Practicing Golf the Hard Way

Lately I’ve been reworking how I practice golf -- what to do with a bucket of balls at the range. For years I’ve been getting it all wrong. I’ve started to do it the right way, but it’s really hard. Let me explain.

After I started swinging a golf club again, nine months after my back surgeries, I knew I had to find a swing that put as little stress on my back as possible.

I also knew that it had to be a simple swing, easy to remember, because I couldn’t hit balls three or four times a week to keep the swing in tune.

After a year and a half of experimentation, I found a swing based on six fundamental principles that worked, was easy on my back, and was easy to re-create after a layoff.

The plan now is to apply those principles every time, or as nearly as a person can to that. That takes practice, but the right kind of practice.

I now start out at the range reviewing the six principles, focusing on each one through practice swings only. I don’t move on to the next principle until I’m satisfied the one I’m working on is correct.

After I have worked through all the principles, and they have melded into one unified swing feeling, I can hit a golf ball. A golf ball. One.

It might take thirty swings to get things where I like them before I hit that first golf ball, but I hit it without thinking of swing mechanics, without wondering how the shot will work out. I just swing with the swing feeling I have created for myself and I get a really good shot out of it.

Then I start over. I do the same thing again. It might not take me thirty swings until I’m ready this time, but there will still be a lot of them. And then I hit another golf ball. One. And I go through the whole thing again to get ready to hit a third golf ball. Et cetera.

I’m getting two things done here. One is lots of isolated practice with each of the six principles so I learn them well. The other is putting my mind in a place where those things I mentioned, worry, swing thoughts, never come into my mind. I just swing with my best swing and the ball goes on its way.

That’s how you have to play golf. That’s why if you flub a shot on the course, drop another ball and try again, that second shot is always better than the first -- because you don’t have those swing-wrecking thoughts any more. You just hit the ball.

So you could say that I’m teaching myself to hit my second shot first.

The title of this post is Practicing Golf the Hard Way. That’s because it takes a LOT of will power to take all those practice swings between the time you hit golf balls. But that’s the only I way I know to get it right.

Note: I’m writing up the six principles in a small pamphlet to be published in October with related YouTube videos. I’ll keep you posted.