Golf Tips » January 2005: Make 2005 your “practice year”!

Comments from my students over the years have lead me to this article. I think some students either have a misconception about what practice is or they don’t think practice is worthwhile. Let me be very clear on this issue: without good practice, you cannot improve—period!

I recently played a round of golf with a member of Pawleys Plantation who is an orthopedic surgeon and had been to golf school about 3 months prior. On the second tee he said, "You know Mel, my golf has not really improved since I took your school a few months back",  "Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Let me ask you, how much practice have you done since that school?" I asked. He replied, "None I’m afraid, I just don’t have the time". "Well, let me give you something to think about. Let’s say I come to you for a rotator cuff operation and afterwards you said, ‘Mel, here’s some tablets you need to take to avoid infection and here are some exercises you need to do to get your range of motion back in your shoulder.’ I go home, throw the pills in the garbage can and don’t do the exercises and come back to you a month later and say that ‘my shoulder is no better than before the operation.’ Does that make you a bad surgeon?" A light came on in his eyes and he said "Oh, now I understand: you spend money and time having me do the operation and it would be silly not to do the follow-up exercises. The same applies to my golf, I have wasted my money by not practicing. I’m going to start tomorrow!"

Having said that, let me say that it is a misconception that you have to stand for hours and hours on the range beating balls. I’ve seen people do that and not improve.

A solid understanding of what you need to work on is imperative. If you have been to our golf school you have left here with not only a good understanding of how to practice (the 48 ball drill) but also what you need to practice regarding your swing in particular.

If you are a high handicapper, spend a lot of time at home swinging the club and trying to get into the positions that your instructor has taught you. Many times students get frustrated at the range because they cannot get a particular move down. A lot of the time inflexibility in your muscles just doesn’t allow you to get into those positions—that is where swinging the club at home is a huge help. By stretching your muscles every day, when you do have time to go to the range your body is more able to accommodate the correct moves and practice starts being fun. When it starts becoming fun you will want to go and practice more—you see where I’m going with this!

Watch your video tape that you received from the school on a regular basis in the beginning, to remind yourself what it is you should be doing. Nothing is more frustrating than spending hours working on the range only to find out that you’ve been working on the wrong thing.

Work on quality and not quantity when on the range. Take several practice swings between each shot and to try and feel the correct positions. As those of you who have been to the school know, the practice swing is always slightly better than the swing with the ball present, so why hit the ball incorrectly with every swing? Take practice swings in between and you will see your rate of improvement increase dramatically!

So, let 2005 be your year to swing a club at home on a regular basis and go to the range at least once a week. You’ll be glad you did.