Practice swings.

[Shorty]

Here's a better question, do any tour pros not take practice swings?

Can't think of any who take a full practise swing. Almost a guaranteed way of making yourself look like a hacker, not that that would matter, if it worked for you. As for taking a divot with a practise swing, holy cow!! Pros loosen up and take an abbreviated swing, but I've never seen one address an imaginary ball, pause and then swing with a full follow throiugh.

[Zeph]

Can't think of any who take a full practise swing. Almost a guaranteed way of making yourself look like a hacker, not that that would matter, if it worked for you. As for taking a divot with a practise swing, holy cow!! Pros loosen up and take an abbreviated swing, but I've never seen one address an imaginary ball, pause and then swing with a full follow throiugh.

Really? I've seen pros do it, hackers do it, low handicappers do it, mid handicappers do it. Depends of course what you mean by full follow through, not all shots require a full follow through. I've still seen pros try a full practice swing.

[mirv]

i very, very rarely take a practice swing. the waggle is all i feel like i need to prep for the swing.

[Ernest Jones]

I used to never take practice swings because it put my brain in mechanics mode and I feel that this is not a good place to be swinging from. Now I always take a practice swing, maybe more than one until I get the right feeling for hitting through the ball. Once I have that feeling I can switch to target mode and swing with nothing in my head except the target.

Some great advice I heard from one of the online swing gurus is to make your practice swing with your mind on mechanics until you can feel the proper swing and then for your real swing just swing the feel - feel the swing and then swing the feel. I'm not a fan of this guys swing methodology but I really like this piece of advice.

EDIT: of course I don't make a full power practice swing taking a divot, just a nice relaxing to an fro kind of deal. Taking divots on your practice swing is ridiculous IMHO.

[Doctorfro]

Not always but most of the time when I'm trying to score well, tournament or the like, I usually take one to rehearse the kind of swing I want to make.  Not all shots are the same so a rehearsal is good.

[meenman]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

. Taking divots on your practice swing is ridiculous IMHO.

I am going to disagree with this. Ball alignment was an issue of mine in the past, so I always want to make sure that the divot is in front of the ball on my practice swing. If not, I move my body front/back accordingly.

[darkhunter139]

Never usually off the tee and it depends how I am feeling when I step up to my shot.  I never usually take more than one unless the first one felt really bad.

[Timothyjack]

I am still trying to work out my pre-shot routine. I used to just get up to the ball and hit it. I hit well, but wasn't consistent. I just started ingraining a pre-shot routine where I line up to the the ball using my right toe and aim the club at the target. My aim has been 100% better, but my fade keeps getting in the way. This thread just sparked my need for 1-2 practice swings just to try to feel what I am trying to do.

[jtw89]

I always do. 1 just to feel loose. 2 I like to make sure my swing is going to bottom out in the right place.

[Yukari]

I always do, but only 1 practice swing just to loosen up the muscles.

I just don't understand why people would take more than 1 practice swing.  Tiger is now notorious in taking many practice swings before his shot. He wasn't like that before, but within the last few years, he's practice swings just drives me crazy.  Just take one practice swing and hit the d@mn ball!  He's got too much thought going through his head.

[Ernest Jones]

Originally Posted by Ernest Jones

Taking divots on your practice swing is ridiculous IMHO.

Originally Posted by meenman

I am going to disagree with this. Ball alignment was an issue of mine in the past, so I always want to make sure that the divot is in front of the ball on my practice swing. If not, I move my body front/back accordingly.

I know what your saying (I think) and that is the primary reason for my practice swings as well, but you don't really need to take a full divot to see where your swing is bottoming out. Just lightly brushing/scuffing the grass should let you see where your divot will, hopefully, be on a full swing.

Anyway, whatever works for you, different strokes and all. As long as your replacing those divots...more power to ya!

[mdl]

So it looks like not taking practice swings or only taking a few partial swings behind the ball (vs. taking full practice swings) is highly correlated with handicap (ie, better players take no or only partial practice swings).  I take a full practice swing or two, left over as part of my pre-shot routine from when I really needed the help getting a feel for the swing right before hitting.  Maybe now it's actually hurting me, putting too many mechanical thoughts in my mind, and I should just take a little half swing or two behind the ball to get the feeling of impact position?

[anthony]

I take two on just about every full shot and 3 or 4 on pitches and chips.

[GaijinGolfer]

I always take 2 practice swings.  I do it to gain a feel for the lie (if hitting out of the rough) and to get a good feel for the swing that I want.  If my practice swings feel good, I try to have the same thing in my actual swing.

[rustyredcab]

Unless I am on a flat lie in the fairway, I take a few swings of the club (more like giant waggles than swings). This can be done while waiting for others. When it is my turn, I often take one real practice swing after all the feeling the lie stuff -- always do this if the lie is funky. This is a real practice swing with the tempo and speed I want to feel on my real swing. Then I back off. Check my target. Step in and swing.

Off the tee with driver, no practice swings. Check target. Step in and swing.

Off the tee with club other than driver -- depends on the club. If it is a club I rarely hit off the tee (e.g. I almost never tee off with a 5-iron), then I may take a real practice swing. If my set up and swing feel right, I back off, check target, step in... If anything feels odd, I adjust and take another practice swing.

Around the green. Several practice swings to get a feel for lie and grass. When it feels right, I stop. Could be one swing and could be six. I don't then step behind ball. Go from practice swings to setup. Look at the target. Look at the ball. Go.

Putts -- never practice swing unless it is an 100 foot monster or off the green. Normal putts -- just set up on line, look at the target, look at the ball, try to clear my mind of everything but the target, and go.

[Timothyjack]

Originally Posted by mdl

So it looks like not taking practice swings or only taking a few partial swings behind the ball (vs. taking full practice swings) is highly correlated with handicap (ie, better players take no or only partial practice swings).  I take a full practice swing or two, left over as part of my pre-shot routine from when I really needed the help getting a feel for the swing right before hitting.  Maybe now it's actually hurting me, putting too many mechanical thoughts in my mind, and I should just take a little half swing or two behind the ball to get the feeling of impact position?

I think that is an incorrect statement. Better players do take practice swings. Look at most pros. They do take multiple practice swings. Most amateurs do not thus they usually find it harder to hit shots the same way that they envisioned. At least thats how I see it.

[meenman]

Originally Posted by Timothyjack

I think that is an incorrect statement. Better players do take practice swings. Look at most pros. They do take multiple practice swings. Most amateurs do not thus they usually find it harder to hit shots the same way that they envisioned. At least thats how I see it.

Agreed - if I am rushing and do not take practice swings, it will be an ugly day. (it's just tough not to feel rushed when your playing partners cant get out of the tee box and the distance starts to grow between us and the group in front of us)

[Jarrod Putnam]

I usually take some swings when I first start at the range, or if I start getting off a bit. But on the course I almost always take a couple swings.