Robert Rock has one of the greatest golf swings in the game... fact.
Nothing worth having comes easy, however, and building the perfect golf swing is no different - it takes countless hours to drill, analyse, adapt and progress your technique... and even then most of the best golfers in the world are still not completely satisfied.
The two-time European Tour winner is a great example for amateur golfers, as someone who takes his practice very seriously, but what is his process and how can we learn from it?
In this article and video, Robert Rock explains how to build the hitting station that he uses in his own practice, outlining the purpose as well as the procedure to help you improve your ball striking with a sweeter swing...
Practice Like Robert Rock By Building His Hitting Station
After a little bit of stretching, which comes in the form of slow-motion rehearsal swings that focus on the different positions in the golf swing, Robert Rock sets up a hitting station that any amateur golfer could replicate in their next driving range session.
Start with an alignment stick on the ground pointing straight down your target line. At the trail side, place alignment stick in the ground so that it juts out at an angle that matches the shaft you are using - which for a 7-iron it would generally be around 62˚(as shown in the image below).
Try to place the ball as close to the ground stick as possible. This keeps the stick that is pointing out of the ground relevant.
Skim your way up the alignment stick as your start the backswing, starting with a controlled tempo, then come down over the top of it and stay pretty close with the clubhead as you execute the downswing.
Speaking with Robert Rock at one of his practice sessions, Golf Monthly's Joe Ferguson asked if the hitting station was something he used at the start of each session to calibrate swing plane.
Robert's response highlighted the rigorous detail in his process:
"I had this (hitting station) here all the time. When I was playing tournaments, my takeaway was pretty much everything to me, and if that flowed up that line, I played really nice'.
"With this (the alignment stick) as a reference, I can sometimes feel like i'm coming out away from it and trying to find it, but very rarely do I go too inside and clatter it.
"When I snatch the club away a little bit quicker, I can feel that it goes too far out and I'm trying to pull it back... and that's what messes me up.
"So, I want to feel a really smooth incline to that, which I've done in various ways to be fair.
"But, it's about finding out what I need to do to get this clubhead, because the grip isn't doing much or the butt end of the club, from pointing straight down at the ball to be pointing away from the target.
"You can control that with all sorts really. That varies, the position I am after will always be the same, but how I get there is determined by what I feel I need to move more on any particular day".
Check, Check and Check Again
There are many things you should never do at the driving range, and one of them is rely on guesswork to understand what's happening in your swing.
Amateur golfers would hugely benefit from recording their swing when practicing, which is something Robert Rock does consistently. In the video above, Robert explains why:
"I'd have one camera there (down the line, facing target) and when it starts to feel nice from this view, I'd check it and then move (the camera) to this side (square on, facing golfer). Does it marry up with what I think?
"Loads in the early days this side (down the line) would look great, but that side (square on) would look terrible. So I'd start again".
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