These are by far and away the most useful tool available for golfers.  I don’t understand why everyone doesn’t have these in their golf bag.  The can be purchased from most professional shops for around £15 a set. 

Below are 5 ways that I have my students using them?

1. To properly align yourself to the target.  These are great when working on the mechanical side of practice.
2. Perfect for ball position.  The only issue is if you are hitting off the grass.  Simple way to combat that problem is to tee up the ball.  Teeing the ball up is great.
3. Can easily place into the ground to serve as slide/sway indicators.
4. Used for swing plane if placed on a parallel plane to the club you’re hitting.
5. Stuck vertically in the ground along your toe line to prevent the club from ripping inside.

Having a real smooth putting stroke is invaluable.  I have found one of the best ways to improve the smoothness of your stroke is this, simply put a pound coin on the back of your putter and try and keep it there in the backswing and through impact, this will improve your rhythm and smoothness... a good one for winter indoor practice.

This is another drill I like - all you need is a football or beach ball. This drill will help you keep better connection and linkage between your arms and torso.

This will help those of you whose arms come apart or splay in the backswing which can lead to both arms collapsing... now this is a big power leak.

So here is what we do, at your set up put the ball between your four arms and squeeze them together (this is the start of your connection) now you are ready in a good set up, simply start your swing and keep the ball between your arms you will feel a sense of your arms and body working together in a more connected manner and move. I like the feeling of moving the triangle which has been formed between you arms and shoulders that now should work together. I would suggest a ¾ length swing in this drill. As you swing keep the connection between your arms and torso throughout the drill. This will help with better connection between the arms and torso from side to side.

When I was playing more I used to use the logo on the golf ball to help me line up, but now there are things you can buy to draw a line on your ball and I think this is much better.  It gives you a clean line of your favourite colour which you can use to align the ball so it points along your target line. Always double check that the line (or the logo) is aligned properly towards your target, by kneeling behind the ball again, then go ahead and align your putter to the line on your ball, finally settle your stance. Afterwards, all you have to do its trust your alignment.

If it feels ‘wrong’, then that tells you that your original way of lining the ball up was incorrect. You need to trust your alignment now and stroke the ball towards the hole.

This shot is one of the hardest shots to play, so here is an idea to how to improve this shot for you.

First the choice of club is important, depending on the lip on the bunker the pitching wedge is possibly the best club to choose for this shot.

At the set up have your weight evenly spread, and try not to dig your feet in too deep as you would for a green side bunker shot. The club face must be square with the ball position just a little forward of centre in your stance, now the objective is to nip the ball with a small amount of sand. I would look at the ball and NOT the 2 INS behind the ball as you would for a greenside shot! The more you dig in the less the ball will fly out!

The swing is similar to a pitch shot swing, not too steep and always making sure you follow through... don't stop in the sand, I would say it would be like an L to L shape swing... stay balanced and practice.

This is a great way to get to see if you are on plane.

What you need to do is to get a clothes hanger and hold it with your golf club. (photo to follow shortly!)

The idea is for you to take hold of your 7 iron and hold the hanger like so. Now take a swing and stop half way back, now what you should see is the hanger (as it’s a big focus point) pointing down and in front of your left arm (for you right handers) and at a point between your ball and the ground. The wrong point would be the club pointing straight up in the air and the hanger pointing behind your right arm.

We all want to hit the ball propley, and strike it well all the time; well here is a drill to help you get this.

Ball striking can have a big impact on your distance control, now this is the difference of the high handicapper and the low ones, so a big shot saver!

I would do this drill with half shots with your 9 iron first, then building up to full shots.

So what you need to do to guarantee a pure strike you need to learn to hit down on to the back on the ball with a descending blow.

At the set up place the ball forward of center, make sure your hands are forward (opperset of your left thigh for a right hadered golfer) and you weight 60-40 on the left, (again for a right handered golfer)

All the good chippers in the world have a very quiet wrist action. Having little or no hand action will eliminate the chance of the hands flipping over and the chance of a thin or fat shot. So this tennis ball drill will help you be the chipper you want to be!!!

This is a great drill I used to do as a junior.

I had trouble getting the distance right with long putts, and was told to try this by one of the boys from Bootle GC, where I started my golf, so here it is...

In my practice swings I just kept looking at the hole, this gave me a bit more instinctive feel for the rhythm and length of the stroke I needed for the job.

I then took that feeling to hitting putts. I practiced my long putts at all different distances that way, and it really worked!  I was just thinking about the target the whole time, which improved my ability to judge the distances. Very simple!

The 30 yard pitch shot can be difficult to judge, as the shorter length of the swing means that there is not much club head speed. This can cause inconsistency to the strike so you must make sure the club head is still accelerating through impact.

To play this shot try this:

First, it’s important to get the ball just a bit forward of the centre of the stance, the swing should be almost the same length both back and through, (almost like a semi circle). The length on the back swing should be about hip-high and the follow through just a bit higher.  This is to make sure you keep the speed up (accelerating through the impact zone) as if you don’t, you may hit this shot fat (heavy).

One of the importance things is to make sure the bottom of your swing is in the same place every time, “A CONSISTANT LOW POINT” so you can insure the quality of strike is good.

Balance is a very important component of the swing and using the support from the ground effectively allows you to generate maximum speed and distance. This time of year it’s usually a little muddy and feeling secure and balanced becomes harder because of the poor ground conditions. It will help if you make sure your spikes are new and clean. The extra support created by new spikes will allow you to use the ground a little better.

1. Make sure you always have a clean golf ball to hit... take full advantage when preferred lies are permitted. Even if the ball is in an okay lie, lift and clean it before placing it... take full advantage when you can.
2. When the fairways are wet and muddy it’s very important to strike the ball as cleanly as possible.  One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply move the ball back slightly in your stance, just one ball width.  This will help with the clean strike you need.
3. Now the greens are wet and slow, it’s time to be a little more aggressive with your shots into the green.  The ball will not run like it does in summer, so hit one or two more clubs than you think you need... the ball stops sooner in the wet, so try and get the ball past the flag.

So winter is here and the green's are... well not so good, so here is a good drill to do indoors while the weather is cold and damp!!

This is a great way of seeing if you are lining up your putter head properly.

You just use a small piece of Blu Tack and a pencil. By sticking the pencil squarely on the face of the putter, this will provide a good guide to your putter face alignment. Straight away you will see if you are aiming straight at the hole... or either side of it.

Now practice, you can do this in or outdoors, aiming is so important, this can really help you... give it a go, and let me know!!!

Now we are getting to the poor weather, it’s time to get yourself a routine of practice to give yourself a great chance of making your goals achievable for the 2011 season. 

Everyone wants to get the ball closer to the hole, so you need to try to visualise a definite landing spot on the green rather than to aim just 'towards' the green.

Sometimes this will be at the flag, at other times this will be to the widest part of the green, or the safest, but try to pick out a specific spot in those areas.

Your practice swing should all ways be an accurate dress-rehearsal in terms of the speed and length of the swing that you feel you need to send the ball to your landing spot.

At the set up you need to feel as if you are going to hit the ball from an up-hill lie, ie what you need to do is feel as if your right shoulder (for the right handers) is slightly lower than your left.

What this will do is to achieve more of an upwards blow to the ball and you should get a better ball flight with less backspin.

This drill just goes one step further than the February snippet (connected pitching).

I see many people who struggle with consistent ball striking and often have what we call a flying right elbow (where the arms come apart and spread in the backswing). So here is a great drill to get you connected with your full swing and improve the strike.

We again will use a football for this drill, keeping the ball placed between your forearms just swing back to the half-way point. What you need to do is keep the football in place and what we are looking for is that the elbows stay in a consistent position throughout the back swing.  If there is any chance of your elbows splaying apart during the backswing the football will feel loose and will fall out of position.

This drill is great and will help you with better vision and ensure you start the golf ball on the right line. (It will also help with your alignment… and everyone needs a bit of help there!!)

What you do is simply put 2 poles in the ground in the direction of your intended target (a must) about 3 to 4 foot in front of the ball. Now we have a great visual prop that will help you visualise and picture the ball flight you want.

A great drill to make sure your 3 to 4 foot putts are more positive.

What you need is a pencil, and 4 tee pegs. Place the pencil on the ground about a foot from the hole and use the tees to hold the pencil in place.

Then putt over the pencil towards the hole.  If all is well, the ball will take a little jump and pop into the hole. If your putts are not positive enough the ball will not jump over the pencil and therefore not go in the hole.

This drill will help you be more firm and positive with your putting and help you hole more short putts... have a go, this is a good one!!

Driving the golf ball with today’s new drivers is with out a doubt one of the most enjoyable parts of the game, for men and women alike. There is hardly an amateur golfer on the planet that wouldn’t love a few extra yards on their drive. So here are four basic check-points that could help add those extra yards to your tee shots!

1. Tee the ball Higher - If you want to get the proper angle into the ball and put the right kind of spin on the ball, make sure to tee it up, at least half of the ball should be above the top of the driver at address
2. Take the club back low and slow to start your swing – Far too often when amateurs swing a driver too hard, it starts with a quick out-of-connection backswing that has no width. So LOW and SLOW is the key.
3. Turn your weight behind the ball – don’t leave your weight on your front foot and make sure when you swing that you can feel your weight turning onto your back thigh and foot. A good check point would be that your left shoulder would be over your right foot (for right-handers)
4. Extension through the shot – Don’t collapse too early, I see this so many times when teaching, take a look at my picture, my right arm is still straight and extending through the ball well after impact. I really do think this is so important. Notice how my body is pointing down towards the target as my arms are extending. Practice this... it works!

Often I see golfers thinning their pitches or scooping them with less than desirable results. One of the main reasons I see day in and day out is breaking connection between your arms and body. Here is a very simple yet effective drill using a football.

Here's how this drill works

Place the football between your forearms and make a half swing, keeping the ball squeezed between your arms. If you are properly connected, the ball shouldn't fall out. If you scoop or don't extend through the shot correctly you will see the ball drop out immediately. This is a great drill to improve your ball striking and accuracy.
I have also used this drill with great affect to help with the start of the full swing, being connected at the start means your timing will improve.

Now we find ourselves in the winter without much opportunity to practice on good greens outside... unless you are away in Spain!!

So here are some things you can try indoors on the carpet.

Put a pound coin on the back of your putter and make smooth putting strokes whilst trying to keep the pound on the putter.  This will show up if you are a little jerky with your stroke... then try it with a ball in place so you can actually hit some putts and see what happens!!

Now practice your 3 to 5 footers. Always aiming at a target. You could turn some tee pegs on their heads and see if you can roll the ball up to them without knocking them over.

1. Practising properly: don’t spend more than half an hour at the range at any time, remember it could get expensive and you will tend to get bored and lose concentration. It is quality not quantity of your practice which will make a difference. Practice does not always make perfect, but the right practice will. Do not treat it as: ONE BALL DOWN 250 TO GO!
2. When practising take a good range of clubs with you, say 9, 7 & 5 irons & 3 wood, and the next time change the selection. Make the most of the winter, make friends with all of your clubs and don’t just practice with the ones you like. Why not take a lesson or two. The winter is a good time to sort your game out.
3. Work on your set up and alignment. Always have a target to hit too, this is important. Take time to change your target too, don’t just line up square on the range mat, put clubs down to help you with your alignment.

Plugged balls in bunkers!!! - many people think these are horrid things to deal with, but here is a way to help you get out.

At the set up take a slightly wider stance than normal and put a bit more weight on your front foot (say a balance of 60-40).

You now need to have the club face slightly closed, as this will help you get the ball out of the hole it has made for itself!

Try and keep your weight forward as you make a full back swing with a full wrist cock. Now pull the club back down onto the sand about 1 inch behind the ball.  This now will explode the ball out of the sand but you must keep the swing going through as much as you can.

Without a doubt, 9 out of 10 faults come from the way that you set yourself up before you strike the ball. That is why all tour professionals take time to work on and fine tune their set up and posture.

Here are some important things for you to look at to help you set up like the pros!

At the set up we are looking for an athletic posture with good alignment and of course balance.

From the top.

• Your head position should be up with your chin up too. Your chin shouldn't be down on your chest as this will restrict your shoulder turn into the back swing.
• Next you should bend from the top of your legs (stick your bottom out slightly) not your belly! This will help you get the correct spine angle with the lower part of your back straight.
• Now with your shoulders nice and relaxed, just let your arms hang down in what we call a natural position. At this point I would like you to feel as though your shoulder blades are pinned or close together, this will help keep them back and stop you from getting to rounded.
• Then bend your knees slightly, not too much as that would put too much of your weight on your heels. You should feel you are in a sporty athletic position with your weight forward in your feet.
• Finally to get your feet into position, you need to feel your weight is evenly balanced on each foot with your knees, feet, hips and shoulders all square and in parallel to the 'ball to target line'.