggest or what he suggests. The important thing is you identify what your routine is when you're swinging well, when you're playing well, when you're playing in a calm state, when maybe when you're practicing and then you copy that routine when you're in a more sort of high pressure statement, almost high stress state so that you don't let your routine speed up but you don't start making a routine different just because you feel like you should, just because it's the end the round and the composition. You start trying different things that would seem a bit flawed. It would seem like a daft idea.

So, work out what your routine is and then stick to it religiously be it in practice, be it in competition, always doing exactly the same thing. Your routine should take no more than 10 or 15 seconds. It doesn't want to sort of feel like you're over thinking or freezing over the ball. It should be less than 5 seconds because that's not long enough to actually empty your mind of all the different ideas and swing thoughts and get yourself settled. So, between 5 and 15 seconds I suggest.

Now, if when you're making your pre-shot routine, you get interrupted. Maybe somebody walks behind you or somebody drops a golf club over there. I often see people doing all of their routine. They get comfortable here. Someone disturbs them over there, they look up and they go straight back down and then hit the shot. Now, I think that's a bad idea. I would actually like you when you get disturbed, you look up, okay and now broken away from my pre-shot routine, I go back to stage one. I start again.

So, I don't just look up and carry on. I actually step away from the ball, reset myself. You'll see the professionals do that, maybe when a photographer clicks a camera at the wrong time or someone's mobile phone goes off, they step away from the shot and restart the whole process, coming back into the golf ball, doing their waggling and their checking and looking and then hitting the shot.

So, don't get broken after your pre-shot routine. Don't change a routine, don't force your routine and don't rush it and hopefully, a pre-shot routine will help you hit more consistent shots as well.

 2012-05-30

So here, let's look at pre-shot routines and how important a pre-shot routine can be for your golf. Sometimes when you watch the pros on the television, you won't really acknowledge they have a pre-shot routine because they'll be setting up to the golf ball and the attitude will cut to that live shot. You'll see the swing. You'll see the ball later and then the attitude will cut away again.

But actually, what goes on before that is maybe a 10 or 15-second long process that would happen for each player, not necessarily the same for every player but certainly that play would have the same routine right away through and that routine would be exactly the same pre-shot routine they would have on the driving range, on the practice ground just before they tee off on the first tee or on the 18th tee whether that playing a social game or whether they're winning a competition.

The one thing I see for club golfers, amateur golfers when I play with them is often, they have a routine but it's not always the same and it varies and it changes and some people force their routines to try and copy somebody else which doesn't really work although people don't really have one, they just kind of wonder up to the ball and whack it and they wouldn't know why it wasn't a consistent shot.

You have to understand that the golf ball is a direct result of what you do. So, if you can do the same thing every single time, it should start to do the same thing every single time. So, your pre-shot routine can be nearly as important as the way you actually swing the club because if you can set up the ball the same way, you can start to swing the club the same way.

So, for most people, a pre-shot routine with something like you know, that start may be behind the ball looking down the target lines to work out where they want to aim their shot maybe even picking a little intermediary point in lined with where their golf ball is and then lining up with that spot, shuffling their feet, gripping the club carefully, maybe a little waggle, a little look, a look waggle, a little look and then going ahead and pulling the trigger and hitting the shot.

Now, the important thing isn't necessarily that you copy what I do or copy what's in like Steve Stricker as Steve Stricker has got a great routine. He does the same thing every single timer without a fail. But it's not necessarily important that you would copy what I suggest or what he suggests. The important thing is you identify what your routine is when you're swinging well, when you're playing well, when you're playing in a calm state, when maybe when you're practicing and then you copy that routine when you're in a more sort of high pressure statement, almost high stress state so that you don't let your routine speed up but you don't start making a routine different just because you feel like you should, just because it's the end the round and the composition. You start trying different things that would seem a bit flawed. It would seem like a daft idea.

So, work out what your routine is and then stick to it religiously be it in practice, be it in competition, always doing exactly the same thing. Your routine should take no more than 10 or 15 seconds. It doesn't want to sort of feel like you're over thinking or freezing over the ball. It should be less than 5 seconds because that's not long enough to actually empty your mind of all the different ideas and swing thoughts and get yourself settled. So, between 5 and 15 seconds I suggest.

Now, if when you're making your pre-shot routine, you get interrupted. Maybe somebody walks behind you or somebody drops a golf club over there. I often see people doing all of their routine. They get comfortable here. Someone disturbs them over there, they look up and they go straight back down and then hit the shot. Now, I think that's a bad idea. I would actually like you when you get disturbed, you look up, okay and now broken away from my pre-shot routine, I go back to stage one. I start again.

So, I don't just look up and carry on. I actually step away from the ball, reset myself. You'll see the professionals do that, maybe when a photographer clicks a camera at the wrong time or someone's mobile phone goes off, they step away from the shot and restart the whole process, coming back into the golf ball, doing their waggling and their checking and looking and then hitting the shot.

So, don't get broken after your pre-shot routine. Don't change a routine, don't force your routine and don't rush it and hopefully, a pre-shot routine will help you hit more consistent shots as well.