Winter Golf Practice: The Only Way to Build New Motion

Here’s what happens every spring:

The weather breaks. The courses open. You grab your clubs with optimism and head to the range.

First bucket: “Okay, shaking off the rust.”
 Second bucket: “What the hell happened to my swing?”
 Third bucket: “I’m worse than I was in October.”

You spent the entire winter “maintaining” your swing—hitting balls into a net, making the same moves you always make, grooving the same patterns (good and bad) deeper into your muscle memory.

You didn’t get worse over the winter. You just didn’t get better.

Here’s the truth most golfers miss: Winter isn’t for maintaining. Winter golf practice is for building something new.

And here’s the secret: you can’t build something new with a golf ball in front of you.

The Golf Ball: Your Sphere of Discouragement

Let me tell you what the golf ball really is: it’s a tiny white judge sitting there waiting to tell you if you’re any good.

Every swing with a ball is a test. Every contact is a verdict. Good shot? You pass. Bad shot? You fail.

And that judgment—that instant feedback loop—is exactly what prevents you from actually improving.

You cannot learn a new motion while simultaneously being graded on your performance.

Think about it: You decide to work on feeling the club head release more freely through impact. You set up. You swing. You hit it thin.

What happens?

Your brain immediately screams: “That was terrible! Go back to the old way!”

Even though the old way is what you’re trying to improve. Even though one bad shot means nothing. Even though learning ANY new athletic movement looks ugly at first.

The ball creates performance pressure when you need learning freedom.

That’s why winter—when the ball can’t tempt you, judge you, or discourage you—is the most valuable time of your entire golf year.

Permission to Look Foolish

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
 — Epictetus

This quote isn’t about what other people think of you. It’s about what you think of yourself.

Every time you try to improve the motion of your swing, you’re going to feel awkward before you feel athletic. You’re going to make swings that would embarrass you on the course.

And that’s exactly the point.

Real improvement requires you to temporarily abandon competence. You have to be willing to feel foolish while your body learns the new motion.

But here’s the problem: golfers hate looking foolish. We hate feeling incompetent. So we never actually change the motion—we just keep making tiny position adjustments to the same flawed movement, hoping for different results.

Winter gives you permission to be bad at something new because there are no consequences.

No one’s watching. No scorecard. No playing partners. No ball flight to judge. Just you, your mirror, and the freedom to build a better motion without the pressure of immediate results.

This is The Analyst’s time to shine.

The Analyst Gets to Work (Without The Athlete Interfering)

Remember the two brains from my previous article?

The Analyst: Your technical, understanding-focused brain. Studies cause and effect, identifies what the club head is actually doing, builds new movement patterns.

The Athlete: Your instinctive, feel-based, execution brain. Trusts the motion, focuses on swinging the club head toward the target, performs without thinking.

Here’s the thing: You cannot run both modes at the same time.

During the season, on the course, The Athlete must be in control. No mechanical thoughts. Pure execution focused on the club head and target.

But in winter? The Analyst gets the floor.

This is when you can:

• Study what the club head is actually doing and why
• Experiment with new feels and movements
• Build the motion that The Athlete will trust come spring
• Work on specific elements without the distraction of ball flight

The beauty of winter practice is that without a ball, The Athlete has nothing to do. It can’t judge. It can’t interfere. It just watches while The Analyst does its work.

You’re not trying to hit good shots. You’re trying to build better motion.

That’s a completely different goal—and it requires a completely different approach.

This is the philosophy of The Mike Quinlan Approach: motion over mechanics. And winter is when you build motion.

The Mike Quinlan Approach to Winter Improvement

Here’s how to actually use these cold months to get better instead of just maintaining mediocrity:

Step 1: Pick ONE Element of the Motion (And Only One)

The Analyst wants to fix everything. Resist this urge.

Choose one specific aspect of the club head motion you want to improve:

• The path the club head travels back
• The speed of the club head through impact
• The release of the club head after contact
• The arc of the club head around your body
• The feeling of the club head throughout the motion

Pick the one that matters most. Everything else stays the same.

Why only one? Because you’re trying to build a new feel for the motion. Your nervous system can only focus on one new pattern at a time. Try to change three things and you’ll change nothing.

Following Ernest Jones’s philosophy: the swing is the motion, not the mechanics. You’re not trying to fix positions—you’re trying to feel a better motion of the club head.

Not sure what to work on? Book a lesson. A good instructor can identify the one element of club head motion that will have the biggest impact and give you a clear plan for building it.

Step 2: Remove the Ball (Seriously)

No nets. No foam balls. No “just a few swings to check.”

The ball is banned.

Every swing you make this winter should be without a ball. Why?

Because the moment you put a ball down, you activate The Athlete. You shift from “building a motion” to “trying to hit it well.” And the moment you care about the result, you stop learning the new pattern.

The ball is a distraction. Remove it.

This is counter to how most golfers practice, but it’s how motor learning actually works. You need repetition without judgment. You need to feel the motion without performance pressure.

Manuel de la Torre would have students swing without a ball for hours, just feeling the club head move. Once the motion felt right, the ball became almost irrelevant—just something in the way of the club head’s path.

Step 3: Build Feel Using Household Items

You need external cues to guide the new motion. Here’s where you get creative:

For Feeling Connection (Club Head and Body Working Together):
 Put a towel under both armpits. Make swings where the towels don’t fall. This forces you to feel how the club head moves in sync with your torso rather than independently.

For Feeling the Arc:
 Hold a broom handle and make slow swings. Feel the arc the “club head” (end of the broom) travels. Exaggerate the feeling of swinging it around your body rather than lifting and dropping.

For Feeling Weight and Release:
 Use a weighted object (light dumbbell, water bottle). Make smooth swings focusing purely on feeling the weight release through the bottom of the arc. The weight forces you to feel the club head’s momentum.

For Tempo and Rhythm:
 Ernest Jones famously used a penknife tied to a handkerchief. Swing this and feel the pure motion—the rhythm, the arc, the release. No positions to hit. Just motion.

These aren’t gimmicks. They’re external cues that help you feel what the club head is doing—without needing a ball to tell you.

This is The Approach: feel the motion of the club head, and your body will organize itself to support it.

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Step 4: The Mirror Is Your Truth-Teller

Set up in front of a full-length mirror. Position yourself so you can see your:

• Setup and posture
• The path of the club head back
• The motion through impact
• The release and follow-through

Here’s the key: Move in slow motion.

Like, painfully slow.

Take 10 seconds to swing the club head back. Another 10 seconds to swing it through to finish.

Why?

Because fast hides flaws. When you move slowly, you can’t fake the motion. You can’t use momentum or compensation. You have to actually feel the club head move correctly.

Watch yourself. Feel the club head throughout. Make adjustments. Repeat.

Once the motion feels smooth in slow motion, gradually increase speed. But never rush it.

The goal isn’t to “feel natural” yet. The goal is to build the correct motion.

Natural comes later, after repetition. Right now, you’re okay with it feeling new and awkward.

As Jones said: “The swing is the thing.” You’re learning to swing—to move the club head in an athletic motion—not to hit positions.

Step 5: Repetition Without Judgment

Here’s where discipline matters:

Every day. Five minutes minimum.

Not “when you feel like it.” Not “a couple times a week.”

Every. Single. Day.

Five minutes of focused, slow-motion work on feeling your one element of club head motion. No ball. No judgment. Just building the feel.

Do this consistently for three months, and by the time spring arrives, that “new” motion won’t feel new anymore. It’ll feel like yours.

This is how you actually change your motion instead of just tweaking positions.

What Winter Practice Actually Looks Like

Let me give you a real example:

Goal: Feel the club head release more freely through impact (instead of holding on and steering)

Without The Mike Quinlan Approach:

• Hit balls into a net all winter
• Try to “feel” better release while also trying to hit it solid
• Get frustrated when balls go badly
• Abandon the change after two weeks because it “doesn’t feel right”
• Return in spring with the same held-off, steered motion

With The Mike Quinlan Approach:

• Remove the ball completely
• Use mirror to watch the club head release through impact in slow motion
• Use a weighted club or dumbbell to exaggerate the feeling of the club head releasing with momentum
• Practice 5 minutes daily, focusing ONLY on feeling the club head release
• Build the motion without judgment or performance pressure
• By spring, the motion is automatic—ready for The Athlete to trust

See the difference?

One is hoping for improvement while maintaining comfort.
 The other is deliberately building a new motion.

The Spring Payoff

Here’s what happens when you actually commit to this:

You show up to the range in April. You grab a club. You hit balls.

And something’s… different.

The motion you spent three months building? It’s there. It’s not perfect—it won’t be yet—but the foundation is solid. The feel is there.

Now you can start integrating it into actual shots. Now The Athlete can begin trusting it. Now you can start the transition from “new motion” to “my swing.”

But you couldn’t have done this in-season. You couldn’t have done this with a ball judging every rep.

You needed winter. You needed permission to be bad at something new.

And you took it.

Why This Works: Motion Over Mechanics

Most golfers waste winter either:

1. Doing nothing (and losing what they had)
2. Hitting balls into nets (and grooving the same patterns deeper)

Neither of these approaches improves the motion.

Real improvement requires:

• Identifying one specific element of club head motion
• Removing performance pressure (the ball)
• Building the feel slowly and deliberately
• Repeating without judgment
• Trusting the process over months, not days

This is the philosophy of Ernest Jones and Manuel de la Torre—the masters whose teaching forms The Approach:

Jones: “The swing is the thing” (motion, not positions)
 de la Torre: “Control the club head” (external focus, not internal mechanics)

Combined: Feel the motion of the club head, and let your body support it.

It requires being willing to look foolish. To feel awkward. To prioritize tomorrow’s motion over today’s ball flight.

Winter is when you get to be bad at something new—without consequences.

Don’t waste it trying to look good. Use it to build something better.

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Ready to Build Your Winter Plan?

Want expert guidance on exactly what element of motion to work on and how to build it effectively? Let’s create a personalized off-season improvement plan based on The Approach—motion over mechanics, club head over body parts.

Book your first lesson and learn how the Mike Quinlan Approach turns winter downtime into game-changing improvement in your motion.

Learn more about The Approach and discover the philosophy that makes winter practice actually work.

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The Mike Quinlan Approach teaches golfers to build motion in practice (winter) and trust it in performance (season)—focusing on the club head’s movement rather than body positions, because that’s how athletic motion is actually learned.