How much do you need to practice your golf swing in order to improve? Can you over-practice? What should you be practicing?
Many Golfers stay frustratingly inconsistent — regardless of how badly they want to improve. As we have found that the people losing “The Battle of Consistency” fall into one of these three categories:
#1 You don’t practice enough
Does a Professional Golfer need to practice each week?
Of course they do … even if they’ve practiced or played almost every day of their life. If they miss a week of practice … they lose consistency. So even the best Players on the Planet need to practice to keep their skills up.
I’m not even talking about continuing to improve … they need to practice just to maintain their current skill level.
So the question for you isn’t whether you should or should not practice to improve your golf swing. Practice is a necessary, undisputable requirement! The question should be – how much do you need to practice just to maintain your current level?
Then, whatever amount that is … you’ll need to add a little more to start working on improvements. How much more depends on how much more improvement you want to see.
#2 You practice too much
How much is too much practice? Too much usually starts when you go out to the driving range without a PLAN. You pretty much go out to hit balls hoping to find improvement. Unfortunately, this often leads to the Golfer drifting from golf tip to golf tip – trying new things each swing until they find something that works.
And once you find something that works … you’ll stick with it. Yet, once it’s not working anymore (usually after 4 or 5 shots) … you again start a random search (by continuing to hit ball after ball) hoping to find something else that works.
And this is where the downward spiral of “Fiddling” begins.
As it’s probably better to practice 1 time a week and play 1 time a week versus playing twice and not practicing. The former (play once and practice once) is also better than practicing 4 times a week and not playing.
You need experiement to find what your perfect ratio of practice to play is. Each person is going to have a different ratio of how much to practice and how much to play. So I can’t tell you what that is in this newsletter … yet I can make you conscious of it so that you can start coming up with a PLAN.
Why?
Because if a Golfer practices their swing too much – they often carry that practice mentality onto the golf course where they aren’t in the right frame of mind to play golf. They become too focused on making a perfect swing – and their golf swing suffers.
Try to find your optimum ratio of practice to play. Yes, you need to practice … however, just as importantly – you need to be able to play without thinking about your practice.
#3 You don’t know what to practice
Perhaps the worst of all is ‘not knowing what to practice’. Many Golfers hit the practice range – just for the simple fact of … hitting golf balls to improve.
However, when a Golfer goes to the range just to hit golf balls without a specific PLAN – they’re setting themselves up for disaster. Talk to a low handicap or a PGA/LPGA Tour Player about going to the driving range to practice. They’ll most likely tell you that without a PLAN … you’re just going to develop more bad habits on top of the ones you already own.
Thus, for most Golfers – going to the range just turns your golf game into a rollercoaster of high and lows because Golfers that go to hit golf balls without a Practice PLAN stay inconsistent Golfers for the rest of their lives.
The Solution
Learn to develop a Practice PLAN that’s specific for your needs. As well as discovering what your ratio of practice and play should be.
If you do these things – you’ll start to see improvement on the golf course. If not, you’ll continue to do what you’re doing and you’ll continue to see what you’re seeing.
The Monkey either doesn’t practice enough, practices too much or doesn’t know what to practice
The Player has a Practice PLAN that leads to success and happiness on the golf course
Go ahead, be a Player!
Regards,
Marc Solomon – Your Instructor For Life
www.GolfMadeSimple.com
Contact GMS
IWantToBe@GolfMadeSimple.com
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