Practice Relooked.
 

Since the golf swing is a skill, then perhaps the first question we would need to ask is how do we define practice.

www.freedictionary.com defines practice as "To do or perform (something) repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill."

If that is the case, then perhaps what we typically regard as practice must be wrong since most of our swings are inconsistent, even haphazard. One moment, we bottom the club out in front of the ball, the next we do it 3.78 inches behind the ball.

Therefore for practice to be practice, we need to be doing the same thing. What do you think the results would be if we spent half the amount of time we did hitting balls, practising in front of the mirror?

Experimentation and practice?
 

Hi Comdpa. My trips to the range are mostly attempts to "flesh-out" TGM descriptions and discover the hows and whys of TGM presentation. I thought I understood many things until I tried to manipulate the club as described by the yellow book.

The amazing thing about TGM is that HK's observations are often so sublime, that I can only apprehend the essence of something after stripping it down to its elemental structure through repeated trips. Later, however, with Lynn's help and the sharing of the neat people on this forum, the elements become re-assembled and I have a myriad of connected "aha" moments.

I worked with a TGM AI here in Philly. I did not realize until a few minutes ago after reading something Lynn wrote, as to why my AI used to brag about having studied under Ben Doyle and why we hardly ever talked about RFT or EA.

I find RFT and EA amazing. Anyway, practice is oftentimes stepping deeper into Lake Michigan for me, and that is a pretty damn deep lake!
:eyes:


ICT

Golf Machine folks have much to practice. EA, RFT, tracing, monitoring pressure points, look, look, look, etc. More than one can do in a single session. Ben Doyle stressed "new ball, new stance, new grip" Never stand so close to balls that you can rake them into place. Make sure you have to go get the next one. With significant arthritis my practice is limited. I have always practiced to educate my hands. After reading Mike Hebron's book play to learn I have been trying to rethink how I practice. My hand education has been to learn feels of RFT, learn the feel of startdown, the feel of a punch shot etc. Mike suggests that the goal might be learning the feel of the total motion and the ability to visualize the total motion.
This year I am going to focus more on that. I never get better unless I get more consistent. Hitting lots of ball doesn't always cure inconsistency. The comment "what were you thinking!" when you do something stupid might apply here. So if Homer says your mind should be "in your hands" we might expand on that in another thread.

I am going to seriously change my practice this year.

I would say 90% of my practice has been working on mechanics, I hit balls about 5 hours a week. The problem with that is you getting into a seriously bad habit of scrap and hit, scrape and hit. It gets very easy to find your rhythm and start hitting the ball well.

Then you get to the course, no real rhythm? Why?

Well the course is nothing like you have been practicing. You hit a different club and different distances with different flight shapes on every swing.

So this year 50% of practice will be working on mechanics and 50% will be working on hitting different clubs and shots to specific targets, switching on every shot.

I would also so in scrape and hit you really never can mimic your on course shot routine. I am thinking this is going to be critical in order to convert solid range striking to on course play.

Hogan said that he outworked his competitors. He loved to practice. If they practiced two hours a day - no problem. He could beat them by practicing 8 hours a day. From what I've read he worked through the bag every time he practiced - and if he didn't hit the 9 iron as he wanted to, he sticked to it until he did.

I do believe in smart practice, but I am not ruling out that quantity works as well.

If you really know what you are doing. If not....

the other problem with range work is that hitting off mats is very different to playing off turf & so less useful than we might think because of that

I have a friend who simply says "mats lie" -- I don't even think he gets the pun!

In my experience, mats do two bad things: 1) they can mask fat shots and 2) they can discourage hitting "down".

Mind in the Hands in golf is like Mind in the Hands when executing skilled typewriting. You do not see where the hands go, but you know where you want the hands to go.

...which is why I think it is safer to practice in front of a mirror. I used to hit about 300 balls daily on mats....ouch!