These 5 Stocking Fillers will Help improve your game

It was great to see so many of you out playing this Autumn at Chartham Park and enjoying the great weather. I received lots of good feedback following my video last month about using leaves on the ground to help improve your shots from the fairway. Let me know if that tip worked for you too, and if you missed it you can read right here

Given the changing conditions I thought an article on surviving winter golf would be suitable, but looking back I wrote a couple of articles last November on the same subject that you can revisit again right here.

So onto this month, and trying to keep things topical I thought I would share my thoughts on 5 cheap stocking filler presents that will help you improve your game this winter. These are 5 things that, as a coach, I use everyday in my lessons and couldn't do without. Yet each one costs less than the price of the average secret santa gift.

Although we could all do with more socks or another scented candle, let's see if you can direct your loved ones to get get you something a little more beneficial to your game this year!
 
1. Alignment Rods
Alignment rods are the number one thing that should be in your bag right now. They are an extremely versatile tool that can help you not only with the aiming of your club and alignment of the body, but also with many many drills that I use in my lessons. Sometimes I get golfers to swing under or over rods to help with their club path. Sometimes I use them to highlight ball position or stop excessive movement away from the centre of your swing. Sometimes I use them to help you understand your initial start line or trajectory. I honestly couldn't coach as effectively without alignment rods.  
 
2. Athletes Foot Powder Spray
The power of a visual teaching aid. I really love using this in my coaching everyday, so much so that up untill yesterday (when I explained its intended use) my wife honeslty thought I had an issue with my feet! A light dusting of this spray on the clubface will help you see exactly where you are striking the golf ball with each shot.  If you don't strike the ball in the centre of the clubface almost all bets are off in terms of you being as consistent as you want to be with your game. I can't recommend this stuff enough!  
 
3. Long wooden tees
Your best Christmas bargain yet (not used to tee the ball up) but to help with things like club path or centreness of strike (as mentioned above). You can also use then on the green to create a putting gate to help with your start line of your putts. This should help you hole more putts under pressure in 2019 and potentially save you lots of shots! The images below will help demonstarte their uses
 
4. A small towel
Not only is this needed to keep your equipment clean and dry over the winter months a simple towel really comes in handy when trying to get your arms and body to stay more connected in the swing. It's especially useful when practcing pitch shots. I also like to use a towel placed flat on the ground about 4 inches behind the ball to improve the quilaity of your iron shots. Your objective here is to hit the ball without moving the towel thus ensuring you make a decending blow on the ball and hit the ball before the ground.
 
5. Club box / shoe box / present box 
Bare with me here, I know this is not strictly a present (although please don't tell that to my 6 month old who loves them!) But club or shoes boxes can help you create a really effective practice station where you can really improve not only your club path through impact but also the angle the club approaches the ball. This should have a big impact on the quality of your strikes and distance and direction you hit the gofl ball. All you need to do is place a box immedialty outside the ball if you're a slicer / puller of the golf ball (helping to correct an out to in club path through impact). Reversley you can place the club box on the inside the ball if you're a big hooker or pusher of the golf ball (correcting and excessive in to out path). The images below will help demonstrate what I mean more simply, or you can view this you tube video by my good friend Matt Holman right here

So thats it, no excuses this year! 5 simple and cheap gifts you could give or receieve that WILL improve your game this winter! Do you have any other ideas or aletrnatives that would make your top 5 list? Let me know right here
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