The Pre-Shot Routine – Turn It into Your Gain
Those few seconds involving when you tee up the golf ball, or approach the golf ball in the fairway, and in fact strike it may decide how successful the shot will be. Will that be a time when those mental demons creep in, making you lose focus? By employing your pre-shot routine that is customized to you, there will merely be time to focus on the job at hand. So why will each superior golfer have an effective pre-shot routine as part of his Golf Swing Basics? For the reason that it works!
Basically, your pre-shot agenda is really a series of checkpoints, thoughts, movements, and attention to details before striking a golf shot. It should be unique to each golfer, and it’s best when it fits the golfer’s character. In other words, when a golfer during his daily schedule moves through life in warp-speed, he wouldn’t use a unhurried, meticulous routine. Likewise, if you are a more measured person, that slower schedule would suit you better.
So what would your pre-shot agenda look like? Since I can simply stress its significance and what components go into it, I can’t tell you what exactly is best for you. So I will describe what I do previous to each shot, and maybe you will draw some ideas.
1. Before I choose a golf club, I stand behind the golf ball and visualize the shot. This does not mean only distance. I think about wind direction and strength, how the golf ball is carrying that day, the way I have been striking the golf ball, and I leave a margin for error from problem places.
2. Select a golf club. Regardless of whether I had already pre-determined my golf club before visualizing my shot, I always bring one or two, and sometimes three, additional golf clubs with me. Should I change my mind following selecting the proper shot, trying to hit that shot using a golf club I am uncomfortable with will almost definitely end up poorly. That is the main reason why I always choose to walk the golf course if possible; all of your options are always there with you.
3. Decide your target area. I do this from behind the golf ball, after which I line up a point about five feet on line and in front of the golf ball. That’s where I will establish my stance and set my clubface toward. I have found through my experience that this gives me a greater consistent set-up with my target area.
4. Prior to setting my feet, I set the golf club on the exact place I would like it to strike the golf ball. I do know that when something mechanical goes amiss with my golf swing, a great deal might be corrected with a proper golf ball strike. Next I set my front foot to the golf ball, after that my back foot.
5. Subsequently following one last look at the target area, to set-off the swing (I do believe this is essential) I to some extent push the hands forward previous to drawing the golf club in the backswing. This “activate mechanism” provides a consistent starting point to begin the golf swing.
As I said earlier, your pre-shot routine is individual, so you will have to figure out what fits best for you. But it should be a componenet of every golfer’s Simple Golf Swing, and to play your most consistent golf, it’s essential to address this crucial aspect of the game.