Practice time?

[kygolfer1980]

I am currently going through a swing change. My instructor has told me to spend my time practicing and not playing. I find this difficult. I usually hit a couple buckets of balls a week but I know that's not enough to change my muscle memory, still playing 18-36 holes a week. How much practice do u guys put in compared to playing time?

[Matt Saternus]

I practice a lot more than I play, though not be choice. If I had my druthers, I would play a lot more than I practiced, somewhere along the lines of 2:1 or 3:1.

[Kanoito]

When I used to live by the golf course (10 min drive) I my ratio would be 1:1 say about 3 rounds of golf and 3 practice sessions per week.

 

I just moved to a new bigger apartment in May and now I need a little longer driver to the course, so I'll still play the 2 or 3 rounds per week, but only squeeze in a bucket of chips, pitches and blow them away on the range.

 

I do agree with the instructor. I also went through a swing change and if you play a round without having it engrained in your brain, it's useless. You go back to old habits.

So I just went driving range intensive for a month and the new swing is there on the course automatically.

[kygolfer1980]

I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday this week, gonna dedicate a couple hours each day. Playing 36 in Nashville next week so hopefully will be able to get the feel a little better.

[ZenGolfer]

Not as much as I should. I try to spend 5 minutes a day putting on my living room carpet and I try to go to the range once a week but it doesnt always happen.

[BK in TEXAS]

99.99% of my practice is pitches & chips from 5 yards to 90 yards. But, I do it almost every night.

[GolfSpy Tim]

My instructor told me the same thing - said give myself a month with a focus on range work vs. playing. I tend to ONLY play about 3 times a week, and he has been trying to convince me to focus for just a month - he gets frustrated that I don't.

 

For the winter, I'm planning to take his advice and see if I can't start bringing it from the inside better with range work

 

I normally go to the range maybe once a month :-(

[ZenGolfer]

I actually found that working on my mental game did more for me that spending time at the range ever did.

[Xamilo]

The problem with too much practice in the range is it really never prepares you for real life situations, and hitting from those funny matts makes you think you really know how to hit and then hit everything fat on the field hehehe

 

If you are changing your swing I agree it is worth doing so, but if you just want to have fun, the course will always be much better choice.

[RoverRick]

I spend about 30 seconds a day on the range. I have to drive across it or around it to get to the course. I play at least an hour usually 9 holes everyday. I mean every day. I have missed 4 days, that I was in town, in the last year and the reason for that was snow. I played when there was ice, but snow makes it very difficult to play.

 

I have certain things that I may work on, and today it will be the flop shot. I will go out and play a hole, and when I get to the area where I feel I need the work, I will drop three or four more balls and play that shot. Some days it might be trouble shots, or iron shots or lag putting. Last week it was fairway woods off the deck. There is always one particular thing I work on Monday thru Thursday. But I always do it in conjunction with playing a few holes. Actually, Wednesday nights, Friday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday, I play competitive rounds. I often play 36 holes on the weekend.

[Tyk]

For a swing change, to really get it ingrained, you have to practice on the range, but you also have to practice on the course. You gotta get out there in "real golf" situations and commit yourself to executing the change you are making. Going out late in the day when you can toss another ball down and hit it to reinforce the change is really good.

 

For me, the physical part of a swing change isn't the hard part. It's learning the trust it and getting it to be your swing, not your "new swing". Being out on the course trying to make a shot is just hard to replicate on the range. So I think you need both, the range for the muscle memory, and practice on the course for the mental aspect of committing to the change.

[kygolfer1980]

I'm going to attempt to practice today and not play. Should be a really nice day so it's gonna be tough.

[kygolfer1980]

I practiced about 2.5 hrs this morning. Spent about an hour hitting 3H, 6 and 9 iron to work on mu swing change(bigger turn, more firing of the hips). Spent about an hour and 15 minutes pitching and chipping. I put tees a flagsticks length around the cup and proceeded to try to hit my shots inside of it. Finished up with lag putting for about 15 minutes. Trying a little different grip as well. Pretty productive day but it sure was tempting to play instead of hit balls. All in all, at least I was at the golf course.

[The Dansome]

For a swing change, to really get it ingrained, you have to practice on the range, but you also have to practice on the course. You gotta get out there in "real golf" situations and commit yourself to executing the change you are making. Going out late in the day when you can toss another ball down and hit it to reinforce the change is really good.

 

For me, the physical part of a swing change isn't the hard part. It's learning the trust it and getting it to be your swing, not your "new swing". Being out on the course trying to make a shot is just hard to replicate on the range. So I think you need both, the range for the muscle memory, and practice on the course for the mental aspect of committing to the change.

 

This is really how it should be

[sparnar]

I try to swing a club at least every day, but I don't always have the time between work, the wife and the 7 month old. I got the Tour Striker Educator recently, and I do use it to try and ingrain the flat left wrist position. But that is pretty much the only practice I'm getting in right now.

 

I don't even get to the range often, although at one point I managed to do two range sessions a week. And I can tell the difference in my scores between then and now.

 

Even my roll-out practice green I use at home, is gathering dust at the moment.

 

I really need to get to a short game area, and practice my chipping, and pitching. Especially my pitching is a little off target, although distance control is fairly good for my HC level.

 

I do love me some practising!

[Super Tuna]

For me, the physical part of a swing change isn't the hard part. It's learning the trust it and getting it to be your swing, not your "new swing". Being out on the course trying to make a shot is just hard to replicate on the range. So I think you need both, the range for the muscle memory, and practice on the course for the mental aspect of committing to the change.

 

Yes yes yes (so nice it needs to be thrice)

 

Last year when I got to practice a lot but play very little, making swing changes stick on the course was virtually impossible. It's one thing to wail away when if you miss by 25 yards it's just in a different place in a field vs through someone's window.

 

This year when I've been playing more and practicing less, I've found ingraining swing changes easier with my practice time more effective. No longer is it just to whack a ball. It's because something is consistently wrong in the round that causes me not to trust a shot and thus needs to be fixed.

 

I like going to the range and practicing and I'm not against it at all, but there comes a point where practice doesn't mean anything if you can't take it from the range to the course and trust it.

[sparnar]

Yes yes yes (so nice it needs to be thrice)

 

Last year when I got to practice a lot but play very little, making swing changes stick on the course was virtually impossible. It's one thing to wail away when if you miss by 25 yards it's just in a different place in a field vs through someone's window.

 

This year when I've been playing more and practicing less, I've found ingraining swing changes easier with my practice time more effective. No longer is it just to whack a ball. It's because something is consistently wrong in the round that causes me not to trust a shot and thus needs to be fixed.

 

I like going to the range and practicing and I'm not against it at all, but there comes a point where practice doesn't mean anything if you can't take it from the range to the course and trust it.

This maybe a little OT, but this is where the Vision 54 books make a good point of simulating golf when practising.

 

I know I get into the scrape-and-hit groove sometimes, and can finish a 60 ball bucket in no time. And I have proved to myself that this does not help much.

 

Vision 54 proposes that you play a different club to a different target with each shot at the range. They also have some drills where you hit at different tempos, maybe hit some high shots, some low ones, left to right, right to left. This is all so that you are forced to really think about each shot, and commit to a decision.

 

I haven't implemented this myself yet, but I certainly want to give it a shot.

 

Sure, it is still not the same as making things stick on the course, but it is a hell of a lot closer to real golf, than the normal scrape-and-hit that alot of guys and girls adhere to.