For golfers looking to get better, the driving range should be about more than just hitting a bucket of balls. The practice range is an opportune place to practice your golf swing and improve on areas in which your game is struggling. One of the most effective ways to do this is through swing drills, which can help tighten up your game and lead to lower scores out on the course.
Balance and Pivot Drill
Many golfers pivot incorrectly during their swing, causing their swing plane to be off and sending the ball in any number of wrong directions, "Golf Magazine" instructor Glenn Deck says. An easy way to practice the correct golf swing pivot is the balance and pivot drill. The biggest positive aspect of this drill is that it doesn't require a ball, and you can perform it from virtually anywhere. Stand in your normal golf stance with a club in your hands as if you were preparing to hit the ball. Make sure you bend you knees properly. Staying in your golf swing posture, take the club and put it behind your back, with your arms resting behind the club. Practicing pivoting in this position. Twist your trunk slowly to the right---or the left for left-handed golfers---and then back to center and to the left for your follow-through. Adjust your posture so you stay balanced. Once you are comfortable with the feel of the proper pivot, take the club from behind your back and practice the pivot while swinging the club.
Distance Drill
Getting the maximum club speed out of your swing is essential to hitting a powerful shot, according to "Golf Tips" magazine. Coordinating your body's movement with the clubhead requires more than just your hands. To practice this concept, prepare as if you were going to take a full swing, with a ball in front of you. Set up your club just behind the ball, and hit the ball without taking a backswing. If you swing with only your hands, you'll cause the ball to roll over the club face. As you begin using your whole body to swing, you'll eventually learn how to launch the ball with no backswing. Slowly reintroduce the backswing into the drill a foot or less at a time until you are making a full swing.
Waggle Drill
The slice is one of the most dreaded golf swing bugs, but you can cure it with the waggle drill. Prepare as you would for a normal shot, with the ball on a tee at medium height. Looking down at the ball, set up another ball on the ground about a foot back from your tee---call it the outside ball---and another about a foot below the second ball. This is the inside ball. The object of the drill is to make the club move along a more normal plane path than your slice swing. Practice using small strokes to waggle the clubhead back and around the outside ball, then the inside ball and finally toward your teed-up ball. Then take a full swing, incorporating the waggle into your full swing.
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