A huge mistake with golf practice is standing in the one spot and hitting the same shot over and over. Many falsely believe that this kind of repetition practice produces muscle memory and our system will remember how to play.
Learning doesn’t work like this. You are far better off hitting all sorts of shots, and getting experience at different situations. Many golfers don’t like doing proper practice because;
– it takes a little bit more work
– feel you’re not improving (because you don’t stay in the one spot long enough to get comfortable)
– takes too long
But if you can break your practice sessions up, hit a lot more random shots and go through a wider variety of possibilities, you’ll get more bang from your practice time.
Take my 3 ball pitching drill below (see video). It’s not hard to do, but it avoids you getting too comfortable hitting the same shot over and over again. It’s fun and I can promise that you’ll start saving more shots around the green.
For many years I avoided pitching. Spent far too much time on the practice fairway trying to groove a consistent swing. And in the heyday, poor pitching definitely held me back from maximising my scoring potential. With better pitching, you’ll make more birdies and save par more of the time. I also think, that good pitching technique will carry over to the full swing as well.
All this takes the perceived pressure off your long game and you can swing more freely. When you know your powers of recovery are handy you’ll swing better. All this leads to better scoring and a 6th sense on choosing the best game plan.
Watch the video below to see a great little practice drill to improve your golf pitching.
Instead of hitting random shots, I hit low, medium and high trajectory shots to all sorts of different pins. My pitching technique is definitely improving and I’m sure it will do the same for you.
One last thing: I don’t really focus on the technique. Sure, I mess a little bit wit ball position, but not much. The objective of altering ball flight is enough for my system to work out all the details of making good contact with the ball. The most important thing here is to practice and put into action. I wish I had done a lot more of this kind of thing when I was more serious about playing the game.
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