A common concern I hear often from golfers is that they are practising regularly but not seeing any noticeable improvements and in some cases getting worse. How can this be?
First of all, if you’re practising regularly then congratulations. You’re clearly serious about improving and with the right guidance I have no doubt you will be able to achieve your golfing goals.
But why do some golfers not seem to improve with their practise? Practise is a skill just like any other in golf and some people are more adept at this skill than others. But like the other skills in golf, practise quality can be improved.
So what does perfect practice look like? Certainly, what it doesn’t look like is hitting 50 7-irons off a perfect lie at the same target. Particularly if during your last round you hit 2 fairways and had 43 putts. In order to know how to improve, its important to know what needs improving, and be specific. Not “I want to hit it better” but “I need to improve my greens hit with short irons from uneven lies ”Or “I need to improve my alignment with woods in order to increase the amount fairways hit, particularly on holes where I can’t see my target.”
Before arriving to any practise session it’s important to have a very clear idea of what you want to improve and how you plan to go about this. I’d go as far to say that turning up to the driving range with no clear direction is about as worthwhile as not turning up at all.
I’m a big proponent of stat taking in order to know the areas most in need of development. What gets measured, gets improved. But if you’re not a stat taker you should still aim to have a specific goal for each session.
So, you’ve got your goal, what next? It’s important to break your practice down into two specific sections – Technical and Performance.
These are two very different sorts of practice, and both serve an important purpose. Technical practice is working on a technique within your golf swing that’s causing an undesirable shot pattern. Identifying swing faults is the tricky bit, and this is where seeking the help of a PGA professional comes in to use. Once the fault has been identified, technical practice is best done by doing drills, using training aids, having lots of slow and deliberate practice swings. During this part of your practice, it’s not just about the quality of shots you hit, It’s about the awareness of the movement and feeling the difference between the current and desired technique.
Performance practice is all about hitting shots at targets. Here it’s important to follow your on-course, pre shot routine as closely as possible. Do your best to simulate on course conditions by varying lie, picking different targets and adding a competitive element. This is where you’re trying to take your technical practice into a realistic scenario. This is the intermediate area of practice, where improvements in technique are implemented to make improvements in your score. Taking new technique straight to the course is a challenging process, so having this middle ground helps to make this a slightly smoother transition.
So next time you practice expect 3 things from yourself. A clear goal of what needs improving and why, A portion of your practice dedicated to improving technique and then a portion of your practice dedicated to improving your performance. Give this a go, monitor your progress and soon you will see the results in your game you’ve sought after for so long.
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