Katie Dawkins
In the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, finding the time to improve our golf game can be tricky.
I'd love to commit to a regular cycle of the 10 best golf drills, but life often gets in the way and limits me to the occasional 30 minute range session whenever I can squeeze it in.
The same can be said for the 10 best golf exercises, so I decided to be pro-active and seek some expert advice to utilise the time I do have to spare.
To my surprise, PGA Advanced Professional Katie Dawkins was able to offer a time-saving five minute solution that helps to power up your golf swing from the comfort of your own home - and she has kindly shared how in the article below...
This Simple Drill Can Power Up Your Swing In Just 5 Minutes
Katie is an Advanced PGA professional with over 20 years of coaching experience. She helps golfers of every age and ability to be the best versions of themselves. Katie coaches the individual and uses her vast experience in technique, psychology and golf fitness to fix problems in a logical manner that is effective.
This simple drill helps you to separate your upper half from your lower half to create lots of torque and power.
Many golfers just turn everything together - which isn't particularly efficient.
What this drill encourages is a good shoulder turn. It can also help stop your arms from collapsing and prevent casting in the golf swing.
Make a habit of doing this and you will improve your ball striking without even touching a golf club.
Start in this setup position, with your left arm outstretched in front of you
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, with an even weight distribution, and point your fingers out like a gun, with one arm down by your side.
Make sure you keep your feet nice and grounded, then turn your upper body as far round as possible.
Follow your fingers (your gun) with your eyes and your head, and make a note of the furthest point you can get to – maybe a point on the horizon.
Next, put your left hand on your head as below. Keeping your head pointing forwards, take your arm back as far as you can. Follow your ‘gun’ with your eyes until it goes out of your peripheral vision.
As you rotate, follow your fingers with your eyes and see how far you can go
Your eyes will feel a little strained at this point. Repeat this seven to ten times, then – and here’s where the magic should happen – repeat steps one and two again. You should find you go past the point you managed earlier, perhaps by as much as a foot.
Repeat the whole drill on your other side. Once you’ve done that, your whole body should feel freed up and you’ll be able to rotate more.
Bad back sufferers and those who think they cannot turn should definitely try this drill – you might be surprised by how flexible you are.
After repeating this process a number of times, you should notice an improvement that can translate to a better shoulder turn and more power on the golf course
What Golf Drills Can I Do At Home?
As well as the example outlined in the article above, there are plenty of other great golf drills you can do at home to improve your performance on the course.
If you have one of the best putting mats on the market, you can fire up the flatstick by practicing putts of different lengths (and breaks) or trying out a range of putting tips and drills without leaving the house.
For the rest of your game, why not focus on the fundamentals? I like to make a coffee and check my grip - which is some excellent expert advice shared by Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Russell Covey.
Russell says: "A good way to check your golf grip in the comfort of your own home is to hold the club out in front of you on a kitchen table or similar. One thumb should sit on top of the other and you should be able to see two knuckles on each hand.
Now for the bit that will get you into good habits, both on the range and out on the course. Take your hands off, put the club down, and repeat - again and again."
I recently re-learned how to grip the golf club and I've never hit the ball better... so, what are you waiting for?
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