Top 50 coach Ben Emerson (@benemersongolf) runs through the 7 things golfers should never do at the driving range if they want to improve their game!
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Too many amateur golfers don't spend time coming to the driving range but unfortunately when they do
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they don't do the things correctly to actually help them with their golf
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So in today's video we're going to go into seven things you should never do
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when you're working on your game on the range. Right unfortunately too many times people come to the driving range without a plan they're just
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hitting balls without any thought or care and what's the first thing they normally go for
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straight for the driver banging balls down there hoping they're going to get better
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I want you to go to the driving range with a plan. You need to have a good idea of what you are doing
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that day. Are you actually playing golf on the range by going through some different shots? Are
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you actually working on your golf swing? So actually playing golf swing, whatever you are
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make a plan and actually stick to it. You can have some fun at the end of the driving range
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by hitting some drivers but if you're working on your swing, work on your swing
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do you think i got better no absolutely not but sadly so many golfers practice this machine gun
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of actually just hitting shot after shot after shot and not getting better at all so this is what
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i don't want you to do what i do want you to do is actually play golf as much as you can and what
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i mean by that is golf is a very unique game where actually less is more where it's practiced in a way
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sadly where what we do is we hit more shots unfortunately scoring wise we're trying to do
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something less so I like to take a lot of time when I'm on the driving range not just machine
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gunning through balls but actually just doing what I call a three ball drill where I take three balls
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out and I want to make sure that these three balls have my full quality attention at each and every
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shot I'm going to walk away go through my routine whatever I'm working on in my swing I'm making
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making sure my full attention is on these shots. Sadly, not a lot of golfers actually take the time
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to record their swing when they're on the driving range. They rely so much more on feel as opposed to actually what is actually happening I don like that I want some real evidence of what I doing So I going to set my camera up just in slow motion I just going to put it on a tripod and what I going to do is just press record and film just a few shots from
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straight down the line. Now getting the camera angles correct is massively important. So I like
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to have it very consistently, have the camera about belt height and I want to make sure when
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you're shooting a down the line shot like this that the camera is pointing straight through my
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hands to the target depending on what you're working on if the camera's to the left or right
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the shot can actually make you look better or worse than you actually are so just keep it very
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consistent point the camera straight to the hands and if you're doing one face on do exactly the
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same thing get the camera pointing straight at the hands and just step back enough if you can
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so you can see the entire swing throughout. But just click it on slow motion, hit a few shots
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and actually then take some time to go through and see if you're doing what you actually think you're doing
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OK, so I'm hitting it like a bit of a donkey on the driving range, but actually it's OK
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because this is a safe space to actually work on your game. of course I want to get good I want to get better and I want to be able to take it onto the golf
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course but when you're on the driving range and you're actually working on your swing take the
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time to work on your swing too many times I see golfers just pretty much just showing off to their
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friends making these good strikes looking good but if you're working on your swing work on your
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swing if you're working on a technique you are trying to change a movement pattern and it doesn't
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need to be perfect. What I want the end result to be obviously is to be good. We want the long-term
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goal to get better, but it's okay to enjoy that journey, enjoy those bad shots, and actually just
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cut yourself a bit of slack. You're on the driving range, it doesn't really matter, but you want to
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get better long-term, so just enjoy it. So clubface really is key when it comes to actually being able
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to control the golf ball so don neglect clubface control drills And one of my favorite and it one of the best drills I think you can do on the driving range is actually on purpose do some slow swings and really just pay
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attention to where the clubface is and how you're actually going to open and close it and what I
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want you to do is actually hit three balls where the first one you're going to hit as far left as
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you possibly can so I want you to set up perfectly normally aiming dead straight to start with but I
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just want you to make a slower swing and just pay attention to how you're closing the clubface down
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to hit it left and I want this thing to go miles left so let's hit one just aim straight but really
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get this feeling of turning that clubface over and you can see that thing has gone miles left
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Now most people will think you're really bad on the driving range but actually you meant to do it
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it was an intention so that's fine but now I want you to do the opposite now I want you to actually
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feel what does it feel like to open that club face up on demand so what I want you to do is just take
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your normal setup really feel what it feels like to have that club face open and hit it miles to the
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right. Wow I mean that one went off the driving range but you can see I've got a good clear
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understanding of what it takes and what it feels like to close the face what it feels like to open
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the face. Now hopefully you can understand if you can experience both ends of the spectrum you can
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find the middle ground. With this one, I just want to aim straight, get that club face going
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straight at the middle and trap that middle ground. Best shot of it all day
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So don't rely on feedback when you're working on distance control. And what I mean by that is I see
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so many golfers actually aiming for a target sort of 40, 50 yards away. They hit the first one long
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they get the second one short and then they normally get the third one bang on. The problem
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is golf you don't get that feedback. All that's happened there is your brain is just adjusted to
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the two previous shots. It's so important when you're working on distance control it has to be
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random. Go to random distances, actually go through your routine but if you're working on swing that's
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fine Work on swing It okay to hit shot after shot to the same distance but that a totally different practice session when you working on distance control really work on distance control so here all i
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want to do is i've got a random target i'm going to make sure that i go through my routine behind
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the ball first of all do a nice kind of feel swing really just trying to gauge the distance
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in my own head do a few rehearsal swings getting used to that before going in and pulling the trigger
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So right I don't want you to get just good at drills you've got to be able to put it
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into the full swing and too many times I see golfers just doing this they're getting so good
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at drills and drills are great by the way but it needs to be able to move into your full swing
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so you have to mix it up a bit I love to actually take some time to go from drill to full shot drill
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to full shot just doing alternate shots getting used to that movement pattern that you're learning
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in the drill and then being able to put it into real life into a full swing the other thing that
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I love to do is just do the drill and the full swing slowly and get faster and faster and faster
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If you can't, if you're not seeing that good new move that you're trying to put in with the drill
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at slow speed, there is no chance it's going to happen at full speed. So take your time
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go through some drills, whatever the drill that you're working in on, and just make sure that
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every time you do it, you take the time to do a full swing and keep mixing it up and get those
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drills working for your full swing. So I hope you enjoyed that video of seven things you should not
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do next time you go to the driving range and hopefully you learned a few things of what you
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should do next time you go and practice. Please make sure you like and subscribe to the Golf
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Monthly YouTube channel and we look forward to seeing you soon
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