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Try This Winter Golf Drill During Covid to Keep Your Game Sharp

Meg Kopeny

By Megan KopenyPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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I was raised in a golf dome, spending my Saturdays surrounded by the clicking of golf balls off silicone grass. I rolled putts off the practice green, in between the grains of sand poured to keep it firm, and whacked balls into the hanging targets until calluses appeared on my palms. The exciting, addictive quality of the game focused me even at age 12, quickly spurring me through coaches and joining the competition at IJGA and MAJGT tournaments. A players’ academy, “The Players Service'' saw my potential and helped me to achieve a Division I scholarship at Winthrop University in South Carolina.

Although the mild winters of the golf haven of the south were heaven, my relocation back to Chicago makes me worry if practice domes will even be able to open with increasing COVID-19 rates. Without a place to hit a golf ball, how are we supposed to keep our swings as sharp as in the colder months? With no carpets to hit a ball off of, this may be a dark winter for golfers.

However, closed public spaces are no match for a committed golfer left with just their clubs, wits, and dedication.

The best piece of advice, even the most solid practice exercise that I ever received, could be the solution to a stagnant season. When implemented, it could mean the difference between a dead winter and a strong start to spring. All it takes is committing to a different type of indoor practice.

Golf is meditation. Getting into the zone, stepping over the ball, breathing and removing the thoughts of your ego. In this exercise, a balanced importance is placed on both aspects of the game: mentality and physicality.

This routine came from my first golf coach, Bill Wadden, a PGA professional who played on tour during the 1960s. He gave me a simple tip for solidifying my swing at home. I moved my clubs into the living room of my parents’ house, and picked up a club every time I walked past- every time I felt like it. In slow motion, I would rehearse my correct swing, complete with hip rotations and perfect angles, visualizing exactly how I wanted it to look. Bringing all of my coaches’ advice to the forefront of my consciousness, casually performing a perfect swing in my living room, then putting the club away and leaving, was exactly the formula I wanted to replicate on the course.

By training your physical body and muscle memory in this practice, your mind also learns how to jump into a place of perfection mixed with casualty that improves your approach and score on the course. Nothing has to be hard; golf invites pre-shot anxiety and overthinking tendencies as false remedies for improvement, but this technique saved my game and my well-being on the competitive circuit.

The best part of this routine is that it is highly adaptable to each swing and each players’ learning arch. If your takeaway needs an incessant amount of work compared to your follow-through, only practice your takeaway for a few days! As I was molding my backswing in the early years of my career, I took the club back, checked the top of my back swing, and focused on the power in my legs as I let the club find its way down to the place of impact.

The first week I brought my clubs into the living room and ventured into this practice method, my coach immediately asked what had changed when I returned to the dome that following Saturday. I catapulted on this success, completing 100-200 swings in my living room per day. While in theory, this may sound even more effective than picking up a club whenever you feel like it, but I lost a bit of mindfulness, consciousness and perfection while repeating a slow motion swing hundreds of times. It’s not supposed to be hard. Practice when you feel like it, but practice well.

While the physical movement is pertinent, so is training the mind over each shot, both in your living room and on the course.

fitness
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About the Creator

Megan Kopeny

Hi, my name is Meg. I am rediscovering my hometown of Chicago as I rediscover parts of myself. Join me! It's great to have you.

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