Winter Time Practice - What to do?

One of my students today was chatting with me about how to make the most of his winter downtime in regards to his golf swing. I think this is a great question to ask yourself as we move into our winter season. Many of you may not be able to go to a warmer climate during the winter, so here are two goals I would suggest to help your game while there is snow on the ground:
1. Get golf stronger
2. Strengthen your mental game

Get golf stronger -
By this I mean, many of you are already in the gym staying fit and healthy. Wouldn't it be great to be able to incorporate some exersices that can make your golf swing better and stronger? Many of the people around you (fitness, medical, and golf professionals) have been certified in TPI. Each professional can take up to 3 certification levels through the Titliest Proformance Institute to become certified as a TPI instructor. You can check out how this can help you find a pro who can help you get golf stronger www.mytpi.com

Strengthen your mental game -
This is an huge part of the game and it is probably the most overlooked by amateur golfers. I would encourage everyone to do a little research into mental golf books or dvds this winter. Why not challenge yourself to get mentally better at the game while you are looking out at the snow on the ground? I have a few here that are great -
Zen Golf by Dr. Joseph Parent
Fearless Golf by Dr. Gio Valiante
Play your best golf now by Lynn Marriott and Pia Nilsson
any book by Dr. Bob Rotella
The Inner Game of Golf by W. Timothy Gallway

Winter Lesson Book Opens Up - Dec 1st

I will be returning to the Breakers Resort in Palm Beach, FL for the 2012-2013 winter golf season. I will begin teaching at Breakers Ocean on Sundays starting on December 9th from 8am - 6pm and I will be teaching at Breakers West during the week from December 6th through the beginning of April. Please email me if you are interested booking a lesson or a custom clinic with me - stono14@gmail.com
Look forward to seeing you soon!

Making Practice Interesting

I have had a really great season playing in tournaments this year and I believe that my new practice habits have alot to do with why! This season I hosted a LPGA clinic with professional golfer Meaghan Francella for my lady golf members. Not only was Meaghan a wonderful speaker, she also showed us some new ways to practice our short game. Meaghan helped explain to our ladies that you need to work on things that will actually help you play better. Being an instructor and a player, I have struggled myself with making my practice useful. Many times I would go to the putting green, drop a couple of balls and roll putts at a hole. Or I would head to the range with one club and hit shots at it without much thought. I never took the time to practice how I would play. I believe as a teacher, my job is to help bridge the gap between the practice area and the golf course. I want to share with you three of the practice habits I have developed to help me to play better on the course.

1. Working on speed on the putting green: set up 15 ft and 25 ft from a hole with a tee or ball marker at those distances. Then place an alignment stick behind the hole about 3 feet behind it. Take two balls at one distance and practice rolling your putts just past the hole between the hole and the stick. After 9 putts, switch to the other distance. I use time intervals of 25 mins, with a water break for 5 mins in between. This clears your head and keeps you interested in your practice.

2. Short putts: while working on your speed putting, set up a tee about 6-8 ft from a hole near your distance putting station. This is a distance I have found to be where you can make a birdie or save par. After 3 rotations of 25 mins working on the above drill, I switch to the 6-8 ft range and work around the hole. This has helped me feel comfortable in this scoring range and much more confident in getting up and down around the greens.

3. Practicing on the range: I warm up first, then laser my closest target and begin hitting shots at it. I only hit 9 shots at a time with each club. One of the things that I have worked on this year is trying to land 3 different clubs to the same distance. So I can hit my pitching wedge, 9 iron and 8 iron all 100 yards. This I believe has helped me with feel and also to help me create different shots into greens. After every 25 mins of practice, I take a 5 min break for water then resume practicing.

Try these practicing tips the next time you are out at your course.