And now the good news

[CrapHacker]

Been doing the hair tearing bit all day today, and have wasted far too much time googling various bits of advice, videos etc.

Just come up with this one :

Golfers who live in the cold climates actually have an advantage if they don't put their clubs away for Winter because they can train their muscles to swing properly without the distraction of trying to hit a ball

IE we should be taking advantage of the freeze to practice swinging without the need to actually hit any balls.

How many people have actually been taking advantage of the opportunity, and what are the best drills to do ? Is it just checking set up in front of the mirror ? Is it worth making full swings, without the feedback of the actual ballstriking ? Or should we just be working on 3/4 swings, or just on the backswing, or whatever ?

I'll stand in front of the mirror with the best of them. I'll set up and take a few swings, even going so far as to check my backswing half way back, or whatever.

But I get bored after a few minutes, coz I've got no way of checking what I'm doing ( IE no visual clues of ball flight, or the feel of a pure strike/misshit on the clubface ), so I give up and go and kick the cat again.

Anyone got any ideas, targets, drills etc that are actually useful in these conditions ?

Cheers

 

[USER1999]

Mind the chandelier.

 

[jammydodger]

Sell the cat ... poor thing , or..... maybe try seeing how far you can hit the cat

 

[Tiger]

Funny timing this. Just yesterday I set my self up in the garden with a load of coloured tees. Put them into the snow and practice hitting them with a six iron. Set my iPhone up to video the swing and after 10 review the results. No chance of damaging the lawn even if I catch it fat.

Also thought today you could practice bunker shots. Draw a line in the snow. Place your tee on the line. Aim to hit the snow 2 inches in front of the line. The white stuff will let you know whether you got it sufficiently before the line.

So rather than hitting balls I'll be hitting some more tees later on.

 

[Smiffy]

So rather than hitting balls I'll be hitting some more tees later on.

Give me an old tee to hit, a chestnut shuck, a small pine cone or something similar and I play off scratch. Hit the bloody thing for miles. Always a perfect strike and I can shape it too.
Put a ball down in front of me and ask me to do the same?????
Gibbering wreck.
Good luck

 

[pokerjoke]

Nice one smiffy i could join you off scratch with my practice shot put a ball in front down drop 12 shots.Im the same as crapHacker get bored to easy indoors.

 

[drawboy]

So rather than hitting balls I'll be hitting some more tees later on.

Give me an old tee to hit, a chestnut shuck, a small pine cone or something similar and I play off scratch. Hit the bloody thing for miles. Always a perfect strike and I can shape it too.
Put a ball down in front of me and ask me to do the same?????
Gibbering wreck.
Good luck

Smiffy, everyone always hits something they don't need to see land better. When I took my son out to the practice ground he couldn't hit a ball for toffee but never missed taking the top off a dandelion.

 

[Tiger]

So rather than hitting balls I'll be hitting some more tees later on.

Give me an old tee to hit, a chestnut shuck, a small pine cone or something similar and I play off scratch. Hit the bloody thing for miles. Always a perfect strike and I can shape it too.
Put a ball down in front of me and ask me to do the same?????
Gibbering wreck.
Good luck

Quality. Why don't you just play with a pine cone then? I know what you mean about seeing where the ball goes. Still fighting the urge and probably will be for evermore!

 

[golfcitydweller]

just du a bit of stretchin ,keep loose.. i`m gettin on ! go down to beach and hit a few off the sand ..great for the ball striking .. but bloody cold ..

 

[Hogan_Fan]

The Harvey Penick "Slow Motion Drill"(You'll find it in his Little Red Book) has helped my ball striking no end and is so simple. Best done with a weighted club and can be done anywhere anytime.

 

[TWM]

I have just been outside hitting snow with my weighted club.
I'll try it in slow motion next time.

 

[THJahar]

I did the old 'swing the clubs' thing, whilst I had no access to a range.
I'm lucky in that I have 12 foot ceilings, and I was making a luverly 'swish' swing that scraped the carpet, and I thought 'great can't wait to take it on the course'
Luckily for me the range opened and i tried my new swing out...it was diabolical, everything sliced and short. I'd ingrained two faults into my swing that because I had no feedback from a ball, took me ages to get rid of.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Been working on my putting stroke over the weekend and also rehearsing my takeaway in front of a mirror using the old Leadbetter drill of anchoring the end of the club into the belly button and then starting the turn with hands and stomach moving together. Other than that not much I can do. Pretty low ceilings so even a 3/4 swing is too much. Not bothered trying to swing outside or hit anything (tee, cat, cones etc) as it bears no real resemblance to hitting a ball and there is no real feedback

 

[TRS30]

Mainly weights and core work for the last few weeks. Got a Scotty on the way so will doing a lot of carpet putting if the weather isn't better in the next week or so.....

 

[kid2]

Iv said it in a previous post but i adopted Harringtons method when he's in hotels...... Hang the heaviest Curtain you can lay your hands on it could even be a duvet from the ceiling and use your 6i to ping balls into it for as long as you want....You can draw targets on it also....Also make sure you've got one on the floor too as the balls tend to make a racket when they hit the carpet......
You'll get a pretty good feel for how your striking the ball from the sound it makes off the club face....Simples

 

[Golfmmad]

I do admire your enthusiasm kid2, no I really do, but hang a heavyweight curtain, FROM THE CEILING.

I'm sure HID would REALLY love that

So, as mad about golf as I am, I'm out on that one.

Golfmmad.