Practice Or No Practice, What’s Best For Your Golf Game?

I was speaking with one of my newsletter subscribers last night and he said something that got me to thinking.  “Golf Nut”, he said, “I don’t agree with you about not practicing.”   We talked about it and I told him that I really wasn’t against practicing your golf game and went back through my thoughts on it.  And that’s what got me to thinking about some things I want to share with you golfers.First of all, if you read my sales page for my golf program at Golfers Tips, I can see where you might think that I am in favor of not practicing your golf game.  But that’s not the case.  My experience was that I went overboard on practicing and tried way to hard to develop the perfect golf swing by following what teaching pros were telling me.  And that stuff just didn’t work for me.

And so my philosophy on practice changed quite a bit.  So first, again I am not saying not to practice.  But one of the things that I have done in the past and strongly urge you not to do is to go to the range and  just hit ball after ball after ball after ball…. well you get the idea.  I still see golfers doing this almost like they believe that suddenly their golf swing is going to magically correct itself.  So my first point is this.  Slow down when you are hitting balls at the golf range and think about the results of each shot and learn from each shot.

Second,  as you see results, look at what caused any bad results and make a small change.  I’m not talking about wholesale changes to your swing, but little tweaks.  Maybe strengthen or weaken your grip slightly or close or open your stance a little.  Maybe shorten your backswing a little.  But don’t just keep doing the same thing over and over.

Second,  practice with a purpose.  One of my key recommendations about practice is not to just hit balls down the range.  I like to play holes in my practice.  Usually there are distance flags.  I use the short distances for my approach shots.  So I’ll hit a driver on a par 4, then use my 8 iron into a flag.  I’ll hit a driver, 3 wood, and then a pitching wedge to simulate a par 5.  All of this makes practice more like a round and it sharpens what you do with your practice time.

I will write another post in a couple of days on more practice tips, so my last one for today is this.  Practice the amount of time that makes sense for you.  If it’s productive time, you may stay out there a while.  I don’t, but that’s because it’s unproductive for me.  But I see other golfers who may stay on the range for an hour or two.  Others are out there two hours, buy may only practice their golf for 30-40 minutes.  The rest of the time they enjoy the fellowship of other golfers.

So for now, make your practice work for you, not the other way around.