Free golf training aids

Some of us do not have spare cash to buy golf training aids, so I have put together some tips for devising your own free golf training aids.

All of the training aids below make use of things you may very well have somewhere around your house.

Pure ball striking will be much easier to achieve if I can get my arms and body to move in harmony.

A good drill to train my arms and body to work together well, is to practice swinging with something between my arms (I use a small soccer ball).

If my arms and body are not in sync during my swing, the ball will fall out.

I practice swinging with the ball between my arms until I am confident that the ball will stay in place right through to my finish position.

The core muscles in the centre of the body are responsible for balance, power and control in the golf swing. The drill below is as good a way of balance training, as any golf training aids out there can provide.

The "Swiss ball/exercise ball" drill is an excellent way to strengthen these core muscles.

1. Kneel on the ball with your hips 90 degrees to the ground and hold a golf club across your chest (see picture above).

2. Make your shoulder turn as far as possible by keeping your balance on the ball.

3. Once you have mastered your backswing with a club across your chest, try making your full backswing by gripping the club normally.

4. Repeat this exercise several times on a weekly basis and you will see your core muscles strengthen.

With the three-quarter swing, the hands reach shoulder height in the backswing and follow-through. The three-quarter swing comes in very handy during a round for playing shots where the yardage is 'in-between' clubs, or for playing a 'punch-shot' when required.

I use a beach ball (could be a bucket or something similar) for my three-quarter swing drill.

1. With straight arms in front of me and my palms facing each other, I hold the beach ball.

2. I then turn my forearms slightly and swing the beach ball back sideways and up to shoulder-height.

3. In the follow-through, I keep my arms straight and swing the beach ball sideways and upward to shoulder-height to complete my follow-through.

This drill really helps to get an overall feeling of the arm movement in the three-quarter swing.

Good weight transfer in the follow-through is crucial for swinging powerfully through the ball. As far as golf training aids go, it does not get easier than this - see below.

1. Simply place a golf ball under your right foot and take your normal stance.

2. Now just swing normally and you will feel how your elevated right foot causes your weight to shift naturally onto your left side during your follow-through.

Practice this drill a few times to get that feeling of moving your weight onto your left side during follow-through. This drill will help you generate much more power in your swing.

Most of us will end up in the rough at some point during our round and sometimes the ball will be buried quite deeply.

Strong forearms are essential for swinging powerfully through the thick grass for a safe escape.

One of the most simple, but effective drills to strengthen the forearms is to squeeze a tennis ball.

1. Hold a tennis ball in the palm of your hand.

2. Now squeeze it repeatedly with your fingers until your forearm gets tired.

3. Repeat this drill a few times a week with both arms and you will build strong forearms.

It is very hard to swing well with consistency if we don't learn to swing the club along the correct swing path. A tee peg is probably the cheapest amongst the golf training aids out there today!

1. Place a tee peg into the top of your 7-iron.

2. Now place two clubs on the ground at right angles to each other. Place one club in line with the target and the other club square to the target so the end of its grip touches the middle of the target-line club (see picture above).

3. Grip your 7-iron and take your stance as pictured above. You will notice that the meeting point between the two clubs on the ground form the impact point.

4. Swing your hands back, turning your left forearm until the tee in the grip points directly at the impact point formed by the two clubs on the ground.

5. Complete the follow-through so that the tee in the grip now points directly at the impact point from the follow-through position.

This is an excellent drill to establish the correct swing path. You can also do this drill by simply teeing up a golf ball as impact point in place of the two clubs on the ground.

When playing a greenside or medium-range sand shot, it important to hit the sand behind the ball so that the ball pops out with the sand.

How much sand should I take? This depends entirely on the firmness of sand, the type of sand, quality of the lie of the ball and the distance I want to hit the ball.

On average, I probably hit the sand between 1-3 inches behind the ball, depending on the shot in hand.

During practice, I imagine taking the amount of sand which will be covered by a five pound note (for those in the US, I suppose you can imagine a 10 dollar bill) if placed in a bunker. This means that I will hit the sand between 1-3 inches behind the ball and also remove another 1-3 inches of sand after impact.

Ok, this is probably going to cost you the most out of these golf training aids, but let's hope you have a 5 pound note (or 10 dollar bill) in your wallet!

If I don't hit the ball out of the middle of my putter head it is almost impossible to achieve consistency in my putting.

One of the most effective golf training aids (and the cheapest), is to use a coin for promoting pure putting:

1. I place a coin on the putting green directly behind my ball.

2. I then narrow my focus on the coin as I stroke over the middle of the coin with the 'sweetspot' of my putter. As I stroke over the middle of the coin, I hit the back of the golf ball with the middle of my putter head.

This exercise really helps me to 'zone in' and hit the ball out of the middle of my putterhead.

To achieve consistency in our iron-play, we have to hit the ball out of the middle of the club's designed 'sweetspot'.

By colouring a circle on my clubface (don't use a permanent marker!) before hitting balls on the driving range, I am able to see whether my balls are coming out of the centre of the club or not.

If I am hitting it out of the middle of the club, the marks formed within the coloured circle will be grouped closely around the centre of the circle on my clubface.

I really hope you enjoyed this section on inexpensive ways to devise your own golf training aids. May these interessting tips improve your golf game!