Pre Shot Routines -Whats Yours?

[Mr Moke]

When I’m playing well my pre shot routine is solid, I don’t really see a line between pre shot routine and the shot itself, it’s all the same string of actions.
Stand behind the ball, seat the club into the saddle of my left fingers, bounce a couple of times flexing my knees to rid my body of tension. Facing the target I grip the club with my right hand, squaring the club face with my grip. At this point I find a very specific target, work my to address while focusing solely on the target, this whole time I’m deep breathing. Once over the ball I square the club face to the target line, glance up find the target one more time, make half an exhale then start my back swing. While swinging I hang my mouth open to encourage exhaling the remaining breath and to discourage tension. All this may seem complicated but I don’t think about any of it I just do it. I never thought about how long it takes I don’t guess more than 10-15 seconds.

The putting routine is a different animal. I’ll take my place behind the ball, find the line directly at the hole, visualize the ball traveling that line and find the spot where it passes even with the hole. I then shift left or right to rotate the ball path to intersect the hole, that’s my target. If I’m putting down hill I visualize a target several inch’s or feet short and if it’s an up hill I move the target past the hole. At this point I do kind of a wiggle bounce with my whole body to get rid of tension, I’m also deep breathing. While I’m moving over the ball I'm focused on nothing but the line. Once over the ball I square the club face to the line, look up at the target one more time and if needed adjust the club face. Deep breath, half an exhale and hold, start my putter back on the line. I’m comfortable with all this, putting is the only thing I do reasonably well but I’m trying to keep from looking up too soon. Again this seems elaborate but I don’t waste time looking from multiple angles,
marking and placing the ball and other nonsense, probably takes 10-15 seconds tops.

 

[chpar4]

I’m a firm believer of a routine whatever it is. As long as its done the same every time without fail. It just clears my head of all the other thoughts.
As long as it doesn’t take more than about 30/40 seconds.
Only time it should take more is if something breaks the routine you must start over!


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[Matthew]

Pick the spot, 2 practice swings, hope for the best


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[Boston_golfer]

When I was a beginner taking lessons back in the 90's I tended (like a lot of beginners) to freeze over the ball forever before swings.

My teaching pro would get a stopwatch out during my lessons, stand behind me on the driving range and have me start from the club in my bag. From the time I pulled the club and started walking up behind the ball he'd start the stopwatch.

When it got to 16 seconds, if the ball wasn't in the air he'd say "START OVER" and I'd have to put the club back and do it all again. The goal was club-in-hand to impact being around 12-13 seconds for a routine shot from a tee or a normal fairway lie.

I think I still probably take longer than 16 seconds at least some of the time. But I almost never do that freeze over the ball thing any more. I think that's something every golf coach ought to teach every beginner.

My first instructor used the analogy of a basketball player about to take a freethrow. He'd say "You don't see a basketball player just standing there frozen for 10 seconds and just chuck it". So he said to do things like shift weight left to right a little, get balanced, and waggle the club a little to stay in constant motion, then when you address the ball, you start your swing within a couple seconds.