[soydaykam]

For my high school golf team, I have to fill out a sheet listing a set of goals and drills for the week. Most of my golf goals relate to score, but my "coaches" don't really believe they are constructive. We have to do this so that our "coaches", who are really just teachers at the school and most people on the team could beat in a round, can actually help us with our practicing.

While I thought about this, I thought I should pose the question on THP. Do you feel that this goals/drills system would be affective for your practice routine? I personally find that sometimes going out and hitting 100 7 irons is more valuable than a drill, however drills can help if I find myself with minor swing flaws. If you practice with drills, what type of drills do you do?

[KuznehikVasaN]

I play college golf and while for the most part practice is relaxed, we do a lot of station work. like a little bit of time with full swing, and majority of the time 10 yards and in and around the green. my advice would be to work on 100 yards and in to the point where you feel comfortable from any distance within that, and also in the sand trap. being able to judge a sand shot and save a stroke by sticking it close is worth it versus trying to just get the ball somewhere onto the green. as for full swing, i am more of a feel player in terms of straight, left, and right. so i go through the bag from sand wedge to driver, skipping some clubs in between like odd number irons or something. my main focus on this is to hit a couple draws, straight shots, and fades at both a stock/normal trajectory and then go through it all again at more of a punch (choked down) trajectory. when im doing this, i dont really worry about the amount of curve in the ball flight, but landing each shot close to target or an a specific green on the range. hope that helps

[soydaykam]

I appreciate it. I go through a similar routine when I'm at the range working on long game. I have focussed a lot on short game recently and I've shaved a good number of strokes off of my game.

[KuznehikVasaN]

thats definitely the place to shave strokes aside from putting. at this stage in my game, if im outside of 20 feet after a wedge shot around the green to about 80 yards out then i've missed the shot altogether. even though you wont get up and down every time around the green, your goal should be to get to a point where missing a green isnt a problem because your confident you can chip it to gimme range. the best advice i can give you is to keep working. i dont know how far you want to go in golf, but taking a blue collar working attitude in practice sessions has helped me to really get what i want out of it. instead of just hitting hundreds of range balls and realizing thats exactly what i've just done, i can see much better improvement or repetitiveness if i single out one or two weaknesses and work on those for majority if not all of the sessions

[soydaykam]

I hope to play at the college level. I'm in 9th grade right now and after only really playing consistently and seriously for about a year now, I'm consistently shooting 80-85. I need to improve my short game before I can start talking about college golf at all, but I think if I work hard I could have a competitive future ahead of me.

[Unlinozistimi]

If I can I prefer to play an actual road. When in doubt I hit in my basement which really helped me get my draw swing that I really want, I just kept hitting and hitting until I finally got it down. If I could have the money for practice on the range/course like hitting 100 shots I would but I love just hitting a bucket on the range and working on a few clubs

[Fiesialenp]

Too many times, I'll find myself through about 50 balls before I realise I should have a focus. Sure, repetition and swings are good practice, if you're practising the right things.

At the moment, I'm trying to compress all my new swing thoughts into a routine of a few steps. That's my focus on the long shots. I'll hit about a dozen 6 or 7 irons with my right heel up, just to get a feel for it, then maybe 50 full swings to get that repetition ingrained. Then it's short game time. I like to position 5 or 10 balls in a group around the practice green. If I get 3 groups, I shoot them for different flags. I give myself a point for every one within 3 or 5 feet, and I'll repeat this drill trying to get to 15 or 30 points!

[NerbuitW]

I go out to our practice hole at least a couple times a month. It is an old #17 hole that they keep like the rest of the course. It's isolated and I have the entire hole to myself to practice. I take a shag bag with about 40 balls in it and chip/pitch from different locations. It has markings all over it now for the HS golf team's practice. There are 3 holes for putting with lines drawn for so many feet. There are 10' and 20' circles drawn around the flag. The fairway is marked from 40, 50, and 60 yards. It's really a great place to practice my short game.

I work in the pro shop at our course so I'm always stepping out onto our practice green or the #9 green and practicing chip shots or putting when we're slow.

[obHQNsY2]

I go out to our practice hole at least a couple times a month. It is an old #17 hole that they keep like the rest of the course. It's isolated and I have the entire hole to myself to practice. I take a shag bag with about 40 balls in it and chip/pitch from different locations. It has markings all over it now for the HS golf team's practice. There are 3 holes for putting with lines drawn for so many feet. There are 10' and 20' circles drawn around the flag. The fairway is marked from 40, 50, and 60 yards. It's really a great place to practice my short game.

I work in the pro shop at our course so I'm always stepping out onto our practice green or the #9 green and practicing chip shots or putting when we're slow.

That is awesome. I wish we had something like that at my course. I sometimes sneak onto a local course that my house is on in the evenings to practice, but it is frowned upon. Darren and I will take 2 clubs (like a 7i and a wedge) and play/practice on the hole.

[Enjoymms]

I go out to our practice hole at least a couple times a month. It is an old #17 hole that they keep like the rest of the course. It's isolated and I have the entire hole to myself to practice. I take a shag bag with about 40 balls in it and chip/pitch from different locations. It has markings all over it now for the HS golf team's practice. There are 3 holes for putting with lines drawn for so many feet. There are 10' and 20' circles drawn around the flag. The fairway is marked from 40, 50, and 60 yards. It's really a great place to practice my short game.

I work in the pro shop at our course so I'm always stepping out onto our practice green or the #9 green and practicing chip shots or putting when we're slow.

Wow! You learn something every day, I did not know that the old 17th was set up that way. I knew the green was kept up, but I had no idea of the markings to aid in short game practice. I plan to use that the next time I am over, there is no where else in the area you can practice your short game like that.

[muBXvWIC]

Like AKJr said, the "stations" idea is great for practice. One college team practices where I do and they are always doing stations and drills.

Some of their stations are:
5-6 different chips and you chip from a station until you hole out.
Putt around a hole from 5 feet. Make them all or start over.
Putt 2 balls from 30, 40 and 50 feet. Ball must go in or go no more the 2 feet past hole. Leave it short and you start over.
10 short bunker shots, 10 long bunker shots
20, 30, 40 yard pitches. 10 from each.

Also, don't place too much importance on the fact that the players on the team can beat the coaches. In this day and age, it's like that at almost every school. Most competitive jr. golfers have their own instructors and coaches respect that relationship. A primary responsibility of a h.s. golf coach is to make sure you are where you're supposed to be and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing.

Good luck!

[Fiesialenp]

Also, don't place too much importance on the fact that the players on the team can beat the coaches.

Good point made there. How many majors do Foley, Haney, Harmon etc have to their name?

[mosypeSom]

I mostly do the short game like others said. I have a very nice range that is on the way home. It has a super short game area that is free to use. So thats where i spend most of my time. As far and the long game. I treat every shot as if i were playing. I do my shot routine "stand behind the ball to line up my shot etc". Make every shot count and worth it.

[soydaykam]

Good point made there. How many majors do Foley, Haney, Harmon etc have to their name?

I don't make a big fuss about it, but it can be a little frustrating when they tell me to drastically change my swing. I enjoy them being the coaches, and they do a good job of managing the logistics.

[Fiesialenp]

I don't make a big fuss about it, but it can be a little frustrating when they tell me to drastically change my swing. I enjoy them being the coaches, and they do a good job of managing the logistics.

Sounds like the right attitude. I would hope that most of them don't see themselves at the next big swing coach!