Though the Okanagan winters are beautiful, you’re likely to get more exercise from shovelling snow than spending time on the golf course. Even though you can’t hit the green in the winter, your game doesn’t need to be frozen. In fact, winter is one of the best times to work to sharpen your golf game. Find out how you can improve at golf during the off-season with our tips below.
Learn new techniques
Winter is an excellent opportunity to learn new golf techniques. You can focus on gaining knowledge and slowly improving over the duration of the off-season. During the golf season, you will most likely focus on keeping your score down, which is at odds with using new and unfamiliar techniques that you are just learning. Be prepared for the upcoming golf season by learning new techniques now.
Reading
Since you won’t be stepping on the golf course during the winter, this is a great time for you to get some reading done. If you are looking to improve your golf game, why not read about golf? Many books offer plenty of great tips to improve your game or to learn new techniques. To make it less of a chore, you don’t have to read only about golf tips. Whether it’s about amateurs or professionals, the stories within golf books are surprisingly gripping. Golf.com compiled a fantastic list of golf books, which you could enjoy over the winter.
Watching videos
To learn and replicate the ideal motion, it’s helpful to use a visual medium. Fortunately, an abundance of golf videos are available online. Better yet, many great resources are available for free. A couple fantastic websites with videos on golf tips include Golf Info Guide and Golf.com. Watching videos from these sites is a great way for you to learn new golf techniques. After learning the techniques, observe how the professionals play by watching old videos of the Masters or the PGA Tour. If you need a break from all the studying, Golf Advisor and Golf Digest have a number of entertaining golf videos as well.
Apply your new knowledge with the full golf experience
By learning more about golf techniques, you now have plenty of knowledge that you are eager to try… but it’s still winter. If you’re eager to test out your new skills, there’s nothing better than a golf simulator for the full golf experience. TrackMan 4 is a top-tier golf simulator that can not only help you in learning golf, but you can also use it to improve your golf game as well.
Maintain your swing
If you are practicing your swing, it would be useful to know if it will get you results. See if your swing is on point by being able to watch where the ball goes after you hit it with the TrackMan golf simulator. The detailed data that TrackMan 4 provides, including drive distance, accuracy and ball speed, allow you to make minute adjustments to refine your swing. In addition to data on the ball, TrackMan even maps your stance and swing for your assessment, which helps to visualize all the data at your disposal.
Watch recordings
After watching all of the golf videos on how to improve your swing and watching the professionals doing what they do best, it helps to actually be able to see the difference between you and the pros. TrackMan 4 records your swing so you can observe your motions in a replay. For a more comprehensive view, you can connect up to six iPhones to the TrackMan 4 to capture your swing in multiple angles. You can email all the data and recordings to yourself to keep records and to continue to gauge areas for improvement.
Keep in shape
By practicing on the TrackMan 4, your game should be in top form, but it’s important that your body is in top form too. Maintaining a healthy body can work wonders for your golf game. More importantly, by keeping in good shape, your body will feel great.
Eat healthy
Before anything else, it’s incredibly important to remain mindful about having a healthy diet. By being inattentive to what you consume or allowing yourself to have one too many feasts, taking off any extra weight becomes a challenge once the golf season begins anew. Maintaining a healthy diet helps improve your energy levels and provides the fuel for keeping your body in shape. Keeping the extra pounds off also helps with the proper rotation of your hips, which contributes to having a better swing. You can use a calorie calculator to keep calories within recommended levels.
Stretch often
By far one of the easiest forms of self-care that you could do is to stretch. Make a habit of stretching each morning, and you’ll be feeling nimble throughout the day. Another reason to make stretching a daily routine is that it is very easy to lose flexibility by being inactive. Like staying the proper weight, flexibility takes a significant amount of time to gain but can be lost quite quickly. Being limber is key to golf as it helps you maintain the proper form in order to have an effective swing. Consider doing yoga for whole-body flexibility, or try these flexibility exercises from Men’s Health.
Exercise effectively
It’s no secret that exercising allows you to stay in good shape. It may seem like with determination alone, you will be getting the results you want. However, exercising effectively goes a long way to improving the overall results of your workout as well as minimizing potential injuries. From building strength to improving mobility, you could try these exercise tips from top golf fitness trainers from Golf Digest. Afterwards, it would be wise to take the advice of Hank Haney, golf instructor and former coach of Tiger Woods, and practice 100 swings with an iron every day to keep your muscles loose and build muscle memory. If practicing your swing in the winter, there’s certainly no better place to do it in the winter than by using a golf simulator.
Golf this winter at Simplex Sportszone
Want to use golf clubs as much as your snow shovel this winter? Simplex Sportszone has six TrackMan 4 Studios to keep you on top of your game. By keeping fit and continuing to learn, not only will you feel good now, but you’ll be even more glad that you kept active once golf season returns. Keep ahead of your buddies or train together with them by contacting us to book a round of golf or two on the TrackMan 4.