Share your favorite golf drills

[sandwedge]

I thought it would be cool to have a thread to share your best golf drills. I am always looking for new drills that I can do at home or on the range to improve my game. I just took a 2 hour short game lesson at the Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando this weekend and learned some cool new drills. One that I think will really help is for putting. The instructor noticed that I had a tendancy for my left wrist to break down.

He had me grip down towards the bottom of the grip and place a ball just above where my watch is on my left wrist. I had to pinch it between the grip and my wrist and make putts that way. It kept my left wrist from breaking down and made me use my shoulders entirely to putt the ball. This is one drill that I had never seen or heard of before. Since I have been practicing this the last few days at home I can already see a big difference.

Do you have any drills that you do that you do that have really helped improve your game?

[ezra76]

1. Mission Impossible - This drill is supposed to be used with a stand bag behind you but I use a ball or other prop (sometimes a cat if one of them will sit still). Take the club back outside of the prop and inside of it on the downswing. This combined with envisioning the shaft is extending outward of my belly on the takeaway has had a major effect on my entire swing.
2. Around the Body - Take a stagger stance, left foot/leg ahead of the right on the horizontal axis. Take the club back and swing down around your body. This drill works to elimate both the OTT move as well as a swing path slice flaw. Best drill I've ever been shown. If I have a shot I absolutely must hit straight to slight draw I will even use it on the course. I hate to say it but I'm longer and more consistant in this stance... if only it wouldn't look ridiculous I'd use it every shot.

[Fastback]

Originally Posted by ezra76

1. Mission Impossible - This drill is supposed to be used with a stand bag behind you but I use a ball or other prop (sometimes a cat if one of them will sit still). Take the club back outside of the prop and inside of it on the downswing. This combined with envisioning the shaft is extending outward of my belly on the takeaway has had a major effect on my entire swing.
2. Around the Body - Take a stagger stance, left foot/leg ahead of the right on the horizontal axis. Take the club back and swing down around your body. This drill works to elimate both the OTT move as well as a swing path slice flaw. Best drill I've ever been shown. If I have a shot I absolutely must hit straight to slight draw I will even use it on the course. I hate to say it but I'm longer and more consistant in this stance... if only it wouldn't look ridiculous I'd use it every shot.

I've used both of these, the second particularly to good effect.

when i feel like my hands and arms are getting too tense throughout the swing, i start hitting a number of shots where i over-exaggerate my takeaway with my wrists. I.e. i try to get the feeling that my wrists drag the club on the takeaway to the point where its clearly visible my hands/arms move first then the club. I find this helps keep my arms and hands relaxed enough through the entire swing.

I also like to set up in the address position without a club where my butt is against the wall. I try creating the motion of a full swing with my butt not moving from the wall. I have a tendency to push in on the dwonswing which creates less room, so this helps maintain posture and spine angle

I do a drill in front of the mirror in the "down the line" view which is similar to the wall drill (no club), but just making the swing motion and taking note of my hip rotation. I try to make a hip turn where on the downswing my left hip (target side) turns along the same line. see below Aaron Baddeleys hips rotation:








I do drills where i simply block the ball to practice impact position with a small follow through. I try to concentrate on the flat left wrist, bent right wrist with hands ahead of the ball

I also try to practice getting into the position on the downswing where the club is parallel to the ground before impact. I find this to be one of the critical moves in a swing. I just swing to the top and then bring the club down to that position to get the feeling of my right forearm heading toward my right pocket. I do this and hold in that position, and then try for a bit more where i then follow through to impact. The screen shot of els is a perfect example of the position im going for:

[bames]

I put a towel around my chest that is held in place by holding each end down under my armpits. I hit a 7 iron at varying targets up to about 120 yards and focus on taking a small divot after the ball, focus on the sound, and keeping the upper body together. Best drill I've been shown. During my lesson this is about all I did for the entire hour. Do it at the start and end of each range session and my iron striking improved very quickly.