By: Rick Calligaris
Even with simple golf swing lessons, instructional videos and store-purchased aids, your golf game will continue the way it has been without consistent and efficient practice. Consistent cause practice sessions involve exercises that are meant to develop muscle memory. Efficient because pacing your energy to the kinds of exercises you will do is important as well.
Simple as this point may sound, it is one that is easily overlooked. Many golfers think that as long as they spend enough time on the practice range, their score will improve. Unfortunately, that is not necessarily so. To improve your golf game as well as your golf swing it is important that your practice sessions be as regimented as the way you play the game itself, or more
Before you complain about how boring golf swing practices are it might help to think that golf swing practices are what build good playing habits when you hit the greens. And if you approach your practice sessions as more than a chore your golf swing training results will provide you more pleasure on the golf course.
First of all, think of your practice session in the following three stages:
- Warm-up Stage
- Fresh Stage
- Fatigued Stage
Warm-up Stage Many are deceived into thinking that golf requires no strenuous physical activity as it only involves swinging a golf club and walking. Nothing could be further from the truth. The very nature of swinging a golf club causes your muscle groups to work in ways not common to everyday routines.
Your upper torso, arms, and lower back muscles are the groups most impacted when playing golf which only shows that it is important to warm up with some stretches. Start from the top of your head and work your way down to your feet. Flexibility and getting your muscles full range of motion is your goal.
If you are unfamiliar with stretching exercises you should consult a trainer or the instructor in your club for some tips.
Fresh Stage After your warm-up start working on exercises that build on a skill you have not mastered yet or on parts of your game that have been causing you higher strokes. This could be anything from putting to chipping or driving.
The idea is that when you work on these problem areas while you are still fresh and limber from a stretch routine, your body responds more positively to the exercises you are doing.
The thing about most people is that their idea of golf swing practice is simply spending time on the driving range without even considering whether or not driving is their problem area. But if you are aware that your short game is what is giving you problems then you should hit the greens to work on your putting as soon as you finish warming up.
Keep in mind that it has been proven that more than 60% of a players golf strokes take place on the green. Unfortunately, this fact is overlooked by many players that result in poor golf practice habits and higher strokes per round!
Fatigued Stage Once you start feeling winded from the earlier exercises move on to work on facets of your golf game that simply need reinforcement. Since your body already knows this motion this stage in your golf swing practice serves as maintenance to your form.
If any correction is necessary your stressed out body will not adjust to a difficult form. As in the previous example, only after working on your problematic short game can you then go to the driving range to give positive reinforcement to your drives.
Finally, here are few more suggestions for improving your practice sessions.
- For continuous improvement a good golf practice-to-play ratio is about 2:1, which means giving twice as much time to golf swing training as to the time you spend playing.
- Give yourself sufficient time to rest in between exercises and in between stages. While it is a work out you should not be too tired from the activity. Doing so may actually do more harm than good.
