How to Structure an Effective Practice Session
Structuring a practice session to improve your golf game is critical. You can go out and hit balls for an hour at the range, but there are more effective ways to practice.
Structuring a practice session to improve your golf game is critical. You can go out and hit balls for an hour at the range, but there are more effective ways to practice.
Most people don’t have a good idea of how to structure an effective practice routine. You can go to any range at any golf course and find people hitting a ball and then raking another ball over before the first one even has a chance to land on the ground. What could the person possibly have learned from this shot?
Answer: Nothing.
To practice effectively you need more structure in your routine. You need to have clear intentions as to what you are working on improving. If you don’t know what you are working on, it will be difficult to improve.
The most important aspect of having structure is time management. Few recreational golfers have more than a couple of hours a week to dedicate to practice. So you need to be smart with your time.
What are the key elements to incorporate into your practice session?
Technical
Block
Random
Each of these plays an important role. When you incorporate them it is more likely you will improve your swing, ball striking, engrain good habits, and build the mental strength to play on the course.
What do each of these mean and how should you incorporate them?
Technical Practice
Technical practice is the portion of your practice where you are working on a specific technique. For this section, I highly recommend that you work with a swing coach who can diagnose flaws within your swing and give you drills.
Once you have worked with a coach and know some drills, this is the portion of practice to do them.
Unless you are working on a swing change, you do not need to spend a significant amount of time here. Mostly, you are working on reinforcing good habits. The drills and movement patterns being worked on will depend on the player.
For example, one player might be working on getting more hip-turn in the backswing. Another could be working on an early extension. Another could be working on a smoother takeaway. Etc. etc.
The goal here is to go slow through the movement with a lot of practice swings. You are ingraining how to do a movement and how it feels. You do not need to hit a lot of golf balls, but you do need to be highly focused on the process.
Work with a coach. I cannot overstate this.
Block Practice
Block practice is the portion that I mentioned earlier. Here you are going to be putting in the reps. You are practicing with one club for several shots aimed at a specific target on the range.
However, how you put in those reps matters.
You do not want to be the golfer who hits ball after ball after ball with no thought as to what is occurring in the swing. Pay attention to a couple of different things with each shot.
Ball flight.
Did the ball fly in the direction you intended?
Did the ball fly at the trajectory you intended?
Did the ball curve in the direction you intended?
Strike quality.
If practicing with irons, how was your ground contact?
Did you strike the ball with the middle of the club face?
You should be able to answer all of these questions after each shot.
If you take the time to evaluate each shot you allow yourself to feel what a bad or good shot feels like. The body can then internalize that feeling and is more likely to be able to produce that or avoid that movement in the future.
Continue block practice for as long as you feel necessary. Here are a few helpful hints:
Practice with a variety of clubs
Focus a few extra shots on clubs you struggle with and a few less with clubs you are good with
ALWAYS be aiming at a specific target
Random Practice
Random practice is something many golfers do not understand. This portion of practice is where you work on different skills, change targets with each shot, or challenge yourself in a game. This is where you build the confidence that you can take on the course.
There are many different ways that you can incorporate random practice into your routine. But my favorites are simulating playing a hole or playing a game where you accumulate points. You can do this on the driving range or practice green. Here is how you can set it up:
Picture a hole that you are going to play. Picture a fairway on the driving range and select the club you need to hit off the tee. Be sure to include where hazards or trees would be. Now, go through your pre-shot routine and hit the shot.
Next, determine how far the tee shot went and how far your approach shot is going to be. Select the club, go through the pre-shot routine, and hit the ball. Repeat this until you are on the imaginary green.
You can play as many holes as you want. I usually play 4 to 9 holes or until I can use a variety of clubs off the tee and for an approach shot.
Games to accumulate points (Driver Practice)
Image a fairway on the practice range with water or out of bounds on the left or right
Hit 5 tee shots and give yourself points (minus 1 if the ball goes in the hazard, plus 1 if the ball goes in the fairway, 0 points if the ball misses the fairway but avoids the hazard). Then switch the hazard to the other side. Add up all your points and write them down. Try to beat your score the next time you practice.
You can do this type of game with approach shots as well.
The goal during this section of your practice is to build confidence for the course. Yes, it might be frustrating if you are hitting balls out of bounds or into water. But your goal is to improve your confidence and learn how to pick smart targets.
How to Build Your Practice Session
How much time should you be spending on each category of practice? It depends on the player. Some will need more technical work, block practice, or random practice.
You can of course put all of these into the same practice session. Maybe you break it down in a 1-hour session.
20% technical work (12 minutes) - reinforce good habits.
60% block practice (36 minutes) - put in the reps, with slightly more focus on areas you struggle with. Be sure you are paying attention to ball flight and strike quality.
20% random practice (12 minutes) - play a game that you can improve on over time and build the mental strength that you will need on the course.
This is an oversimplified version of a practice session. You will need to determine how much of each you need to improve your game based on your current abilities and struggles.
If you incorporate some of everything in this article, I promise that you will see improvement in your golf game.