Preparing For The Off Season

It’s a bit dreary to think about but for many golfers, the golf season is starting to draw to an end.  No I’m not expecting to put the clubs away just yet, but I am starting to put together my plan of action for the off season.

Yes, that’s right I have a plan for what I will be doing to improve my golf game even though I will likely be looking out the window at snow for a few straight months.  Unfortunately, Michigan isn’t known for warm winters.  To start, I sit down an throughly evaluate my statistics.  I look at what areas are strong, what are weak, and assess why the numbers are the way that they are.  This will provide me with a lot of information for the upcoming months.  Even though I might not have access to be on a range hitting balls and fine tuning like I would prefer  but I can work on making small adjustments.

For example, I find that I tend to miss long iron shots on long par 3’s out to the right.  I will be spending a lot of time this winter working on my set up with these clubs while standing in front of a mirror.  This will allow me to check my posture, grip position, ball position without even needing to swing the club.  I will rehearse getting into a good setup and posture to give myself the best chance of correcting this error though the winter.  Now do I expect that this is going to be the ultimate cure to fix missing these irons to the right?  No.  What my mirror work will allow me to do, is repetitively get into the correct set up positions so that when I am able to get back on the range in the spring I will already have this part of the swing corrected, and will just need to focus on making solid contact.

I will also be spending a large amount of time working on my physical fitness.  You can never spend enough time working on strength, flexibility, and endurance.  Keeping your body in peak physical conditioning will give you that extra advantage over your competitors.  Plus the added benefit it that by keeping your body in great condition will allow you to get into good posture, make a full swing, and maximize your clubhead speed.

So if you are facing the dreary days of winter soon, you should start thinking about your plan.  That way you’ll be able to make 2014 another great year of golf!