Off-Season Golf Practice Plan for Home or Indoors
Get your personalized at-home golf practice plan with drills and tips designed for your available space and equipment. Perfect for off-season and winter training.
Get your personalized at-home golf practice plan with drills and tips designed for your available space and equipment. Perfect for off-season and winter training.
It’s time to stop thinking that winter is the end of the golf season. Let’s start calling it the “prep season” instead.
There is so much you can do to work on your golf game at home; it’s not necessary to put the clubs down and wait to use them again for a few months.
The key to effective winter golf practice is to have a routine and stick to it.
We have compiled a complete guide for at-home practice for your golf game.
You can choose your equipment and how that will impact what you can do. In addition, we included actionable drills so your practice this “slow season” is the most effective it’s ever been.
It won’t take you long to figure out that the most important part of winter golf practice is not the time you are putting in, but what you are doing during that time.
A 20-minute practice session is better than a one-hour session if you are working on the right things.
Create your tailored winter golf practice plan with just a few clicks. Get drills and tips based on your available space and equipment.
Choose your space and equipment below, and we’ll generate the perfect practice routine with drills tailored to your needs.
If you have a home golf simulator, you have the perfect setup for at-home practice and game improvement for the winter season. All golf simulators are different and offer access to unique technology and data.
When working with your at-home simulator, here is a basic plan for how you can get better this winter.
Break your full-swing practice into three sections, or three days’ worth of practice: clubface control, speed training, and ball flight or shot shaping practice.
Learning to control your clubface during the winter months is extremely beneficial. The wrists control the clubface in your golf swing.
Your main focus should be maintaining a flexed lead wrist at impact for crisper ball striking.
Here is the plan and the associated drills for working on clubface control in your golf simulator this winter.
Set your wrists as if you are already in the impact position. Keep your hands ahead of the ball and your lead wrist flat. Take some swings and try to match this impact position.
It’s fine to pause just after impact as if you are only taking half swings. Once you have that down, start hitting balls using this technique.
Set up two alignment sticks in front of the ball, one just inside and one just outside the target line, creating a “gate” for the ball to travel through.
Focus on hitting through the gate while keeping the clubface square.
Hit 15-20 shots, gradually narrowing the gate as you improve; check your results and the simulator data.
Select three different clubs (wedge, 7-iron, driver) and hit 10 shots with each, focusing on maintaining a square clubface at impact.
Review clubface angle data after each set to check for consistency.
Swing speed drills with a weighted club or device can help you gain more distance in the winter months.
Pair that practice with the proper workout and exercise regime and you’ll pick up some yards when you head back out on the course in the spring.
Establish your baseline by hitting ten shots with your 7 iron and then ten shots with your driver to get an idea of your current speed.
Make sure these swings are not purely about power; you want to just get a baseline, not test out your maximum speed. Pay close attention to speed, distance, and accuracy.
Overspeed training helps your body move faster using a lighter club or speed training stick.
If you don’t have a lighter club you can make this work by swinging an alignment stick. Work on swinging in sets of three.
Try 10 full-speed swings with balance and a fluid motion, making sure you record your speeds if possible.
Once you have worked on increasing your speed with the lighter club, it’s time to build up your strength with heavier golf clubs.
You can use a weighted club or attach weights to your clubs. Start with very small amounts and do this again in sets. Three sets of five to eight full swings is best.
Always check on your rotation and balance if you can’t keep them, lighten the weight or slow down the swing.
Now that you have done both your overspeed and power training, it’s time to move to your regular golf clubs and push yourself to swing a little fast.
See if you are able to increase speed from your initial base speed check. Keep the results of this practice session and watch how you develop through the winter.
Remember that even increasing your swing speed by two miles per hour can result in large distance gains.
Practicing your shot shaping is one of the best parts of owning a golf simulator.
Shot shaping practice can help take your game to the next level and have a huge impact on your scoring.
Work on shaping shots (fade, draw) by adjusting your swing path and face angle.
Play around with strong or weak grip positions depending on the results you are attempting to achieve.
Check your lead wrist position at impact. The more flexed you are, the easier it is to hit a draw. The more extended your lead wrist is, the easier it is to hit a fade.
Set up 10 shots where you attempt to hit a draw and 10 shots where you attempt a fade. Use the simulator to measure face angle, path, and spin rate to see if the desired shape is being produced.
Wear your HackMotion wrist sensor as you practice your shot shaping and pay close attention to the flexion/extension at impact.
Hit 10 shots where you attempt to vary the height of the ball flight. Focus on controlling dynamic loft at impact and adjusting trajectory based on the data.
Try to hit one shot low and the next high as you get better at this. This variation will help you become a lot better at controlling trajectory on the course.
Some golf simulators are not as effective with short game tracking and information. Regardless, you can implement this routine and drills to improve your short game practice.
When it comes to short game practice your best bet is to work on drills. Finding a variation of drills that help you make real progress on the course is your best option.
Here are some great ones to get started:
While practicing on your simulator driving range, set three targets at different distances (short, medium, long).
Use your simulator to hit 10 chips to each target, focusing on consistent contact and control over trajectory. Vary the club selection (wedge, sand wedge) for different shot types.
When you get really good at this, challenge yourself to use other clubs like the 9-iron, gap wedge, lob etc.
Set up targets at 20, 30, and 40 yards (adjust depending on your simulator’s setup or the common yardages you leave yourself on the course).
Hit 5 shots to each target, focusing on consistent carry distance. After each round, check the data for distance control and adjust your swing accordingly.
When you master this, switch clubs until you can be confident with all clubs in your bag.
Some golf simulators don’t offer much from a putting practice perspective. These at home putting drills you can do with or without the use of your simulator.
Make sure you do these consistently so you can ensure you are making progress.
Golfers who struggle with radial and ulnar deviation control in their putting stroke will love this drill. If you have a hard time keeping the putter on the proper path as you swing it back your wrists could be the culprit.
You’ll need a chopstick and a coin for this drill and if you have the HackMotion you’ll be able to record some valuable data.
For this drill you’ll need to be able to get an alignment stick to stand up.
Alignment stick holders are a great investment for indoor golf simulator practice.
Your alignment stick will work as your reference point ensuring you have a consistent setup and you can return the putter to the correct impact position each time.
Steering is a common issue for golfers. Instead of allowing for the natural rotation of the putter head, some golfers second guess themselves and steer to get the putter started on the right line.
You can use a laser or even just an aiming point, in addition to your HackMotion to learn to avoid steering and let the putter head naturally rotate.
Not everyone has the room or the budget for a golf simulator room in their home.
If you are able to swing and hit balls into a golf net, you can still make plenty of progress in your home golf practice routine.
For effective full swing practice it’s great to have a net to hit into. Even though you won’t be able to track your entire ball flight, it does help to get a feel for how the ball came off the face.
In addition, you’ll want to make sure you have the HackMotion on during your practice so you are recording some data.
For at home practice, work on clubface control, speed training and consistency of strike.
The wrists control your golf clubface. The more control you have over your wrists and their action, the easier it is to strike the ball with power and consistency.
Here are the best ways to work on clubface control at home.
For this drill, you’ll try to stop your golf club just after impact. To do this, you’ll need both strength and the proper positioning of your wrists.
Hit 10 to 15 shots, focusing on stopping the club when it is parallel to the ground just after impact.
Wear HackMotion to check on excessive rolling or twisting of the clubface.
Many golfers are unaware of the position of their clubface at any given point in the golf swing. The easiest way to start to learn what the club is doing is to exaggerate the open and closing of the face through impact.
Hit 10 shots where you deliberately feel like you increase wrist flexion through impact. Then take another swing where you feel like you increase wrist extension.
Stabilizing the wrist helps improve clubface control. To do this drill, you’ll grip the club with one arm. Take a backswing, and as you swing back down to the ball, focus on closing the clubface, as we call the Motorcycle move.
Rotate your body through the swing while keeping this flexion in the lead wrist. After impact, ensure the club brushes the ground.
Not only will you develop more awareness of the clubhead, but you’ll also eliminate some of your issues with hooks and slices.
Swing speed drills with a weighted club or device can help you gain more distance in the winter months.
Pair that practice with the proper workout and exercise regime and you’ll pick up some yards when you head back out on the course in the spring.
If you have a device that can track swing speed, your speed training sessions will be more beneficial.