Building a Strong Foundation

By Cheryl Bromley

If you ask anyone in the construction business, a solid foundation is essential to any building allowing the rest of the structure to be built upon it. With that in mind, what shot is the most frequently played in all levels of Golf Croquet and therefore can be considered the foundation of the game?

A few studies using analysis of actual games have indicated that positioning shots are played more than any other stroke in a game and typically make up 50 percent of the shots played. Interestingly, these shots are often practiced the least by players. Often, positioning shots tend to have the highest failure rate as they require accuracy and precision in the same way as hooprunning and clearing shots.

So why is a good placement shot so important?

1. A player who can consistently place a ball in a good hooprunning position will often require their opponent to clear them from a long distance and be on defense. For example, let’s say your opponent has just scored hoop #1 but has only gone through the hoop a couple of feet and you are now the first ball to shoot down to hoop #2. By setting up well, your opponent will now have to attempt a clearing shot possibly from up to 60 feet away! The chances of winning the hoop are in your favor.

2. A good placement shot can also help you avoid being cleared a long distance. Let’s continue with the scenario from above. Let’s imagine you scored hoop #2 and now your opponent is the first player to hoop #3. As it turns out, they didn’t get a very good hoop-running position but are still in the vicinity of the hoop and able to clear any ball in the area. Your placement shot here should be in a position so the worst that can happen is they clear you to a short boundary at corner three rather than down the court.

3. Placement shots can also be used effectively to block an opponent. This is particularly useful if you are not comfortable hitting long clearing shots.

Practice Tips for Placement

• Tempo: Your swing tempo on a positioning shot should be relatively slow using a relaxed grip. If you find you are overshooting the target, shorten your overall swing and, in particular, decrease your backswing slightly to help slow down.

• Be specific about where you want the ball to land, down to a blade of grass or spot on the court.

• Lawn Speed: I’ve personally gotten more and more focused on determining lawn speed as part of my warmup, and I use that information to help me with my placement shots. You can find some very technical and scientific mathematical formulas and methods online, but I use a simple and basic way to calibrate the lawn speed for my own purposes noted in the drill below.

Drill #1 - Lawn Speed

Starting at the south boundary, I hit a ball towards the north boundary using a long relaxed comfortable swing. At the moment of contact, I begin counting how many seconds it takes until the ball stops rolling. Then I take a second ball and do the same thing trying to hit it in the same way as my first ball and count again. The object is to find out how many seconds the ball will roll and how far it will go when I use a long, relaxed swing. I’ve found that anything 10 seconds and above indicates a fast lawn, and anything eight seconds and less indicates a slow lawn. The distance the balls travel also gives me feedback on how far the shot will go when I use it in a game. Depending on how much time I have in the warmup or when I’m practicing, I will try to get a sense of the lawn speed in all directions not just south to north.

Drill #2 - To the Fringe

One other drill I like to use to get the “feel” of the lawn is to place a few balls near a corner hoop and shoot each one to land on the sideline. I use the feedback on each shot (short, long or just right) to improve the next one. Then I shoot from the sideline and try to land the shot in line with the hoop. Going back and forth from each shooting position, I’ve found that if I think about the feedback from each shot that it will only take about four to eight shots for my placement to begin to lock in and become consistent.

Drill #3 – No Hoops or Clears

Using all four balls, begin at the starting corner and hit your first ball to Hoop 1. With each of the remaining balls, try to improve the placement of each shot. No clearing shots or hoop-running are used with this drill, focus only on positioning shots. Go around the entire court and play all 12 hoops and include the 13th tiebreaker hoop. Because you don’t need to worry about scoring the hoop, this drill helps you focus on placement only and can also be a fun and challenging game with a friend.

Do the basics well. Once you’ve put in some quality time working on placement shots and building a solid foundation for your game, the next step is to add another layer. My suggestion would be to work on stop shots and center ball shots. Good luck and, as always, don’t walk backward on the court!