There might not be anything that impresses me more about a Golfer than their ability to practice effectively. To be able to go the driving range with a Practice PLAN shows how serious a Golfer is towards improving. But the reality is that a Golfer that goes to hit golf balls as their sole method to improve, is not serious about improving their golf swing!
Unfortunately, most Golfers go to the driving range with the thought of practicing – yet their time really amounts to nothing more than just hitting golf balls. Or as a great Instructor that influenced me years ago would say – “They’re just out for recreation”. And although there is nothing wrong with hitting golf balls as recreation … these Golfers are under the false impression that they are practicing.
What is a good practice session?
For the majority of Golfers that are hitting golf balls at the range… all they are doing is just creating new ways to compensate in their golf swing to cover-up for the bad habits they already have. So it becomes a “practice” session where more compensations are being piled on top of all the other compensations you already have accumulated.
And as you continually add new compensations to your golf swing, it becomes harder and harder to become more consistent. Golfers like that fall into the category of having the ability to hit great golf shots … albeit only every-once-in-a-while. Yes, when all their compensations align to work together in a swing – they can hit the most beautiful golf shots.
However, as fast as they got it … they lose it. And they wonder: “What happened? How can I hit it so well and then all of a sudden lose it?”
The reason you had it for that fleeting moment was that all your compensations aligned for a few swings. Pretty much by a combination of luck and the law of averages that your bad habits will every-once-in-a-while work together to hit a good golf shot.
But sooner rather than later – you’re going to hit a bad shot and say to yourself: “I felt like I swung exactly the same as I did on the other swings …. why wasn’t that a good shot?”
And the answer is that you have too many compensations in your golf swing.
That’s where a Golfer that has a Practice PLAN allows themselves to improve. They know what drills they need to work on. They know what they should be feeling while practicing these drills. They know their practice session is more about practicing a drill – followed up by hitting 6 golf balls. Followed by using the results of those 6 shots to determine how effectively they had practiced the drill.
The Golfer that is just hitting golf balls is putting all their efforts into just hitting golf balls and engraining more bad habits, along with inconsistent compensations into their golf swing.
Anyone that wants to improve needs a Practice PLAN. If not … you’re just adding more compensations on top of your existing compensations … hoping that one day that good streak will last more than 3 or 4 swings.
The Monkey just continues hitting golf balls at the driving range … but in essence is moving farther and farther away from consistency
The Player has a Practice PLAN that is based on using drills to improve
Go ahead, be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon
