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Category Archives: Golf Instruction
Golf Instruction
Improve Your Putting Distance Control With The 4 By 8 Drill
Improve Your Putting Distance Control With The 4 By 8 Drill
Hello I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.
Today we are going to look at a really good putting drill to try and get some control over the distance that you hit the ball.
I call it the Four By Eight Drill. I hope you enjoy it.
So I have set up my Four By Eight Drill here.
Basically I set up four balls here all pointing at the hole. That’s eight paces away. I put a circle of tees one club length around the hole. So my target is to get my ball inside that circle.
I’ve also done similarly here. I’ve set these four balls up four metres or four paces from the hole and I’ve set up a circle of tees one putter length around the hole. The object is to see how many of the eight balls I can get into the circles. That’s the plan. Lets see how I go.
A little bit to the right.
Almost.
That makes it easy.
Oh. Nearly.
OK the last short one.
Ok, so that’s how we do it.
Now what we do is we go up and we have a look and we try and count how many balls are inside the circle. so I have all four in the circle there and one in the hole.
And over here I have got all four well and truly in the circle.
So by doing that we are working on our distance control. If we can control our distance, we stop 3 putting and we are going to be better off.
Ok so that was the Four By Eight Drill.
If you practice the Four By Eight Drill regularly. You’ll find you get better distance control. If you get better distance control you won’t have as many 3 putts. if you don’t have as many 3 putts you will definitely lower your score.
So do it regularly. It’s a fantastic Drill. Look at some of my other putting drills.Which also deal with distance control.I’ll put links to the video up there.
Thank you for letting me help you with your golf. I’m Brian Fitzgerald “The Golf Doctor”.
The Right Heel Up Pitching Drill
Hello I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.
Today I’m going to teach you how to improve your pitching.
It’s a little bit of a strange drill, but you are used to me using strange drills now.
Today is one of my better ones. I hope you enjoy it.
[MUSIC]
Okay, we are going to do some pitching today.And when I play with amateurs, most people go wrong when they try to hit pitch shots because they are trying to help get the ball in the air and they are lifting up. They are not necessarily lifting their head, that’s what their playing partners are actually telling them.
But it’s lifting the whole body so they are hitting it on the up and I’ve got a 56 degree sand wedge here. There is enough loft on that 56 sand wedge to get the ball in the air. What I have to do is get the club down underneath the golf ball. So provided my golf club can get down underneath the golf ball, I have a chance at getting the ball in the air so I am looking for a downward strike. I am not looking at hitting it on the up. So the drill that I use to teach people how to hit with a downward strike.
Is to take a normal setup and then get their right foot back here with their toe on the ground and their heel up.
That forces your weight to go on to the left foot, it moves my upper body slightly to the left and that encourages me hitting the ground. So you can see there I’m easily hitting down under the golf ball.
And that’s the type of swing we want to use when we play this shot.
So we take our setup and then I just hit down and the ball went up in the air quite nicely.
It’s a simple drill, it’s effective. If you use that on a regular basis I think you’ll find your pitching will improve.
Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.
I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.
If you like these videos why don’t’ you share them with a friend. You can also find further information on my Facebook page or my twitter page.
How Throwing A Bucket Can Improve Your Golf Swing
Hello there.
I’m Brian Fitzgerald “The Golf Doctor”.
And today we are going to use a drill that is going to help you to combine how you use your hands and how you use your body.
I call it the “Throwing The Bucket Drill.”
I hope you enjoy it.
[MUSIC]
Alright, today we are doing the throwing the bucket drill.
And all we do is use a simple bucket. You can substitute the bucket for a basketball. You can throw a cushion inside the house, as long as you don’t break the light that’s in the lounge room.
You can use anything that’s available to you.
But all we do is we get ourselves in our normal set up position, making sure we have the right posture, spine tilted forward and I’ve actually said in another video how to actually achieve the correct posture.
So I’ll put a link to that video just on that video there. Link to Correct Posture Golf Tip.
So we grab the bucket. Get into our posture. All we have to do here, is try and throw the bucket in a straight line.
You wouldn’t really throw the bucket by doing that. I would call that the discus method. And what is the shape of the field that you throw a discus to? It starts narrow and gets wider.
I don’t know too many fairways that have fairways shaped like that. They are more like corridors. So we want to get the hands traveling away and upwards and away and upwards.
So it looks something like this. By doing that it actually teaches you how to combine your hand movement with your body movement and it gets you swinging on the right swing plane.
Okay, so that’s how we do it. If we do a correct swing. Watch what happens if I do it the wrong way. If my shoulders start pulling my hands down, I’m going to release the bucket that way. So my hands are around the back of me, and you can see my swing is traveling to the left. That could produce a slice but it can also produce a hook. It just depends on where my club face is at the time of impact.
So now I’ve got a club in my hands.I will do the same sort of things. I get into my posture and I try and swing the club back as if I’m trying to throw the golf club down the range. We don’t want to pull the club down. It’s called a golf swing and we swing the club head. So we swing the club through as if my right hand is throwing the golf club.
If you can do that you’ll hit much better shots and you will get more consistent.
So if you like my videos, why don’t you share it with a friend. You can share it by clicking the share button at the bottom of YouTube, or you can email a friend or you can also find further information on my Facebook page or my Twitter page. If you really like them you can also subscribe and that way you get informed when I’ve got a new video up.
Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.
I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.
[MUSIC]
Lengthening The Golf Doctors Swing
I recently experienced a first. I went to see Golf Physiotherapist.
This came about as I have noticed (and you will have too no doubt) that my golf swing is very much on the short side these days.
I first noticed this when I started filming some of my golf videos. I felt I was using my normal swing (normal to me in my playing day was hands above my shoulders and the club to parallel). I couldn’t believe how short it was. I went out and hit balls every day for a week working on lengthening my swing. At the end of the week there was no change in length of swing. I felt as if I was over swinging and it was no longer than before.
I figured the answer is in one or a bit of all of the following reasons:
- I have just turned 50 and my body can’t do what it used to do in my 20’s and 30’s.
- I have averaged 8 to 12 games a year for the past 4 years. If you don’t use it you lose it.
- There are physical reasons why I can’t swing the club to my desired length.
I didn’t know the answer so I thought I would seek some professional.
While I was thinking of doing this I got a phone call from Physiotherapist Jeremy Cross at Physio Health.
Jeremy had just had a visit from a client of mine and wanted to talk about what we could both do to help out this client.
In 30 years of coaching I have referred many people to physiotherapists and this is the only time I have ever received a phone call back from them wanting to talk about a client.
I subsequently met Jeremey and was very impressed with his background. He went to college in the US on a golf scholarship and then went on to become a physio after deciding not to pursue a career in Professional Golf.
Jeremy is the first to point out he is not a golf coach but works hand in hand with golf coaches to get the best performance for golfers of all standards, allowing them to achieve their potential both in terms of improved performance and in reduced pain and injury prevention.
I underwent a screening session with Jeremy at PhysioHealth Kew a few weeks ago. This took about an hour. I performed a series of movements and tests. Nothing too physical but just too see what my ranges of movement was.
A week later I went back to see Jeremy and he gave me a laminated report detailing my issues and the exercises I needed to perform daily to improve.
I must admit I have not been as studious (daily) with my exercises but I have been pretty regular with them. They take about 20 minutes a day to do and I am already seeing results. My swing has already lengthened noticeably and I know I am hitting the ball further.
I used FlightScope to gather data (Driver & 7 iron) before I underwent the screening. I will also do it on several occasions over the next few months.
Stay tuned for an upcoming video series of my experience.
The first can be found here Lengthening The Golf Doctors Golf Swing Part 1
Jeremy works at PhysioHealth Kew (03) 9853 2224 and Williamstown (03) 9397 4977
Use your Putter Instead of Chipping To Lower Your Score
One of the best ways of lowering your golf score is to get your putter in your hands more often from off the green instead of chipping (if the conditions allow it).
You will find that your worst putt will finish much better than your worst chip.
When you see Tiger Woods with all of his skill mess up chip shots from a perfect lie what chance do normal every day golfers have?
Get the putter in your hands.
What Should You Think Of Over The Ball
What should you think of over the ball.
That is a very common question.
When you are on the golf course (playing in a competition) where score matters (as opposed to a few holes after dinner in the evening) you should think of as little as possible.
The golf course is for scoring and as my golf coach Alec Mercer often said to me “The box on the scorecard is not big enough to paint a picture. Just put a number in it. Make it the lowest one you can”.
Improving your Inner Game is one of the keys to lowering your handicap or score. It’s what gives you consistency.
Let me paint a scenario for you.
A tour player Joe Schmo is playing the 72nd hole of a tournament and is 1 stroke behind. The 72nd is a par 5 and he has a 235 yard carry over water to the flag. Joe hits his 3 wood to 10 feet, cans the putt and wins by 1 shot.
At the Press Conference a journalist asks Joe “What were you thinking standing over the 3 wood on the 72nd Joe”?
Joe smiles and answers “I just pictured the shot and I hit it”.
On another occasion Joe might have had the following inner conversation ” Gee I have 235 over water. I hit my 3 wood 230. I better take the club back slow, stop at the top of my back swing, have a slight pause, rip my right hand through impact.” This results in a miss timed 3 wood that fails to carry the water, resulting in a bogey.
To help improve this part of your game I suggest you try the following:
- Stand behind your golf ball (about 3 meters back).
- Picture the shot you are trying to hit and have an inner conversation describing exactly the shot. Where it starts, how high it flies, which way it spins etc.
- Move into the ball and keep the picture fresh in your mind.
- Hit the shot.
This takes a bit of practice but is well worth it. If you still have trouble try saying the word “Back” in your mind as you take the club back and then say “Hit” when your club makes contact with the ball.
Try it on the range in practice and then put it in to play on the course socially (maybe 2 or 3 holes) and see how it goes. When you have confidence in it put it into play on the course.
Regards
Brian
Brian Fitzgerald – The Golf Doctor
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