Three Components of Range Practice

• Posted on Grant
• in Golf Fundamentals, Practice, The Mental Game
• on September 29, 2014
• Comments Off on Three Components of Range Practice

When I go to the range to practice, I divide my range time into three parts:

1. Maintenance practice: Checking the set-up, finish and tempo of my golf swing.

I like to always start with maintenance practice. Correctly setting up to the ball is very important to consistent ball-striking. If I address the ball incorrectly, I can make a great swing but get a bad result because of my bad set-up.  In the same way, smooth tempo is vital to a consistent swing. If I swing too fast, I will not be able to reach the fundamental positions needed to make a consistent swing. And finally, if I don’t finish my swing correctly, I will lose speed through impact and will not hit the ball very well.

2. Repetition practice: Engraining fundamentals into the feeling of my golf swing.

It’s best to practice no more than two to three fundamentals per range session and only practice one fundamental per swing. I like to take three swings working on a fundamental, then switch to another fundamental and hit three more balls. Then repeat until I have finished the repetitions I had planned for that day’s practice.

3. Performance practice: Utilizing my mental routine on every swing with a definite target in mind.

On every shot during performance practice, I pretend that I am on the course playing a round. I stand behind my ball looking at the target and planning how I want to hit the shot. Then I swing while staying committed to my plan. After the shot is over, I evaluate how committed I stayed to my plan.

Range practice can become very frustrating and confusing if you do not focus on one thing at a time. Also, if you don’t spend long enough focusing on one thing before moving on to the next, you will find it very hard to improve. Your subconscious mind can only learn one thing at a time, and if you try to teach it a lot of things at once, you will get a lot of inconsistent results.

I know that separating your next practice session into these three components of range practice will help you on your way to the consistent swing you have always wanted!

GB