How little you actually practice...

ShriekingSheet

I started doing this simple thing last year and found it useful. Might be interesting for you guys also. The upshot (for me) was seeing the significant gap between the amount of practice/effort I thought I was putting in, versus the reality, which was very little. It helped both in terms of expectations, as well as motivation to do a bit more. Probably more for those of us with a variety of responsibilities and priorities higher than golf, but still want to improve.

Heard a radio interview with Paul O'Connell. He was explaining how he sets very short term, very small, specific goals for himself and focuses on them, rather than worrying about big objectives. Essentially, if you set out the little nitty gritty things you need to do every day, and measure yourself against doing them, your match performances and tournament progression should take care of itself. For a non-professional person like myself, I thought every day was a bit much, so I do it monthly.

All I do is write a list of 4 to 6 things I want to do in the coming month in a note on my phone. Just stuff I can "do", rather than "achieve". So practice a certain amount of times, rather than "win a comp", for example. It could look like this:

- Go to driving range x 3
- Chipping & putting practice x 3
- Swing lesson x 1
- Gym x 6
- Play 9 holes x 2

By the third week of the month, it might look like this...

- Go to driving range x 3 # # #
- Chipping & putting practice x 3 #
- Swing lesson x 1 #
- Gym x 6 # # # #
- Play 9 holes x 2

So, marking a # into the phone note every time I do something, I've done ok on driving range, lesson and gym, but weather has intervened and I've failed on course stuff such as short game and play.

Two things I found were 1) it is amazing how you can set yourself seemingly easily doable stuff at the start of a month, and 3 weeks later, realise you have done feck all. And 2) it made me do more, just because I was tracking it, and there was a definite correlation between months I did more and wins / good performances I had in the last year.

I'm certain there's more fancy tech ways of doing this, but I found Notes in my phone the most simple. A physical notebook in the bag would do the same. It's good to adjust the upcoming month's to do list based on time of year, life/work priorities, state of aspects of your game, comps coming up etc.

backspin.

I only practice when things start to go wrong in my game. I am at that stage now, so i am thinking on a few lessons and then i generally practice a lot till i bed in the changes (if i believe in them).

fred funk }{

Good idea. I actually enjoy practice so don't have a problem doing it, this time of year it's tricky enough to do it as it's dark so early.

Tilikum17

Cannot stand practicing. Just find it so boring. I’m playing 20 years and I’ve done grand without it.

eoghan104

Tilikum17 wrote: »

Cannot stand practicing. Just find it so boring. I’m playing 20 years and I’ve done grand without it.

I am the same. I know it is important if you want to really improve and max your potential but I play the game for fun and don't find practice fun.

frink

I don't mind practicing, the problem I find is putting that 45-60mins you practice to good use. Rather than just hitting, chipping or pitching balls aimlessly, I'd like to be in a place where I can see real improvement on the back of the practice. Does anyone use spreadsheets to track progress or other ways to monitor progression.

I have a few drills I try for putting but the rest I struggle with.

FixdePitchmark

I'm not the most naturally gifted short game player and without practice I get fairly poor in this area.

There is a batch of golfers out there - that put in a good bit of effort at some point and have a fairly steady point - they don't change much and stay fairly steady with little or no practice.

I'd have to practice short game and putting 2/3 (2 to 3 hours) times a week to make any sort of stab at a low handicap.

Was thinking about this stuff recently - most golfers (say 80%) are perfectly happy to just play every weekend and play to their handicap.
The handicap system enables you to not need to practice at all. That is one of the pros of the handicap system.

Most golfers at some point put in a serious effort into the game - when young, or have time off work or school, or a summer off. It gets them to a certain level and this is their level they can get to with only a small bit of effort from then on.

Looking at the guys I know who like and play the game a good bit , but don't have the time to practice , they seems to be able to and hold about 9 hcp. In summer they would do something to do with golf about 3/4 times a week. They would play some golf in winter.

There is then another bunch of golfers that put in a good bit of work into their game and can get below that 5 barrier. They would be putting > 8 hours a week into golf.

So - ( I know speaking in general here, but guys I know excluding exceptions and naturals)

18 - ( you can play to with no practice at all, playing golf is the practice) Practice 0 hours
9 - ( a considerable effort at some point and game maintained with practice and additional play) Practice 2 to 3 hours
5 - ( Range time, short game time, play, coaching) Practice 3 to 9 hours
Lower ( Range time a couple of times a week, short game time, play, advanced coaching, core work) Practice 9 to 15 hours +

So figure out of top of head - but my own observations.

I made serious progress myself when I could get to that double figures in hours practice/week - but that is not realistic for a lad with a normal job, kids, wife, house, driving , kids hurling etc etc.

For the majority of people golf is very very hard and time consuming to improve.

But the handicap system means you don't need to do anything in a way.

billy3sheets

Some strange observations there Fix!
Looking back over some 2017 results from St Margarets I'd say maybe 20% of players play to their handicap. Less in a strokes comp. Maybe a little more over 12 with winter rules.
Handicap secretary in another club once told me most players played inside their buffer once in 8 outings.
Where are you getting your statistics from?

FixdePitchmark

billy3sheets wrote: »

Some strange observations there Fix!
Looking back over some 2017 results from St Margarets I'd say maybe 20% of players play to their handicap. Less in a strokes comp. Maybe a little more over 12 with winter rules.
Handicap secretary in another club once told me most players played inside their buffer once in 8 outings.
Where are you getting your statistics from?

25 % is about right for a population of golfers.
You should only play to your handicap about 1/4 (1 in 8 sounds high and means that the handicap is going up). But sorry we are talking about practice here.

They are only my observation and experience - not statistics.

You''l find very little stats on practice - because very few people do it. There was a thread here at one point , must pull it up.

The point I'm making is the majority of golfers do not practice at all.
Go to a club practice area and basically empty with most clubs having > 500 members.

There is a debate that the handicap system facilitates that - but that is another thread debate.

Golf is just strange game that way - no formal practice and no need to practice.

londonred

Planning to do a lot more short game practice struggle when chipping with wedge thinking of giving this a go any thoughts or good drills to follow?

https://www.golfdigest.com/story/the-right-way-to-chip

ShriekingSheet

frink wrote: »

I don't mind practicing, the problem I find is putting that 45-60mins you practice to good use. Rather than just hitting, chipping or pitching balls aimlessly, I'd like to be in a place where I can see real improvement on the back of the practice. Does anyone use spreadsheets to track progress or other ways to monitor progression.

I have a few drills I try for putting but the rest I struggle with.

The problem with spreadsheets is you have to do the stuff, then go home and remember to update the info on your computer. As I said in the OP, I find the basic Notes app on my phone ideal to just mark in a number at the time of doing it. If you want to track info over time, you can always type a few weeks of phone notes into Excel every now and then.

In terms of what to measure, there's a load of good, simple practice games you can keep score on each time you do them in practice.

For example, Par 18 is probably the most used and effective one for short game. Around the practice green, you give yourself 3 x easy, 3 x medium and 3 x hard up and down attempts. You finish out all 9 of them with the putter, and count the shots taken. After you work on your short game for say 15 mins, you then spend 15 mins in game mode trying to "score", and note down your result. If you kept track of the dates and scores you have in this game, and then also the % times you got up and down in your rounds on the course, I'm sure it would be an interesting performance record. The dates are as important as anything, because it'll show how often you've practiced.