Scratch’s Favorite Driving Drills!

What’s the first thing you do during a golf game? No, not make an unwinnable bet with your friends. It’s driving. Everyone starts their game off with driving the ball. Now that the new season is finally here, it’s time to get your drive back. Try these driving drills to help you get distance and swing you need!

Address Drill

A successful driving golf swing start with the proper address position. Here is a drill that you can practice at the office, family room, basically anywhere.

Stand with feet shoulder width apart and your shoulders and arms relaxed. Bend your knees slightly, hot too pronounced, think of it as someone is pushing down on the top of your head.  Take your left forefinger and touch the middle of your chest, while your right hand is in front of your body where the club’s grip would be. Imagine that your right hand is a tray of drinks. Take your right arm back in your normal swing motion (as if you are swinging a golf club) and when you are at the extent of your back swing, visualize that you are balancing that tray.  From this position proceed with your downswing and finish the follow through by touching your left shoulder with your right hand.

This drill will always give an indication of your set-up at address through the swing path to your finish and it can be practiced anywhere. If you are a left handed golfer follow the same steps but reverse your hands.

Follow-Through Drill

One of the keys to a solid golf swing is the release, in which the wrists become uncocked and turn at impact with the ball. If that does not occur correctly, the club head will strike the ball at an angle, resulting in a ball flight to the right or left.

To perform this drill, take a club and swing about half your typical speed. Stop when your arms make a L during the backswing and check where your wrists are. Swing through and release, turning your wrists through the ball and finish by creating the reverse L as you follow through.

Continue swinging in this manner, but increase the speed. You will become more cognizant of these two important points in the golf swing while noticing increased power.

If the desired ball flight is not occurring while you’re doing this drill, adjust your grip and arm angle. These should be slight adjustments that the individual golfer will need to experiment with, because it depends somewhat on the strength of the grip and velocity of the swing.

During the adjustments, continue to do the drill and test different arm angles and grips. This will help the golfer understand the relationship between club head, wrist motion, arm angle and grip in his own swing.

Penny Drill

This simple but extremely effective drill will help a golfer get the ball off the ground quickly. Take a penny and place it on a practice mat. Hit a penny off a mat. Try to hit the penny off the mat with different clubs. See how high you can get it to fly. This will help you stop topping the ball. Now try to hit the penny when a ball is on top of it. This will continue to train you not to top the ball.

If you’re more of a visual learner, check out these videos below for more helpful driving drills!