Instruction
Four goals to maximize your practice session
Over the years as a teaching professional, I have seen many golfers struggle to organize their time and practice the correct way. Most golfers do not have a plan and don’t understand what “practice” actually entails. They head to the driving range, purchase a large bucket of balls and start swinging away. Within 10 minutes they are frustrated and have many different thoughts in their head.
Since most of us live in a world where time is precious, we need to make sure we utilize our time both efficiently and effectively. Below are four steps to guide you and help you make the most out of your practice session:
- Set a goal
- Set up a practice station
- Practice with a purpose
- Analyze your session
First things first, before heading to the practice facility, set a goal that you want to accomplish during your practice session. The goal must be specific and attainable. It could be something as simple as consistent alignment with your putter or as intricate as shallowing your angle of attack with a driver. Without some sort of direction or goal, your practice session will become just another insignificant trip to the practice range.
A great suggestion that one of my mentors gave to me was to purchase a small notebook that fits in your golf bag, and in it write down your intended goal. Be sure to date the page so that you have a reference point for your progress. Also, do not bring your entire bag to the practice facility — it will only encourage you to stray from your original goal. Only bring the clubs you intend to use.
Once you arrive at the practice facility with a clear goal in mind, it’s time to set up your practice station. There is an array of different types of practice stations. The right one just depends what area of the game you’re working on and what you’re trying to accomplish.
Below are a few basic practice stations. They aid in aim, alignment, posture, ball position, swing direction, distance control, swing length and impact point, but they do much more than just that. Setting up something like this starts you on the correct track and helps provide feedback.
Feedback is probably the most important thing when practicing, because it allows you to see when you are doing things correctly and incorrectly. This not only helps you practice effectively, but also speeds up the learning process. If you are unsure of what type of practice station to set up, consult with your local PGA Professional. YouTube videos on golf practice can also be a great resource.
Organizing your time and practicing the correct way is essential for achieving results, and for this reason your practice should be broken into two segments:
- Block practice
- Random practice
Together, both of these will prepare you for your journey on the course.
Block practice is a controlled practice environment with one fixed target, where you focus only on your objective. Whether it’s alignment or a backswing position, this part of the practice aids in training your body and mind to learn to new movements and positions.
Random practice, on the other hand, takes your objective out of the controlled environment and places it into a situational environment. In other words, it is learning how to align yourself to different targets, gain better speed control on breaking putts, control wedges from different distance, etc. Random practice is what helps the transfer process from the range to the course, because it places you in the pressure-filled environment that golfers encounter on the course.
Lastly, remember that analyzing your session is just as important as setting the initial goal. It helps you evaluate your progress and determine what steps you need to take to continue in the process.
Take out your notebook and write a few things down underneath your original goal. Did you achieve what you set out to do during your practice session? If not, what can you incorporate to help you next time?
Be honest with yourself. It’s the only way to continue to break the barriers.
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Tee Jay In
May 13, 2015 at 6:27 pm
I just play- Ricky Fowler
Roscoe
May 13, 2015 at 10:49 am
For random practice, be the last guy on the course in the evening. Play a few holes, one ball from the tee to green. One from 100 yds, one from 50 yds. After holing out scatter the three balls around the green. Play each shot with a different trajectory and putt out. Keep track of how many strokes it takes from each spot.
Tracy
May 13, 2015 at 10:44 am
Great post!
I like practicing my recovery shots on the range. I take a long iron and make abbreviated swings, simulating a “punch shot” from the rough back on to the fairway. I think one of the most frustrating things to happen during a round is when I duff my second shot from the rough after a bad drive.
Roger
May 13, 2015 at 1:01 am
Chip and Runs and Putting, then a Wedge to 100m board
The key areas that add Confidence for me.
20 to 30m chip and runs at the Pin
Putts…3m 5m 10m then 20m
A wedge to the 100m board
Spend half an hour doing the above,
and only play 9 holes and see how things go.