Top tips for getting the most from your practice sessions

Tips for successful practice sessions

Effective practice when working on a swing change, new feeling/movement

Here are a few key tips to successful practice when undergoing any swing changes or implementing new feelings into your swing – It is worth noting that some form of short physical warm up for the body prior to any form of practice session is also greatly beneficial. Some great exercises can be found by visiting www.mytpi.com

• When working on a new feeling/movement, start initially with a mid-iron, 7 or 8 to build up confidence. It’s tempting to see if changes will implement themselves straight away with the distance clubs such as the driver or fairway woods but the longer the club the more it has the tendency to highlight any issue if you are slightly out of position at impact. This is not great for confidence levels and delays creating trust in the new movement. Also a club with less loft will generally impart more side spin to any shots that are not struck correctly at impact. Once confidence and consistency are gained with the short and mid-irons, gradually work up towards the longer clubs. Also when less emphasis is placed on distance there is a greater opportunity to focus on the quality of the new movement/feeling. Very often distance will be the natural by-product once changes have been confidently established.

• Place the ball on a small tee peg in the early stages of developing a new movement in order to build confidence and trust in any new feelings or positions. It also helps to take away the worry of trying to get the ball airborne and places greater focus on trusting the new movement/feeling. Imagine learning to ride a bike as a small child, using the small stabiliser wheels to start with. If these were taken away too soon the child would fall off, get back on again, fall off, get back on again and so on until eventually all confidence would be lost and it would not be fun anymore. Picture the tee peg having the same effect. Once you feel confident in repeating the new movement successfully, remove the tee peg and get used to the new movement hitting the ball from the turf/practice mat. The best golfers in the world will still use the aid of a small tee peg whilst initially ingraining a new move or feeling into their swing, often during their non competitive, off season periods.

• Focus on the quality rather than the quantity. Hitting a smaller quantity of balls during shorter more frequent practice sessions rather than a large volume of balls potentially on a more sporadic basis will ensure greater focus and quality is dedicated to each shot.

• Spend time working on any drills your professional may have given you. Often drills that do not involve hitting a ball but recreate the new move or feeling you are working on, benefit your progress greatly. Generally, when a ball is there a greater tendency is to want to trust the old habit no matter how much the brain knows intellectually what needs to be changed. In removing the ball during certain drills or practice routines the mind and body will be more open to trusting a new feeling.

• Create a disciplined routine of correct alignment during your practice session. Place a club or cane on the ground aligned with your chosen target. Once you feel comfortable in repeating the new move and you are gaining repetitive consistency, start to vary your target and vary your club selection, creating a more real life scenario of being out on the golf course. Once the changes are confidently in place, at least some portion of your practice session should replicate the focus and situations you would face on the golf course; this means changing your club and targets every shot or couple of shots and also imagining yourself on a certain hole on the golf course. Simply hitting the same club to the same target throughout the whole of your practice session on the range may feel great at the time; however, it is not fully preparing you for what lies ahead on the golf course.

• They say a picture paints a thousand words and with this in mind using a mirror can be a great learning aid when you are practising. Often a driving range or practice facility will have a bay that has a mirror positioned either in front of you, behind the target line or ideally both. Even working on certain drills and positions at home using a mirror can be highly beneficial. Often what you feel you are doing is not actually what is happening in reality as the old habit tends to be the familiar and most prominent in the early stages of change, hence a visual check provides great feedback. Something as simple as working on your posture in front of a mirror at home for a few minutes a day can provide great benefits and be more fruitful than countless hours firing golf balls on the range.

• Enjoy your practice session. Approaching it with toil, effort and struggle is less likely to produce the results you were hoping for. Take your time, enjoy the challenge, create variety and make it fun!

Effective practice for a pre round warm up

When practising prior to a round purely to warm up, an alternative routine, specific to the round ahead, would be more suitable. The following tips would be advisable:

• Ensure that a pre round warm up session begins with the short game/clubs first, working up to the longer clubs to finish the session.

• If you have a limited amount of time, maybe 10 or 15 minutes, spend it wisely building up feel and timing by pitching, chipping and putting rather than purely hitting shots that are based on distance, avoid rushing to the range solely with the intent of hitting your driver.

• Ideally also include blocks of target specific practice, hitting a repetition of balls with the same club to the same target, blended with variable targets, hitting balls to multiple targets with different clubs. This combination will enable a sound repetition of movement, developing feel, rhythm, timing and confidence along with also re enacting similar scenarios to the ones you will find out on the golf course.

Author: Nicky Lawrenson, PGA Fellow Professional