THE ULTIMATE 30-MINUTE RANGE SESSION

Top 50 Coach Rick Shiels shares his practice secrets to help supercharge your game for the season ahead

- Rick Shiels

We’re all guilty of it. We go to the range with best intentions, but end up hitting balls without much thought. We call it ‘practice’, when it’s really anything but. The problem? This won’t help one bit when the pressure is on out on the course.

Over the following pages, I’m going to show you how to make long-term improvements by implementing a simple 30-minute range session into your practice. I break the time down into three elements: basics and technique, skill challenges and pressure practice. Start using this and I’m confident it can transform your game for the better.

Basics & technique

1 Alignment

We tend to think of this as the ‘boring’ stuff, but it’s crucial. Get a couple of long clubs out of your bag, one for alignment and one for ball position. Many of the best players in the world will do this religiously. Set the clubs up as I have here, with one pointing a fraction left of the target you’ve chosen and the other lying across it, so it forms a perfect right angle. This works as a great alignment aid and provides a handy checkpoint to ensure your ball position is in the correct place.

Once you’ve warmed up, hit some wedges, ensuring your feet are parallel to the target line and the ball position is roughly in the middle of your stance. This will develop your feel for a good set-up and make sure bad habits don’t creep in. Hit ten shots in total, stepping out and back in each time to hone the perfect address position.