As you can imagine, I
spend a lot of time at the driving range during golf season. I spend a lot of
time watching other players so I can try to learn things about the golf swing. I
observe different tendencies and the results they produce. One thing that
surprises me is how many people practice without purpose. It’s sad because the
people I’m talking about obviously are dedicated enough to put the time in. But
the return on their investment is not being maximized.
Without a doubt, there
are lots of people who hit the driving range every once in a while to get into
a groove or even just to have a little fun.
These aren’t the people I’m talking about. But I do see a lot of the same people
there repeatedly over the course of a season. In many cases, these people are
engaging in the “Rake ‘n Beat”. They hit one ball and rake another one over
with their club and hit it and do it over and over until they’re out of balls.
It’s as if their practice session is just a trip from A to B.
Maybe you’re one of
the people I’m talking about. When you practice, do you use the same pre-shot
routine that you’d use on the course? Do you hit each shot with a purpose? Do
you watch each shot to completion and learn from it? If not, then you’re
probably not maximizing your practice time. It’s much better to hit fewer
balls, but hit each one with a purpose, than it is to rake ‘n beat as many
balls as you can.
You might be wondering
what “hitting with a purpose” means. I suggest the following guidelines as
a start:
§ Go through the same pre-shot routine on the
range that you’d do on the course. That means for every ball. It’s hard to
build that discipline and in fact, that’s one area of my own practice that
needs work.
§ Before hitting a shot, always have at least a
specific target in mind. Aim at a tree or house or light pole in the distance. But always hit
at a target. When you’re playing a round, every single shot will be directed at a specific
target, not just thrown down range (it should, anyway!)
§ Before making a shot, imagine what you want
the ball flight to do. Are you trying to hit a draw? Fade? Straight? If you
don’t have a plan (before you execute the shot) for what you want that shot to
do, then you can’t judge the effectiveness of your swing.
§ Observe the wind that day. How is it affecting
your distance and direction? Are you making subconscious wind adjustments that
will translate to poor directional control later on the course? Windy
conditions can be used to your advantage at the range. You’re bound to play a
round in the wind eventually, so spend some time practicing in it to learn how
to make proper adjustments.
§ Try and get a feel for your club distances.
Depending on your range, it might be difficult to get hard numbers to take to
the course because the balls they use on the range may be made to fly shorter
distances or may be beat up some. But your distances should at least be
consistent. For example, if you’re seeing swings of 10+ yards on pitching wedge
shots, then you have a problem with consistent ball striking and should be
working on that.
Sometimes practice
gets monotonous and it’s hard to stay focused. One technique I like to use is
playing my regular course in my imagination. I’ll start with a ball and imagine I’m on the first
tee. At my course, the ideal shot is a 250 yard fade off the tee, so I’ll get
my 3-wood out and play that exact shot. From there, whatever happened, I’ll
play the next shot as if I had gotten that same result on the course. If I
slice right, then I know I’m punching back out of the trees and going from
there so I’ll execute that shot. If I hit it perfect, then it’s a 2 iron down to
the bottom of the hill and I’ll execute that shot instead. I continue this
until I get through 18 “holes”.
If you don’t normally
practice with purpose, then give it a try over your next few practice sessions.
I think you’ll start noticing a difference.
