These golf practice tips for powerful play come directly from our work with hundreds and hundreds of competitive golfers over the past several decades. Early into our work, we could not help but notice that there were particular things about practice that did more to “power up” a players skills for their competitive play. If you’re searching for the best golf practicing tips to improve your workout and practice regime, this is the place to go.
“Practice makes perfect” is not a true statement. Nobody is perfect, obviously, but what’s more important is that you’ll never reach near-perfection if you’re not practicing correctly.
Best Golf Practice Tips
The following tips have worked well for the tour pros, and should also work for you. These golf practice tips will help your practice be more efficient, translate better to competition, and possibly be more fun.
Take a quick check to see if you need to use some of these golf practice tips. If not, be sure to add them in order to improve your own play.
1. Resist the old “rake and hit” approach to practice
Set a goal for your practice. Any goal….use one of your favorite drills. Working on your mental routine, challenge yourself to hit targets or even just lock in great tempo. Once accomplished, take a break and go on to your next goal, or leave.
Often more harm than good comes from mindlessly hitting too many balls. Instead of focusing on the muscle memory myth, where you hit an endless amount of shots with carefully critiqued form, be more aware of your surroundings and intentions. Focus more on the result you want to achieve, because that is what you’ll be thinking about during an actual competition.
2. Find a style of practice that fits your personality
Find your ideal way to practice, not someone else’s. There is a balance between “drills” and “play” that defines your best style of practice. Just like learning in school, athletes learn how to play golf in different ways. Just because an elite golfer practices a specific way doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Examples:
If you are a creative and imaginative person you will probably get your best practice, in this order, from longer sessions for “games” in the practice area, strong emphasis on “play-practice” on the course and from short, focused sessions for drills and technical work and (especially if you are an extrovert).
Your lessons should emphasize demonstrations and visual illustrations.
If you are a logical and technical person you will probably get your best practice, in this order from longer focused sessions for drills and technical work (especially if you are an introvert) moderate sessions for “games” in the practice area moderate emphasis on “play-practice” on the course
Your lessons should emphasize more explanations and technical descriptions.
If neither of these fits you well, see more about how learning style affects your game. Can you guess which style best fits Bruce Leitzke?
3. Practice for the right reasons
You might be surprised to know that many players practice for the wrong reasons. Examples include: punishment for poor play to overcome guilt they feel when they don’t practice boredom, nothing else to do to quell fears of losing ground to others players because someone else is practicing.
Practicing as punishment trains bad habits, and can contribute to burnout and the development of slumps. The same could be said of practicing only because you’re told that you need to. Find reasons for practice that are based your own desire to maintain and advance your skills. Then give yourself a goal for practice that motivates you to give your best effort. This makes practice more fun and allows you to more easily see your progression. Otherwise, why bother?
4. Practice your weakness more than your strengths
Many players practice “backwards”: they emphasize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Why? Its more fun and it makes them feel better. The result? They do not improve, and performance confidence can remain weak. Make working on your weaknesses the “goal” of your practice, and working on your strengths, the “reward”. After all, every aspect of golf is important. When one stroke can have such a huge impact on the results, you can’t afford to have extreme weaknesses.
5. Balance your practice with the rest of your life
How does practice rank on your daily to-do list? Some players put practice at the bottom, some players put it at the top, and some players balance put in the place where it fits in “just right” with everything else on their list.
If you neglect family, friends, and fun for practice, it can eventually be hard on your game. The act of neglecting those in your personal life and skipping fun activities can create additional distractions and mental barriers. Find your balance!
6. Try to separate your “technical” from your “creative” practice to make both more effective
We call this separating your “thinker” from your “athlete”. It will make your practice powerfully more effective if you will try to compartmentalize the two types of practice so that you are in effect working on either
- your technical and mechanical skills (grip, stance, ball position, length of stroke) or
- your creative and athletic skills (touch, timing, feel)
For example, you could start your putting practice with 10 minutes for a drill for improving your stroke (technical).
Then finish your putting practice with 5 minutes for using your mental routine for seeing and feeling the stroke as you will do when you play (creative).
Hopefully you can make use out of these golf practice tips. Remember that no amount of expert advice will make you a great golfer in just a day. These things take time, so stick with it and you’ll be on the path to better golf in no time. Contact Us for more tips to accelerate your performance. Use the same coaching system that has been used by nearly 400 tour professionals!
