Practice Makes Perfect

[00:00:02] What you want, when you want it, where you want it. This is The MESH.

[00:00:39] Today, I'd like to discuss with you an opportunity to improve as a golfer your practice plan.

[00:01:09] I'm looking forward to sharing with you the golfers I coach struggle with when it comes

[00:01:26] to practice. The driving range is where you think you want to practice and our industry

[00:01:33] guides you out of convenience. I want to discuss what the practice range offers that doesn't

[00:01:40] replicate what the golf course is going to require. One of the ideas we get on the range,

[00:01:48] we've got a pile of golf balls there in front of us and we've got this perfect grass. It's

[00:01:53] level. There's no unlevelness to the range typically. We've got our seven iron in our

[00:01:59] hand and we might hit 37 irons in a row off of that perfect lie, off of that flat terrain.

[00:02:07] Then the golf course is not going to ever create that opportunity for you. You're actually

[00:02:12] practicing something you're not going to ever do on the course. You're not going to hit

[00:02:17] 37 irons in a row off of perfect flat level lie. Let's think about the dichotomy of practice

[00:02:23] versus play and what the driving range offers. It offers convenience. You want to go

[00:02:29] into a very specific type of practice when you have to use the driving range for your practice.

[00:02:36] We want you to understand that is a, we call it a block practice environment. It creates

[00:02:44] convenience for you to work on skill acquisition. You might find it convenient

[00:02:50] to stand there and repeat the golf swing a lot. The other thing that happens in that

[00:02:55] practice on the range is you're not putting any time between swings. You're not spacing

[00:03:02] one swing from the next and of course the golf course is going to space your swings. You're

[00:03:07] going to hit a drive and it may be six to 10 minutes before you hit your second shot on a golf

[00:03:11] course. So you have to understand the driving range is not putting the spacing

[00:03:16] in between your swings. But again for skill acquisition, I see golfers on the range

[00:03:22] typically with a bag of balls or sometimes two or three bags of balls.

[00:03:27] And I can tell that golfers are really not aware of how to improve a lot of the times.

[00:03:34] They're going for quantity over quality and the skill acquisition part of practice is really

[00:03:43] a delicate and disciplined thing. And seriously what most golfers will do is they'll have

[00:03:50] golf balls in front of them. They'll begin hitting balls and each shot they hit,

[00:03:56] they somewhat analyze the performance as being an error. And then the very next ball they're trying to

[00:04:06] make a swing that eliminates the error that was in the previous swing.

[00:04:11] And they'll hit that shot and there might be a new error in that second swing.

[00:04:16] So the third ball is now trying to make a compensation for what the second swing error was.

[00:04:23] And that process goes on for about 30 minutes to an hour where they're making a new swing

[00:04:30] compensation on every new ball. So there's no repetition of working on a specific skill.

[00:04:38] It's trying to correct an error and that error and they're chasing their tail.

[00:04:42] So by the end of the practice they're tired, they're frustrated, probably not any better.

[00:04:48] In most cases they're worse. And so that's a very typical driving range block practice that you see

[00:04:55] and the golfer needs to go to that block practice environment when it is a block practice

[00:05:04] approach and when it's most appropriate and develop a skill and understand what skill they're

[00:05:10] trying to develop. And what I find most golfers do not have, and this is the first skill that I would

[00:05:17] want them to work on, is they do not have the skill to control the lowest point of their golf swing.

[00:05:25] The club itself is going to swing down to a lowest point and we in golf instruction

[00:05:31] further that low point as a very important skill. The club for instance we're hitting an iron shot

[00:05:38] off the ground should the club touch the ground. That's an interesting question and as most golfers

[00:05:46] try to hit an iron shot when they touch the ground they hit the ground behind the ball.

[00:05:51] They hit the ground first and they recognize that as a fat shot or a bad golf shot as they

[00:05:58] might say and the very next swing their attempt to correct that generally is to get

[00:06:04] the club to not touch the ground. So now you have a second error which is a thin shot, a skull or a

[00:06:12] top shot or even miss it all together in some cases depending upon the golfer's ability to

[00:06:17] control their low point and what they do not recognize is in both cases the error was actually

[00:06:24] the lowest point of the swing was behind the ball. The one in the ground hit the fat shot,

[00:06:32] the one out of the ground hit the thin shot and they go back and forth between lowering and raising

[00:06:40] the low point and playing poor golf. So what that golfer doesn't understand is their low point needs

[00:06:47] to move forward to properly strike an iron shot. It needs to be low enough and forward enough

[00:06:54] to strike a solid shot. When the ball is sitting on the ground that is an absolute requirement

[00:07:00] for striking the ball solid. So that skill low point control honestly might be the very

[00:07:08] very thing that's keeping this golfer shooting high scores. We find that golfers that have a low point

[00:07:16] oftentimes four inches in front of the golf ball with a typical iron shot are pretty good

[00:07:22] ball strikers. Generally tour players have a low point three to five inches in front of

[00:07:27] the golf ball when they hit irons off the ground. So that skill has to be learned developed and

[00:07:33] understood. You might be working on that skill for quite some time but until you have that skill

[00:07:40] you're not going to become a great ball striker. So that's very important block practice could be

[00:07:46] used to develop that low point control and if you have trouble with it you know get with a

[00:07:51] good golf instructor let them help discern why you're having challenges with your low point.

[00:07:57] That would be a very important skill to acquire. This podcast is sponsored by Jackson Creative

[00:08:03] a custom communication agency located in downtown Hickory North Carolina specializing in

[00:08:09] online content creation. To learn more visit thejaxsoncreative.com. Jackson Creative we tell

[00:08:17] your story. The next concept that we need to discuss away from block practice how much

[00:08:23] random practice do you do and what is random practice well random is simulating what the

[00:08:30] golf course is going to ask for. You might use the range for convenience but on the range are

[00:08:37] you practicing random shots with random clubs to random targets and random lies that means

[00:08:44] move the ball into a divot hit a nine iron to a specific target the next swing tee the ball up

[00:08:51] hit a driver define a fairway on the driving range that is the fairway for a particular hole

[00:08:56] that you might play and hit that tee shot in doing so and practicing more random you can simulate

[00:09:03] playing a golf course play a course in your mind that you're familiar with hit the tee shot

[00:09:08] that the first hole is going to require the very next ball is going to be the approach shot

[00:09:13] to that hole and so forth and so on and play the golf course in your mind creating as many

[00:09:18] random swings random shots random clubs is going to simulate more what the golf course is going to

[00:09:26] require those are some ideas certainly most golfers never make it to that random phase of their

[00:09:35] practice very often the only random practice they get when they actually play so I hear a lot

[00:09:42] well I'm good on the range but boy when I go to the course I struggle well that's why you're

[00:09:46] not doing enough random practice you don't understand the process to create or discipline

[00:09:52] yourself to create a random environment when you're practicing and the final form of practice you might

[00:09:58] use and this one's a big one especially for competitive golfers and it's called competitive

[00:10:03] practice what we need to understand about competitive golf is it seems more important

[00:10:11] to the golfer when we play in a tournament or our nervousness or anxiety elevates

[00:10:19] because we realize now we've got to make every putt there's not going to be any gimmies out

[00:10:24] there today I'm going to have to post a score all my friends are going to see this score on the

[00:10:29] internet or on the scoreboard here at the clubhouse and so it's an important round and I think

[00:10:35] oftentimes golfers don't train to perform competitively they take the pressure off when they practice

[00:10:45] so what does that mean take the pressure off there's no penalty for hitting a bad range shot

[00:10:51] there's no I've got to find this golf ball and hit it again it's not your ball so if you lose

[00:10:56] it nothing out of your pocket and so there's this lack of importance or lack of pressure

[00:11:03] when you're practicing versus a tournament round when it's your golf ball your score

[00:11:09] and your reputation on the line so those are some ideas how do we create a more competitive

[00:11:15] mindset when we practice well the idea is you might not always have a competitor to make

[00:11:21] practice competitive but you always have yourself you can always be competitive against your

[00:11:28] personal best in any particular skill of your game give you an example when you're on the driving

[00:11:35] range and you're practicing add the competitive element to your tee shots so what you're going to do is

[00:11:42] you're going to take your driver and you're going to try to hit nine consecutive tee shots

[00:11:49] defining a target the parameters for a fairway might be a couple of targets on the range

[00:11:55] and say well I'm going to hit nine tee shots in a row and this is my fairway between the two flags

[00:12:02] how many times out of nine did you get the ball in play you're going for your personal best on

[00:12:09] your first attempt it might be three drives out of nine that you got into play and then the second

[00:12:15] time you try it you're trying to get four eventually you'll work your personal best number

[00:12:21] upwards towards nine your goal is to be as consistent at putting the ball in play as possible with the

[00:12:29] driver so that's an idea of creating some competitiveness and as the pressure builds you feel your performance

[00:12:36] improving that pressure that's created in your mind is really very important to try and create when

[00:12:44] you practice so you can deal with it in a competitive environment but most golfers don't

[00:12:49] recognize that that pressure they're feeling is simply a distraction it's a distraction from the very

[00:12:58] thought you should be focused on which is what is it going to take for me to put this drive in play

[00:13:06] I'm going to have to hit the center of the club face I'm going to have to have the club face

[00:13:10] pointing in some direction that's going to start the ball and then I have to swing the club

[00:13:16] so the path of my club matches up well enough to my face so the ball doesn't curve out of play

[00:13:22] so we have to manage some things we have to hit the ball solid we have to have the face

[00:13:27] and the path coordinated so the ball can be in play and if you're thinking about

[00:13:34] what if I miss this fairway what's going to happen I'm going to make a bad score on this

[00:13:38] hole and ruin my round you simply distracted yourself from what you need to be focused on

[00:13:44] which is managing your face your path and your centeredness of contact and getting a good golf swing

[00:13:51] making that shot happen is more important and your focus has to be driven towards

[00:13:58] achieving a good golf shot not what the results are going to be if you hit it out of play

[00:14:05] so it's more of a process thought versus a result thought that's going to keep your mind

[00:14:11] where it needs to be at that moment so you hit a good shot and again back to competitive practice

[00:14:16] you can set up any competition against yourself and establish your personal best from five feet

[00:14:22] how many putts in a row can you make from five feet from random slopes and let that pressure

[00:14:31] build when you get to your personal best trying to do better every time you do it

[00:14:36] and then you'll see your your practice start to create some some benefit in your game

[00:14:41] so we've discussed some ideas block practice that's where you go for skill acquisition

[00:14:46] maybe low point control or working on something with trajectory or a face-to-path relationship

[00:14:52] to control curvature but you're going to spend some time in block practice most of your practice

[00:14:58] should be done in random and then additionally in a competitive way trying to better your personal

[00:15:05] best performance so use these ideas randomness make it appropriately difficult for you don't

[00:15:12] don't practice one foot putts practice three foot putts practice four feet where does it

[00:15:19] become difficult for you at that distance from the hole where you have difficulty in keeping

[00:15:26] your string of making putts in a row going that's where you need to spend time everyone needs to

[00:15:33] understand that concept is very similar to the game limbo where does the bar come where you start

[00:15:39] to bump your head that's the difficulty also add the spacing element between your shots as

[00:15:46] you practice in other words put time in between each of these putts just like you're going to

[00:15:52] experience on the golf course there's going to be time between between shots so my ideas are

[00:15:58] simple i hope you can take these practice ideas into your next practice and get more quality out

[00:16:04] of what you're doing and for you developing the perfect practice plan might require you give me

[00:16:10] a call i can help you put that together through proper evaluation of your game and see where

[00:16:14] your skills are and certainly that's what i do on a daily basis i would love to help so

[00:16:19] you're not getting in touch with me i'm alan at alanburton golf dot com please give me a shout

[00:16:25] if we can help you in any way and that's our conversation today so perfect practice plan

[00:16:31] so you can take it to the course we're moving out of the golf season a little bit here in the

[00:16:35] fall of the year some some great weather left to play but uh is your game has been uh

[00:16:41] you know analyzed and assessed take inventory of where your skills are and if you need help

[00:16:47] reach out let me help you i'd love to do that so again how are you going to survive in the jungle

[00:16:53] if you lived your entire life in a cage that's one of my sayings and i think it's it's really

[00:16:59] interesting you know we we spend our time on the range that's kind of like the cage where

[00:17:04] everything's controlled everything's consistent you never have to fight for your food so to speak

[00:17:09] but when you get on the golf course it's a jungle a lot of unlevel lies a lot of different

[00:17:14] shots you have to manage yourself to survive in that changing variable environment and boy if you

[00:17:21] had the the pressure of competition to that environment things changed quite a bit so

[00:17:28] let's get you prepared to play your best golf here in the fall of the year so give me a shout

[00:17:33] again thanks for listening and uh hope this helps your practice plan improve as you move into

[00:17:39] the fall of the year and best of luck to you out there golfers thanks so much for listening i'm

[00:17:43] alan burton your host and you've been listening to the forecast have a great day you've been listening

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