Here’s a better way to practice golf.
Don’t keep practicing success. Push yourself a little so you make a few errors and you feel a little uncomfortable. This doesn’t mean you try the impossible shot – but strive to reach for those shots that seem slightly out of reach. Why?
Because this is how you learn. By feeling and experiencing something new you’ll grow. You’ll change gears and get a little better.
The temptation is to only hit the shot you know you’ll hit well – to practice success. But if you’re going to make inroads and see improvement, you’ve got to be prepared to experience some failure. Here’s a list of things you might want to try next time you’re in a paddock with a few stray golf balls.
- high and low shots
- deliberate draw (or fade)
- full swing but half power (can you go lower than half?)
- play left-handed if you’re normally right
- lob shot with a five iron
I’m sure you can add a few more.
The thing is this: The ideal golf practice session doesn’t need to consist of 100 perfectly struck towering drives – like that’s going to happen anyway.
It’s more likely that your perfect practice session is going to be where you’ve struggled, felt uncomfortable and made all sorts of funny errors. It might even be that you didn’t actually notice success. This is all OK – the skill is in going through the exercise, not hitting perfect shots.
5 Comments
Grayden Provis
November 7, 2010“Don’t practice success”
Absolutely. Besides there’s no such thing as failure in my book. Just “learning”. It starts when you’re born and doesn’t stop until you breathe out for the last time (if you smart at least). Golf, life…..its the same.
Cameron
November 8, 2010I don’t believe in “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Just gotta get out there and have a go.
CS
Tony Lucas
November 8, 2010Cam
I take into account what your saying but do we not then fall into the trap of the technical roundabout (ie. how do I hit a draw)or are you saying do it without actually thinking about how you do it .I just feel with say the draw or fade situation that you would have to make a change in your setup to facilitate the appropriate shot.Outside of that though thinking outside the square would give you a larger range of shots to call on that is for sure.I would appreciate your thoughts on it.
Cheers Lukey
Cameron
November 8, 2010@Lukey: You can still explore and learn without getting too technical. If I asked you to throw a ball over a tree, standing on one leg and with a blindfold on you’ll be able to work it out. You certainly want get bogged down on how to grip or stand. You’ll find a way to throw the ball over the tree.
So a draw shot requires you to start the ball right and bring it back to the left. That’s it! You know have to figure out a way to do this. I suppose you can make it has hard or as easy as you like – it really is up to you.
The same thing would work for a lob shot over a bunker – you can stand there and try and work out how to do it or you can get down and dirty with a bucket of balls and stay there until you actually do it.
The main point of all this is actually getting outside and hitting balls is going to be good for your game. Enjoy it and see what happens.
Tony Lucas
November 8, 2010Cam
Thanks mate that is exactly what I wanted to hear just figure out what will work and then stick with it.
Cheers Lukey
Leave A Response