Subscribe now to watch the full video.

2 Ways To Learn Using Drills

The two ways I see golfers use drills to actually improve their swings are:

  1. Tai Chi Style - Many repetitions of slow motion swings.
  2. Drill Progressions - small changes to the drill adding length, speed, or complexity until it matches the full swing.

If you have worked in one area of your swing without improvement then there is a good chance you are just trying to think different moves instead of trying to actually train them.

Playlists: Practice Strategies, Beginner Program

Tags: Fundamentals, Practice Strategies, Member Question, Concept

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
This concept video is discussing the two ways to learn.

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000
So I've got this site to help guide you with reshaping your golf swing,

00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,000
or rebalancing your golf swing.

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000
And you'll notice there's a lot of drills on here.

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,000
There's a lot of concept videos.

00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:18,000
There are a couple different ways that I've seen over the last 15 years I've been teaching golf.

00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:22,000
There's a couple different ways that I've seen people actually change their swing and make progress.

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
And then there's some ways that I see people, you know, get stuck in a rut.

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:34,000
We've all seen them golfers who've been at the same swing level, the same handicap level, hit the same shots for literally decades,

00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,000
making no progress whatsoever.

00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:41,000
So I'm going to help you avoid that pitfall by understanding how to use the drills properly.

00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:44,000
In my mind, there are two different ways to learn.

00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:50,000
And, you know, I can't break it down as to if you're, you know, it's 50, 50, 60, 40.

00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:56,000
But there's two common ways that I see people really get into using drills and shaping their swing.

00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000
One, I call it kind of the Tai Chi learner. They're super feel oriented.

00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:09,000
And they do a lot of slow motion repetition. So they can watch the drill and then they'll do it in slow motion.

00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000
And they'll kind of have almost like, oh, they'll kind of have like this little aha moment where they get it.

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,000
And they kind of sense that's how I need to be pushing on the club.

00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000
And then, or that's how I need to be using my legs or that's how I'm going to use my core.

00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:29,000
Basically, they have this aha moment that's triggered from doing really slow motion almost positional training.

00:01:29,000 --> 00:01:35,000
I have a terrible time doing kind of tempo drills.

00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000
But they'll do really well with some of the position-oriented movements.

00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:42,000
And they'll kind of walk through.

00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:49,000
And then once they have a feel, you'll see them take the swing and almost, they won't even look at contact.

00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:59,000
They won't even, they're so ingrained in, trench with the field that they'll go right back to know that was not quite right through their grab and other ball and do it again.

00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000
They tend to not be the golfers who do rapid fire style of practice.

00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000
They tend to really take their time in between shots.

00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
There is kind of a small subset who's more rapid-fire.

00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:18,000
They'll do like, you know, three to five reps and then think about it and do some practice swings and kind of work through it.

00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:24,000
They'll definitely, you know, work through the movement in this slow motion hyper-feel sense.

00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000
So Tai Chi is option number one.

00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:28,000
They love to do slow motion swings.

00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:30,000
They love to practice at home.

00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,000
They love to practice away from their golf game and really just work on the movement.

00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:34,000
That might not be you.

00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000
If that's not you, then you need to do option number two, which is more drill progressions.

00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:47,000
Which basically means you have to lay out baby steps of what am I currently doing and then a drill that helps you get to feel.

00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:55,000
Or you get to feel or experience something different and then add length and speed until you can do it in your full swing.

00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:02,000
So these are typically the people who they don't get the aha moment the first time I show it to them.

00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:09,000
They see that the ball fly is different but then they might have a regression every time they go back to the range.

00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,000
So what you have to do is you have to constantly kind of almost freshen up or tune in the brain sensitivity to the movement.

00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:24,000
Commonplace I'll work on this style is whether it's a transition or a release but releases a really common one.

00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:33,000
So let's say I have more of a scoop style release maybe even with a little buckle and I'm trying to get a little bit better arm extension.

00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:39,000
So now I'd make sure I do a drill or two and make sure I know what it feels like to get arm extension.

00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:47,000
Then I do a drill or two doing let's say arm extension with just brushing the ground.

00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:56,000
Arm extension brushing the ground then I'd try to do arm extension just brushing the ground trying to get the same turf contact.

00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:07,000
That's the key to this drill style learning is I have to have some type of objective measurement whether it's a shaft somewhere of pool noodle.

00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,000
Lines on the ground like four square turf contact, ball flight.

00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:21,000
I have to have an objective measurement so that I can or an objective form of feedback so that my brain can say yes I did that correct.

00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:32,000
And then after doing a hundred repetitions, five hundred repetitions and getting a lot of correct reps the brain builds the pattern and I'm able to make changes that way.

00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:43,000
But the key with that is let's say I did I did the little nine to three did it well I go up halfway I'm fine go three quarter I'm fine and then I go to full swing and it breaks down.

00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:49,000
Most golfers would just hang out at the full swing and again falling that pattern of just trying to think something different.

00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:57,000
That doesn't work so what they have to do is they'll back it down to where they broke down and figure out what's the difference between those two.

00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:11,000
I was going was it because I went bigger and that pulled me out of position and messed up my sequencing and low point control or was it that I swung harder and the way I'm creating speed messed up my sequencing messed up my low point control.

00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:24,000
So you want to have these little drill recipes or drill progressions so that if you're hitting full swings and you happen to lose it all you have to do is go back and run through your drill progression.

00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:34,000
The more times you do it the easier it'll get so the first time I go through I might have to do 10 nine to three is and then 10 three quarter and then 10 full swing.

00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:45,000
After I've done it maybe for a week or two weeks I may just have to do one of each where I might only have to take a practice swing to read dial it in and give my brain that sensation that I want.

00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:49,000
Let's do a quick recap of these two styles of learning.

00:05:49,000 --> 00:06:02,000
Tai Chi where I do slow motion until I have that a ha moment and every repetition I'm comparing one specific part of the movement or how movements relate to each other very detailed into the feel.

00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:08,000
The other option I'm not quite as strong with the feel so I'm going to use drill progressions that have checkpoints.

00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,000
The checkpoints are either going to be how the club brushes with the ground.

00:06:13,000 --> 00:06:22,000
Where the club is so I could use a shaft alignment I could use a physical alignment where the shaft is at different checkpoints or ball flight and trajectory.

00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:36,000
And I'm going to do these little drill progressions adding difficulty or intensity or length of swing until I can take what I'm trying to do and do it at full speed in my full swing that's when I know that I've really got it.

00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:42,000
So the two good options the one bad option is if I just watch the drill and kind of like okay.

00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:52,000
Yeah I can kind of feel what a little Jackson five is like I'm not going to do you know 50 repetitions a day I'm not going to work on the actual you know training my body and my brain to do it.

00:06:52,000 --> 00:07:03,000
I'm just going to try and think Jackson five a few times that's the time that's the style that tends to fail in a pressure you you just kind of think of feeling you haven't really trained it.

00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:10,000
Or not even under pressure but fails to to build it into long term memory.

00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:17,000
So you want to do one of the other two styles either Tai Chi where you do a lot of slow motion or drills where you progress it.

00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:27,000
If you do those I'm confident the you two will be able to have success in actually changing your swing changing your ball flight and change the way you get to play golf.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.