Rick Shiels - Ultimate 30-Minute Golf Range Session
In this video, golf's biggest YouTuber Rick Shiels walks you through his ultimate 30 minute range session. Starting with the basics around the technique, he then moves onto into some of the games and challenges you can take on at the range that will improve your overall skill set. Use Rick's framework to power boost your game for the year ahead.
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00:00Oh, I've leaked it. Hang on, ball. I want it to feel like your heart is racing, certainly
00:07on the last few shots, because that's how you're going to best develop your skills.
00:12All right, guys, Rick Shields here, top 50 coach for Golf Monthly, and today I'm going
00:21to show you a 30-minute power boost range session to get you ready for this season to
00:27have the best golfing season you've ever had. So let's hit the clock, 30 minutes. We're
00:32going to break this up into three different elements. The first 10 minutes is all going
00:36to be about getting your basics correct, things like alignment, ball position, and technique.
00:44I'll somewhat say the boring stuff. Let's go through that first. Even though it's boring,
00:48it's incredibly important. First thing I want you to do is get a couple of long golf clubs
00:53out of your bag, something like the three and four iron, and we're going to use one
00:57of the golf clubs for an alignment aid and another golf club for a ball position aid.
01:04You'll even still see right now some of the best players in the world, when they practice,
01:10they will have ball position aids out and alignments. It's so unbelievably important.
01:17What I want you to do with this alignment one on the ground, I want you to pick a target.
01:22I'm going to go for that blue flag that's just to the right of the 100 marker. I'm going
01:26to put this club just running parallel to the left of that line. I'm then going to make
01:31sure this club is at perfect right angles to the club on the ground because we're going
01:37to use, I'm just going to use something quite lofted to start things off like a pitching
01:41wedge. We're going to use the club that's on the ground here to use as a reference point
01:48for our alignment. You can see there, my right foot and my left foot are perfectly
01:53spaced between that club. And then this club on the ground, we're using mainly for ball
01:58position. So for a pitching wedge, I've got that absolutely smack bang in the middle of
02:02my stance. If anything, it's just a reminder. It's almost setting that kind of default setting
02:10back to make sure that you're not getting out of place with where you aim or where your
02:14ball position is going to be. So what I would do from here then is hit a few shots to warm
02:20up and also just to get your eye in. So I've got my alignment, I've got my ball position
02:27and I can work on a few nice easy shots. And it's not always like me, I just hit that exactly
02:36over that blue flag that I was aiming for. So that gives me a lot of confidence that
02:40my alignment is absolutely spot on. And each time when you address the ball, almost step
02:46out of that mold and come back in again. Don't get lazy. So I'm going to hit about 10 shots
02:51doing this, making sure this drill is absolutely nailed on to start things off.
03:10Okay. So I'm really happy with that. I feel like I've got my eye in for my ball position
03:24and my alignment. The next thing to work on is your technique. Again, I'm going to be honest
03:30with you, the slightly boring stuff, but we want to get out of a practice session. We want to
03:33improve. Even if it's by 1%, even less than 1%, as long as every time we go to the range,
03:40we improve by that little amount. Now, the best way is in-person lessons, go and see a coach,
03:46work on techniques that you need to work on, or there's a few YouTube channels out there,
03:51obviously Golf Monthly's, or my own, where you can pick up on some golf tips.
03:55And what I'd also recommend to get hold of is something like this. This is basically a
04:02monopod with a little stand on the end, and you can attach your phone to this handle. I'm going
04:06to set my phone up and just take a few videos of my swing so I can have a look at my technique
04:11in slow motion. Top tips, have the camera placed at waist height and have the angle of the phone
04:17in between where your feet are going to sit and where the ball's going to sit. The reason why we
04:22have that positioning is because if the angle of the phone is too far to the right or too far
04:27behind you, the actual path of your club coming down will look totally different. Almost the
04:33aspect ratio just will look totally wrong. So making sure that phone position is at waist height
04:38and in between your feet and the ball, pretty much in line with your hands, is the perfect location.
04:44And this is where I'm going to get a little bit more technical. So for myself, I'm working on
04:48keeping that club face more closed going back. So this is my main focus right now. I'm almost
04:53forgetting result for a minute and focusing solely on this point in my golf swing. Exaggerating that
05:00feeling. I'm not too worried about where the shot's going to go. This is the technique element
05:08of your practice session. Exaggerating that move.
05:23And then looking at your phone and getting that feedback. So what I like about this now, I'm
05:27getting that instant feedback. I can see the feeling that I'm getting from that swing is
05:33matching up with the actual reality of my club face being more closed or more square, which is
05:38exactly what I'm working on. You know what I love about this as well, I'll often send this to a friend
05:43or I'll post it online or even send it to the golf coach I've been working with, just to get that
05:47kind of feedback. Or sometimes, not if it's a real true practice session, if you've not actually
05:53shared it on social media, it makes you just feel a little bit better about yourself. That everyone's
05:57not practicing and you are. You're getting better. This is invaluable feedback. We've all got
06:02these in our pockets now. Use it. It definitely helps.
06:08Okay, so that is the housekeeping stuff done. They're the things that will definitely help you
06:13start your practice session off well. I mentioned earlier, a bit of the boring stuff, but very, very
06:19important stuff. Right, next up, it's time to test yourself. I've got a few really simple games here
06:25that you can do this with. So the phone goes away, the monopod goes away, these clubs get put back in
06:31the bag, because now it's time for you to start getting in the zone of doing some testing yourself
06:36games. I've got three really good ones. The first one is a distance challenge game. So start off
06:42with one of your irons. Now, what I want you to do is think about when you practice, you want to
06:47improve on your weaknesses. You don't want to just practice all the time your strengths, because
06:52there's no massive value in that. You're already good at that. Practice your weaker shots. So for
06:56example, my weaker shots, I'm not particularly very good from 100 yards and in. So that's what
07:01I'm going to practice here. And dead simple, I'm going to grab my sand wedge, quite a lofty golf club,
07:06and I'm going to set myself a task. I want to hit 10 shots in a row, and each shot I want to
07:13gradually be further than the last shot. If I fail in that task and I hit a shot that's too short,
07:21I've got to start again. Now there's two ways of doing this. You can do this visually at driving
07:25range or a practice ground. Down here at the driving range, we've got the technology here
07:30of Top Tracer. So I'm going to reset all that, and I'm going to work on the carry distances,
07:36each time being a little bit further than the last. Let's see if we can get 10 in a row
07:41that accomplishes that feat. So the first shot I'm going to hit about 25 yards is the goal.
07:52And 25 yards is the shot I hit. So I'm really happy with that start. So the next shot I want
07:58to hit past 25 yards, but I don't want to hit it too long. Something in the 30s,
08:04low 30s, would be an incredible start to this challenge.
08:12It should be good. 31. Okay, so really strong start. I'm going to go kind of 40 yards for the next one.
08:24Oh, a bit heavy.
08:28Oh, I got away with it. 33 yards. We've done three in a row so far. Let's see if we can get 10.
08:48Strong.
08:59Oh, right. We failed. We managed to get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Oh, we almost got up to 9 and then
09:08we failed. But that's good, because it means now I've got something to work on. The big thing as
09:14well is track your result. Get your phone, have a little notepad in your golf bag, and say this time
09:20I managed to do 8 out of 10, because next time you've got something to work on.
09:28Right, next challenge is all about controlling trajectory. Starting off low and aiming to try
09:34and hit it higher. So again, similar to last time, you can either use your visual perspective of how
09:39high these shots are going to go, or using technology like Top Tracer. I'm going to now
09:44move up to my 7-iron, and the minimum yards I've got to hit this is 100 yards. So I can't just chip
09:49it 50 yards in front of me. What I'm going to start off by doing is hitting it super, super low. As
09:54low as I can possibly hit a 7-iron, and then each time just trying to change the trajectory a little
10:00bit, until we finish actually trying to hit it super, super high. Again, a bit like the last
10:04challenge, if we can do 10 in a row, it's an amazing achievement. So let's see how we get on.
10:10It's got to go minimum 100 yards. I'm going to start really low. So there's a couple of things
10:15you can do here from a technique standpoint as well. To hit a 7-iron lower, ball position further
10:19back in the stance, hands further forward. One thing that creates height is speed. Speed and loft
10:27increase height. So we're going to decrease the loft and hit it softer, slower. And let's start
10:33off nice and low. I'm going to try and hit a little low 100-yard 7-iron. That's a really, really low flight.
10:44It's gone a bit longer than 100 yards, 125 yards, and it went 48 feet in the air. The next shot we're
10:50going to go slightly higher, but again, it's got to go over 100 yards. So this time, I'm going to
10:55hit the ball a tiny bit faster than the last shot, just to get that height.
11:06That's a nice strike. There we go. We've elevated the shot by 10 feet. So now we're going to hit
11:1210 feet. So now we're going to go a little bit higher, similar ball position, a tiny bit faster.
11:22So the first three I've done very good so far. I'm going to just tweak this a little bit,
11:26change the trajectory. I'm going to put the ball position slightly more towards the middle of my
11:30stance, because that's going to bring the loft back to its more natural setting.
11:35I'm still going to hit this super soft.
11:43Might be higher though. Yeah, 52.
11:48Okay, middle of the stance. I'm going to go a little bit faster this time.
11:56So I've done six so far and successfully got to this stage.
12:00I'm now going to move the ball position a little bit further up in my stance,
12:03again to increase the loft. This is going to be interesting. I'm going to hit this over 90 feet.
12:10It's starting to get quite high now.
12:17That should be good.
12:20This is good in practice because I've got to shot number seven now. I'm starting to feel the
12:24pressure. I want to get to number 10 and it's good to practice under pressure. Keep the ball position
12:29forward. I'm going to go a little bit more speed. I've got to try and get over 104 feet in the air.
12:38Easy. Okay, two more to go. 118 to beat. Ball position forward, almost maximum speed.
12:47Okay, last shot in the 10. Ball position forward, maximum speed. As hard and fast as I can hit it.
12:56And our last little sprinkle of magic. Finish with really, really high hands because it keeps
13:02the loft on the face. I've got to beat 132 feet. I'm going to send this to the moon.
13:09And that is 10 successful shots, each going higher than the last.
13:16Last challenge to test yourself, the driver. It's going to be a dead simple list. 10 shots
13:22and you're going to picture a fairway. How many times can you hit the fairway? And again,
13:26great ways of doing this. Out on the golf driving range here, you can pick a couple of shots,
13:31you can pick a couple of shots, you can pick a couple of shots, you can pick a couple of shots,
13:34and again, great ways of doing this. Out on the golf driving range here, you can pick a couple
13:39of flags. There's two flags, a yellow one on the right, a yellow on the left, and I can picture
13:43that as my fairway. Or, using the top tracer, I've come here on the long drive driving range
13:49fairway effectively. I'm going to hit 10 shots and see how many times consecutively I can hit
13:55the fairway. How many out of 10 should I say I can get? And again, this is great. You can note
13:59it down on your phone or in a little notebook and each time try and improve on your previous score.
14:05Right, let's go. What I want to try and get out of this as a practice session and for everybody
14:09watching is I want it to feel like nervous. I want it to feel like your heart is racing,
14:15certainly on the last few shots, because that's how you're going to best develop your skills
14:19and how taking your game from the driving range to out on the golf course. Let's go. 10 shots.
14:25I'm somewhat even nervous on the first shot. It feels like a first-team
14:29nerves type of vibe because you want to start strong. I'm picking my line, really visualising
14:35where I'm going to hit this, and let's start off straight down the middle of the fairway.
14:45That should be a very good start.
14:50One out of one.
14:56That might be a tiny bit right. Should be good.
15:02Just, but we're on the fairway. I'm not trying to hit these as hard as I can.
15:06These are all fairway finding drives.
15:09Okay, that was a little bit high and definitely got affected by the wind,
15:25but I'm not looking for distance. I'm looking for accuracy. That's four out of four so far.
15:40Right. This is the point where it starts to feel a bit more nervous.
15:43I'm just at six really good drives there, straight down the fairway. We've got four
15:47more to go to get 10 out of 10. The old heart is pumping. This is what we want. We want that
15:53excitement. We want that kind of nerves. Can I finish strong? This is coming down the straight.
15:59I've got a good round of golf going. Can I keep hitting fairways?
16:02It's not my best, but it's straight down the middle. Straight down the middle. Three to go.
16:13Oh, I've leaked it. We might have missed the first fairway. Hang on ball. Hang on.
16:22Oh, I got lucky. That wasn't my best shot. The old nerves started twitching, but this is good.
16:28This is what you want in a practice session. Two more to go.
16:38Okay. This is it. Last shot. Again, they've not all been pretty. They've not all been perfect,
16:45but this is the one. I'm on for a record score. 10 out of 10. Can I finish? This is walking down
16:51the 18th hole. You've got to get the ball. You've got to get the ball. You've got to get the ball.
16:56This is walking down the 18th hole. You've got a good round of golf going. You just want to finish
17:00strong. You want to hit that great tee shot. Well, this hard work on the driving range will help you
17:06next time you get in that situation. Heart is pumping. Hands are twitching. Can I finish with
17:12a 10 out of 10? Hang on to that right hand side. Oh, it's absolutely perfect. That is good. That's
17:25good practice. I feel motivated with that. And next time I got on the golf course, I can't imagine
17:30hitting it anywhere else apart from straight down the middle of the fairway. Right. Next up,
17:35let's challenge someone else. Right. The last section of your practice here at the driving
17:44range is to challenge somebody else. Whether that's a friend or whether it's actually just
17:48someone else at the driving range, ask them if they fancy a bit of a competition. This is a way
17:52that you can put everything you've just worked on for the first two sections of this practice session
17:57into a more realistic setting. So you can do things like nearest the pin challenges, who can
18:03hit it closest, whether it's a target at the driving range or again, using top tracer technology
18:08or whether it's a longest drive challenge against each other. And you could even finally pretend
18:14you're playing a hole again, either on the range by using different targets or why not jump on one
18:19of the most famous holes in the world using top tracer. And you know what? Why not make it a bit
18:25spicy as well? The loser has to do a forfeit, whether that's clean the other one's golf shoes
18:31or even simply carry the other golfers clubs back to the car, make it mean something because then
18:38you're going to at least try your best. And it matters like you want that bit of nerves. You
18:43want that bit of excitement to definitely put you in the right frame of mind. That is how you power
18:49boost your practice session, ready for a great season. Go out there, work hard in your golf game
18:55because believe me, when you play well, you enjoy it a lot more. We'll see you next time.
19:19you