A full-length mirror is a great learning tool. Ideal for times when you can’t play a course or practice at a range, a mirror can help you make adjustments to different aspects of your game that will improve play, create consistency, and drive down your golf handicap. In fact, spending 10 minutes in front of a mirror daily can be like taking a golf lesson free of charge. The trick is discovering which drills to use and allocating your time wisely by developing a program of daily exercises.

Most golfers don’t think of a mirror as a learning tool. But the idea is growing in popularity. In fact, mirrors are becoming so popular that manufacturers are producing models designed specifically to help master pre-swing and in-swing fundamentals. These mirrors can help improve everything from your stance, posture, and alignment to ball position, head position, and swing path. They can also help improve your putting. In short, they can help solidify your game. Below are some drills you can try.

Checking Grip, Posture, and Balance
Mirrors are ideal for improving your fundamentals. First, get your clubs re-gripped and your lofts and lies checked. When the clubs comes back, set up a full-length mirror in a room with a high ceiling, either in your home, garage, veranda, or whatever. Then, take a 6-iron or 7-iron and work on key fundamentals that will make you a better player next spring. You don’t have to do these exercises for hours at a time. Working on them for 20 or 30 minutes a day is more than enough.

Using the mirror, check your grip, clubface, and posture. Use a book to compare your grip to that shown in the book. Is it the same? If not, what changes do you need to make to make it identical? Now face the mirror. When you sole your clubface, is it square, closed, or open? As you sole your clubface, examine your posture. Are your feet slightly wider than shoulder width and your front foot slightly open (about 20 degrees)? How’s your balance? Is it about 50 percent on each foot?

Now, place a ball on the ground, slightly forward in your stance. Place your club in the middle of your stance, just behind the ball and assume your normal posture. Is your head behind the ball? Next place the club behind your back and along your spine. Touch your rear and upper back to the club. Then without moving your spine, hold the club in front of you and let your arms hang relaxed. Look at your posture in the mirror. Mentally take a picture of it. Take your right hand off the club and let it hang to reinforce this image in your mind. That’s your ideal posture.

Ingraining Your Pre-Shot Routine
You can practice other fundamentals, like your pre-shot routine, using a mirror. Facing the mirror, take 5 or 6 swings at about 30 percent normal speed. But before you do that go through your entire pre-shot routine. Now, switch to a down-the-line view (swinging toward the mirror). Take five more swings at 30 percent effort going through your entire pre-swing routine. Before swinging, check your grip, posture, and balance. Is your swing path on the correct swing plane or are you coming over the top?

Increasing Your Body Turn
Many players lack the flexibility to make a good shoulder turn. A mirror can help you improve it. To do so, stand with your back to the mirror. Now hook a broom handle behind your back and hold it in place with your arms. Turn to the right all the way until you can see yourself in the mirror. Hold that position for a count of seven, and then rotate all the way to the left. Hold for a count of seven. Then turn back to the right, and so on. Five minutes a day is enough. Within a short time, your flexibility and your body turn will have improved.

These suggestions are just some of the mirror drills you can use to improve your game. There are dozens more out there. All you need to do is find them. So check my golf tips and those of other teaching pros you may have saved, do some research using old issues of golf magazines and golf books you’ve kept, or “google” the Web. Before long you’ll have more drills than you can shake a club at. You can even research manufacturers of golf mirrors and review their products using the Web.

With winter fast approaching, many golfers are storing their clubs until next year. That doesn’t mean you can’t work on your game. Using the suggestions we offer above—as well as any other drills you can uncover—you can string together an entire mirror program designed to sharpen your game. With some creativity, a little discipline, and the right mirror, you can have a productive off-season, one designed to improve your golf game and cut your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.

===================================================
How To Break 80 Newsletter

October 24, 2007

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
===================================================

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Hitting It High With Your Irons
2) Five Golf Keys To Excellent Golf
3) Question of the Week - Refining Your Short Game
4) Article - Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…
5) Article - Three Drills To Groove Your Swing

===================================================
1) Hitting It High With Your Irons
===================================================
A young pro who just started teaching asked me what advice I give to new players who come to me for lessons. What I told her was that one of my goals with new students is to provide them with a mental approach to playing and practicing that makes things more productive. I boil it down to five keys that can take with them when they leave the course. Turns out, these same five keys can help any golfer better.

Mental keys to playing better golf

1. Don’t help the ball in the air
2. Hit down to make the ball go up
3. Let the clubface open then close
4. Let your hips turn during the downswing
5. A square aim cures pulls.

Golf is counterintuitive. That’s one way of saying golf is weird. Doing the opposite of what you want the ball to do often achieves your goal. For example, when you want to hit a ball high from the fairway, don’t try to help the ball in the air or scoop. Trust the loft of the club and let it do its work. A corollary to this is, if you want to hit the ball up, hit down on it instead. The more you hit down on it, the higher it goes.

If you find yourself slicing the ball, don’t get frustrated. To correct it, set the clubface square to the target. Now let the blade of the club open on the backswing and then close on the downswing. Opening and closing the clubface encourages you to make a fuller body turn. By making a fuller body turn, you’re more likely to return the club back to the ball along an inside line.

Golfers who pull shots left often compensate by aiming right at address and vice versa. That doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, set up with your feet and shoulders square to the line of play. In addition, aggressively turning your hips on the downswing helps to delay the turning of the shoulders until the last moment, which also helps you swing the club from the inside out.

No doubt about it. Golf is a crazy game. But if you keep these five ideas firmly in mind next time you’re playing a round or practicing at the range, you can keep yourself from screaming in frustration and cut some strokes from your golf handicap.

===================================================
2) Five Golf Keys To Excellent Golf
===================================================
It’s never fun when you find a green tucked into a tight place, especially when you need to hit a long iron. If you miss the shot, you can find yourself in real trouble. So you really need to stick it with your approach shot. Players who naturally hit the ball high have an advantage here. For the rest of us, we need to work at hitting the ball high to do it when we need to it.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Visualize the shot
2. Take a good practice swing
3. Play the ball just forward of center
4. Trap the ball against the turf
5. Stay connected
6. Follow through to a high finish

Whether you’re hitting to a tight pin or a hard and fast green, being able to hit the ball high and drop it on the green is a big plus, especially with a long iron. To be successful with this shot, try visualizing it before addressing the ball. Then, take a good practice swing, simulating the shot. Remind yourself you need to launch it into the air.

At address, play the ball just forward of center with long irons and trap the ball against the turf at impact. Good players will often take a larger divot in this situation as they try to really spin the ball. Also, stay connected with both your upper and lower body. Many players lose this connection in this situation. Finally, follow through to a high finish. It’s the key to this shot.

Many players have traded in their long irons for hybrids. If you haven’t and you’re still using them, being able to hit them high and drop the ball softly on the green saves pars and cuts strokes. Use the keys above and practice hitting the ball high with your long irons next time you’re at the range. Knowing how to do it will pay off.

===================================================
3) Question of the Week - Refining Your Short Game
===================================================
Q. Dear Jack, My biggest problem when I play is my short game. When it comes to hitting these shots, most of the time I either hit a dough or my club head will hit the ball twice. That causes me to add 3 to 4 strokes to my score. I’ve tried many fixes—hold the club lightly, put weight on the left side, just use my hands, eyes on the ball, and many other ways. But nothing’s worked.

Please, please help me.

Many thanks
Ngion peter

A. Thanks for the question. Learning how to hit a chip or pitch shot is easy. Learning to hit one accurately is not. With you, it sounds like you know how to hit a chip shot or a pitch shot, but you’re afraid to trust the clubface’s loft to do its work. That leads you to hit weak shots, which in turn, damages your confidence. Hence, you hit more weak shots. You need to build trust in the club’s loft and self-confidence in the shot. The two drills I detail below will help.

Chip Off A Tee Drill
This drill’s goal is to teach you how to get the ball up and over the fringe, limiting spin so the ball runs on a steady pace and finishes within three feet of the hole. First. Tee up six balls in a row, six inches apart. Assume your chipping set-up and hit the shots one after another with no pause between shots. Focus on swinging your shoulders and arms together, keeping your hands quiet and ahead of the clubface.

Sweep the Grass Drill
This drill is another way to build trust in the club’s loft. This drill also teaches you to minimize wrist activity and keep your clubhead on a shallow descent, which minimizes spin. Place the ball on the first cut of the rough, just outside the fringe. Make sure the grass is about one inch to one and a half inches high. Practice sweeping the tips of the grass instead of hitting the ball. You want to create a low back and low through motion by using just your shoulders and arms. Place a ball a few inches outside the spot where you’re sweeping the grass. After 10 sweeps, move immediately to the ball and chip it using the same motion.

Also, don’t forget to rotate your body during the shot. If you don’t rotate, your arms collapse ad your body stops turning. If your arms collapse and your body stops turning, the bottom of your swing ends up behind the ball, creating a fat or bladed shot. You must extend your arms and rotate your body to chip accurately.

Plenty of drills exist that will help you improve both your technique and your accuracy. Combine those drills with those above and practice as often as you can. Practicing, in turn, builds confidence in the shot, which pays off on the course.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

===================================================
If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter10242007.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/mirror.html

5) Article - Three Drills To Groove Your Swing
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/swingdrills.html

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank email to break80ezine@aweber.com

===================================================
About the Author
===================================================
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game

===================================================
How To Break 80 Newsletter

October 24, 2007

“The Web’s Most Popular Golf Improvement Newsletter”
===================================================

In this issue we’ll discuss…

1) Hitting It High With Your Irons
2) Five Golf Keys To Excellent Golf
3) Question of the Week - Refining Your Short Game
4) Article - Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…
5) Article - Three Drills To Groove Your Swing

===================================================
1) Hitting It High With Your Irons
===================================================
A young pro who just started teaching asked me what advice I give to new players who come to me for lessons. What I told her was that one of my goals with new students is to provide them with a mental approach to playing and practicing that makes things more productive. I boil it down to five keys that can take with them when they leave the course. Turns out, these same five keys can help any golfer better.

Mental keys to playing better golf

1. Don’t help the ball in the air
2. Hit down to make the ball go up
3. Let the clubface open then close
4. Let your hips turn during the downswing
5. A square aim cures pulls.

Golf is counterintuitive. That’s one way of saying golf is weird. Doing the opposite of what you want the ball to do often achieves your goal. For example, when you want to hit a ball high from the fairway, don’t try to help the ball in the air or scoop. Trust the loft of the club and let it do its work. A corollary to this is, if you want to hit the ball up, hit down on it instead. The more you hit down on it, the higher it goes.

If you find yourself slicing the ball, don’t get frustrated. To correct it, set the clubface square to the target. Now let the blade of the club open on the backswing and then close on the downswing. Opening and closing the clubface encourages you to make a fuller body turn. By making a fuller body turn, you’re more likely to return the club back to the ball along an inside line.

Golfers who pull shots left often compensate by aiming right at address and vice versa. That doesn’t solve the problem. Instead, set up with your feet and shoulders square to the line of play. In addition, aggressively turning your hips on the downswing helps to delay the turning of the shoulders until the last moment, which also helps you swing the club from the inside out.

No doubt about it. Golf is a crazy game. But if you keep these five ideas firmly in mind next time you’re playing a round or practicing at the range, you can keep yourself from screaming in frustration and cut some strokes from your golf handicap.

===================================================
2) Five Golf Keys To Excellent Golf
===================================================
It’s never fun when you find a green tucked into a tight place, especially when you need to hit a long iron. If you miss the shot, you can find yourself in real trouble. So you really need to stick it with your approach shot. Players who naturally hit the ball high have an advantage here. For the rest of us, we need to work at hitting the ball high to do it when we need to it.

Below are six keys to this shot:

1. Visualize the shot
2. Take a good practice swing
3. Play the ball just forward of center
4. Trap the ball against the turf
5. Stay connected
6. Follow through to a high finish

Whether you’re hitting to a tight pin or a hard and fast green, being able to hit the ball high and drop it on the green is a big plus, especially with a long iron. To be successful with this shot, try visualizing it before addressing the ball. Then, take a good practice swing, simulating the shot. Remind yourself you need to launch it into the air.

At address, play the ball just forward of center with long irons and trap the ball against the turf at impact. Good players will often take a larger divot in this situation as they try to really spin the ball. Also, stay connected with both your upper and lower body. Many players lose this connection in this situation. Finally, follow through to a high finish. It’s the key to this shot.

Many players have traded in their long irons for hybrids. If you haven’t and you’re still using them, being able to hit them high and drop the ball softly on the green saves pars and cuts strokes. Use the keys above and practice hitting the ball high with your long irons next time you’re at the range. Knowing how to do it will pay off.

===================================================
3) Question of the Week - Refining Your Short Game
===================================================
Q. Dear Jack, My biggest problem when I play is my short game. When it comes to hitting these shots, most of the time I either hit a dough or my club head will hit the ball twice. That causes me to add 3 to 4 strokes to my score. I’ve tried many fixes—hold the club lightly, put weight on the left side, just use my hands, eyes on the ball, and many other ways. But nothing’s worked.

Please, please help me.

Many thanks
Ngion peter

A. Thanks for the question. Learning how to hit a chip or pitch shot is easy. Learning to hit one accurately is not. With you, it sounds like you know how to hit a chip shot or a pitch shot, but you’re afraid to trust the clubface’s loft to do its work. That leads you to hit weak shots, which in turn, damages your confidence. Hence, you hit more weak shots. You need to build trust in the club’s loft and self-confidence in the shot. The two drills I detail below will help.

Chip Off A Tee Drill
This drill’s goal is to teach you how to get the ball up and over the fringe, limiting spin so the ball runs on a steady pace and finishes within three feet of the hole. First. Tee up six balls in a row, six inches apart. Assume your chipping set-up and hit the shots one after another with no pause between shots. Focus on swinging your shoulders and arms together, keeping your hands quiet and ahead of the clubface.

Sweep the Grass Drill
This drill is another way to build trust in the club’s loft. This drill also teaches you to minimize wrist activity and keep your clubhead on a shallow descent, which minimizes spin. Place the ball on the first cut of the rough, just outside the fringe. Make sure the grass is about one inch to one and a half inches high. Practice sweeping the tips of the grass instead of hitting the ball. You want to create a low back and low through motion by using just your shoulders and arms. Place a ball a few inches outside the spot where you’re sweeping the grass. After 10 sweeps, move immediately to the ball and chip it using the same motion.

Also, don’t forget to rotate your body during the shot. If you don’t rotate, your arms collapse ad your body stops turning. If your arms collapse and your body stops turning, the bottom of your swing ends up behind the ball, creating a fat or bladed shot. You must extend your arms and rotate your body to chip accurately.

Plenty of drills exist that will help you improve both your technique and your accuracy. Combine those drills with those above and practice as often as you can. Practicing, in turn, builds confidence in the shot, which pays off on the course.

If you’ve got a golf question you’d like answered, send an email to us at questions@howtobreak80.com and we’ll review it. I can’t guarantee that we’ll use it but if we do, we’ll make sure to include your name and where you’re from.

===================================================
If you want to truly discover the secrets of shooting like the Pros and creating a more reliable and consistent swing, check out: http://www.HowToBreak80.com

Also, for past issues of this newsletter and some of my most recent articles, visit our blog at www.HowToBreak80.com/blog

To view this newsletter online, please visit:
http://www.howtobreak80.com/newsletter10242007.html

Here are some of my recent articles:

4) Article - Mirror, Mirror On The Wall…
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/mirror.html

5) Article - Three Drills To Groove Your Swing
http://www.howtobreak80.com/articles/swingdrills.html

Until next time,

Go Low!

Jack

P.S. Feel free to share this newsletter with family and friends. If you would like to subscribe to this newsletter, send a blank email to break80ezine@aweber.com

===================================================
About the Author
===================================================
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 and Shoot Like the Pros!”. He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicaps quickly. His free weekly newsletter goes out to thousands of golfers worldwide and provides the latest golf tips, strategies, techniques and instruction on how to improve your golf game

The fastest way of cutting strokes from your golf handicap—once you’ve learned the basics—is by improving your short game. Whether it’s saving par on a tough hole or just cutting strokes off your overall score, becoming a better short game player boosts the level of your game. If your not convinced, look at the pros. Almost everyone on the tour is a great short game player.

But even great short game players develop bad habits. That’s when it helps to have a swing coach, who can help you correct bad habits. Unfortunately, weekend golfers can’t afford swing coaches. The closest they can come is taking a golf lesson or two from a club pro. But they can’t take a lesson while playing a round. So they must rely on themselves to find and correct swing errors when playing.

Below are some of the most common short game errors weekend golfers commit. Being aware of these errors—and knowing how to correct them—enables you to make mid-course changes during a round. That, in turn, saves strokes.

Check Your Chipping Mechanics
Weekend players commit three common errors when chipping. They play the ball too far back in their stance, they flip their hands over to get the ball airborne, and/or they rest their weight on their back feet. Committing one or more of these errors simultaneously scuttles the shot. Instead, play the ball in the middle of a slightly open stance, avoid letting your wrists break down during the swing, and place your weight on your forward foot. If your shaft remains perpendicular to the ground after impact, you’re mechanics are correct.

Circle Drill
This drill teaches accuracy and distance control. Pick out a flat area on the green. Then through trial and error find the spot on the green you must hit to get the ball close to the hole. Mark this area by creating a six-foot circle with golf balls or string around the spot. In theory, if you choose the proper zone and land the ball within a six-foot area, you’ll always be three feet from the hole. Practice landing your shots in this circle using a 7-iron, a 9-iron, a pitching wedge, and a 60-degree wedge, and you’ll improve.

Review Your Pitching Mechanics
The weekend golfer’s biggest mistake in pitching is trying to scoop the ball off the ground, as I’ve explained in my golf tips. Players who scoop the ball hamper their club’s built-in capabilities. In other words, they don’t trust their clubs. The loft of the pitching wedge or the sand wedge gets the ball airborne. If you swing down on the ball, you’ll get it airborne. Remember golf is a game of opposites. To hit the ball up, you must swing down. The combination of loft and downward angle pops the ball up. So if you find yourself leaning back on a pitch shot, your mechanics are probably faulty.

Watchdog Drill
This drill teaches distance control and achieving the correct flight path. Take your normal chipping stance. Place the clubface of any chipping club squarely behind the ball and perpendicular to the hole, about 20 to 25 feet away. Now, turn your head and look at the hole. Maintain your head position and make a smooth chipping stroke. Hit about 10 shots, watching how the ball reacts in the air and on the ground. Now take your normal chipping stance again. Keep your head focused on the ball and hit 10 shots while looking at the ball. Repeat several times.

Rotate Through Bunker Shots
Two of the biggest mistakes weekend golfers make when it hitting bunker shots is placing their weight on their back feet and not rotating through their shots. Placing your body weight on your back foot causes you to release the club too early in the swing. You’ll hit it fat or you’ll blade it. By not rotating your body, your hands reach the impact zone too soon. By the time they reach the ball, they’ll be hitting too much on the upswing. Instead, place the ball slightly back in your stance with plenty of shaft lean, keep the hands “on top” of the front foot, and rotate through impact. Don’t leave your weight on your back foot.

Ruler Drill
This drill provides a mental key for hitting a normal greenside bunker. It also teaches you to rotate through the ball. Imagine a four-inch ruler stretching back from behind the ball. The one-inch mark is closest to the ball, while the four-inch mark is farthest away. At the same time, imagine a four-inch ruler in front of the ball. Now hit away. Keep in mind that the bounce of the club must enter the sand about an inch away from the ball and drive through four-inches in the sand. You must have your weight leaning forward and rotate through the shot to accomplish this. Visualize this set up each time you practice or when you’re on the course and your bunker play will improve.

Keeping these common short game mistakes in mind when you’re playing enables you to make mid-course corrections and saves you strokes. When not on the course, practice the drills we’ve detailed here. Together, they’ll help slash strokes off your golf handicap.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.