Practice With Purpose Every Swing
Everyone wants to bring their “range game” to the course. It’s a white whale for golfers everywhere. We’ve all thought and heard others say we striped it at the range, but it just didn’t translate to the round just completed. The issue may be your range game. You aren’t practicing in a way that will help you on the course.
cHOOSE first
When you put down your fresh bucket of driving range balls, you have choices. You can relax and enjoy the weather while leisurely hitting balls. No cares in the world. You can pound every ball with driver, and now that the range has Trackman for every bay and mat, you can go for a new distance record every swing. By all means, fire away and have fun. Or, towards the other end of the spectrum, you can use every ball to practice your golf game and swing in a way that will lower your scores. So when you plunk down your clubs and fish out that first ball, be honest with yourself and choose how the time will be spent. If it’s low-key fun you seek, then tee it high and let it fly. But if you want lower scores, you have to practice with purpose, on every swing. Step 1 is changing the mindset to one where every swing has a goal and a purpose.
slow down!
I see the following several times a week. A player hits a shot and then immediately pulls out the next ball to line up and hit it. The previous ball is still rolling, and the player is already addressing the next shot. Ball after ball is struck and the next thing you know 10 shots have been hit in maybe 2 minutes. I’ve had students where I put my club on the mat to block their next swing for the entire lesson. At a fast pace, it’s impossible to work on any part of your game. Nothing. All you’re doing is banging balls. You can’t work on pre-shot anything that might help. Such as your pre-shot routine and analysis, setup, hold, aim, target line, or club selection. You can’t work on swing execution either. Because you had no goals for any of the swings, and you didn’t spend any time thinking about the outcome and quality of the last shot between swings. So, if you want to score better and lower your handicap, your first responsibility when it comes to practice is to SLOW IT THE F DOWN!
what to practice
There are so many things to practice it’s easy to keep your practice sessions fresh and fun. This is key to meaningful golf practice. You should mix up and change what you are practicing. Otherwise, you can easily have those zombie range sessions. The following is a list of different skills and methods for practice. Explaining or listing all the practice possibilities is futile, but you’ll get the point. Distance control (how far you hit each club), ball first contact (low point), center contact, club face control, pre-shot routine, setup and ball position for every club, proper aim and target selection for your ball flight, neutral swing thoughts, change your target every shot, hit at the same target with different clubs, sets of 10 drives and give yourself a tough pass/fail dispersion window, try to hit fades and draws using the same club, practice recovery punch shots, spend a whole bucket hitting half wedge shots to different spots of dirt or anything you choose. That list didn’t touch what is possible in terms of all the different ways you can practice golf with purpose. I didn’t even mention anything related to the short game because almost nobody practices their short game! To give you an example, I will choose to practice “club face control” for an entire session by doing the following. I will go through my entire bag of clubs and for every swing my only goal is to have the club face reading be within 2 degrees closed to 2 degrees open. Any reading higher than that is a fail. Nothing else matters for that session except whether the club face is <= 2 degrees. The very next day I might shift practice to where I don’t use any technology and my only goal is picking my targets and target line for each club using the tree line and natural markers. I’ll review each shot and it’s dispersion against the target for that swing. The whole point is this… If you choose something specific to practice, then each swing will have a clear goal and purpose, and then the outcome of each shot is judged against that goal. Now you’re practicing with purpose.
sTART WITH THIS
Here is an easy practice sequence that anyone can use for their next bucket of balls. Start with your gap wedge or pitching wedge. Pick a target line and hit a few half shots to get loose. Then start with your highest lofted club and take 4-5 full swings, then go up through your irons hitting 4-5 shots with every iron. For every shot, pick a specific target and target line. Then review each shot result in your mind before the next shot. Before each shot take your time and be deliberate with your setup and ball position. Then move on up through your hybrids or fairway metals. Again 4-5 shots with each club the same way. Then pull your driver and pick a target, then pick markers to the left and right to represent your accepted dispersion. This represents your imagined fairway. Then hit sets of 10 drives and keep track of your percentage that stayed within your chosen dispersion window. For the last portion of balls in your bucket, take your favorite wedge(s) and practice hitting full and half shots with those clubs at specific landing targets. I’m a big believer in hitting the last few shots with an iron. This way you’ll finish the practice session by reminding yourself that balls on the ground require a negative or neutral attack angle. Lest you want to keep topping balls during your next round. Because your last “practice” session was mostly just you pounding driver!! Haha…
