How to practice?

[timah!]

Hello there OzGolf..

After many years of not really playing (as in once a month at best) I'd like to return to a bit more regular play as well as more regular practice.

The thing is, how do you practice properly?

Assume mostly at a range, what's the best ways people have to make effective use of their time?

Cheers,
Tim

[Toxic]

Hello there OzGolf..

After many years of not really playing (as in once a month at best) I'd like to return to a bit more regular play as well as more regular practice.

The thing is, how do you practice properly?



Assume mostly at a range, what's the best ways people have to make effective use of their time?

Cheers,
Tim

Start with your short game, then when that's okay do some more short game, then after that some more short game, if in doubt do some more short game. Wedges from 100 - 20 yards.

[Grumpy8]

Just play 3 comps a week and do a bit of putting and chipping at home

[Dotty]

Keep half a dozen balls, a spare wedge and possbly a putter in the car at all times.

Disappear to the club for 15-30 mins, whenever it gets boring and/or annoying at work (or on the way home).

[3oneday]

Get a lesson early on

[mrbluu]

Spend more time in here ( https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...&share_type=sf) mate. I'm sure it game will improve.

[JoeS]

Watch it on YouTube

[Courty]

I get bored quickly on the range, and quickly end up pounding shots without any particular focus. So when I do (seldom) go there, I practice as I play... e.g. 1 x driver, 1 x mid-iron, 1 x pitch. Rinse & repeat in different combinations of clubs, mixing up the distances, targets and shot shapes I'm trying to achieve.

[WBennett]

I am with Courty. Range sucks.

Work on your short game. Even if its only 15 minutes.

[PapaBravo]

Over the last 12 months, I have managed to take myself from a once a month social golfer always losing a few balls every round, getting lucky to break 90's and really having no idea at all, to a "reasonably competent" player off single figures with still alot more room for improvement.

By avoiding alot of the mistakes that people can make in a training schedule/routine I am able to spend minimal time at the range week to week but still see significant leaps of improvement in my game. If you take a couple of these tips and implement them, it could help you achieve your goals like they were able to for me.

1: Small and Medium buckets are much better than Large buckets. You want your time at the range to be focused on a specific objective and be mentally switched on as much as you can. By always hitting the largest sized bucket, we can tend to slack off during our practice session. With 100+ balls, we can also fall into the trap of just hitting balls one after the other. We want to have focus for every shot on the range, ensuring quality over quantity. Smaller buckets also help with tempo between shots, because we feel less rushed because we have less balls to hit.

2: Frequency is 100 times better than duration. You are much more efficient hitting balls for 15-30 minutes a day, 3 times a week compared to hitting for 2 hours once a week. Similarly to tip 1, it also helps with focus and quality of practice. Frequency also helps massively with week to week consistency, and can be a huge improvement for the golfer that has great rounds one week, followed by disasters the week after. The more often you have a golf club in your hand, the quicker you will improve.

3: More than 50% of your practice shots should be 100meters or less. It's very easy to want to go 100% at the ball when practicing. A little bit of extra distance has much less effect on improving scores than pitching and chipping it close. Train to improve score, not to "feel good about your swing" and its easy to convince yourself to hit your last 20 balls with a wedge instead of the driver.

4: Putt. Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt. Then when you are done, Putt some more. Invest in a practice mat for home and use it every day. Again, 15 minutes is more than enough if you do it every day. If you have the area to have it set up all of the time, putt for 5 minutes at a time multiple times a day. Whilst a practice mat won't help you with reading breaks as much as the practice green, it will improve the way you see straight lines and swinging the hands/putter head to target.

5: Get your gear fitted. There is no point putting time into practicing if your clubs aren't set correctly for your swing. Impossible to know what a good swing is if your good swings produce poor shots. Efficiency in improvement will be drastically better if you know for sure your gear is set up correctly for you.

6: Get a range buddy who also wants to improve. Not only does it help with the motivation side of things, many of the drills we can do work well with a helper. Record each others swings, play mini games on the range like pick a target, learn some putting games to add a little pressure to your practice. Try to avoid giving each other too much advice though, swing advice is mostly best left to pro's.

7: One or two half an hour lessons immediately with a competent pro. They will usually be able to see the biggest faults in the swing, and give you drills to fix much more efficiently than if you try to work it all out yourself. Don't feel obliged to get coaching once a week, just use their experience to get you on the right path, then work on that element of your game in your own time. Grip, setup and alignment are the big 3 to look for because once they are right, you are well on your way. Get this done before dedicating yourself to a regular practice routine and start on the right track.

These are all my opinion, and they have worked for me so far. People can agree or disagree as they see fit.

I hope this gives you a couple of things you can use moving forward.

Good Luck!

[3Puttpete]

Over the last 12 months, I have managed to take myself from a once a month social golfer always losing a few balls every round, getting lucky to break 90's and really having no idea at all, to a "reasonably competent" player off single figures with still alot more room for improvement.

By avoiding alot of the mistakes that people can make in a training schedule/routine I am able to spend minimal time at the range week to week but still see significant leaps of improvement in my game. If you take a couple of these tips and implement them, it could help you achieve your goals like they were able to for me.

1: Small and Medium buckets are much better than Large buckets. You want your time at the range to be focused on a specific objective and be mentally switched on as much as you can. By always hitting the largest sized bucket, we can tend to slack off during our practice session. With 100+ balls, we can also fall into the trap of just hitting balls one after the other. We want to have focus for every shot on the range, ensuring quality over quantity. Smaller buckets also help with tempo between shots, because we feel less rushed because we have less balls to hit.

2: Frequency is 100 times better than duration. You are much more efficient hitting balls for 15-30 minutes a day, 3 times a week compared to hitting for 2 hours once a week. Similarly to tip 1, it also helps with focus and quality of practice. Frequency also helps massively with week to week consistency, and can be a huge improvement for the golfer that has great rounds one week, followed by disasters the week after. The more often you have a golf club in your hand, the quicker you will improve.

3: More than 50% of your practice shots should be 100meters or less. It's very easy to want to go 100% at the ball when practicing. A little bit of extra distance has much less effect on improving scores than pitching and chipping it close. Train to improve score, not to "feel good about your swing" and its easy to convince yourself to hit your last 20 balls with a wedge instead of the driver.

4: Putt. Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt. Then when you are done, Putt some more. Invest in a practice mat for home and use it every day. Again, 15 minutes is more than enough if you do it every day. If you have the area to have it set up all of the time, putt for 5 minutes at a time multiple times a day. Whilst a practice mat won't help you with reading breaks as much as the practice green, it will improve the way you see straight lines and swinging the hands/putter head to target.

5: Get your gear fitted. There is no point putting time into practicing if your clubs aren't set correctly for your swing. Impossible to know what a good swing is if your good swings produce poor shots. Efficiency in improvement will be drastically better if you know for sure your gear is set up correctly for you.

6: Get a range buddy who also wants to improve. Not only does it help with the motivation side of things, many of the drills we can do work well with a helper. Record each others swings, play mini games on the range like pick a target, learn some putting games to add a little pressure to your practice. Try to avoid giving each other too much advice though, swing advice is mostly best left to pro's.

7: One or two half an hour lessons immediately with a competent pro. They will usually be able to see the biggest faults in the swing, and give you drills to fix much more efficiently than if you try to work it all out yourself. Don't feel obliged to get coaching once a week, just use their experience to get you on the right path, then work on that element of your game in your own time. Grip, setup and alignment are the big 3 to look for because once they are right, you are well on your way. Get this done before dedicating yourself to a regular practice routine and start on the right track.

These are all my opinion, and they have worked for me so far. People can agree or disagree as they see fit.

I hope this gives you a couple of things you can use moving forward.

Good Luck!

Interesting.

What do you do for a living?

[Johnny Canuck]

I get bored quickly on the range, and quickly end up pounding shots without any particular focus. So when I do (seldom) go there, I practice as I play... e.g. 1 x driver, 1 x mid-iron, 1 x pitch. Rinse & repeat in different combinations of clubs, mixing up the distances, targets and shot shapes I'm trying to achieve.

Does Bob do the same thing?

Chip out sideways.

Hit provisional.

Wash, rinse, repeat?

[PapaBravo]

Interesting.

What do you do for a living?

Interesting question

I'm in finance currently.

Previously full time competing/coaching/technical in a different individual sport. The lessons learned in that time can relate to golf especially from a training and drive to improve perspective.

[okitoki]

Had a lesson last week and the pro taught me 2 changes...
one was my right hand grip to be less strong, and to follow through my hip before my arms on the downswing...
During my last 2 range session, I try to concentrate on the process, each shot was natural grip on the left, hold my right hand properly, aim, address, then swing... man.... I think I am exhausted after 50 balls ...

except when I get to the course, I loose my concentration and end up getting back to my old bad habits, and shots goes everywhere...

however, the quick chipping practice suggested here seems to work for me... after a few quick practice after work, I did much better than I had before... so hope this continues.

[Lagerlover]

Great reading Papa, thanks for it

[solarman]

Does Bob do the same thing?

Chip out sideways.

Hit provisional.

Wash, rinse, repeat?

Crikey not you too now. Getting it from all social media now.

[Johnny Canuck]

Crikey not you too now. Getting it from all social media now.

Sorry Bob

Some “Court” guy on Facebook does it so often that it just felt natural.

[JoeS]

I would put lessons before club fitting,fitters aren't their to fix a swing.
Great thread for those looking for ways to improve their practise and output

[LeftyHoges]

Practice is for chumps.

[PapaBravo]

I would put lessons before club fitting,fitters aren't their to fix a swing.
Great thread for those looking for ways to improve their practise and output

Sorry I should have probably clarified.

The list is in no particular order and I 100% agree that it would be better to fix a game breaking swing fault before getting your set up tuned. I was fortunate enough to be able to get onto Matt at the Golf Fitting Hub at Melbourne Airport GC who was able to tick both boxes at the same time for me. A pro that can quickly identify a poor fit during a lesson is probably an ideal happy medium.

[Grumpy8]

If I didn’t have 3 x 3 putts today I would be playing off 7 , so I agree with putting practice, haven’t been to a driving range for 6 months , won’t be going anytime soon . Spend your time playing ,or by practicing your chipping and putting. If you need to fix something in your swing then get a lesson and just swing a club every night at home till you are comfortable with the change

[JoeS]

So I went to the range this arvo and took a 9,pw amd 51.Quite amazing how many poor shots I hit,not so much for distance bit strike.I hit my short irons pretty good on the course,not so much at the range off matts

[mrbluu]

Over the last 12 months, I have managed to take myself from a once a month social golfer always losing a few balls every round, getting lucky to break 90's and really having no idea at all, to a "reasonably competent" player off single figures with still alot more room for improvement.

By avoiding alot of the mistakes that people can make in a training schedule/routine I am able to spend minimal time at the range week to week but still see significant leaps of improvement in my game. If you take a couple of these tips and implement them, it could help you achieve your goals like they were able to for me.

1: Small and Medium buckets are much better than Large buckets. You want your time at the range to be focused on a specific objective and be mentally switched on as much as you can. By always hitting the largest sized bucket, we can tend to slack off during our practice session. With 100+ balls, we can also fall into the trap of just hitting balls one after the other. We want to have focus for every shot on the range, ensuring quality over quantity. Smaller buckets also help with tempo between shots, because we feel less rushed because we have less balls to hit.

2: Frequency is 100 times better than duration. You are much more efficient hitting balls for 15-30 minutes a day, 3 times a week compared to hitting for 2 hours once a week. Similarly to tip 1, it also helps with focus and quality of practice. Frequency also helps massively with week to week consistency, and can be a huge improvement for the golfer that has great rounds one week, followed by disasters the week after. The more often you have a golf club in your hand, the quicker you will improve.

3: More than 50% of your practice shots should be 100meters or less. It's very easy to want to go 100% at the ball when practicing. A little bit of extra distance has much less effect on improving scores than pitching and chipping it close. Train to improve score, not to "feel good about your swing" and its easy to convince yourself to hit your last 20 balls with a wedge instead of the driver.

4: Putt. Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt, Putt. Then when you are done, Putt some more. Invest in a practice mat for home and use it every day. Again, 15 minutes is more than enough if you do it every day. If you have the area to have it set up all of the time, putt for 5 minutes at a time multiple times a day. Whilst a practice mat won't help you with reading breaks as much as the practice green, it will improve the way you see straight lines and swinging the hands/putter head to target.

5: Get your gear fitted. There is no point putting time into practicing if your clubs aren't set correctly for your swing. Impossible to know what a good swing is if your good swings produce poor shots. Efficiency in improvement will be drastically better if you know for sure your gear is set up correctly for you.

6: Get a range buddy who also wants to improve. Not only does it help with the motivation side of things, many of the drills we can do work well with a helper. Record each others swings, play mini games on the range like pick a target, learn some putting games to add a little pressure to your practice. Try to avoid giving each other too much advice though, swing advice is mostly best left to pro's.

7: One or two half an hour lessons immediately with a competent pro. They will usually be able to see the biggest faults in the swing, and give you drills to fix much more efficiently than if you try to work it all out yourself. Don't feel obliged to get coaching once a week, just use their experience to get you on the right path, then work on that element of your game in your own time. Grip, setup and alignment are the big 3 to look for because once they are right, you are well on your way. Get this done before dedicating yourself to a regular practice routine and start on the right track.

These are all my opinion, and they have worked for me so far. People can agree or disagree as they see fit.

I hope this gives you a couple of things you can use moving forward.

Good Luck!

Post reported for making too much sense.....

PS congrats on getting single figures and good luck with ur game!!

[Grumpy8]

So I went to the range this arvo and took a 9,pw amd 51.Quite amazing how many poor shots I hit,not so much for distance bit strike.I hit my short irons pretty good on the course,not so much at the range off matts

It’s probably the matts try hitting off the grass

[JoeS]

It’s probably the matts try hitting off the grass

Yep,but with a few other hitters on the range I didn't feel comfortable standing out front