“How Do You Practice?”
When you mention the word practice to the average golfer they probably think of going to the driving range. They show up, pull their clubs out of their car and then attempt secure a bucket of balls to hit. In the process of getting those balls and making their way to the range they most likely pass by the short game practice area (chipping, pitching, putting and bunkers) with a singular focus on the range.
Average golfers will simply pull one or a few clubs out of their bag, swing it/them in a manner that mimics their golf swing and soon after are performing a full golf swing on as many balls as possible. Whether they hit the balls well or they hit them poorly the end result is that they feel complete when they have exhausted enough buckets of balls to make them tired or they have run out of practice time.
For some odd reason average golfers and weekend whiffers consistently show up to their favorite driving range with no particular plan of practice to speak of. I would assume that if you are going to embark on the solo mission of hitting a few dozen balls and spend some of your valuable time that you would know exactly what you want to achieve during that practice session. There is no way that you can show up each time, do the exact same thing with EVERY club in your bag and experience a significantly positive difference in your game.
I suggest that golfers NEVER head to the range without first having a plan in mind of what and how EXACTLY they are going to practice. Here are a few examples:
• Do you want to work on your short game?
• Are you trying to get more consistent with your irons?
• Do you want to work on your driver swing?
• Are you heading to the range to straighten out your putting?
Those are some very general ideas of reasons to head to the range. You can even get more specific by doing one of the following:
• I want to work on my greenside bunker game
• I want to work on my tee shots when I only need to hit the ball about 200-220 yards
• I want to work on my wedge game from 100 yards and closer
• I am going to play the first 9 holes of my favorite course in my head while on the range
Having an initial plan is an excellent start to helping you focus on making your practice a lot more meaningful than simply beating balls off of the range for an hour. If you have a plan you simply need to show up to the range with only the clubs that you will need to get your chosen done. I’ve shown up to the range with only three wedges to work on that day. Doing this will keep you focused even more on the task at hand as you have no other options for what to hit.
When you spend more time on specific parts of your game then those parts will get better much faster than the shotgun approach of hitting every club in your bag until your hands ache. Even if you do not leave clubs alone you can still make your practice more specific to what you may need to work on from your last round or maybe something you recently learned from your instructor. If you need to, make a list of range ‘workouts’ just as you would a gym workout like so:
• Monday: Driver & 3 Wood
• Wednesday: Short Game
• Friday: Irons
Now I know that you may not have three days to practice golf during the week so you can also do the following:
• First 20 Minutes: Driver & 3 Wood
• Second 20 Minutes: Short Game
• Last 20 minutes: Irons
No matter which method you chose you still have a concrete plan in place for what you want to get done and how you want to get it done. Doing this will create more purposeful practices and ultimately a much better golfer.
Well, until next time,
Anthony
Anthony L. Wilkins is a national Academy of Sports Medicine & Titleist Performance Institute Certified Personal Trainer an avid golfer from New Jersey who currently resides in the metro Atlanta area with his wife and son.
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AnthonyLWilkins@gmail.com
