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Kit Alexander highlights the things you need to do before stepping on the first tee to help you play your best
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00:04I'm here on the first tee at the beautiful Burley Park Golf Club and I want to talk to you
00:10about
00:10arriving right here ready to go fully prepared to play your absolute best golf and that starts
00:19with all the preparation you do beforehand. There's loads of things you can do and ways
00:25you can prepare to make sure when you arrive on the first tee you are ready to play your absolute
00:30best golf. Dirty clubs can have a really negative impact on your performance especially when you're
00:41looking to generate spin on approach shots into greens and those finesse shots around the putting
00:47surfaces. You want to make sure your clubs are always as clean as they possibly can be but especially
00:52if you've got a big round coming up. What you want to do is leave them to soak for a
00:57little while in
00:58some warm soapy water. Don't leave them for too long but just long enough to really soften up any dirt
01:04and
01:04grime and get it out. Whip them out, give them a quick wipe off and you'll see there's still probably
01:11a fair bit of dirt in the grooves. So a toothbrush is a really good thing to use, also an
01:16old wire brush
01:17you can get specific tools for it as well and give it a little scrape right into the grooves. That
01:23should
01:23remove any debris, any mud that's compacted in there. Give them another little dunk and a wipe off
01:30and they are absolutely ready to go. You have got shiny clubs ready to hit the first tee.
01:38A good night's sleep is an essential but underrated ingredient when it comes to playing good golf and you
01:44don't want to be hungover either. So try and keep the drinking to a minimum the night before, maybe just
01:50one or two beers if you're treating yourself. But with that in mind I'm heading off so I'll see you
01:55in the morning.
02:17So after a good night's sleep I am as fresh as a daisy. I'm super chilled because I know all
02:23my
02:23gear is packed up in the car ready to go and I've planned my day. I've left myself plenty of
02:30time to
02:30get there and go through all of my routines before I tee off and I know even if there's a
02:35little bit
02:35of traffic I've got enough leeway. I'm calm, I'm chilled and I'm ready to go.
02:44Something that's really going to help you play your best golf and score better and can be done
02:50really at any time before you play is to build a strategy for the golf course you're going to be
02:57going up against. Now if it's your home club you probably know it like the back of your hand.
03:02You know where to go, where not to go, what clubs to hit in certain places. Rather than just think
03:09that
03:09in your mind and maybe recall it or not, write it down. Get it down on paper how you're going
03:15to attack
03:16each hole, what clubs and what strategy are going to give you the best opportunity to shoot the lowest
03:23scores. And the important thing is once you've got a strategy, stick to it. No matter how things are
03:29going if you have a brilliant start or a horrible start, we see it so often from the pros, they
03:34say
03:34I just stuck to my strategy, I did what I set out to do. Have a look through, get a
03:41course planner,
03:42decide exactly how you're going to play every hole and try and do just that when you get out on
03:48the course.
03:52What you eat and drink has a huge impact on how your mind and body feels in general as well
04:00as when
04:00we're playing golf. So it's really important that you eat right and get hydrated before you play golf.
04:08Exactly what that means for you is going to depend on your tea time. If you're going out bright and
04:14early,
04:14eat maybe a bowl of porridge, something with slow release energy is great. If you're teeing off a bit
04:20of a funny time, maybe midday, you might normally actually be eating when you're teeing off or not
04:25long after. Try and build your meals that day around your golf so you're fully fuelled for the full
04:32three and a half, four, four and a half hours that you're out on the golf course. And we often
04:38overlook
04:38staying hydrated. You always need to drink way more than you think and it can really affect you mentally
04:45as well as physically if you are dehydrated. Always have at least one of these bottles with you.
04:52Keep sipping on it as you go through your warm-up and when you're out on the course,
04:57don't forget, reach for this and have a swig.
05:10So we're in the range but before you go reaching for those clubs, it's really important to have a bit
05:16of a stretch. Warm up your muscles, get them nice and loose and get the blood flowing. The golf swing
05:24itself is a really athletic motion. There's lots of twisting and there's lots of speed in it. So if
05:30your muscles aren't ready for that, they're A, not going to perform at their best and B, you leave
05:36yourself open to picking up injuries and that's awful because we don't want anything that's going
05:41to stop us playing golf. So what stretches should we be doing? There are loads and loads out there. I'm
05:48just going to show you a couple of my favourites and because golf is a full body action, it's important
05:54to try and get a little bit of movement and stretching right the way up your body. So a really
06:00dead simple one to start. Gets the back of your legs and your lower back. Cross your legs over and
06:06just
06:06bend straight over as far as you can. I can only just get to the floor. If you can't, that's
06:13not a
06:14problem. Just take it until you feel the stretch and hold it there for about 20 seconds. Repeat on the
06:20other side and then that should loosen up right up the back of your legs. Another really good one is
06:28because we've got this turning and twisting motion and a lot of that comes from around the hip area and
06:33the upper body, is just sort of start rotating your hips. Press them as far forward as you can feel
06:39and as far to each side. When you get to the sort of points on the clock, just hold it
06:46and feel that
06:46stretch in each area. That will really get your hips used to this sort of motion. And then we move
06:54in
06:54to the upper part of the body, the arms, the shoulders. For this you can actually grab a club.
07:00So take a club, stick it behind your back like this and just turn as much as you can. Have
07:07a little bit
07:08flex in your knees as well, similar to the golf swing and just hold it. That's going to increase
07:14the amount you can actually turn in your golf swing which is also going to bring greater speed
07:20and hopefully more distance as long as you can control it. There are loads of stretches you can do.
07:27Those three are a great place to start but please do make sure you stretch before you hit any golf
07:33balls.
07:37Once you're stretched it's time to get the clubs out and hit some balls. Now do not reach
07:44straight for the driver. Go in low, go with a wedge, one that you're going to hit a lot during
07:49the round
07:50as well. It's a shorter club, it's an easier swing, a bit more finesse and it allows you to really
07:56ease
07:57yourself into your practice session. From there what I'd recommend doing is working your way up
08:03through the bag. You don't have to hit every single club but maybe jump every two or three. Make sure
08:10there's a wedge in there, make sure there's a short iron, a mid iron, a long iron or hybrid and
08:15then your
08:15three-wood and your driver. Now what you're looking to achieve here is familiarity. Remember this is a
08:21warm-up, it's not a practice session. You're not going to drastically change what you're doing in
08:28these 15 or 20 minutes on the range before your tee time. This is about grooving a little bit of
08:34what
08:34you've got but most importantly finding out what your swing is doing that day. Where is the ball going
08:40and what are you going to be able to do on the golf course to use that ball fly and
08:44the shots that you're
08:45hitting on the range to get round in the lowest score possible. Just finally a really great little
08:51tip before you head to that first tee. Your last few shots in the range can be playing the first
08:58few
08:58holes in your head. If it's a driver that you need to hit a little bit of fade off the
09:03first tee,
09:04hit that. If that's going to leave you a nine iron then hit the nine iron. If you've got a
09:09par three
09:10coming up that you know requires a specific club, practice hitting that as well. The familiarity of
09:16hitting those shots just before you go out onto the course will fill you with confidence when you
09:22face them under pressure. It's so important that you go to the chipping and putting green as well.
09:31I know it can be tempting to spend all your time hitting balls in the range or even just wander
09:37on,
09:37chuck a ball down, two or three putts and then off you go. But I promise any time spent chipping
09:44and
09:44putting before your round is time well spent and that's for a few reasons. First of all when you're
09:50chipping not only are you practicing those shots working on your action just a little bit before
09:55you go out but it gives you a real sense of the firmness and the speed of the greens. If
10:01you see how
10:02it reacts on the chipping green with any luck the greens out on the course will be very similar
10:06it enables you to not only judge what you're doing with your short game but also on your approach
10:12shots. How is that ball going to react? Are the greens soft? Can I fly it all the way or
10:16are they
10:17firm? That's going to make a huge difference to how you play a lot of shots out on the golf
10:22course.
10:22When you are practicing your chipping don't just give yourself a perfect lie all the time either.
10:27Try a few little funky lies. If you know the course you'll know the type of shots you're most likely
10:32to face.
10:33Those are the ones you want to be hitting and getting confident with on the chipping green
10:38before you head out. Once you've finished up chipping make sure you head into the bunkers as
10:44well to hit a few bunker shots. Of course the sand will be different from course to course and depending
10:49on the weather you've been having so you really need to familiarize yourself with the bunkers on that
10:55day. And then time for the flat stick. There's a few things you're looking to do on the putting green
11:02before you head out onto the course. First you're getting the pace. So head to a spot about 40 feet
11:08from the fringe of the green a relatively flat putt and just putt to the apron. You're not worried about
11:14a specific target like a hole you just want to gauge that pace and calibrate your stroke to the speed
11:21of the
11:21greens on that day. Then you can get into some more hole specific stuff. A drill I really like to
11:27do is
11:27the round the world chuck three or four balls around the hole any sort of distance you like really from
11:34two to ten feet you can vary it up as well depending on how much time you've got. That will
11:39enable you to
11:40see how the ball is breaking from different slopes on different sides of the same hole and also see the
11:47ball
11:47going in as well. And finally before you leave the putting green you want to be heading to that first
11:54tee brimming with confidence. So you want to see a putt going into the hole. Chuck a ball down no
12:01more
12:01than a foot from the hole. A putt you cannot possibly miss. Line it up.
12:09Ram it in with confidence and head to that first tee.
12:16I hope you found all of those tips really helpful and they will get you well and truly prepared the
12:22next time you tee it up. If you've liked the video please give it a thumbs up. If we've missed
12:28anything
12:29any little hints and tips you've got add them in the comments below. Remember to subscribe to this
12:35Golf Monthly YouTube channel. There's so much great content coming your way and as we're all done here
12:41and I'm fully prepared, I'm heading out onto the course.
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