By Pritam Andreassen, NSCA-CPT
Are you one of the many Pacific Northwest golfers who refuse to set foot on a course in the winter? Is a heated driving range the extent of your golf practice during certain seasons of the year, or do you simply forget about golf entirely for many months at a time? Do you look forward to a few rounds of out-of-town golf while on a mid-winter golf trip to a warm destination, only to find that your game is terrible because you are out of practice and out of the mindset?
This is a common affliction in the Pacific Northwest.  Fortunately, there are a number of ways to work on your golf game without having to set foot on a cold, soggy, rainy golf course or even a driving range during the off-season. The key to making any or all of the following suggestions effective is consistency — a little bit each day.

1. Visualization
Spend a few minutes each day with your imagination. Picture a hole at your favorite course, and play it in your mind. Since this is your imagination and it’s entirely within your control, you can score whatever you want. The most important elements in this exercise are how you experience each shot. Use every sense: feel the club in your hand, smell the grass, see the layout of the hole, feel how your body would feel in each phase of the shot. When you hit the ball, you should feel the perfection of the shot (yes, each shot should be perfect since it would be counterproductive to visualize poor shots). You can play as many or as few holes as you like. Top athletes use visualization to achieve success. So can you.

2. Balance
No doubt you are down at your gym doing sophisticated balancing exercises and movements a few times a week all winter long. But if you are not, here’s an easy way to work on balance at home. Brush your teeth standing on one leg. Switch legs halfway through (about 30-60 seconds on each leg). Make sure your knee is not locked out, it should be slightly bent. Too easy? Close your eyes. Please be safe--make sure you are standing near something onto which you can grab. Still too easy? Stand on an old cushion or pillow or folded towel, something with a little bit of padding.

3. Home Putting Practice
You don’t need a putting practice device or, indeed, any other electronic gizmo. Just take a glass or cup, turn it on its side on a carpeted floor and use that as your target. It may not be the same as putting to a hole on an actual greeen, but done for five minutes a day, it helps keeps you in the putting mindset. Plus it’s actually pretty fun (or frustrating, depending on the day.) This is putting we are talking about after all.

4. Backyard Swing Practice
If you have grass in your backyard you can turn it into a driving range of sorts on non-rainy days for a bit of swing practice. First, warm up with easy swings, about 10-15 times. Then, reverse your warm-up swing so that you are executing your golf swing starting on your off-side, or opposite side of your body. Do about 10-15 off-side swings. This will develop more awareness and bi-lateral balance on both sides of your body if done consistently. Once you are warmed up, hit some practice balls if you like, or try this: Set five to ten tees in the ground in a line. Hit each tee out of the grass. Repeat at least five times. This drill helps build consistency and coordination in your swing (sometimes keeping your focus off of the golf ball can be very effective.) For extra benefit, you can also perform this drill with your off-side swing.

5. Exercise
As a golf-specific strength coach, I am amazed at how many golfers do not take advantage of seasonal-related downtime to work on their bodies. If you aren’t golfing you definitely have the time to exercise! This is the time for everyone to be focused on strengthening their bodies, not just to stay in golf mode, but also for injury prevention, which is a serious issue for many older golfers. A comprehensive exercise program should consist of strength development and cardiovascular activity. Although I recommend a golf-specific strength program, any strength program is better than nothing. A program tailored for golf will help you to develop full-body strength, power, coordination, balance, flexibility and endurance.
A cardio program will help develop endurance and focus and keep your heart and lungs strong and healthy. Try to get 30 minutes of exercise six days a week — three times strength, three times cardio. In the spring, your golf game will thank you for it.

6. Flexibility
The off-season is a great time to work on flexibility, a critical component of an effective golf-related exercise program. If you have a series of golf-related stretches that work for you, take a few minutes to do them each day. If not, at least try this dynamic stretch: Hold your club as shown and assume your address position. Very slowly rotate back into a backswing position, and then come back even further as shown. Hold for five seconds. Come down and through into a finish, rotating as far as is comfortable. Hold for five seconds at each side. Do five to eight reps, repeat the movement starting on your off-side.

Pritam Andreassen is the owner of The Strength Connection, LLC, specializing in the development of strength and power for golf. For more information, visit http://www.strengthconnection.com/ or call 206-579-8927.