Practice Range vs. On Course

[Yukari]

5 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

For most people, when they're on the range, they focus on the process, checking their set up, a swing key or two, but not particularly worried about the outcome of the shot.  On the course, however, the outcome becomes the most important thing in their minds.  That becomes the issue, the focus has shifted from process (which you CAN control) to outcome, which you really can't control.  The better players are still primarily focused on process when they're on the course.  Yeah, they game-plan for a specific result, but once they have a plan, its all about going through the process correctly.  I don't like anyone to feel really technical when swinging on the course, but you DO need to use the process that produces good shots during practice.

+1.  As they say, the ball got in the way of the swing.  When I concentrate on the process, my shots are better than when I concentrate on the outcome.  While it is not easy to not worry about the outcome, the more I practice concentrating on the process, the better are my shots.

[DrvFrShow]

On the driving range you can practice your swing. Every shot is a perfect lie off a tight lie.... and a perfectly flat lie. On the golf course, it's not that way. Your feet are never at the perfect height in relation to the ball. You have to compensate. Sure you can still pure the driver off the tee. You can still pure your irons on the par 3s. But if the ground is softer, that ball you hit off the deck with your iron isn't going as far as it did on the range. 

[boogielicious]

17 hours ago, PhxHacker said:

Had a set back at the range today,  last Saturday I had a very positive confident session, today not so much. Last week I was pulling everything and hitting nice lofted shots. Today things were thin, my pulls turned into straighter shots and my straight shots turned to heavy fades. My Irons are usually always a push shot and that remained consistent but the amount of thin shots today overpower some of the positives I should be taking away from some of my successes. 

I worked alot on ball position  so maybe I wasn't always necessarily at the correct distance at address and may have been reaching for the ball a little. 

The good news is towards the end of the session I was back to straighter shots and a couple with pulled. I've noticed that I have begun to have a better frame of mind when hitting a bad shot, actually trying to analyze the symptoms of the mechanics that lead to the error. In the past I would just hit another mindless range ball.

I don't want to feel like I am hijacking a thread here, so is there a place on the forum to post personal progress or regression?

Yes. Start a My Swing thread in the Member Swings section. You can post your work there. Usually folks start with a video of their swing.

Secondly, don't take a bad session to heart too much, especially if you are working on something. I've done partial swing sessions and shanked 10 in a row. 

[Ernest Jones]

On April 1, 2016 at 9:47 PM, SavvySwede said:

Different perception really. We still love that absolutlely pure 7iron on the range even if we push it 10y right. Hit that same shot on the course into a greenside bunker and you feel like a dope.

This^^^^

 

[BrofessionalGolfer]

The driving range really takes out any and all mental stigma that accompanies this great and frustrating game of golf. Nobody is watching you and while you may be aiming at various pin locations, there isn't one green and one pin in your line of vision. Your mind doesn't take the driving range seriously regardless of how you may try and trick it.

One tip: Take an extended amount of time before each swing. Put the ball down, align your club, and then close your eyes for about 5 seconds. When your eyes are closed, envision that one green and one pin. Open and swing. You won't be hitting nearly as consistently for each shot, which is the reality of the game.

[natureboy]

23 hours ago, DrvFrShow said:

On the driving range you can practice your swing. Every shot is a perfect lie off a tight lie.... and a perfectly flat lie. On the golf course, it's not that way. Your feet are never at the perfect height in relation to the ball. You have to compensate. Sure you can still pure the driver off the tee. You can still pure your irons on the par 3s. But if the ground is softer, that ball you hit off the deck with your iron isn't going as far as it did on the range. 

I agree. Uneven lies (even on tee boxes) plus rough makes the course much tougher.

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, natureboy said:

I agree. Uneven lies (even on tee boxes) plus rough makes the course much tougher.

One of the grass ranges near has rough and even some slopes that I sneak onto when no one is looking. Hitting out of the rough is definitely worth practicing if only to see the difference in ball flight.

[chilepepper]

"That one shot that keeps you coming back" 

Thats called euphoric recall, you just remember the good shots. That works on the range too. We remember that 4 iron we spanked 190 but forget the other 10 in a row we skipped 160. Suddenly that 4 iron is our 190 yard club even though it averages shorter and 20 yards right. 

[RandallT]

On 4/1/2016 at 3:00 PM, PhxHacker said:

I don't want to feel like I am hijacking a thread here, so is there a place on the forum to post personal progress or regression?

Welcome to The Sand Trap. We have a "Forum" here dedicated to each person's own swing. Here's a link: https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

At the top of tha page, you'll see the rules/naming conventions/tips/etc.  I'd recommend browsing around other people's "My Swing" thread to get a feel first. Then when you are ready, go for it. 

For mine, I post my swing, but also just post a few things there that are about my own personal progress/regression. This might be the best spot for you. Typically, you'll find a few followers who may jump in from time to time to help or commiserate. It all depends on the quality of your posts, and how well you present yourself in that thread (and on others). You get back what you put into it. Good luck!

 

Edit: Oops, I missed Page 2 of this topic and see that @boogielicious said the same thing. I'll leave this up to document my lack of attention to detail.

[bm85]

Previously I would work on my swing at home in a mirror like a good sandtrap disciple, then hurry to the range to validate my ideas. Instead of continuing my practice once there, I would just hit enough until I felt I had confirmed that something worked, or that it didn't.

What I have learned from doing this is to respect the role of chance/coincidence in golf, and not to use a sample the size of a bucket of balls, or even a few holes on a golf course to come to conclusions anymore.

If you want to get better: I think you have to keep gathering evidence, keep questioning your ideas, and to not let real progress be swayed by something as fickle as ball flight.

[Lihu]

On April 1, 2016 at 5:33 AM, Marty2019 said:

It's also because people tend to hit the same shot over and over at the range until they hit a few good ones.  

I have read recently, that it is very instructive to practice at the range as if you were actually playing a round of golf.  Warm up, then hit a tee shot, then based on that shot, and based on the first hole, what shot would you have from there, and so on, as if you are actually playing the course.   I did this yesterday, and guess what?   I hit the same number of good and bad shots that I usually hit during a round.   Whereas my usual practice is to hit one club until I hit some good ones.   If I decide to practice that way with my 7-iron for example, 10 straight shots withe the 7-iron, the first few shots will be erratic, just like when I play a round.   Then the next few shots will be nice.  

Too bad when I play I don't get mulligans on every shot. 

That's the difference. 

That's usually what I do at the range unless I am working on a particular club.

To the OP, perfect lies make hitting much easier. Once you tune into a range setup, you make only adjustments for the club. Getting good at the range is probably just a first step in this learning process.

[gregsandiego]

I come back to certain posts after a game to get some insight into that day's problem. But no easy answers here. I guess I'd sum up with

1. You really only think you are good on the range - but you're not,

2, The range is just a whole hell of a lot easier than the course.

 

 

 

[Tee Wade]

On ‎4‎/‎4‎/‎2016 at 0:18 AM, bm85 said:

Previously I would work on my swing at home in a mirror like a good sandtrap disciple, then hurry to the range to validate my ideas. Instead of continuing my practice once there, I would just hit enough until I felt I had confirmed that something worked, or that it didn't.

What I have learned from doing this is to respect the role of chance/coincidence in golf, and not to use a sample the size of a bucket of balls, or even a few holes on a golf course to come to conclusions anymore.

If you want to get better: I think you have to keep gathering evidence, keep questioning your ideas, and to not let real progress be swayed by something as fickle as ball flight.

Wow.  This is almost exactly what I do.  I work on my swing in the mirror and I also have a piece of carpet that I swing on to practice taking good divots.  I do this until I feel comfortable I've put the change in and THEN I go to the range.  I don't like to hit more than 30-40 balls at a time (not counting chipping and putting practice). If I don't see the results I'm looking for, or at least some indication of progress, it's back to the mirror for me.

I started doing this when I realized that the range isn't going to give me the various lies I'll experience on the golf course.  I figured it's better for me to focus on my swing instead of whether or not I had awesome ball flights during my session.

[MarvChamp]

I use my range time as 1-hour exercise, 2-3 times a week. It stretches my muscles and refreshes my mind and body.

The "practice" consists of repeating my setup and alignment routine and hitting to specific targets at specific distances, sometimes with different clubs than normal. I hit 8-10 balls in this way, then sit to think for a minute about what I'm doing.

This is the only way I can ingrain doing the same setup, alignment and target routine on the course. It doesn't always happen, but repetition strengthens and confirms. -Marv

[mistermuhl]

For me the range is about coping with some performance anxiety. I have some serious anxiety and obsessive compulsiveness when it comes to anything competitive. And the range allows me the option to freely express my pursuit of excellence. A lot of the time I prefer the range because I can focus inwardly and really feel different things. 

 

 

[treebound]

For me, if I'm finding my course shots going right or if the slice comes back then I will set up on the right side of the range just to mentally (if not physically) give me a barrier on the right to stay away from. Otherwise like someone above mentioned, range time is often exercise and stretching with a little focused practice mixed in during a lunch break on work days.  

[DannyMac]

For myself personally, having no consequences for bad shots on the range allows my confidence to rise while hitting range balls.  Bring me onto the first tee with white stakes left and water lining the fairway on the right, that confidence lowers significantly.  My mental game causes my discrepancy from range to course, something I am beginning to work on.

[1badbadger]

On 4/1/2016 at 7:38 AM, jkelley9 said:

I don't disagree with you, but this is not the case with me. I'm working with a pro and getting my shots to where they are looking really good, really consistent (relative to before working with this pro) and I get excited thinking that I'm going to shoot a lower score on the course (think going from a 43 to a 40 or something)... then I start choking over the ball. It's very clear to me now that my mind on the course does NOT trust my new swing, despite proving it at the range (with real targets, real distances every single shot) - and good, quantitative high percentages. I start getting tense and even though I'm telling myself to calm down and relax my muscles and make a full turn, my body wants to sit over the ball and "muscle it forward" by default on the course. That's the most frustrating part to me; it's not the same swing.

I totally agree with you on the whole getting in the groove with a 100-bucket. But when I go to the range now I have maybe 35 balls max and I take a solid 30 minutes hitting them, switching out clubs in-between, getting out of my stance, even doing a couple stretches and such. 

Something I'm working on though. 

 

On 4/1/2016 at 7:58 AM, paininthenuts said:

I have had a recent driving problem. For some reason in the last two weeks I have been slicing everything. I realised that I hadn't been following through with my hips, so I went on the range prior to a game and hit a bucket of balls. 25 went dead straight, 4 faded a little, but were OK, and I hooked one. All in all very good. Got out on the course and sliced 8 out of the 9. Infuriating 

This is pretty common when making a swing change...it starts to feel pretty good on the range and you're able to hit shots without thinking too much about it, but as soon as you get under pressure the tendency is to slip back into the old swing. It's really hard to keep it from happening.