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Taking Inventory

When it comes to golf, it is very easy to lose focus of what to work on. It's easy to fall into a trap of just hitting balls with no real plan or focus. I like to use the idea of "Taking Inventory" with my students to get focused from time to time. You can make this as simple or as complicated as you would like, but here are some general suggestions for identifying the state of your game and your swing tendencies.

Beginner or Quick Version

  • 10 Drivers
  • 10 7-Irons
  • 10 3/4 Wedge/Sand wedges

The rules to this drill are simple. You need to take a minute between each shot, and you want to write down the results of each shot. Make a note of the following:

  • Where did it start? - Height?/Direction?
  • How did the ball curve? - How early in the flight?/How much did it curve?
  • How solid did you hit it? - Toe/Heel? and Thin/Heavy?

Store the information in a spreadsheet so that you can look at it later and look for patterns.

Advanced or Long Version

  • 10 Drivers
  • 10 3-Woods
  • 10 Hybrids
  • 10 Long Irons
  • 10 7-Irons
  • 10 3/4 Wedge/Sand wedges
  • 10 Knockdown Shots
  • 10 Fades - mid iron
  • 10 Draws - same club
  • 10 Chip Shots
  • 10 Pitch Shots
  • 10 Bunker Shots
  • 10 Long Putts (40 to 60 feet)
  • 10 Short Putts (3 - 8 feet)

This list is merely a suggestion of shots that you should have in your repertoire if you want to break 80 consistently. Feel free to add or subtract shots depending on your game and time available. The rules for hitting shots and the shot characteristics that you should monitor are the same as with the quick version.

Playlists: Practice Strategies, Find Your Best Swing Quickly

Tags: Practice Strategies, Mental Game, Beginner

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In this video we're going to talk about taking inventory, which is basically figuring out

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the state of my game and what the heck do I need to work on.

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You see the golf swing is very complicated and it changes from club to club, right?

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Because it's not just like I have one tool like a tennis racket, I actually have a whole

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bag full of tools.

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I have 14 different tools that I'm going to swing and each one of them behaves slightly

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differently.

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Now which tools I'm doing well with and which ones I'm having trouble with can give me insight

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into what's going on within my body, within my brain and within my golf swing.

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So here's how you're going to take inventory.

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I'm going to write instructions in the notes section of this video, but the simple version

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is going to be what we're going to cover first and I'm just going to highlight on the

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advanced version because it can take some time.

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So taking inventory is figuring out what's going on with my game.

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I recommend that all students keep some form of statistics because finding out what you're

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actually doing on the round or when you actually go out and play golf is definitely

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better than what's going to happen when I'm practicing here at the range.

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Here at the range I have a lot of factors going in my favor and it might not give me a complete

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picture.

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But I want to have at least the good guess if I don't have those accuracy statistics.

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So the beginner version of taking inventory is I'm going to hit 30 golf balls.

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I'm going to do 10 golf balls with my driver, 10 golf balls with my 7 iron, and 10 golf

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balls with a 3 quarter sandwich somewhere in that range, 80 90 yards.

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Each one of these will give me different indications of what's going on with my swing.

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All I'm going to do is I'm going to hit 10 golf balls and I'm going to write how solidly

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did I hit it?

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Did I hit it heavy, thin, toe, heel, etc.

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And I'm going to write down where did it start?

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Where did it curve?

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How high did it go?

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Some of those factors.

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The other little piece to this is you're going to use your full shot routine.

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You're going to take one minute in between each shot.

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So this typically takes about 35 minutes to go through the inventory.

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If you're doing the advanced version it can take two hours.

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But for this version we're just going to be doing 7 iron driver and wedge.

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By writing down these misses or solid shot.

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So if I hit 10 drivers and 8 of them are solid and two of them go to the left.

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And then with my 7 iron I hit 6 of them solid and 4 of them I hit a little heavy, two of

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them went off to the right and two of them overhooked.

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And then I hit my sand wedge and I hit 3 of them solid.

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I hit 5 of them kind of really thin or bladed and the rest of them I hit heavy.

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What does that tell you about your golf game?

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If you don't know if you're not sure how to interpret that results, that's great.

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That's why you're here.

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But if you have that information it can tell you almost exactly what you're doing

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with your swing and how to work on it.

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I recommend doing this at least a couple times a month just to see what the state of my game is

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so that I know exactly what I need to be working on instead of just relying on how your swing

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looks on video.

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Yes the video is very helpful but ultimately the true task of whether your swing is working

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is whether it can perform and this is my favorite way of testing how it can perform when you're

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not on the golf course.

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