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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00:00I'm here on the first tee at the beautiful Burley Park Golf Club and I want to talk to you about
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
00:31best 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 little while in
00:58some warm soapy water. Don't leave them for too long but just long enough to really soften up any dirt and
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 old 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 remove any debris, any mud that's compacted in there. Give them another little dunk and a wipe
01:29off and 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
01:44and you don't want to be hungover either. So try and keep the drinking to a minimum the night before.
01:49Maybe just one or two beers if you're treating yourself. But with that in mind I'm heading off
01:54so I'll see you in 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 my gear is packed up
02:24in the car ready to go and I've planned my day. I've left myself plenty of time to get there
02:31and go through all of my routines before I tee off and I know even if there's a little bit of traffic
02:36I'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.
03:03You know where to go, where not to go, what clubs to hit in certain places. Rather than just think
03:09that in your mind and maybe recall it or not, write it down. Get it down on paper how you're going to
03:15attack each hole, what clubs and what strategy are going to give you the best opportunity to shoot
03:22the lowest scores and the important thing is once you've got a strategy stick to it. No matter how
03:28things are going, if you have a brilliant start or a horrible start, we see it so often from the pros,
03:34they say I just stuck to my strategy, I did what I set out to do. Have a look through, get a course
03:41planner, decide exactly how you're going to play every hole and try and do just that when you get
03:48out on the course. What you eat and drink has a huge impact on how your mind and body feels in general
03:59as well as when we're playing golf. So it's really important that you eat right and get hydrated before
04:06you play golf. Exactly what that means for you is going to depend on your tea time. If you're going
04:13out bright and early, maybe a bowl of porridge, something with slow release energy is great. If
04:19you're teeing off a bit of a funny time, maybe midday, you might normally actually be eating when
04:24you're teeing off or not long after. Try and build your meals that day around your golf so you're fully
04:31fueled for the full three and a half, four, four and a half hours that you're out on the golf course.
04:37And we often overlook staying hydrated. You always need to drink way more than you think and it can
04:44really affect you mentally as well as physically if you are dehydrated. Always have at least one of
04:51these bottles with you. Keep sipping on it as you go through your warm up and when you're out on the
04:56course don't forget reach for this and have a swig. So we're in the range but before you go reaching
05:13for those clubs it's really important to have a bit of a stretch. Warm up your muscles, get them nice
05:20and loose and get the blood flowing. The golf swing itself is a really athletic motion. There's lots
05:27of twisting and there's lots of speed in it. So if your muscles aren't ready for that they're a not
05:33going to perform at their best and b you leave yourself open to picking up injuries and that's
05:39awful because we don't want anything that's going to stop us playing golf. So what stretches should we
05:45be doing? There are loads and loads out there. I'm just going to show you a couple of my
05:50favourites and because golf is a full body action it's important to try and get a little bit of
05:56movement and stretching right the way up your body. So a really dead simple one to start.
06:02Gets the back of your legs and your lower back. Cross your legs over and just bend straight over
06:08as far as you can. I can only just get to the floor. If you can't that's not a problem. Just take it
06:15until you feel the stretch and hold it there for about 20 seconds. Repeat on the other side and
06:21then that should loosen up right up the back of your legs. Another really good one is because we've
06:29got this turning and twisting motion and a lot of that comes from around the hip area and the upper body
06:34is just sort of start rotating your hips. Press them as far forward as you can feel and as far to each
06:41side. When you get to the sort of points on the clock just hold it and feel that stretch in each
06:48area. That will really get your hips used to this sort of motion and then we move in to the upper
06:55part of the body. The arms, the shoulders. For this you can actually grab a club. So take a club, stick it
07:02behind your back like this and just turn as much as you can. Have a little bit of flex in your knees as
07:09well similar to the golf swing and just hold it. That's going to increase the amount you can actually
07:16turn in your golf swing which is also going to bring greater speed and hopefully more distance
07:23as long as you can control it. There are loads of stretches you can do. Those three are a great
07:28place to start but please do make sure you stretch before you hit any golf balls.
07:33Once you're stretched it's time to get the clubs out and hit some balls. Now do not reach straight for
07:44the driver. Go in low, go with a wedge, one that you're going to hit a lot during the round as well.
07:51It's a shorter club, it's an easier swing, a bit more finesse and it allows you to really ease yourself
07:58into your practice session. From there what I'd recommend doing is working your way up through
08:04the bag. You don't have to hit every single club but maybe jump every two or three. Make sure there's
08:10a wedge in there, make sure there's a short iron, a mid iron, a long iron or hybrid and then your three
08:16wood and your driver. Now what you're looking to achieve here is familiarity. Remember this is a warm-up,
08:22it's not a practice session. You're not going to drastically change what you're doing in these 15
08:28or 20 minutes on the range before your tee time. This is about grooving a little bit of what you've
08:34got 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 the shots that
08:45you're hitting on the range to get round in the lowest score possible. Just finally a really great little tip
08:52before you head to that first tee. Your last few shots in the range can be playing the first few
08:58holes in your head. If it's a driver that you need to hit a little bit of fade off the first tee,
09:04hit that. If that's going to leave you a nine iron then hit the nine iron. If you've got a par
09:09three coming up that you know requires a specific club, practice hitting that as well. The familiarity
09:16of hitting those shots just before you go out onto the course will fill you with confidence when you've
09:22faced 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 on
09:37chuck a ball down two or three putts and then off you go but I promise any time spent chipping and
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 you see
10:01how it 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 shots.
10:12How is that ball going to react? Are the greens soft? Can I fly it all the way or are they firm? That's going to
10:18make a huge difference to how you play a lot of shots out on the golf course. When you are practicing
10:23your chipping don't just give yourself a perfect lie all the time either. Try a few little funky lies.
10:29If you know the course you'll know the type of shots you're most likely to face. Those are the ones
10:34you want to be hitting and getting confident with on the chipping green before you head out.
10:40Once you've finished up chipping make sure you head into the bunkers as well to hit a few bunker shots.
10:46Of course the sand will be different from course to course and depending on the weather you've been
10:50having so you really need to familiarise yourself with the bunkers on that day. And then time for
10:57the flat stick. There's a few things you're looking to do on the putting green before you head out onto
11:03the course. First you're getting the pace. So head to a spot about 40 feet from the fringe of the green.
11:10A relatively flat putt and just putt to the apron. You're not worried about a specific target
11:15like a hole. You just want to gauge that pace and calibrate your stroke to the speed of the greens
11:22on that day. Then you can get into some more hole specific stuff. A drill I really like to do 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 enable you to
11:40see how the ball is breaking from different slopes on different sides of the same hole and also see
11:47the ball going in as well. And finally before you leave the putting green you want to be heading
11:53to that first tee brimming with confidence. So you want to see a putt going into the hole. Chuck a ball
12:00down no more than 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 anything,
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.