Browsing: drill

Add 20 yards to your drives with this simple transition drill

blank

If you want to add distance to your drives, creating an efficient and organized transition is crucial. This key moment in the swing influences how much speed and power you can transfer to the ball at impact.

Recently, Chris Como and Adam Schriber, both GOLF Top 100 Teachers, shared an insightful video on social media where they broke down an effective exercise that will help you understand how to use your feet to create more explosive power in your swing.

Try it on your own to start harnessing the ground and generate more distance off the tee.

A simple drill to powerload your transition

Start by holding a weighted ball close to your chest, keeping your elbows slightly bent. As you initiate the backswing, focus on rotating your upper body and hips while keeping the ball in place against your torso. This engages the muscles in your core, back and shoulders — critical areas for creating power in your swing. The key here is to resist using just your arms, which helps you activate the larger, stronger muscle groups needed for an efficient and powerful swing.

As you reach the top of your swing and prepare to transition into the downswing, Schriber says you should feel two things: your feet pressing into the ground and a separation between your upper and lower body.

“That initial dig in, or a smooth dig in through leveraging of your feet into the ground and a separation you can see that occurs with your pelvis and your upper torso, and that link should catch your core,” Schriber says.

By gripping the ground, your feet are creating a stable base for an explosive move. While the separation between your upper body and lower body creates the torque needed to transfer energy efficiently in the downswing.

As you reach the transition point, throw the ball down into the ground. You want it to land in the middle of your stance. This move mimics the release of your golf swing and helps you understand how your body rotation creates speed and power in the downswing.

“That ball will come right off your core with some explosion,” Schriber says.

Throwing the ball is also great for practicing a proper weight transfer — from your back foot to your front foot — as you generate power through the ground.

By practicing this drill regularly, you’ll strengthen the key muscle groups involved in generating clubhead speed like your core, legs and shoulders. Plus, the resistance (from the weighted ball) and explosive action (from the throw) will train your body to deliver more power and precision in your actual swing.

Add this drill to your practice routine and you’ll be able to generate more speed and power in no time.

Want fewer 3-putts? Try this genius putting speed drill

blank

Reducing the amount of three-putts you have per round is simple. All you’ve got to do is dial in your speed control.

When you’ve got proper speed control, you can get away with not starting lag putts on the perfect line. Typically, your dispersion front to back will be much greater than from left to right, so improving your speed is the best way to tighten up that circle of your misses around the hole.

Now, improving your touch on the greens will always be easier said than done, but if you’re serious about limiting those score-killing three-putts, it’s important to dedicate some time to dialing in your speed. In the text below, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Trent Wearner shares a drill you can use to do just that.

Do this drill for fewer 3-putts

There are many ways to reduce the number of putts you take during a round. For some players, it’s about improving their routine and mindset over the ball. For others, it comes down to setup, stroke, or green reading. But for many golfers, the biggest opportunity lies in developing better touch and feel — the ability to control distance.

Speed control is something you should be intentionally working on every time your feet hit the putting green. It’s such a critical element of good putting that ignoring it means leaving easy strokes on the table.

Here’s a simple drill that requires only a few tees and a spool of thread.

Setup: Tear off two pieces of thread, each about four feet long. Place one piece three feet behind the hole and the other along the front edge.

Set 1: Place tees at 3, 6, 9 and 12 feet. Your goal is always to make the putt — but pay attention to speed. Tour players typically hit short putts with enough pace to roll about four feet past the hole (if it were covered). That’s a bit aggressive for most amateurs, which is why the back thread is set at three feet.

With one ball at each tee, aim to make the putt. If it doesn’t drop, it must finish between the two threads. Complete all four distances in a row before moving on.

Set 2: Move the front thread one foot short of the hole and leave the back thread three feet past. Place tees at 15, 20 and 25 feet. Again, each putt should either go in or finish between the threads. Make all three in a row before advancing.

Set 3: Now move the front thread three feet short of the hole, keeping the back thread three feet past. Place tees at 30, 35, 40 and 45 feet. Same rules apply: each ball must stop between the threads or you start the set over.

As mentioned earlier, great putters adjust their speed depending on the length of the putt. On short putts, they hit the ball a bit firmer; on long putts, they die it closer to the hole.

Here’s a fun bit of perspective: the circumference of a golf ball is 5.277 inches — meaning one full revolution rolls the ball just over five inches. So, if you’re trying to hit a putt one foot past the hole, that’s only about two revolutions. That’s how precise elite speed control really is.