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This Hot Wheels drill will get your putting back on track

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One of the easiest ways to consistently lower your scores is to avoid three putts during your round. And the best way to ensure yourself of a one or two putt is to concentrate on speed, which will help you to lag the ball up to the hole.

Good news for you, there’s a great way new to work on your speed. And if you look around your attic, basement, toy storage area, or your child’s room, you might find the same orange strip of plastic that I use in this drill. It’s a piece of Hot Wheels track, and it looks something like this.

Photographer Mike M Stylist Alison

It’s useful because usually when you’re practicing speed, you also spend time focusing on your aim and mechanics, which distracts you from having 100 percent attention on speed. The track allows you to focus everything on the speed while never worrying about aim or stroke mechanics, because the track will direct the ball at the hole on the right line every time. So all you need to do is put the right speed and roll on the ball.

The Hot Wheels drill

StranoWheels

To set the drill up, flip the track over so you have the bottom rails facing up (I have colored the rails with a black Sharpie). Aim the track along the break of the putt so that a putt struck the perfect speed will take whatever slope is on the green and go in the hole. Then place the ball in the middle of the track.

When we have this setup, I tell the player to look at the hole and take several practice strokes feeling the speed they want to hit the ball to roll it in the hole. After they do that, I have them put the putter behind the ball and stroke it without thinking about aim or stroke mechanics. Naturally, the Hot Wheels track will give them the proper aim and stroke direction, freeing the player up to focus solely on speed.

StranoPuttingDrill

We like to play several games at my club with the Hot Wheels track, each of which helps golfers groove their distance control with the putter. My favorite game is called “Call It,” in which players hit a putt, but are not allowed to look up to see where it went. They have to decide what speed the ball is rolling by feel alone. They call out “short,” “long” or “perfect,” and then look up to see if their prediction was correct. The game is great for building awareness of touch and speed control on the greens.

Hot Wheels drills can be both fun and very effective, so climb up to the attic and find that box of old Hot Wheels cars and orange track. Take a piece to the course so you can focus only on speed, while honing your stroke as well.

Editor’s Note: Rob Strano recently appeared on the Golf Channel Morning Drive show and demonstrated for everyone how to do the “hottest” drill in putting. Watch the segment here: http://www.golfchannel.com/media/four-disciplines-improve-your-putting/

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If you are an avid Golf Channel viewer you are familiar with Rob Strano the Director of Instruction for the Strano Golf Academy at Kelly Plantation Golf Club in Destin, FL. He has appeared in popular segments on Morning Drive and School of Golf and is known in studio as the “Pop Culture” coach for his fun and entertaining Golf Channel segments using things like movie scenes*, song lyrics* and familiar catch phrases to teach players. His Golf Channel Academy series "Where in the World is Rob?" showed him giving great tips from such historic landmarks as the Eiffel Tower, on a Gondola in Venice, Tuscany Winery, the Roman Colissum and several other European locations. Rob played professionally for 15 years, competing on the PGA, Nike/Buy.com/Nationwide and NGA/Hooters Tours. Shortly after embarking on a teaching career, he became a Lead Instructor with the golf schools at Pine Needles Resort in Pinehurst, NC, opening the Strano Golf Academy in 2003. A native of St. Louis, MO, Rob is a four time honorable mention U.S. Kids Golf Top 50 Youth Golf Instructor and has enjoyed great success with junior golfers, as more than 40 of his students have gone on to compete on the collegiate level at such established programs as Florida State, Florida and Southern Mississippi. During the 2017 season Coach Strano had a player win the DII National Championship and the prestigious Nicklaus Award. He has also taught a Super Bowl and Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, a two-time NCAA men’s basketball national championship coach, and several PGA Tour and LPGA Tour players. His PGA Tour players have led such statistical categories as Driving Accuracy, Total Driving and 3-Putt Avoidance, just to name a few. In 2003 Rob developed a nationwide outreach program for Deaf children teaching them how to play golf in sign language. As the Director of the United States Deaf Golf Camps, Rob travels the country conducting instruction clinics for the Deaf at various PGA and LPGA Tour events. Rob is also a Level 2 certified AimPoint Express Level 2 green reading instructor and a member of the FlightScope Advisory Board, and is the developer of the Fuzion Dyn-A-line putting training aid. * Golf Channel segments have included: Caddyshack Top Gun Final Countdown Gangnam Style The Carlton Playing Quarters Pump You Up

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. Gareth

    May 15, 2016 at 4:06 am

    Best putting trainer I’ve ever seen was something that Euro player Jason Scrivener developed. Best money I’ve ever spent on my golf game… http://www.theputtingsquare.com/

  2. golfraven

    May 14, 2016 at 4:17 pm

    Like the tip but my son will freak out when I steal his Hot Wheel stuff.

    • LabraeGolfer

      May 15, 2016 at 8:46 am

      Same but my dad lol. He has over 20,000 hot wheels and probably 300 feet of track.

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Instruction

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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How a towel can fix your golf swing

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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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Instruction

Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks

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You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!

 

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