When it comes to making a swing change it can often be difficult for golfers to get comfortable with the adjustments they are attempting to make. These difficulties can lead to questions and doubts that make it tough to stay on the path of improvement.
The good news is that there is an easier way to fast track your improvement. However to speed things up, we must first slow things down! One of my favourite drills to help students make swing changes quickly and easily is called "The 3 Gears Drill".
The essence of this drill is simple, we want to work through full swings incorporating our swing change at 3 different speeds, or in other words utilising our 3 different gears.
To begin this drill simply set aside 5 golf balls which we will use for our first gear. The task is to simply hit 5 shots with the slowest swing speed possible, incorporating your adjustments into the swing. The only rule here is that you cannot stop or pause during the swing, our goal is to keep things as fluid as possible at all times. The objective of the first gear swings is to allow you the opportunity to create a feel for the swing changes you are trying to create.
Once you have completed the first 5 balls you can advance to your second gear. This gear is designed to allow you to continue your feel for the new movement, only now we will begin to gradually increase the speed of the movement. We are aiming for the second gear to be approximately 50% of the normal swing speed. Repeat second gear 5 times before you advance to your third and final gear.
In third gear we begin to add context to those changes,and test how they will feel on the golf course. Our third gear swings will be made at full speed, and to different targets each time. The goal of third gear is to get a sense of how we will incorporate our feel for the swing in a playing environment. In third gear we are trying to create shots rather than make golf swings and essentially we are beginning to "Practice like we Play". As you get more comfortable with these changes you can begin to add more variables such as club, lie and shape of shots.
Just as you did with our first and second gear swings you will hit 5 shots in third gear. Once you complete these 5 shots return to first gear and begin the process again. Doing this will help you not only successfully incorporate your swing changes but also get comfortable with taking them to the golf course immediately.
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