The Short Game: A Coach's Guide to Team Practice

Over the course of his coaching career, Andrew Tank has developed a formula for golf practice that he uses to ensure his players learn the skills of the game and perform well throughout the season. In this video, you'll receive 23 drills, games and variations that focus on refining putting and chipping technique. Coach Tank believes that using a mix of blocked (constant) and varied (random) practice will equip golfers with the knowledge and confidence they need to play their best during competition.

Blocked practice helps give players confirmation that they are executing the chosen fundamentals correctly by completing one repetition after another in a controlled environment. Coach Tank explains that since it's more constant, blocked practice serves as a time of internal focus for a golfer.

Meanwhile, varied practice will allow your athletes to work on their mental process, judgment, and feel for adapting to different lies and conditions. More random in nature, varied practice focuses on external factors, such as changes in trajectory, distance and shot routine.

Putting Drills and Games

Coach Tank runs through five drills and 10 performance games for putting. The drills are made for the blocked portion of practice and look to improve skills like green reading, face angle control of the club, making center contact on the face of the club, and rise angle of the stroke.

Once a golfer has mastered their ability to read greens, they must repeat their stroke until to perfect it. You'll learn to keep the face of the club square, contact the ball in the center of the blade, and generate topspin for a pure roll - all essential elements in developing a great putter.

To add competitiveness to practice, Coach Tank introduces a variety of performance games. These games utilize goals and pressure, and provide scenarios that are similar to what golfers will face during a round. Coach Tank's games work on two-putting, speed control, holing out long putts, dealing with different breaks and finishing under pressure.

A drill that your players are sure to love is "Battleship," a partner game in which each golfer stands next to a hole and hits putts simultaneously until one of them makes it and scores a point.

Short Game Drills for Skills

The final portion of the video covers eight exercises for chip shots around the green. You will learn drills that focus on keeping weight on the lead foot and hitting down on the ball, as well as ways to correct a player who's being too "handsy" or "scooping" the ball on contact. Coach Tank also covers club selection, trajectory and distance control for chipping.

Coach Tank's instruction is clear, concise, and will provide you with some new ideas to use at your practices. All of the drills and games shown in this video can be used in an individual or group environment, making this a great resource for an instructor who gives personal lessons or a coach of a team.

80 minutes. 2016.