Effective Practice
Effective Practice
There are many ways to practise golf effectively. Repetitive practise is one which requires a golfer to stand on the range and repeat a certain action, so the swing change becomes an automatic movement.
Repetitive practise tends to be technical and requires a lot of thought about the mechanics of swinging the golf club.
When someone hits a bad shot in a lesson they often say, “I over thought that one, I was thinking too much”. I would agree to a certain extent that this may have been the case, because when you are thinking about something so much, you tend to lose your rhythm, which of course is a key factor to a successful shot.
What I would ask you to remember is that as the individual shot result does not matter when you are practising, it is all about making the right swing movements.
Most golfers’ judge their swing by the result of the shot. We all play our best golf when we aren’t thinking too much about what we are doing. The lower our confidence gets the more we tend to think about what we are technically doing.
Many golfers do not practise enough, they do not practise effectively, or they do not practise at all. If this is the case, then they must do their technical thinking on the golf course, sometimes even in competitive situations.
It is said it takes anywhere from 6-10 years to become great at something, depending on how often and how much you do it. Some estimate that it takes 10,000 hours to master something, but I think it varies from person to person and depends on the skill and other factors.
Playing a round of golf on average might take around 4 hours. That does not mean those 4 hours count towards improving your golf swing. Those 4 hours should be all about getting your golf ball around the course in the least amount of shots, this is a fact.
So why do people spend a lot of that time trying to improve their swing whilst playing, it just isn’t going to happen.
If you watch the top Professional’s on a regular basis you will see them discussing each individual shot with their caddies. They are discussing the best option for every single shot. Every shot is different, every scenario is different so why do we think trying to master a specific swing thought, will help our score at the end of the round.
We need to turn up to the golf course with a swing we can rely on, particularly under pressure. This allows us to only think about course management, for instance, which club do I need, what way is the wind blowing and how strong, is the ball running on the fairways and so on?
When it comes down to hitting the ball and what technique to use, this should be second nature because that aspect of the golf swing is developed on the driving range or practise area.
Practising doesn’t have to be monotonous. I would go as far as saying it isn’t down to hitting thousands or even hundreds of balls. But the shots you hit must be hit with a specific purpose and your practise must be effective.
We can analyse your golf swing and provide you with an individual practise plan based on your personal swing changes. We can also show you examples of pre-shot routines which I think are hugely beneficial when playing on the golf course and the driving range.
If you are interested in learning more about either of these, please don’t hesitate to get in touch info@noahsarkgolf.com
www.noahsarkgolf.com
