Instruction
The Solitude of Practice: Free your psyche to focus your mind
You know those lonely days on the range by yourself when, for whatever reason, every little mishit and mistake drives you crazy? I’m going to help you find inner peace in these moments, and make those range sessions more productive.
For me, I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I’ve spent beating balls on the range in an attempt to improve my game. Sometimes that “hard work” was fun; other days it felt like more of a chore. Even on those tough days when I felt like snapping every club over my knee, I always tried to make sure I reminded myself that golf was “only a game.” While that’s easier said than done, I want to discuss the “zen,” or solitude of practice that we should all strive to achieve when we are hitting balls so we can actually get better when we practice.
Look at the photo above of me hitting balls a few years ago at Bighorn in Palm Desert, California. I want you to notice several things that I would suggest you try the next time you are out on the range.
Dressed for the Day
It’s difficult to have a solid practice session when you’re not wearing the correct attire — whether it’s the wrong shoes, or you forgot to wear a hat and you’re looking straight into the sun. Remember that you are responsible for dressing for success and making sure you have your glove, sunscreen, hat, glasses, and the proper type of clothing for golf. It’s not about wearing $1,000 shoes and matching your outfit perfectly. You want to make sure you wear things that allow you to sweat less, avoid sunburn, feel better while practicing, and generally allow yourself to make the most out of your session. There is nothing worse than trying to work on a certain shot when you are sweating like a dog, slipping around, or being blinded by the sun.
On the Far End of the Range
If you are truly practicing and working on something in your game, you must remember that it’s not social hour; it’s a time for you to focus and meditate on your feels and your goals for that practice session. It’s impossible to get better between jokes and keep your focus when your buddy is goofing around next to you. This does not mean you cannot ever practice around people. I’m not encouraging you to be anti-social, but if you truly want to step inside yourself, you must break away from the masses. Concentration and solitude is required to “be the ball,” as Ty Webb once said in Caddyshack.
Using a Solid, Level, and Grassy Portion of the Practice Area
Now I understand that not every facility has a range as nice as Bighorn’s — or even a manicured strip of grass — but every facility has sections that are better than others. I suggest you find these areas and camp out if you’d like to really work on your game. It’s not reasonable to try and work on certain things when you are hitting off downhill, sidehill hardpan or a sandy lie. And what chance do you have to find the feel, much less your groove when hitting out of a divot or a mat with a hole in it?
Most of the time, I see people drop their bags on the range at the closest spot to the cart path. Think about it; that’s probably the most overused and worn-out section of the range. Find a less frequented spot, and you’ll have a more productive session.
One Ball at a Time
One of my favorite things about the photo taken of me aboce is that you can only see one ball. The others are in a pile a few steps from where I am hitting. Why did I put the balls out of arms reach? So I have to stop, regroup, and go through my pre-shot all over again before every shot. This keeps me focused and in the best mindset possible to stay in the zone so I can get my best work done. How many of you resemble a machine gun while hitting range balls? I know many people who have another ball teed up and ready to go before the last one lands. Don’t be that guy!
Clear Target in Mind
When you dial a phone, you have a specific goal in mind. For that reason, you input the correct number pretty much every time. You don’t just pick up your phone and hit random numbers; if you did, you probably wouldn’t reach the person you intended to dial. The same is true with golf. If you don’t focus on a target — an EXACT target — for every shot you hit, you won’t get much out of your session. If I ask you “What was your target?” and you answer, “I don’t know, I was just hitting the ball,” I can guarantee that you learned nothing from that shot, and you did not get better on that swing.
Relaxed and Un-rushed
If you have time to practice, then you have time to slow down. It’s never about the number of balls you hit; it’s about the quality of the balls you hit, especially when you are trying to learn a different move or swing feel. Far too often I see lunch-break golfers trying to hit a large bucket in 30 minutes. They get nothing accomplished but exercise. The goal of practicing on the range is to make a high number of correct repetitions in order to change a motor pattern, not finish a large bucket.
Focusing on Feels, NOT Results (Just Yet)
When you’re working on your swing, the range is a place to feel your new move versus an old one. It offers a low-pressure environment to work a new skill into your current game without repercussion. When you practice, don’t worry so much about the outcome at first; you only want to work on the feeling of the new move and understand just how close you’re actually coming to making “it.” Don’t ruin your zen by worrying on results quite yet… they will come.
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I hope by now you have learned how to set yourself up for success by preparing, slowing down, and focusing on the task at hand. And please remember to enjoy the quest of golf and the constant strive for improvement!
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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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Labia
Sep 9, 2017 at 12:56 am
Find feel between the bedsheets…. NOT by hitting golf clubs….. that’s pathetic
Nundie
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:05 pm
Just go commando in really loose pants
Chipolte
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:09 pm
and one ball at a time so you don’t stress your Fruit of the Looms.
Nundies
Sep 9, 2017 at 2:15 am
And no crotch rockets
OB
Sep 7, 2017 at 3:22 pm
If you want to be good in sports, music, dance, it’s 99% practice and 1% performance play.
You may be on the golf course for 4 hours (240 minutes) but you must reduce that to the time you are swinging or putting or strategizing for perhaps 10 solid minutes. You are doing nothing athletic or strategic for 230 minutes, other than socializing and taking in the scenery!
So, if that 10 minutes of performance time is backed up by 99% practice time, you would need to be practicing 1000 minutes (~17 hours)! Sounds just about right.
OBnoob
Sep 7, 2017 at 5:11 pm
WRONG!
Chipolte
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:04 pm
WRONG to you!
Sigmund
Sep 7, 2017 at 6:29 pm
Tell me about your mother
Chipolte
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:04 pm
I can tell you about your mother.
Sigmund
Sep 8, 2017 at 2:56 am
That answers everything about you
Chipolte
Sep 8, 2017 at 11:54 am
You should hear what your mother says about you.
acemandrake
Sep 7, 2017 at 10:15 am
1. Use an alignment rod
2. Stop if tired
Chipolte
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:06 pm
and shove the alignment rod for your spinal axis
Solid Golf
Sep 7, 2017 at 9:21 am
Good points in this article. You kept it very simple and straight to the point. Sometimes I get carried away on the range and get to exhausted. Once that happens I start hitting bad shots. Then to rectify this I hit more shots. That’s when I know it’s time to leave. I am just wasting my time at the range at that point.
Chipolte
Sep 7, 2017 at 8:07 pm
same on this fine forum…. wasting time