Winter Practice: Building Habits for Next Season
As the colder months set in, it’s the perfect time to build lasting practice habits and make any changes needed for next season. Winter provides an opportunity to work on fundamentals, address weaknesses, and develop a structured practice plan. Here’s a guide to make the most of your winter practice sessions.
1. Organized Practice: Make Every Session Count
Efficient practice begins with a structured, organized plan. By writing out your schedule and selecting specific drills ahead of time, you’ll get the most out of each session. With countless aspects to work on in golf, the most efficient route to improvement is to narrow your focus to one or two key areas that have been discussed with your coach.
A well-structured plan should include a warm-up and allocated time for each drill. This way, you avoid the uncertainty of figuring out what to work on after you arrive. Instead, you’ll start each session with a clear goal, ready to make meaningful progress before you even put on your glove.
2. Fitness and Speed Training: Preparing Your Body for Power
Golf is increasingly recognized as a power game, and athletic conditioning can make all the difference. Building strength, flexibility, and speed gives players a significant edge on the course. Fitness training enhances stability, balance, and overall strength, while speed training focuses on generating explosive movement to increase clubhead speed.
A great product to support your training is the GolfForever system. This at-home training aid offers hundreds of video-guided exercises tailored to golf-specific fitness, covering everything from flexibility and strength to targeted speed drills. GolfForever makes it easy to integrate conditioning into your daily routine, so you can build power and maintain mobility through the winter months.
Speed training can be easily added to any of our current lessons or developmental programs. Students who undergo Superspeed Stick training experience on average 5 mph in their clubhead speed and over 12 yards of distance.
Remember: a strong body supports a powerful swing. Building these habits in the off-season will pay dividends when you return to the course, feeling more powerful, stable, and confident in every swing.
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3. Putting Practice: 2 Drills to Try This Winter
Keep your putting sharp this winter with two essential indoor drills designed to boost accuracy and control. First, try the Gate Drill to enhance your accuracy and start direction. Place two small markers—like golf balls or tees—roughly 12-18 inches in front of your putting spot, spaced just wider than the golf ball. The aim is to roll your putts through this “gate” consistently. If you hit one of the markers, your face angle was likely misaligned at impact, offering instant feedback on your stroke path.
Next, focus on putter/distance control with the Speed Cones Drill. Position two cones or other markers at equal distances on either side of the ball, indicating where your backswing and forward swing should extend. These markers serve as visual guides to help match the size of your backstroke with your follow-through. Experiment with varying distances between the cones to practice different swing speeds, focusing on a smooth, balanced stroke. Please use the images below to help set up your putting drills!
4. Constant Feedback: Video, Data, or Ball Flight
One of the obstacles of practicing indoors during the winter is the lack of feedback. We aren’t seeing the ball fly off our clubface as most of the time we are hitting into a screen or net. Tools like video analysis, launch monitor data, and viewing your ball flight can keep you on track.
Video Analysis: Regularly recording your swing helps you monitor key aspects that we are unaware of simply through feel. We need the video to show us what it is we are actually doing and how we are moving the club. This is you and your coach's best tool for communicating as well.
Launch Monitor Data: Launch monitors provide insights into what is happening to the ball and club throughout the golf swing, while the video shows us how you moved your body. Both are crucial pieces of information. Tracking several metrics over time lets you set clear improvement goals, like boosting swing speed or refining your face control or swing direction. Small gains in these areas help make big changes in your scores.
Ball Flight Observation: Getting outside to see your ball flight, even under heaters, is essential for building trust in your winter practice. Watching how the ball flies offers the ultimate feedback on your swing, helping you see real results from your hard work. Incorporating periodic outdoor practice keeps you connected to your progress and reinforces positive changes.
Stay Connected! We hope these insights help you make the most of your training this winter. If you have any questions or would like to dive deeper into any of these topics, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team. Work hard this winter to play your best golf next year!!
Will Smittle, Director of Instruction
Game On Golf Center
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