Pre Shot Routine

An often overlooked part of golf is pre shot routine. I define this as what you do before each shot on the golf course. It should be as consistent as possible both in actions and the time it takes to complete the routine.

As I watch players on the golf course in pressure situations I tend to see two different types of reactions when watching their pre shot routines. Some players will get faster and some players will get slower. Both of these reaction can cause problems for the player. As humans, we tend to do most things by following a routine. Think about what you do in the morning and I bet it will be the same most days. People tend to follow routines in their daily life so it makes sense to have a routine for your golf shots.

During the latest school tournament here in Nanshan I timed my students while they were playing different shots to see if they were consistent with their pre shot routines. As you can see by the picture they have some work to do on consistency.

Every one's routine will be different but it needs to be the same every time. The first step should be to formally define what your routine will be. Write down each thing you will do before you play the shot. Things such as choosing a target, visualising the shot, when you take your grip, how many waggles you have, how many looks at the target you will have and what your swing trigger is are all things you should write down.

Once you have written it down you should spend some time on the practice range working on your pre shot routine. Practice it with your practice shots until you find a routine that has all the steps you defined and feels comfortable.

Once you have a routine that feels comfortable you need to have a friend time you doing it in practice. Complete this stage a number of times until you find the timing that feels comfortable and relaxed for you. This is your own personal timing for your routine.

Spend some time each week practicing your routine and you will be more consistent when you are on the course and you can have a consistent routine like Greg in the video.

Until next time,

Brent

My Training Group

I have settled into my new role here at Nanshan Golf School and have my own group of students. My group is nice group of 8 golfers. It is nice to have a little smaller group as this allows me to do more individualised coaching and make sure that all of my players get the attention and coaching that they need.

There is a variety of skill levels and ages in my group which makes it challenging to ensure all the players get the information that they need. I have ages ranging from 12 years old to 22 years old, beginners and national squad players and both males and females. This makes the coaching fun and having the better players in the group gives the less skilled players something to aim for.

We started off their training with the usual group of evaluation tests. We tested their range of motion, basic strength, psychological profile, learning style and golf skills with a number of different tests. This gives us the starting point to develop the golfers to the level that they want.

There are different goals with each student. Some just want to play well in the monthly school tournaments, some have the specific goal of making the China National Squad and some want to be professional players. I always make sure I know what the players want before we start on any training program.

All of the players are being heavily coached on golf swing technique at the moment as well as completing their stretching program to develop their range of motion. They are also being slowly introduced to cardio training, fit ball exercises and body weight strength training exercises. We are moving nice and slowly as these ideas are generally very new to these students as golf is a new sport in China.

I will post again shortly to update their training and talk about how we deal with the Winter here.

Until next time,

Brent