Golf is like sex, you don´t have to be good to enjoy it, or so they say!
I find it hard to imagine that the average golfer enjoys playing bad golf, but almost everyone enjoys sex.
We as golfers are bombarded with helpful insights into the game, be it mental, swing tips or physical exercises that we can do to improve clubhead speed. But the bottom line to improving your golf is not becoming the greatest swing technician on the planet or owning the purest, sweetest golf swing in the history of the game. Improvement comes on the back of consistency.
There are a lot of golfers I see on the range where I offer classes, that are being taught by friends or other professionals, that simply don´t improve. They put it down to their own inability or a poor teaching professional that is holding them back from achieving what they really want. But in reality, a golfer is only as good as their practice sessions.
Practice should be spent improving weaknesses and maintaining our strengths, but golfers are strange creatures, and generally practice only what they are good at or enjoy. Some won´t practice because they feel they do not benefit from a couple of hours a week on the range. If you want to change your performance levels, the first thing you need to address is your practice routine, if indeed you have one.
A practice routine should be based around your game, and the areas that need most improvement. Now you don´t need to head to your local teaching professional or sit in front of your computer for hours to determine how and what you need to practice. You simply need to be honest with yourself.
For most of you reading this, your practice regime will be a couple of baskets of balls per week down the range, probably working on something you read in a magazine that you think may apply to you. What you should be practicing is more likely your short game (pitching, chipping and putting).
If we break it down into time slots for a 2 hour per week practice regime it should look something like this:
5 minutes – Warming Up (stretching and preparing not hitting balls)
15 minutes – Loosening up by hitting a few 50% swings with a wedge
20 minutes – Short game – pitching practice, a set distance each session
15 minutes – Full swing – short and mid irons
5 minutes – Full swing – long irons and hybrids
10 minutes – Full swing – fairway woods and driver
20 minutes – Short game – Chipping
15 minutes – Short game – greenside bunkers
15 minutes – Short game – putting
This is a good distribution of time, and for those wondering about how they are going to improve from the tee, confidence with your short game and a great rhythm from pitching practice will make huge improvements to your long game.
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