Focused Practice

[RIduffer]

I wish I could stay focused at the range, but I always end up mindlessly beating balls trying to find something that will work. I know this is a terrible way to practice, but I have never developed a solid routine. If my swing starts to fall apart, I just hit ball after ball until I start hitting it solid.

Today was a typical practice session for me. Started off trying to work on one swing fundamental, and 2 hours later I've hit about 150 balls and cycled through 20 or so swing thoughts. Sure, I had a stretch where I was just peppering the 150 flag with my 7 iron, but I also had a stretch where I couldn't get my 7 iron more than 2 feet off the ground .

I would appreciate some advice from those of you who have developed better practice habits. Do you pick just one fundamental to work on? What do you do when your swing falls apart?

Thanks, I'm sick of being a brain dead range hacker .

[gogolfing]

I just started taking lessons from someone new; I too often just rake balls on the range, so one of his suggestions was to place my range balls not in the holder next to the mat, but about 10 feet behind me. This way, after each shot I walk back and grab a ball and go through my preshot routine etc... I have only been doing for the last week, but it has helped.

As for swing thoughts, too many is not good. I try to focus on one or two per practice session, but this is often easier said than done for me.

[RIduffer]

Thanks, I like that idea gogolfing of placing the bucket behind the practice tee.

Just noticed there's a practice routine thread in another section of this forum, so sorry for the redundancy.

[Fatphil]

i searched practice routine & came back to your thread. where is the practice thread?

[RIduffer]

i searched practice routine & came back to your thread. where is the practice thread?

It's in Golf Talk, called "Practice routine at the range, practice ONLY". Didn't show up in my search either.