Coaching – David Barry Golf Coaching

Coaching, Davidbarrygolf, Douglas, Freetips, Golf, Ireland, lessons

Is perfection killing your golf game?

What is perfection and why can perfection kill your golf game??

On my lesson tee I see lots of people practicing with the intent to hit perfect shots. Lots of full swings and trying to hit it as straight as possible. Sound familiar ??

Thats brilliant if you wanna be a range rat but if you want to shoot lower scores this isn’t really helping your golf game.

There are two main problems with this way of practice.

1. Trying to hit the ball straight isn’t the best way to play golf. (It’s very hard to do)
2. The amount of times you have the ‘perfect’ number on the golf course is very little.

So why do we practice like this??

One thing I talk a lot to my players about is ‘Golf IQ’ and I honestly believe improving your golf IQ is the easiest way to lower your scores.

Golf IQ is understanding that the game of golf is a lot more than hitting perfect shots, the winner of a golf tournament isn’t the person who hits the most perfect shots, perfect shots are great but the person who hits the best bad shots will always have a good chance to win.

If you look at the PGAtour or European Tour the winner is nearly always the player with the fewest bogeys or in the top 5 least bogeys anyway.
If we think about that a little more for your game, whats going to be easier making less bogeys & double bogeys or making more birdies??

So if we take this approach to improve our golf how do we actually practice this??

1. Spend more time chipping and putting ( putting from 10 feet and in )

For your everyday golfer this is an easy way lower your score, too many times people are practicing their 15-20 foot putts and in truth thats not a good way to lower your score because you simply won’t hole a lot of putts from this distance. Focus on 10 feet and in to improve your scores

2. Practice shots that aren’t ‘full’ swings

Practice the in-between shots, these are the shots you get more often on the golf course. so don’t stand on the practice tee ripping full swings, hit 3/4 shots hit 1/2 shots train to help your game on the course, not to look good on the range.

3. Be happy to have a shot shape

Having a shot shape can help you more than it’s going to hurt you. If your ball has excessive curve maybe go see your local PGA Pro but in general having a ball the curves the same way with every shot is good because its predictable, and predictable is good. Trying to hit the ball arrow straight leads to missing shots left and right and is very unpredictable. Plus as said before its very difficult.

Hope this couple tips will help your golf game the next time you tee it up and if you want to ask me any questions about the above idea please feel free to ask.

Please feel free to check out my coaching philosophy on my any of my social media outlets.

Website : https://davidbarrygolfcoaching.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Davidbarrycoaching

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/davidbarry59/

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#cork, #douglas, Beginners golf, Coaching, Golf, PGA

How to learn ‘GOLF’

Golf is one of the greatest sports ever invented and can give you joy in your life for such a long time.

It’s a game where grandparents can play and compete against their grand-kids or you can go out on your own and play against yourself. It’s truly GREAT.
But it’s also incredibly difficult and can be hard to learn, if its approached the wrong way.
Everyone started playing golf somewhere and everyone was new at some stage to the game so don’t be worried because everyone was intimidated by the game at some stage too.
This little quick read is going to give you a guide on how to get started in golf.

What is Golf?

Golf is getting the ball from one place to another place while hitting it with a golf club.

It’s that simple really.

What do I need to learn??

You will need to learn how to hit the golf ball, that can be done in a driving range ideally with the help of a PGA pro to guide you.
After that everything else is easy.

What’s great about golf is that the worst player in the world can have as much fun as the best player.

After you’ve learned how to hit a golf ball the rest is up to you and what you want to get out of the game.

If you want to be a competitive golfer then you might need to put in some work and practice. You’ll need to learn some rules and probably get out and play with some serious golfers.
If you want to be a social golfer that’s perfect too, and it will take less work but you will still be able get out the same amount of fun.

How do I move from hitting the ball on the driving range to playing golf on the golf course?

Firstly find some like minded people.
Secondly remember that most golfers love helping new golfers.
Thirdly get out and play small amounts. (at first the golf course is intimidating so small amounts help)
Fourthly don’t try and learn it all at once there is simply too much to learn. Just try pick up one or two little things every time you play instead of trying to learn it all on your first try.

If any of this interests you go talk to a local golf pro ( or message me ) I’m sure they will be happy to help.
Please feel free to check out my coaching philosophy on my any of my social media outlets.

Website : https://davidbarrygolfcoaching.com/

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Davidbarrycoaching

Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/davidbarry59/

Twitter : https://twitter.com/DaveyBarry

Coaching, Distance, Golf, WinterPractice, WinterPrograms

How to Look Back to Go Forward.

Have you ever felt beaten up by golf?
I know I have plenty of times.
The winter is a great time to take stock and put in the work to make next year your best yet on the golf course.

How can you do that tho??

Looking back is your first step, unless you have an honest look at your previous year you are going to waste a lot of time trying to improve over the winter and just working on our strengths won’t actually make a massive difference in your golf game. Look at the areas that you struggle with, improve them and keep your strengths sharp.

The best way to do this is if you have kept stats, if you have stats this will show you where your weakness is and the areas of your game that needs improvement.
If you haven’t kept stats don’t worry. Its pretty easy to know what to work on even if you don’t have the stats to back it up. Work on the areas of your game that you don’t like to practice. Golfers love to practice what they are good at, over the winter try to make your practice uncomfortable. Work on the clubs that you shy away from hitting on the practice tee.

Second thing that will help you over the winter is to sharpen your wedge game.

We all know that if we can hit our wedges close it will help us but I don’t see enough work on the practice tee with wedges.
The first thing we must do with our wedges is to nail down our distances.
You need to know exactly how far each one of your wedges goes.
To be able to control your distance you must firstly be able strike your wedges constantly.
You should also find some ‘core’ distances that you work on getting VERY good at.
Something like 30 50 & 70 yards and work at getting incredible at these.

Also hitting a lot of wedges on the range does wonders for your golf swing.
Hitting wedges is great for rhythm, by hitting loads of wedges it can transfer that rhythm into you swing with the longer clubs too and having good rhythm in your golf swing can actually negate some imperfections in your swing.

Third step.

Improve your driving.

For most people that’s a need to improve distance there are plenty of ways to do that.
You can join a Gym, do an online training package like here or visit your local PGA Pro.

It’s proven that gains in distance is a very easy way to lower your scoring average, and it’s not as hard as most people think. A lot of people leave distance on the shelf by not maximizing their driving by either having the wrong Angle of Attack or by not striking the driver out of the middle of the club.

Finally if you are serious about improving your golf over the winter don’t do it alone.

Make a plan and get people to help.

Ask your Local Pro for his or her help.

Get friends to join you in your practice.

Have fun working hard and smart over the winter and if I can help in any way please feel free to contact me.

Hope these few little tips have helped and keep and eye out on my social pages over the next few weeks for more tips and a great money back package for guaranteed gains in distance.

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Coaching, Golf, Practice

How to improve your practice in 3 easy steps

I constantly talk to golfers who want to get better or get more consistent. Their biggest problem is they don’t know how to improve.
A common thing to see would be this golfer committing to a new practice routine of going to the range 2 or 3 times a week for a month and when their scores don’t improve they go back to their normal routine of a few hole some evening during the week and play a competition once or twice a weekend.

This sound familiar??

The big problem here is the type of practice that the player is doing has no relevance to improving their golf game.

Going to the range and taking out your pitching wedge hitting a few balls until you hit a few nicely, then moving onto repeat that process with your 9 iron and 8 iron etc has got so little relevance to improving your scores.

For your golf to improve step one is to improve your driving.

If you can hit the ball a long distance thats brilliant, if you can’t its not the end of the world.
One thing you must be able do especially if you don’t bomb it 300 yards is to keep the ball in play. You MUST be able to get your 2nd shot onto or around the green.
You MUST eliminate penalty strokes from your tee shots.
For some people this will require better targets off the tee, for others it might be finding their local PGA Pro for some help on their technique.

Step 2 is approach shots.

To lower scores you have to be good with the scoring clubs. This sounds obvious but so often people are unable hit shots from different distances inside 120yards.
This is an area that requires practice and confidence.
If your club doesn’t have an area to practice this length shot go to a field with a dozen golf balls, put markers out 50,70,90 & 110 yards and start trying to get the right distance with these clubs first. Don’t focus on hitting these shots arrow straight, instead if you’re trying to hit it 70yards make sure the first bounce is at least 65yards and no more than 75yards.
Being able control your distance on these shots will help far more than hitting it straight for these distances.

Final step, step 3 putting.

The putting green is where I see the most wasted hours for people.
Watching people putting from 15/20feet with 4/5 balls to me is worse than watching horror movies (and I hate horror movies).

This is such wasted time. Stats are hated by some people but I LOVE them, and stats will tell us even the best players in the world on average don’t make many putts outside of 12 feet. So stop practicing from these distances, all you are doing is re-enforcing missing putts.

What is critical for putting better and lowering scores is avoiding 3 putts and tidying up inside 6 feet.
Practice lag putting. Play games of leap frog with your balls or putt to areas on the putting green to improve your pace.

Then make sure you are able hole out well from inside 6 feet. Don’t stand in one spot and hit putt after putt but instead hit putts from different angles, play games, and try build pressure into your practice.
I promise you if you improve these 3 areas you WILL lower your scores.

If any of these areas cause you trouble go get help, ask your local pro.
If you have any questions about what I just talked about please feel free to contact me.

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