Are you spending 70% of your practice time on your short game like Michael Breed implies you should?

[dogleg]

I play about 100 rounds per year and average about 5 GIR. Therefore, I would say that I practice my short game 13/18 ths of the time!

[Shindig]

I play about 100 rounds per year and average about 5 GIR. Therefore, I would say that I practice my short game 13/18 ths of the time!

Your practice time might be better spent improving the quality of your missed greens, and hitting more in the process. You'll be left with far more easy short game situations, necessitating even less practice time [i]and[/i] resulting in more saves.

[Missouri Swede]

From SIGolf+ magazine, "Top 100 Teachers Poll"

[mvmac]

From SIGolf+ magazine, "Top 100 Teachers Poll"

76% of your time spent on bunker play, chipping and putting with 0 % spent on driver. Yep, that'll work

[Mac62]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Missouri Swede

From SIGolf+ magazine, "Top 100 Teachers Poll"

76% of your time spent on bunker play, chipping and putting with 0 % spent on driver. Yep, that'll work

Makes you wonder if their Top 100 Instructors all work exclusively at executive/par 3 courses.

"Never mind that it took you 8 strokes and 3 lost balls to get from the tee box to the green - think of all the strokes you'll save getting up and down in 2!!!"

[RFKFREAK]

From SIGolf+ magazine, "Top 100 Teachers Poll"

76% of your time spent on bunker play, chipping and putting with 0 % spent on driver. Yep, that'll work

Makes you wonder if their Top 100 Instructors all work exclusively at executive/par 3 courses.

"Never mind that it took you 8 strokes and 3 lost balls to get from the tee box to the green - think of all the strokes you'll save getting up and down in 2!!!"

Seriously.

This is def a wtf?  Man, it's like they're on a different universe.

[shanksalot]

I spend almost all my time on my short game which of course includes putting. I spend most of my time on the putting green since it is the weakest part of my game.

[Abu3baid]

I spend almost all my time on my short game which of course includes putting. I spend most of my time on the putting green since it is the weakest part of my game.

Your an 11 HC though? I would think for you to bring it down you would want to hit a few more GIRs no?

[RandallT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Missouri Swede

From SIGolf+ magazine, "Top 100 Teachers Poll"

Quote:

Originally Posted by mvmac

76% of your time spent on bunker play, chipping and putting with 0 % spent on driver. Yep, that'll work

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mac62

Makes you wonder if their Top 100 Instructors all work exclusively at executive/par 3 courses.

"Never mind that it took you 8 strokes and 3 lost balls to get from the tee box to the green - think of all the strokes you'll save getting up and down in 2!!!"

Seriously.

This is def a wtf?  Man, it's like they're on a different universe.

Taking the devil's advocate position, I think we need to read that poll carefully.  It was actually "what do amateurs need to spend more time practicing?"  It was not "what percent of your time should be spent practicing what?"  They gave no reference point as to what amateurs currently spend their time practicing, and it's possible that many perceive that amateurs already use their driver a lot.

So perhaps the previous questions were: "Amateurs love to go to the range and pound buckets and buckets using their driver. Is this the right approach?"  Then they're in the frame of mind that these dumb amateurs just go to the range and use the big stick.  Or maybe it was after some short game clinic. The point is: who knows what they were influenced by right before they answered, and who knows what assumptions the person answering was making.

It certainly wasn't a questions like "what is the proper mix of practicing long game, short game, putting?"  That would be more in depth of an answer, and I'd hope then we'd get an answer that looks a bit closer to what we are discussing on the thread. At first, the answers looked to me like nobody thinks anybody should even practice with the driver (not a single answer lists the driver), but then a closer read of the question made me realize it said no such thing.

[mvmac]

Taking the devil's advocate position, I think we need to read that poll carefully.  It was actually "what do amateurs need to spend more time practicing?"  It was not "what percent of your time should be spent practicing what?"  They gave no reference point as to what amateurs currently spend their time practicing, and it's possible that many perceive that amateurs already use their driver a lot.

I get what you're saying but the instructors are still wrong. The poll is still representative of the outdated advice that golfers should practice the short game equal to or more than the long game because the short game is where 70% of your shots come from. "With putting you can drop four to six shots in two lessons."

[iacas]

I get what you're saying, @RandallT . You're saying that they asked the question, and maybe the 100 respondents were asked to give one answer, and those are the answers they give. The question was just "what one thing do amateurs need to practice more?"

I'd agree that it makes the poll a better example than it currently is, but it's still not a very good set of answers.

[RandallT]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandallT

Taking the devil's advocate position, I think we need to read that poll carefully.  It was actually "what do amateurs need to spend more time practicing?"  It was not "what percent of your time should be spent practicing what?"  They gave no reference point as to what amateurs currently spend their time practicing, and it's possible that many perceive that amateurs already use their driver a lot.

I get what you're saying but the instructors are still wrong. The poll is still representative of the outdated advice that golfers should practice the short game equal to or more than the long game because the short game is where 70% of your shots come from. "With putting you can drop four to six shots in two lessons."

I get what you're saying, @RandallT. You're saying that they asked the question, and maybe the 100 respondents were asked to give one answer, and those are the answers they give. The question was just "what one thing do amateurs need to practice more?"

I'd agree that it makes the poll a better example than it currently is, but it's still not a very good set of answers.

Yes, if I were asked in a poll whether those answers by professionals were just mildly ridiculous or extremely ridiculous, I would lean toward only "mildly ridiculous."

(ala Colbert Report frequent riff: "George W: great president or THE GREATEST president?").  I agree it's still coming from a place that seems similar to where Michael Breed is coming from. Just wanted to temper it a bit based on the wording.

[DrvFrShow]

Well if the question was "what do amateurs need to practice more" and they went to a couple of full practice facilities I've been to, and answered "the short game" they'd probably be right.

1) the short game areas are almost always empty. Hardly anyone grabs a shag bag and spends even 15 minutes chipping or hitting out of the bunker unless they're taking a lesson.

2) the putting green is almost always vacant. You can always find two holes to practice on during the busiest times, and during the day it's empty.

As a rule these areas only get used when high school teams show up for practice, especially the short game area.

[Golfingdad]

1) the short game areas are almost always empty. Hardly anyone grabs a shag bag and spends even 15 minutes chipping or hitting out of the bunker unless they're taking a lesson.

Not disagreeing per se, but this isn't indicative of anything.  I practice my short game as much as I feel is necessary - perhaps 25% of the time - but I practice it at the "short game area" ZERO percent of the time.  There's no rule that say you can't pitch on the range.

[mmoan2]

I go to the same range usually, and I've become a range rat of sorts. I think the ratio of practice time spent on driver/irons should be the greatest by far, but I do notice that a great deal of people I see there often practice short game NEVER, and "work" on putting by slapping the ball around for a half hour with no plan for improvement or whatever. I think this poll is probably like @RandallT says i n response to a simple question for the casual golfer who, like me once, hadn't practiced chipping more than 5 minutes in his life but hit drivers all day long with his buddies. I think that every person who is on TheSandTrap.com knows this poll is hogwash as a representative of what you should practice, but I wonder if these "Top 100" pros know that the majority of their students spend pretty much no time at all on short game/putting and it makes for good reading in a popular golf magazine. Those things aren't trade journals, they're like "Reader's Digest." Just a harmless thought...

[iacas]

To play devil's advocate against the people playing devil's advocate (a little): the people senselessly bashing drivers on the range aren't "practicing" at all. They're just taking out some aggression with the driver. :)

Ya get what I'm sayin'? :)

[dkolo]

the people senselessly bashing drivers on the range aren't "practicing" at all. They're just taking out some aggression with the driver. :)

In fairness, doing exactly that for that reason while studying for the bar is how I got into golf in the first place, haha. So there's some virtue in that, I suppose.

[saevel25]

To play devil's advocate against the people playing devil's advocate (a little): the people senselessly bashing drivers on the range aren't "practicing" at all. They're just taking out some aggression with the driver. :)

Ya get what I'm sayin'? :)

The driver just pisses me off ;)

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In  terms of golf instruction, to not have driver even listed is just insane. To dedicate that much time to short game is way over exaggerating the importance of the short game. I guess Iron/Wedges might account for some % of the long game. Maybe they were thinking full wedge shots, not partial. I do give credit to the 2% who said, "how to practice". I actually like that answer for part of it.

I think a lot of the instructors just didn't want to think hard on the question and went back to the old adages in golf. Who really likes to spend time on a survey?