The Answer is – not the middle of July. The Question – When should you be practicing to get better so you play your best Golf in July? For many Golfers, the next few months are the time you should be working on your golf game to improve. Unfortunately, many Golfers in the US, Canada and Europe don’t use this time effectively.
If you’re waiting for your season to start – you’re waiting too long. Players have two seasons – Off Season and The Season. Monkeys unfortunately have just one season – The Season.
Now this might not make much sense to a lot of Golfers because The Season is the only way they know how to do it. The frustrated Golfer is trying to improve too much at the same time that they’re trying to play. And because of this – more frustration is produced every year during The Season. Yet, even though this frustration is repeated yearly – the Monkey continues to do the same routine over and over expecting to eventually see – different, more improved Results.
The Player isn’t trying to learn anything new during The Season – they did most of their learning and improving during the Off Season.
The Monkey is putting too much pressure on themselves to improve from round to round by trying to combine learning, practicing and improvement in each round of golf. The Monkey is going from swing to swing hoping and wishing to improve something they could’ve improved during the Off Season. That’s why the Frustrated Golfer is continually finding inconsistency on the golf course round after round and year after year.
The Player has spent their Off Season learning, practicing and improving so that all they need to do each round during The Season is to make their PLAN to play to their Strengths and away from their Weaknesses. By being able to focus primarily on their PLAN, as opposed to thinking about their golf swing on every swing – the Player is free from tension, anxiety, and the pressure of trying to do everything correct on every golf swing. And without all these swing thoughts – the Player becomes more consistent.
Think about it this way – Why would you start practicing your game during the time you should be maintaining your game? And that’s a statement many Golfers won’t understand because they’ve never thought of it that way. In other words – Is spending The Season learning and practicing to play better going to help you to play better during The Season?
No, all it will do is frustrate you like it has in the past. The best way is to learn and practice in the Off Season so you just need to maintain during The Season. And when you’re focused on maintaining during The Season – you’ll actually be improving because all you’re worried about is repeating the swing you worked on. As opposed to the Monkey that’s trying out new things every round of golf.
Take Professional Baseball for example. Before their season starts, they have Spring Training for a couple of months so that they can get ready for The Season. This is where all the teams come down to Florida or Arizona to practice and play exhibition games to get ready.
Though, even before Pitchers and Catchers report – the majority of the Players are learning, practicing and improving at home during the Off Season. Not every Baseball Player lives in Florida, Arizona or California, where they can go outside to practice every day. Yet, they find ways to improve before their season starts. Then during The Season – Players are just maintaining what they have – which actually helps them to improve as the season goes on.
A Rod (Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees and the best Baseball Player on the Planet), doesn’t work on or try to learn his swing during The Season. He does that work during the Off Season – so that during The Season, he can concentrate on just swinging the bat without thought. You should do the same with your golf swing.
‘Thinkers are Stinkers’
How should you practice during the Off Season? When’s the last time you did 5 push-ups? When’s the last time you did a putting drill in your house? When’s the last time you practiced your swing using Swing Drills in your house? Or are you waiting until your golf season starts?
Which way do you think the Player does it? Do you think they wait until The Season to improve? Or do you think that they use the Off Season to improve so that they’re playing their best golf all summer?
Which way do you think the Monkey does it?
The Monkey keeps their clubs in the closet until late Spring or until they make a Golf Trip to Florida or Arizona for 4 days of golf. Then once late Spring arrives – they start to practice and play. Unfortunately, many Golfers don’t have the time to go practice, so they combine their learning, practicing and playing into the same round of golf. Can you say – ‘Huge Mistake’?
This is where the Monkey continually runs into trouble – Learning, Practicing and Playing can’t be combined to produce a good round of golf. Many of the Golfers frustrations come from the fact that on the golf course you’re trying to practice your swing. Yet, any successful Player will tell you that the less you’re practicing your swing during a round of golf – the more successful your shot will be.
‘If you Think, you’ll Stink’
The Player is successful because they practice during the Off Season and then once the season starts – they just PLAN. Their golf game is ready; they don’t need to continually try to improve from game to game. Sure, from time to time, they need to conduct some routine maintenance on their golf swing – but it’s nowhere near the battle that the Monkey is going through every time they hit the golf course.
Why is Tiger so dominate? How can he “not play” for weeks at a time and then come back to tournament play and look at the rest of the Players as if to say “Who’s Your Daddy?” Do you think he’s just sitting around the house drinking beer? Trust me; he’s practicing so that when he goes to play a tournament – he doesn’t have to practice – he can just play to his PLAN.
He’s now taking “a few more weeks off”. Which translates into – I may not be in the public eye playing in tournaments – but you can bet that I’m still practicing and working on my body so that I can be even more dominate when I come back.
The Monkey spends their Off Season reading Golf Digest
The Player uses their Off Season to get ready for The Season
Go ahead, Be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life
