Storing your sticks in the trunk for a couple weeks may actually help your golf game by giving your mind the opportunity to exchange some bad thoughts with good ones; however, icing your game for too long over the winter months could wreak havoc on your handicap. Here are a few easy and fun ways to keep your game warm over the next few months.
Scribe your secrets
We have all played a round of golf where we experience an "aha moment" in which we discover a swing thought or mindset that triggers solid contact and/or confidence. Unfortunately, a post-round brew or the passage of time is enough to erase our secrets to success. The best way to save the tidbits of information that have worked in the past is to simply jot them down. A Post-It Note would suffice, but I would recommend dedicating a small journal to the cause. For now, try to recall some of your best rounds, and transcribe what did or may have lead to past successes. Writing these secrets down and reviewing them before you unearth your clubs from the snow will avoid learning the same keys only after suffering a triple bogey your first round back.
Perceive the pros
The wintertime affords us a great opportunity to be lazy. Fantastically enough, golfers can improve their games while sitting on their couches. Spending a bit of time on YouTube or another video site to watch instructional golf videos or Bizhub Swing Vision analyses can truly be a useful investment of a golfer's time. There are countless free videos available that will help golfers better understand the proper way to swing the golf club and how to escape from a host of difficult situations they didn't know how to deal with.
Steer clear of virtual reality
Many people love to drive up to their local golf shop during the winter months to knock countless drives into a screen hooked up to a launch monitor. Although the screen does appeal to our innate love for numbers, figures, and hi-tech graphics, they are not entirely accurate and tend to encourage poor swing habits. Its users typically lengthen their swings, strengthen their grips, and twitch all of their muscles in an effort to vamp up the numbers the simulator generates almost instantaneously. Avoiding these machines is best for a golfer's game. If they are used, don't get caught up in the numbers; rather, work on making a good swing and solid contact.
Look in the mirror
When each golfer takes a swing, they have an image of what it looks like. Unfortunately, these images oftentimes drastically deviate from how the swings truly appear (videos don't lie). If this is the case and a swing flaw needs to be corrected, a great way to address and correct it is by using a mirror. A full-length mirror will instantly communicate to golfers whether what they think they are doing is congruent with how they are actually swinging the club. If dissonance exists between the two, the golfer can correct the positioning of their hands and body with the help of the mirror and then memorize the associated feeling.
Winter can be tough on a golfer's game, but it doesn't have to be. Incorporating one or all of the aforementioned tips should help golfers get back into the swing of things as the temperature rises.
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