{"id":497,"date":"2010-11-05T16:04:22","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T16:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janinajacobs.com\/?p=497"},"modified":"2011-02-25T22:07:28","modified_gmt":"2011-02-25T22:07:28","slug":"the-positive-golfer-pre-shot-routine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/golf\/instruction\/497\/the-positive-golfer-pre-shot-routine","title":{"rendered":"The Positive Golfer: Pre-Shot Routine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Pre-shot routine complete and ready to fire.......<\/p><\/div>\n

Do you have a Pre-Shot Routine?\u00a0 Or do you just go up and hit the ball without thinking?<\/p>\n

Without a Pre-Shot Routine,\u00a0you may help speed up play short term but in the long run, your game will suffer.<\/p>\n

What is a pre-shot routine?\u00a0 Study any golf professional or top amateur and you will see a variety of actions they perform before hitting a shot.\u00a0 It could be as simple as a steely-eyed glance in the direction of the hole or as complicated as Sergio Garcia\u2019s previously annoying habit of waggling the club up to 30 times.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sports psychologist Dr. Jackie Odom, Ph.D. and I\u00a0don\u2019t encourage that.<\/p>\n

To be consistent, you must capture some personal routine as your own.\u00a0 Here is the one we recommend, in two parts:\u00a0 1) Pre-Swing and 2) Actual Swing<\/strong><\/p>\n

PRE-SHOT ROUTINE<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Part One:\u00a0 Pre-Swing, some of which you can do as you are walking up to your ball:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assess the lie, condition, distance, and situation<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture the desired shot and where it will finish<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Select the right club<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stand behind the ball and see the target line and resulting shot<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take your stance, aim clubface, take your grip, align the body, establish ball position, waggle for comfort (though not 30 times), visualize your shot<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Part Two:\u00a0 The Swing<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Picture your swing, visualizing the desired swing<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Capture the feeling to produce the result<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Focus on feel, tempo, pace<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trust your swing and swing the club, letting the ball \u2018get in the way\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Evaluate the result; if the desired shot is achieved, good.\u00a0 \u00a0Internalize it.\u00a0 If not, visualize the desired result and try again next time.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This may sound as if it takes forever. \u00a0However, once you get it down to a routine it will go surprisingly fast.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find that you’ll actually begin your pre-shot routine for your next shot as soon as you\u2019ve completed your last one.\u00a0 As you walk (hopefully), or ride, up the fairway, you should already be thinking about what your next shot may require, as mentioned above.\u00a0 Use that time to check out the distances, the wind, the ground conditions, and what club your first instinct tells you to use.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait until you get to your ball and it is your turn to hit, which wastes time and slows down the game.<\/p>\n

In a short period of time, this will become second nature to you, almost automatic.\u00a0 When you start to notice other people who simply\u00a0run up and hit it, their thought process absent, you\u2019ll know you are making headway.<\/p>\n

Always remember to think things through before you proceed.\u00a0 Decide from where, exactly, you would like to play your next shot.\u00a0 Then do it.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pre-shot routines do not have to be time consuming nor complicated but in order to play better golf, you should have one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,1419],"tags":[4295,5437,3581],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instruction","category-golf","category-the-positive-golfer","tag-pre-shot-routine","tag-set-up","tag-visualization"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2010\/11\/PICT0010.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":792,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/janinajacobs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}