Looking for help

[leekgolf]

I'm looking for practice plans for my wife.

 

 

My wife is a beginner with no idea how to practice at all(she's probably willing to devote 2-3 sessions weekly).

 

Does anyone have any plans they can share?

[Aimee]

I highly recommend lessons for beginners, you don't want to start out on the wrong foot and develop bad habits. A PGA Teaching Professional can guide her towards a practice routine.

Aside from that, if she's serious about playing, don't forget working on general fitness for golf. Golf specific exercises will help her play better in the long run.

At least 2x a week she should do some workouts with weights...if she doesn't go to the gym, use some dumbells at home to strengthen the wrists, arms, shoulders. Core-strengthening exercises are great for increasing swing speed and general back/ab strength which helps you play better. Stretching is also very important, get more flexible in the torso and hips.

Twice a week go to the range...spend most of the time hitting short and mid irons, work up to the longer clubs. Or sometimes I'll hit clubs in the order that I might hit them during a round. Hopefully you can find a practice facility with a sand bunker and putting green. Spend lots of time practicing putts of various lengths...fastest way to a lower score is to 1-putt!

Good luck to your wife!

[GolferGal2009]

agreed, lessons are the way to go. also when she practices on the range, tee up the ball... it's easier to hit.

[leekgolf]

I highly recommend lessons for beginners, you don't want to start out on the wrong foot and develop bad habits. A PGA Teaching Professional can guide her towards a practice routine.

Aside from that, if she's serious about playing, don't forget working on general fitness for golf. Golf specific exercises will help her play better in the long run.

At least 2x a week she should do some workouts with weights...if she doesn't go to the gym, use some dumbells at home to strengthen the wrists, arms, shoulders. Core-strengthening exercises are great for increasing swing speed and general back/ab strength which helps you play better. Stretching is also very important, get more flexible in the torso and hips.

Twice a week go to the range...spend most of the time hitting short and mid irons, work up to the longer clubs. Or sometimes I'll hit clubs in the order that I might hit them during a round. Hopefully you can find a practice facility with a sand bunker and putting green. Spend lots of time practicing putts of various lengths...fastest way to a lower score is to 1-putt!

Good luck to your wife!

 

Aimee- all good suggestions. She has a lesson every Sunday with a PGA Pro at our club. He gives her specific things to work on, but not a practice routine.

We have a commercial quality gym in our home. She works out 6x weekly (3 cardio days, 3 weight training days with a personal trainer).

 

She goes to the range 2x weekly and just hits balls with everything from a 5 iron through sand wedge, then driver 5w, 7w, 9w. Where this breaks down, is she just tries to hit "good" shots. If she doesn't she gets frustrated and quits for the day. She usually reaches that point in about a half hour. There is nothing organized about it.

 

I was hoping someone had a good practice routine for beginners.

[Aimee]

Hard to say, if she's giving up after 30 minutes on the range maybe she's not loving it that much. Aside from trying to hit "good" shots, I usually do target practice...find something to aim at out on the range. No sense spending more time at the range if she's not enjoying it. Diminishing returns.

As a beginner, it's key that she "grooves" a good swing and makes it repeatable.

[Charlie_Foxtrot]

As someone taking regular lessons and trying to engrain a good swing into muscle memory, here is what I do/did:

 

When I was trying to learn a good, on-plane swing, I didn't worry about hitting all of my clubs. I went to the range and hit a medium bucket (70 balls) with my 7-iron about 3 times a week in the morning before work. It's often enough and enough balls to see improvement during a session and in-between lessons, but not so much to cause burn-out or overwhelming frustration. I still practice 75% of my range sessions with my 7-iron.

 

I use an old long iron (or stick or whatever) as an alignment guide EVERY time I go to the range, even if I don't think I need it that day.

 

I work on the specific movements that my instructor told me to work on, even if it means I don't hit balls well. Because I know that if I get that movement integrated, I will hit eventually balls well. In other words, one thing at a time and "practice", don't just hit balls for "exercise"

 

Grip. You can't work on your grip too much. My first 3 lessons were about hitting balls with the correct grip. Once I got comfortable with it, it made a huge difference.

 

Does she like music? If so, an MP3 player helps shut out what's going on around you and focus on practice instead of worry about what other people think of her swing.

[Debit]

She should ask her pro for a specific practice routine -- I'm a little surprised that as a new golfer, he/she hasn't already given your wife some advice on how to practice. However, when my interest is flagging, I practice as though I'm playing specific holes on my home course or another favorite. Invision the fairway and make the tee shot. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out what sort of problem(s) the tee shot will have gotten me into. Continue to play the shots and the clubs necessary until reaching the green. IMHO it's an easy way to practice through the bag without getting too concerned about or trapped into just beating balls with a single club. How often do you practice those punch shots to get out of trouble? Well, the first on my home course has "lots" of pine trees with branches to the ground. IF you have a shot from the right rough, it's a punch shot...as in, the first rule scoring is to first get out of trouble.

[oukk]

I also believe that her pro should give specific practice routine. I think her pro should make golf more fun for her.

Also, if I were her, I would stay away from FWs and Driver until I get comfortable with the irons.

 

I told my girlfriend to hit only irons and that's the only club she uses when she practice and on a round.

[Callaway Girl]

As a female golfer, I practice on a routine basis (40+ hours a week). My husband was a pretty good golfer (single digit handicap) and he showed me the basics (grip, stance, swing plane, etc). However, he also recommend me working with a professional. I started working with a professional after within my first few weeks of taking up the sport. My instructors main focus points were a proper grip, stable stance, and correct swing plane. To ingrain these into my swing I did the following when practicing at the range.

 

The range had numerous greens. However, I focused on the 50 yard, 100 yard, and 120 yard flags. I hit approximately two hundred balls five days a week at the flags. My club selection started with a lob wedge and worked up through my fairway woods. In addition, to my full swing practice, I devoted an hour to my putting and short game (chipping, bunkers, etc).

 

This type of practice taught me tempo and also how to hit the ball in the sweet spot of the club face. After practicing for about three months, I decided to play a round of golf. I shot in the low eighties, but wasn't happy with my overall round.

 

I changed my practice regimen to three days at the range and two days on the course. As everyone knows, the course provides different types of lies (above feet, below feet, up hill, down hill, etc). I practiced on the course in the late afternoon. On the course, I would drive to the 150 yard marker and hit shots from different types of lies. The next hole, I would drive to the 125 yard marker and do the same. I continued this type of practice in addition to practicing 10, 20, 30 yard pitches, chipping, and putting.

 

I have been playing golf now for about 14 months and carry a USGA 1.6 handicap. I recently started working with a different swing coach, so I can consistently shot in the mid 60's. My new coach has started me working with the Titleist Performance Institute for golf fitness. He is tweaking components within my swing that will produce a repeatable swing with less effort.

 

I hope this helps.

[jmiller2]

I changed my practice regimen to three days at the range and two days on the course. As everyone knows, the course provides different types of lies (above feet, below feet, up hill, down hill, etc). I practiced on the course in the late afternoon. On the course, I would drive to the 150 yard marker and hit shots from different types of lies. The next hole, I would drive to the 125 yard marker and do the same. I continued this type of practice in addition to practicing 10, 20, 30 yard pitches, chipping, and putting.

 

The book "Red Zone Challenge" is full of short game drills and it also has an ability test that you take before doing a 14week practice routine just for your short game alone. However it can easily add the full swing practice to this schedule. There are three levels of commitment to the Red Zone challenge. The one that i followed was the most dedicated regiment. Which is in over view:

Monday-Friday: 5minites inside practice of a short game aspect (mirror work for grip, putting stroke, etc.)

 

Monday, Wednesday, Friday - 30min of a single aspect of the short game outdoors (i.e short putting, long putting, pitching, chipping, wedge shots from 100 and in, etc.)

 

They don't have this but i added it, Tuesday and Thursday on course round, keeping track of the number of putts per hole, if you chip/pitched and how close to the hole it was for your putt, and obviously putting distances. this will help you focus in on what aspect of your short game needs improvement.

 

They have Saturday as a round of golf in all three levels, i do this as well, on sunday you have the day off but i typically would play a round of golf on that day. If the weather is bad outside on one of the days that you are supposed to practice or play simply reschedule it for another day...

 

I have provided the link to the book on amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Golfs-Red-Zone-Chall...y/dp/1572437200

 

i know that this book is set up for men with the yardages for the most part, what i did was take a full swing with a PW and take that yardage as my "100 yards" it could be more or less. basically learned how to hit each wedge PW, GW, SW, LW to a particular yardage. 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, 135 (my avg full PW). I'm sure most of you will have the need to cut off the top end lower then that. if it's 80 yards thats not a big deal, i was just using my numbers as an example.

 

i hope some of that helps people out there... it's kinda more about a practice routine in general not only for the ladies.

 

One last note about pratice, if you spend a total of 24 hours a week praticing 16 of those hours should be short game spacific. 2/3 of your total time should go towards short game, if you don't fell that is necasary at least do 1/2 the time.

 

now if someone could only give me advice on how to get my GF more motivated to play golf :) (not trying to hijack the thread it was hypothetical)

[OTOMKEV]

Teaching women is a joy, so be sure to find someone who understands that. Women tend to also be the best students. It's been my experience that they listen intently to every instruction and therefore, no mistakes can be made by the teacher. If a teacher tells your wife the wrong thing, it's too late. Women expect that the teacher knows what they're talking about and so once something is taught, that tends to be the way it is for them and changes at that point, are extremely difficult. In other words, there are no "do-overs" with women for golf teachers. Also, it's imperative that you find someone who will explain the golf club to them. Why it's built the way it is, why it looks the way it does and how it works, before ever allowing them to use it. Women like to know WHY you're asking them to do something. As a teacher, you'd better have a good answer for them! So, generally, if a woman learns correctly from the start, she'll be set for life. Unlike men, they tend not to search for further "answers." She won't be reading Golf Digest trying to figure out the "next best swing tip." I'll attach something that I send along to the women who purchase my golf instruction online. It's seems to be helpful to them. One last thing, you are obviously an intelligent man, as you are not attempting to teach her yourself! Whether you could, or not, isn't the issue. You're simply smart enough to know better! :friends:

[pdx5]

[quote name='leekgolf' date='18 June 2007 - 06:43 AM' timestamp='1182174202' post='603258']
I'm looking for practice plans for my wife.


My wife is a beginner with no idea how to practice at all(she's probably willing to devote 2-3 sessions weekly).

Does anyone have any plans they can share?
[/quote]

Stay away from a Professional!
Your wife is not ready for it!!
Not by a long shot!

The analogy is trying to teach your 2 year old who just learned to walk how to sprint in 100 meters dash. Not ready!

Instead, find a good golf teaching book in your library and study it TOGETHER!
Most important fundamentals to focus on:

<Grip>
[size=2]<Tempo>[/size]
<Posture>
<Ball Position>

That is my list in order of importance.

Also emphasize that one does not "hit" the ball, rather one hits THROUGH the ball, trying for maximum speed after striking the ball. That is good tempo. Start out with 3/4 back swing, short of parallel. Emphasize "control", rather than raw distance.

[herrsonic]

[quote name='leekgolf' timestamp='1182174202' post='603258']
I'm looking for practice plans for my wife.


My wife is a beginner with no idea how to practice at all(she's probably willing to devote 2-3 sessions weekly).

Does anyone have any plans they can share?
[/quote]

She should start with a golf teaching pro or someone knowledgeable about the golf swing. Admittedly finding the right person is a challenge in and of itself and may require experimenting with different teachers.
The basics and foundations of golf should be emphasized first.

[MGajda254]

lessons are the best way to get her started, just until she understands a little bit about the way the club works with her

[mikpga]

Is she looking for a practice plan?

Sometimes I will find the husband is more eager for them to practice than they are...

Assuming she has a desire to improve, I would structure her practice to involve...

1. Short Game
2. Full Swing
3. Playing

1. [b]Short Game
[/b]- Short Putting Practice (some form of repitition from 3ft and in)
- Lag Putting Practice (create a visible 6ft circle around a hole)
- Reptition on some type of "putting arc"

2. [b]Full Swing
[/b]- Overall Balance (all swings finish in balance and facing target)
- Half Swings (focus on better contact, not distance)
- Always hit towards a target, and switch your targets.

3[b]. Playing
[/b]- Play scramble formats if she hasn't been on course yet.
- Play with others who have been playing for awhile, who are patient.
- Play "double par" golf.