Here’s a better way to practice golf.
Don’t keep practicing success. Push yourself a little so you make a few errors and you feel a little uncomfortable. This doesn’t mean you try the impossible shot – but strive to reach for those shots that seem slightly out of reach. Why?
Because this is how you learn. By feeling and experiencing something new you’ll grow. You’ll change gears and get a little better.
The temptation is to only hit the shot you know you’ll hit well – to practice success. But if you’re going to make inroads and see improvement, you’ve got to be prepared to experience some failure. Here’s a list of things you might want to try next time you’re in a paddock with a few stray golf balls.
- high and low shots
- deliberate draw (or fade)
- full swing but half power (can you go lower than half?)
- play left-handed if you’re normally right
- lob shot with a five iron
I’m sure you can add a few more.
The thing is this: The ideal golf practice session doesn’t need to consist of 100 perfectly struck towering drives – like that’s going to happen anyway.
It’s more likely that your perfect practice session is going to be where you’ve struggled, felt uncomfortable and made all sorts of funny errors. It might even be that you didn’t actually notice success. This is all OK – the skill is in going through the exercise, not hitting perfect shots.