In this video, PGA Professional Alex Elliott offers 10 ways to improve your swing without leaving home.
10 Ways To Improve Your Swing (Without Leaving Home)
These are simple drills you can do in the garden or inside your house that will help eradicate some of your faults and improve the mechanics of your swing.
Being stuck at home does not mean that you can’t make lasting improvements to your golf swing and Alex’s tips will certainly help.
Whether your ball striking is inconsistent or your accuracy is off – take a look at these 10 ways to improve your swing and you should be able to make some rapid improvements.
WATCH: 10 Ways To Improve Your Swing (Without Leaving Home)
10 Ways To Improve Your Swing (Without Leaving Home)
1. Swing plane checker
You need three alignment sticks or three golf clubs for this drill. Place two of them roughly a foot apart in a kind of tram-track formation.
With the third stick/club, grip it in the middle and place it up your left hand side (right if you are a left-handed player).
Imagine you are addressing the golf ball, then start making moves with rotation.
What we are looking for is to set the golf club/stick on plane which means to align it inside the two sticks/clubs on the ground.
2. Understanding body rotation
The top players in the world have a great understanding of their body rotation which therefore allows them to hit it far with consistency.
Three alignment sticks are needed again as well as a golf club. Two sticks should be placed on the floor, one of which should be in line with your feet, and the other should be at 45 degrees to that.
The other stick should be placed through your belt buckle and finally place the golf club parallel along your chest.
What we are looking for here is to create a stretch between the upper and the lower sternum in the backswing and the downswing.
When we start the backswing, the hips should be aligning with the 45 degree stick on the ground with the stick through the belt loop giving feedback here. A bigger stretch should also be apparent with the golf club across the chest.
The next part is crucial as you should try and see how long you can keep your shoulder at 90 degrees and get your hips opening up to target.
3. Setup checklist
This is a good drill for setup and ball position and Alex recommends working on this from nine-iron upwards to every club in the bag.
Once again get three alignment sticks and a golf club and like the swing plane checker, place two sticks on the ground a foot apart.
The third stick should go on the floor between your legs to highlight the ball position.
Put the sole of the golf club towards the sky, grip the club, lower it until it runs parallel to the ground, and then tip your body forwards like a crane until the club hits the ground.
At this point bend your knees and take the stance making sure your feet are slightly flared outwards because this helps rotation.
A good setup is having the middle of the hip going through the middle of the feet, the armpits are over the toes, and being nice and athletic.
Moving onto ball position, Alex’s rule of thumb is, if the pitching wedge is right in the middle, then move half a ball width forward for each club in the bag.
Follow Alex’s ball position rule of thumb (Golf Monthly YouTube)
4. Understanding the body
Here find any space you can find and imagine you are addressing an imaginary ball with a virtual seven-iron. Then cross your arms over your chest and make some swings.
The aim here is to give you a better understanding of what your body is doing especially in terms of rotation.
Next place your arms downwards so that your palms are roughly facing each other and then start making some swings again like Alex demonstrates in the video. This will help you recreate some of the positions you need to create when out on the course.
5 Post it drill
If you are a player that slides their hips forwards at impact with little rotation, this drill is for you.
Put an alignment stick, or a garden chair or whatever obstacle next to your left hip (right if left-handed). Pretend to address a golf ball and place a second stick along your chest.
The aim of the game is to get your belt buckle and right hip posted onto the obstacle next to you. This gives a clear indication of your rotation.
6. Stopping the sway
Similar to number 5, place an alignment stick by the opposite hip to that drill and have the second stick once gain across the chest.
The aim here to rotate that hips without colliding with the stick.
7. Understanding club-face at impact
For this drill we recommend getting a magnet or some blu-tack and a tee and placing them in the middle of the face of a club.
Next you should make some swings and stop just at impact to see where the face is pointing in term of target, path and also loft.
What we want to see is the tee pointing toward the target with a little bit of de-lofting.
8. Single leg drill
This drill can improve stability and rotation. Address the golf ball with the leg you want to stand on just to the side. Have your lead leg just behind to help you balance.
From here make a few golf swings through to target trying rotate properly and to brush the ground at the same point.
Alex also recommends trying this exercise on either leg because it will help stability.
9. Full swing checker
This is one of Alex’s favourite drills. Grab an iron or a wedge and grip the club 2/3 inches away from the hosel, placing the rest of the golf club up your lead side.
The drill will give you a clearer idea on several things during the swing such as; what the club face is doing halfway back, am I on plane, what is it doing at the top, what is it doing at impact and am I rotating or am I flipping.
Then go through the swing making sure you cross off all the checkpoints Alex references in the video.
10. Grip pressure
Having the right grip is hugely important as is having the right grip tension.
Alex recommends feeling as if you are gripping a tube of toothpaste because it gives a feeling of lightness and allows you to set and release the club better too.
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