Guide

Indoor golf practice: getting better without a range

Winter, rain, or a busy schedule does not have to pause your progress. A garage, a net, and a mirror can carry your swing forward for months. Here is the indoor practice setup and the drills that actually transfer to the course.

The minimum home setup

You need less than you think. A hitting net, a mat, and a full-length mirror cover 80 percent of indoor practice. Check your ceiling height with a slow practice swing first, driver needs about 9 feet, irons less. Foam balls are fine for contact drills and kind to drywall. Put the mat where you have room to swing a full 7-iron without fear, because a swing you are afraid to finish teaches nothing.

Slow-motion reps: the best indoor drill

Swing at 25 percent speed with no ball and stop at the top, at impact, and at the finish. At that speed you can feel every position, and you can repeat it 50 times without fatigue. This is how positions get built: slow, correct, repeated. Do 3 sets of 15 slow full swings, pausing two seconds at the top each time. It looks too easy to work. It is the single most effective drill you can do without a ball.

Mirror work for positions

A mirror gives you feedback a net cannot. Face-on, check your posture, grip, and that your head stays steady through the swing. Down-the-line, watch the club at the top and check your spine angle at impact. Pick one position per session and do 20 slow reps watching it. The mirror habit pairs well with a structured plan, see A range practice plan that actually improves your swing for how to organize sessions.

Hitting into a net

The net is for contact and rhythm, not distance. Alternate 10 balls at half speed focusing on the middle of the clubface, then 10 at full speed with a smooth tempo. Listen to the strike: a crisp click means centered contact, a dull thud means you missed the sweet spot. Foam or limited-flight balls still teach centered contact. One rule: never grind full-speed drivers into a net for an hour. That trains speed without feedback, which is how bad habits get fast.

The indoor putting station

A putting mat is the highest-value indoor purchase. Roll 25 putts from 3 feet, the goal is 25 in a row, and restart the count on a miss. Then the gate drill: two tees just wider than the putter head, 10 putts through the gate from 6 feet. Finish with pace: 10 putts from the far end of the mat, all stopping inside a three-foot zone. Twenty minutes, three times a week, and your stroke will be the best part of your game by spring.

Mobility for a fuller turn

Indoor months are the best time to fix the body, because the fix has months to settle before it matters. The two golf joints are the thoracic spine and the hips. Ten minutes daily: thoracic rotations on the floor, hip flexor stretches, and deep squat holds. The full routine is in Golf mobility: the t-spine and hip routine for a fuller turn. A fuller turn built in February shows up as free distance in May.

Film your swing indoors

Indoor filming is easy to get right with two tips. One, face the light: the camera should look at the lit side of you, not into a window. Two, use a plain background so the analysis can see your positions clearly. Film one swing at a time from face-on and down-the-line, just like outside. To understand what an app can actually read from the footage, read How do AI golf swing analyzers work?. FormCaddie films one swing on your iPhone, measures 12 checkpoints with Apple Vision and a club-tracking model, ranks the visible faults by impact, and gives one explanation and one drill from a library of 23. The video never leaves your phone.

A 30-minute indoor session

Here is a template you can repeat all winter. Minutes 0 to 5: mobility, t-spine and hips. Minutes 5 to 12: 30 slow-motion swings in the mirror, one position focus. Minutes 12 to 22: net work, alternating half-speed and full-speed sets of 10. Minutes 22 to 30: putting mat, the 3-foot drill and the gate drill. Film two swings at the end, one face-on and one down-the-line, and compare them to last week. Thirty focused minutes beats two unfocused hours.

What transfers to the course (and what does not)

Transfers: positions, tempo, centered contact, putting stroke, mobility, and your pre-shot routine. Does not transfer: judging ball flight, distance control on full shots, and reading real greens. So plan your first outdoor session as a translation week: half swings first, then work up, and expect your distances to feel unfamiliar for a round or two. The positions you built all winter are real. The feel for the course just needs one session to come back.