Scotland's mini ice age...

...has quashed my plans to practice over the Christmas period. I can't believe that I took my golf clubs from home to the in-laws, back home then on to my folk's place and back to my in-laws. They have been out 3 times- each time for practice with aides that I'd got for Christmas not for "proper"golf , but I do have to face up to the fact that it has been mostly a waste of time.

Or has it? Although I've not done much, what I have done has been quality, and I feel that I'm close to getting my swing to a very good place- the best place it's ever been in terms of impact, plane, tempo and crucially repeatibility; I've been using the "Golfing with your eyes closed" book to work through visualisation, and also worked with Vision54's MYGAME to think through my preshot planning in the "think box". I'm really itching for the snow to clear to allow me get onto the course to try it out.

I'm also really excited about a new hypnotherapy course. I first started using hypnotherapt after my Mum got me Paul McKenna's "Great Golf" video, which was cancelled in the library, for the princely sum of £1. This in terms of cost is by far and away the best purchase I've made in terms of golf improvement, and is up there in terms of all purchases. I've been using several hypnotherapy programs from iTunes, having wanted something I could hear through headphones and that was more portable and versatile than a video. These include Glenn Harrold's Great Golf, one by Darren Mark and the Golf Doctor series. These are all fairly useful and have helped ny game but are pretty general; little work on short game or putting, the scoring shots.

I did a Google search, and came across Roseanna Leaton's "Golfer Within" series. Although more expensive than the other ones, they look very detailed and absolutely fantastic. I toyed with ordering the entire mental skills package, and would have done had it not been just after Christmas, but settled instead on the short game, putting and winning disks. If they arfe as good as I think they'll be, I'll go back for the others. I've introduced her to Fred Greene of the excellent "Golf Smarter" podcast, so hopefully she'll be a guest on there and hopefully I might be able to ask for a cheeky discount for my future purchases!

I've also started using the Powerball, a hand-held gyroscope; they are endorsed by a long drive champion, so we'll see how that goes. Not something I would have bought, but was a gift from my brother and his wife; as I've mentioned above my family's gifts have worked out well before, so we'll see how this one goes. I also got the 5minutes to tee time warm up program, which looks really good; well, it got a good review (a filler piece) in Golf Monthly, but looked underwhelming when it arrived. I did the stretches last night and was very impressed. Although it's meant as a warm-up, I'm not the most flexible, so it might well work as a stretching program, particularly if repeated a few times. Interesting. Hopefully we'll be home soon (we're currently stranded at the inlaws) for Wii Fit+ and a customisable routine...