Q&A with PGA Professional, James Drinkall
May 11, 2018
We caught up with James Drinkall to pick his brains for some tips and tricks you guys can try to up your golf game!
Q: How often do you recommend people should practice?
A: A player should practice as much as possible though it must be structured, productive and not detrimental to physical attributes (ie inducing injury).
Q: What’s the main thing people come to you for?
A: Consistency is the main requirement from a player in a lesson, as much as 99% of the time.
Q: How can you boost the power of your swing and make shots go further?
A: A player will create more speed and ultimately distance by working on an improved separation of hips and shoulders in the swing (x factor). This creates more torque and an ability to return the club to the ball quicker.
Q: Which irons would you recommend focusing on practising with?
A: I would usually encourage players to work the wedges hard and then move to a mid iron (7 or 6) for the vast majority of the practice time.
Q: Any grip tips?
A: Hand placement is crucial for clubface control (seek professional guidance) but definitely make sure grip pressure is not “too tight or too light”.
Q: Are there any simple drills you could recommend trying?
A: Work on the body pivot (body action during the swing) using 2 tour sticks (one along front of shoulders and the other along front of hips - use belt loops to hold in place if you want) make the body action and observe the difference in angles between the two sticks at varying times in the movement.
Q: Do you have any good tips for putting?
A: Try making putting strokes working on rhythm and tempo, observing the way the clubhead moves in a mirror! Don’t look at the clubhead directly. Observe how much more free flowing the stroke is. Try to then transfer this feeling to the practice green.
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