Golf Tips with Paige Spiranac: How I Warm Up

Myrtle Beach golf ambassador Paige Spiranac demonstrates how she likes to warm up. Try this next time you head out to the range, and let us know what tip you want to see from Paige next!

 

 

Hey everyone, it’s Paige. So I’m going to show you how to get more consistent contact, and how to warm up. So when I get to the driving range, I don’t know about you, but my back’s a little tired. I’m a little tight, and I need to warm my body up.

And I can’t just go straight into a full swing. I see a lot of people get on the range, and the first shot is a full-swing shot. And that never works for me. I like to warm up with my pitching wedge first, and I’ll hit basic little chip shots and just get bigger, and bigger.

So it’s great to warm up your body, but it’s also really important to finding solid contact. So if I am hitting shots off the toe, or off the heel, with just a basic little chip shot, obviously then if I do a full swing it’s going to be on the toe or on the heel. So this is great to find solid contact.

Okay, so I just set up … you can do this with really any club as well. I just like the pitching wedge because it’s easier for me to work into a full shot. Sometimes I’ll do it with my 50 or my 54. Some people like to do it with a 7-iron. I’ve even seen people warm up with drivers before.

But it’s just important to do smaller, and then work into a fuller swing. Also, remember too, the first couple shots you hit … don’t be too hard on yourself. Sometimes … I do this as well, where I’ll warm up a couple shots bad. I’m like, “Ugh! Today’s going to be a terrible day. The world is ending! I can’t hit a shot.”

But just be patient with it. Allow yourself to warm up and find that contact. And this is why this is perfect as well, because you don’t have too much pressure on yourself to just come out of the game, start firing perfect shots. So just a couple chip shots … depending on how I’m feeling, I’ll either hit just a couple of these or I could hit 30.

Just listen to your body, and also if it feels good. You know when you’re hitting it solid. And so once you start to feel that it’s in the center of the club face, work a little bit bigger. Okay, so that was a bigger swing. It felt good. So I’m going to do that again. And as you can see, I hit it right in the center.

So I’m off to a good start. Okay, so that one felt good. I’m going to go a little bit bigger now. Also, I’m keeping the speed at about 70 percent. I never hit shots at 100 percent, unless it’s maybe a driver. But that’s really rare. So I always keep it around 85. That also helps with hitting it solid as well.

Sometimes if you swing out of your shoes, you’re not going to find the center of the club face. This allows you to kind of slow it down a little bit, make sure you’re hitting it solid. And when you hit it solid, you actually hit it farther. So, swinging harder doesn’t mean that you’re going to hit it farther. Making solid contacts ensures that you’re going to hit it farther.

Okay, I hit that one good. I’m going to do another one. This is almost full, as you can see, just abbreviating my backswing slightly, and my follow-through. Okay, so those feel good. I’m going to go into the full swing now.

So my body feels warm. I feel good. I don’t feel like I rushed into it. I’m hitting it solid. So mentally I’m good, which is I think the most important thing. So now I’ll do a full swing, but around 70 percent.

I mis-hit that one slightly, so I’m actually going to go back to more of that knock-down shot again just so I can feel solid contact. Okay, so that felt better. So that’s the kind of the contact I want. And you can go back and forth until you feel good.

So obviously I hit the first swing not-so-solid, so I went back to more of the abbreviated to find solid contact. I feel good, so I’m going to work into my full swing again. Good! So I feel good. I worked from just a short, little chip shot into my full swing, still at around 70 percent.

Throughout my bag, I’ll start to pick up the speed as well. When it gets to the drive, it will be more around 85-90. But I feel good and I hope that helps you when you’re warming up, and trying to find solid contact.