Are you looking for better and smarter ways to practice when you go to the driving range?
Are you looking for some techniques that will help you bring your techniques to the golf
course?
Hey this is Sean McTernan and you are watching another episode of My Golf Tutor, the number
one place on the internet for you to play your best golf now.
Welcome back, todays question comes from Troy and Troy writes, "hey Sean when I go to the
driving range I hit the ball great, but when I go to the golf course I really struggle
to repeat what I was doing there.
Have you any tips to help take my practice from the driving range to the golf course?"
Troy, thank you very much for your question.
I think the one thing that a lot of us do struggle with is bringing what we do from
the driving range to the golf course.
I think that when we are on the driving range it is very important that we try and almost
as if we are on the golf course.
Here is a simple little thing I like to do with an alignment rode.
I set it down aiming just slightly left of my target.
I am going to pretend I am on the golf course.
So I am going to step in, I am going to address the ball, put the club down and look at my
target and move my body until I am aimed correctly.
Then and only then do I look down and see if my feet are parallel to this alignment
rode.
If I'm on the golf course I don't have the luxury of this alignment rode.
So it is important to practice as if there is not one there.
We are just using it to verify we are using it correctly.
Now if I step into the shot and I align up and I am looking at my target and I see my
feet are like this, then I am going to step away and try and rehearse the move again.
So what we are trying to do is obviously get a feeling on what the correct alignment is.
So the second thing I would like to share with you today Troy is the concept of blocked
practice and random practice.
Block practice is used when are working on a new aspect of your swing.
You are trying to change a certain thing, you are trying to learn a new motor pattern.
That is where we will take you know one hundred balls and we will hit one hundred seven irons
to the exact same target.
We are not really going to work on routine and we are not going to do much visualization.
We are just going to simply get a feel for the new swing that we are going to try and
use.
Now as you get more proficient with this move it is going to become a lot more automatic.
This where I think random practice is going to help you bring what you are doing from
the driving range to the golf course.
You are never hitting the same shot twice.
You are going to hit a seven iron to one target, you are going to hit four iron to another
target, you are going to hit a pitching wedge, and hit a driver.
So you are trying to simulate on the driving range what you are going to be doing on the
golf course.
Now studies have shown that people who use blocked practice versus random practice.
The people who do blocked practice typically have better practice sessions, they are a
lot more confident and happy when they leave the driving range.
Because they have hit the same shot over and over again and they feel great about it.
The one downside of that is what they found is these people who go to the golf course
that their performance is not as good as the people who did random practice.
The people who are doing random practice left the range thinking oh you know I hit it just
OK, but the one thing that they found when they went to the golf course their performance
was better.
Another tips that I could offer you as well when you are practicing your short game.
Use one ball.
That is what we use on the golf course.
There is no sense in hitting one shot.
Excuse me there is no point to hitting one hundred balls to one pin.
I was at a conference a few years ago and there was a believe the doctors name was Dr.
Lee and he was from University Cal Berkeley.
He gave us a great analogy.
He talked about giving someone a math problem.
So if I said to you, what is nine and seven for that split second you have to think about
it and you will give me your answer.
So nine and seven is sixteen.
If I asked you again what is nine and seven you would think even less because you already
know the answer.
If I keep saying whats nine and seven what nine and seven you won't even have to thing
about working out the problem.
You are simply going to know the answer.
That is what happens with block practice.
We hit two or three seven irons in a row.
All of a sudden we have solidified the swing.
We don't have to think about it we just simply go ahead and hit.
What is happening is that we are not challenging ourselves enough in practice.
There fore when we go to the golf course it is a lot more difficult.
So like I said things like pitching with one ball also putting with one ball.
If you have nothing to work on except speed before you go out and play just bring one
golf ball to the putting green and roll it around and get a feel.
If you are hitting two or three balls to the same hole you are really not learning anything.
That is the most important thing about the practice session.
Is that you are learning over every shot and you are challenging yourself.
You are trying to make your practice as difficult as possible so that when you go to the golf
course.
You will be ready.
So I hope this video helps you, I hope it helps you bring what you are doing on the
driving range to the golf course and your performance out there improves.
If you or anyone else has any questions or comments please leave your comment in the
comment section below.
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