If you want to improve your golf you need to improve your body and your mind. The golf swing is one of the strangest dances with a stick to come out of Scotland since they invented music which comes out of a bag with pipes attached. It’s a devilishly tricky move which must be practiced over and over and more importantly must be viewed critically.

The good news is I don’t think it’s necessary to hit a thousand balls per day. In fact I see people hitting buckets and buckets of balls with the same horrid problems reproducing themselves each time and it’s probable that if you are swinging poorly and repeating the poor swing thousands of times you are anchoring this into your muscle memory and driving your game further into a hole. Many golfers run to a pro and will receive a lot of great advice then go out on the course and do exactly what they were doing before anyway, so the key is to understand what your body is doing through the swing and understand if this is helping you or not.

For me I spend time everyday working through excercises without a ball (sometimes without a club) in slow motion impregnating my muscles with a type of memory which I can call upon without thinking once I’m on the course. Feel the muscles flexing and relaxing and the tendons turning through the swing. Break down and visualize each part of the full swing so it is as familiar as any other natural movement you make during the day. I film my swing and compare my swing to others to see how my body alignes and turns compared to some of the best swings in the world (internet and some simple programs makes this all very easy, see the video above).

Although I’m not a bodybuilding nut, it’s important to keep my back and torso muscles in form with simple excerices like push ups and sit ups, and everything flexible with various rotation movements which train me to release tension before I tee up.

Most of all you must want to improve. If you accept you need help then you will be receptive to change even if this change comes from within. If you see a problem on the screen after filming yourself run through the movements until you feel your muscles changing and accepting this new movement.

Golf is a mind and body sport so use both.