How to practice golf
We know that in order to get better we need to practice, however many of our intended practice sessions might be making us worse. In my observation, what is often referred to as practice, might be better described as a testing session. Testing has its place as part of training, but is likely to inhibit the productivity of your practice.
To assist in my explanation let me introduce the imaginary brothers Bob and Rob.
Bob
Bob heads to the range to practice, it starts fairly well but then the shots start to get worse. Bob then thinks darn, I'm just doing something wrong. In an attempt to remedy this, he begins to try out a tip or swing theory he heard the other day. When the good shots roll back around, he attributes this to the tip he was testing at that moment. Identifying this as the key to future success, it's now a matter of replicating this by hitting as many balls as possible so it becomes imprinted before he inevitably looses the feel. Bob goes home angry with him self as he wasn’t able to hold on to it.
Rob
Rob seeks some expert advice. This expert identifies an opportunity for improvement by changing a couple of specific habits. They train together to test and build awareness and control over these habits. Rob then does some solo practice, using only his newly acquired awareness as his feedback. At the next session the habits aren't completely instinctual, however they are at a point where he can progress with other things. These new skills match up with previously acquired skills and Rob starts to get better; he can’t wait to do some more practice.
In my many years of playing golf I have been Bob a lot more than Rob. However my time being a Rob is responsible for all of my meaningful progress. This is true for both myself and my clients. The brain tends to look for shortcuts, and so it’s perfectly expected that you come up with a way to skip all the effort and develop a simple method of getting straight to the same result. However ,the real result is the awareness, control and experience you get from the practice itself. Ironically the actual shortcut is simply being more like Rob.
