Spring Training-Foundation Training (How do I get consistent?)

There’s that word again..consistent. Life and golf really depend on consistency if you want to be successful for sure. It’s all about doing the little things and the big things will take care of themselves. Success is never a straight line either and that is part of the fun!! “The grind”is always worth it..always.

So what are the “little things” in golf? What do we need to grind on?  In my way of thinking there are a few and I call them “Foundation Training”. At my academy we don’t waste time, ever. Every moment in every program is filled with a purpose and when students are away from the academy they are working on their own and much of this is foundation training  such as swing plane, end of takeaway, impact position or post impact. They are purposed with training on putting technique or speed or functional fitness and nutrition and recovery. Most things in golf that are technical (swing plane or positions) can be trained and engrained away from the lesson tee and without hitting any balls. What? Not hit balls? YES! If training on your swing plane or takeaway our best friend is a full length mirror down the line or a plane station with alignment sticks set properly for your plane. If we are working on impact maybe we need a wall or 2″ x4″ or perhaps an impact bag so we have some resistance and we can get our lead wrist into flexion properly. For putting maybe we need a Eyeline PAM putting mirror or a metal yardstick with a ball so we can putt the ball from one end of the stick to the other and not have it go off the stick. What is hitting balls doing for us when we are foundation training? I would argue, nothing. We are better served doing 10 minutes of mirror work 5 days a week then hitting balls. If we were to hit balls we’d want to somehow build on our foundation and play a game for example, on a simulator or outdoors have a 60 yard target green and take 10 shots, use an alignment stick for toe line and one for ball position (middle ball) then try to hit 3 shots out of 10 within 6′ of the center of the 60 yard target or for putting take 9 balls and place them randomly from 41′ to 4′ around one hole then putt the putts trying to score 15 putts or less for the 9 balls. Now that is feedback properly and relates to your foundation training. In truth most people don’t practice properly, they are exercising. They don’t train on foundation ever and when put into a stressful situation like golf they have no skill set or foundation to anchor them.

It’s not too late to train to be prepared for the season but your training needs to be done properly and be planned. Come and visit us if you need help!