Avoid the dreaded ‘scrape and hit’ method.
I’m going to be real. If you’re someone who is the least bit interested in improving your golf game, then do everything you can to add variability to your practice sessions.
If you show up at the range, putting green, or short game area without a clear intention or plan for what you want to accomplish, then you may as well not even start.
I don’t say that to discourage anyone, on the contrary in fact. There are certain mechanisms in our human brains that respond very well to the challenge of variability and not so well to the mundane task of repeating poor habits over and over again. It sounds like common sense, but if you go to your local driving range, you will see the majority of the players on the range practicing where they barely change their position from one shot to the next, mindlessly dragging ball after ball towards them in a futile effort to improve.
This unrealistic behaviour further reduces the likelihood that our practice will actually transfer out onto the course and it is exhausting. So why do we do it?
I think one reason is that the media and social media tend to display short clips of the top players in the world standing on the range and seemingly hitting the same shot after shot. But we really have no idea of the context of their practice in that moment. If you were to go in person to an actual tour event, observe closely and you will find that the top players are creating and re-creating the very shots that they will be executing out on the course during actual play. Not only the ideal shots, but also the shots that they will need to get them out of trouble.
The tendency we have to work solely on the swing or, worse still, just a small element of the swing in isolation to where that refinement is going to be required, slows the process of your practice transferring to the course even more.
So, how do we actually practice with a purpose? Well, the first step is to let go and have fun.
If and when you go to the range make it as much about hitting as many different shots as possible i.e., Low fade, high draw, medium fade, straight stingers, etc.
Switch targets each and every shot. Do this and take a minute or two break in between each shot to reset, just as you would out on the course.
On every shot ask yourself “What is my target?”.
Set consequences for yourself for achieving or not achieving you practice goals. Make it count in some way, like it does on the course.
These are just a few of the ways in which we can train our brain and body to perform better and actually create skills that transfer over to the course when we play.
