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Divot Board Structured Practice Guide




The Divot Board



This is the most useful ball striking development training aid that I own.
Click here to buy now for outstanding Ball-Striking practice feedback




Check out the Adam Young tutorial here: Divot Board Practice Guide

Then copy and paste the notes below into a note on your phone.

Keep in mind that this training aid is the best training aid I've ever used for identifying low point, and identifying heel or toe strikes. What you still need to work on is face to path awareness to identify and control curvature. That can be accomplished when using a ball with your Divot Board, but most drills can be done without a ball.

STRUCTURED PRACTICE GUIDE

A) Beginner practice - your objective is to make all strikes fall between the parallel yellow lines, not necessarily on the yellow spot:
  1. 10 mini chip length swings, when you can hit 7 out of 10 successfully, progress to:
  2. 10 half length swings, when you can hit 7 out of 10 successfully, progress to:
  3. 10 full length (not full speed) swings, when you can hit 7 out of 10 successfully progress to practicing with a ball.
I recommend AlmostGolf balls or foam balls at this skill level. With the AlmostGolf balls, you can feel compression just like you can with a real golf ball when it occurs. Also, these softer and lighter balls are not as potentially damaging as real golf balls are with any mis-hits.

Advanced practice - defined as being able to hit 7 out of 10 good strikes consistently.

B) DIFFERENTIAL PRACTICE no ball, done in sequence.

Ground contact practice
  1. Intentionally hit 5" in front of spot
  2. Intentionally hit 5" behind spot
  3. Intentionally hit the spot
Gear future practice reps towards most difficult task

Face contact practice no ball, done in sequence.
  1. Intentional heel strike
  2. Intentional toe strike
  3. Intentional center face strike
Gear future practice reps towards most difficult task

C) VARIABILITY PRACTICE try to hit the spot each time, but address the spot from different setup positions. no ball, done in sequence.
  1. Club at address 5" behind spot
  2. Club at address 5" ahead of spot
  3. Club hovered 1" high over the spot
  4. Club in normal address position
Research has shown that differential and variability practice methods are optimal for learning a skill.

Do all of the swings for each exercise as one set, then do 5 to 10 sets of that exercise.

You don't need to do every exercise every time. Shorter, frequent sessions are more productive than longer intervals between sessions where you might do all the exercises.

You can graduate to actually hitting balls off of your Divot Board after you become proficient at your low point falling on the target side of the ball after a correct spot strike.

After you are making correct low point contact with 70% or more of your strikes with a ball, I would recommend practicing intentional curvature separately, not off the Divot Board - to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on the board.