Practicing and playing less frequently and seem to be getting better. . .

[Lihu]

I'm certainly not all that good a player, but I have found that when I went from the daily beating up balls to beating them up once or twice a week then playing only 2 times a week that my game has actually improved. I spend a lot more time at work now, and shoot clay and steel on a few of the other days. Golf has taken a "passenger seat" to other things in my life even though it is still a big hobby for me. I expected to get a lot worse and haven't yet, in fact, I think I've gotten better. My muscles are well rested when I play now and I feel like I am making better swings.

So, for me, practicing every day obviously was not improving my game the way I used to do it. Now, what this means to me is that if I decided to practice daily, I would probably practice my short game and putting skills on the other 3 days. So, being an advocate of 65/25/10 practice which simply means practicing 65% on long game then 25% on short and 10% on putting I did a rough calculation on the ratios.

2 days 90 balls and about 3 hours each day that I practice long game. That's a ball every two minutes. That's a long time, and you probably ask what do I do with the other minute and 50 seconds? Umm, I am resting and visualizing my swings and making "properly sequenced" practice swings, I guess? Okay, so there are practice swings and there are "practice" swings that I used to do just mimicking the motions of a "real swing". What I do with my practice swings is to get my sequencing right in slow motion. Then I practice making a really slow back swing. This might not work for everyone, but I am focused mostly on getting my sequencing right. If I get it wrong (which is most of the time), I repeat the exact same practice sequence over and over until I get the feel of a nice shot. Then I continue. . .

On the days I make full swings I don't usually practice putting or chipping. I go back to work or whatever.

On days that I play, the amount of actual time I spend on my ratios ends up being 1/2 hour long game, 15 minutes chipping and roughly 15 minutes putting.

So, if I practiced my chipping and putting on any of the other 3 days, I would only need to practice chipping for another hour and a half per week and putting for another hour per week. This seems enough given that I don't currently practice these short game skills at all and still score well enough to be happy. If I am playing with partners they wince at my short game wondering why the heck am I not scoring better all the time? Luckily, I play for fun and not for them. . .

I realize that this could be just in my particular case, but my kids are the same way. Less beating up of balls and more thought into the practice sessions makes for better playing***.

Hope these observations help some people, and am waiting for some comments and criticisms from others to tell me where I am lacking in my "practice". Maybe I can modify it and improve even more, while doing less?

 

 

***Note that once a month I will get on the range and really go after the ball about 200 times or less than 2 large buckets to kind of "work out". Still in control, but barely then out of control for many shots. This makes me hot and sweaty, but really feels good. I love hitting my 9i for miles, sometimes. . .

[Patch]

Everyone is different. Me I play till I get complacent. Then I take a few days off and then hit it again. I hit balls today for an hour or so just to be, well, hitting balls. 

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, Patch said:

Everyone is different. Me I play till I get complacent. Then I take a few days off and then hit it again. I hit balls today for an hour or so just to be, well, hitting balls. 

Yeah, that's kind of what I do as well, but not because I get complacent or anything. . . good for you though. You know your game.

[CarlSpackler]

I'm going the other way. Practicing every day, mostly on the full swing, is making me more aware of positions and ingraining changes that are sticking around on the course. Previous attempts to change my swing would only stick for a hole or two. 

[Hacker James]

I've already addressed this on various threads. Although I do have a routine I go through and try to practice with purpose, stop when I start to tire or get sloppy; I mostly view it as a pastime where I can just step out in the yard and hit balls into the cage or work on chipping from about 45 feet away. The other benefit for me is it provides at least a minimum of physical conditioning in terms of stamina and flexibility as I am not one that generally works out per sei.  It has become a daily ritual.

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, CarlSpackler said:

I'm going the other way. Practicing every day, mostly on the full swing, is making me more aware of positions and ingraining changes that are sticking around on the course. Previous attempts to change my swing would only stick for a hole or two. 

 

1 hour ago, Hacker James said:

I've already addressed this on various threads. Although I do have a routine I go through and try to practice with purpose, stop when I start to tire or get sloppy; I mostly view it as a pastime where I can just step out in the yard and hit balls into the cage or work on chipping from about 45 feet away. The other benefit for me is it provides at least a minimum of physical conditioning in terms of stamina and flexibility as I am not one that generally works out per sei.  It has become a daily ritual.

Sure, I did this for the past 2 years, but did not see the kind of performance in my game as I seem to be seeing now. Not sure if this is because I practiced every day for 2 years and am reaping the benefits from those two years or if what I am doing now is the reason or not?

Somehow, I think practicing all the time is not that good for you, but I could be wrong. . .

[Lagavulin62]

When I was younger I hit all my own balls in a large field and used it partly as an opportunity to work on my tan. I probably spent more time picking up than hitting but it was worth it and the exercise was great.  Then once I started teaching I had the opportunity to play everyday in the summer. It really makes a difference when you play enough to get that confidence and muscle memory working for you. I found I didn't need to hit many balls per session as long as I was practicing at least 2-3 times a week. 

I wish I had that luxery now but with work I can only get to the range on weekends.  I also have a range issue. I live practically within walking distance of one of the nicest golf clubs in the metro area. But they will not open the grass range except on weekends and then only if the ground is dry. That's a real shame because Houston rains about as much as Seattle.  My favorite range closed down and there is a pretty nice one a few miles away but the guy is stingy with his real estate. He won't open the full range and he crams all his customers into one third the range space on any given day. So yesterday I ended up driving an hour just to find a suitable practice range. So frustrating. I end up spending more time with other hobbies just because many times golf is just not worth the hassle.  

Back to the practice, i agree that less practice yet more focused practice is the key. If I could just get in 2 sessions and 60 balls each I would feel fine about ponying up for a round every two to three weeks. Maybe  : )

 

[JonMA1]

Is it possible that your improvement with less practice and playing is because your mechanics have improved @Lihu?

Conversely, if I'm practicing for an hour everyday and playing several times a week but with a bad swing, wouldn't I be going in the wrong direction by engraining those bad habits even deeper?

[CarlSpackler]

If you are practicing for the sake of practice or because you fell pressure to practice, it will probably not be very helpful. If you practice with a specific purpose, then you will see results. 

[Lihu]

4 hours ago, Lagavulin62 said:

Back to the practice, i agree that less practice yet more focused practice is the key. If I could just get in 2 sessions and 60 balls each I would feel fine about ponying up for a round every two to three weeks. Maybe  : )

 

Quote

Conversely, if I'm practicing for an hour everyday and playing several times a week but with a bad swing, wouldn't I be going in the wrong direction by engraining those bad habits even deeper?

 

Yes, this is kind of what I am saying. For me, tired muscles are a sure way to ingrain bad habits and not allow me to be in proper sequence, complete turns or whatever.

It kind of goes back to many posters who've tried to talk me out of hitting so many balls a couple years ago. . .seems like they were right?

 

2 hours ago, JonMA1 said:

Is it possible that your improvement with less practice and playing is because your mechanics have improved @Lihu?

 

I think the fact that I am hitting less balls***, but insuring that I hit them as correctly as I can (using 5SK, of course +++) and have also learned to know what a well struck ball feels like as a goal to achieve has helped me a lot.

 

6 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

If you are practicing for the sake of practice or because you feel pressure to practice, it will probably not be very helpful. If you practice with a specific purpose, then you will see results. 

Yes. . .that's kind of what I've observed, I guess.

 

 

***Note that I'm hitting only something like 180 per week, normally. Then once a month or even less often than that, I might hit 400 or so in 3 days going all out then resting 3 days or more after. Given that I get 240+ balls a day free with my players club, some might say I'm not quite getting my monies worth.  Not true.

+++ I generally ask a few of my range buddies to see if I am keeping my head steady or making a centered pivot type or whatever when I can't feel it. I think it helps their swings as well, because I'm kind of letting them know what bad things not to do by watching my flaws and the effect it has on the shot. Also, on occasion I practice my swing in front of a mirror. I find that cameras are too delayed a feedback mechanism for my taste. . . I might setup a camera in front of a large monitor to act as a mirror, then record if I want to review differences between two swings or something like that.

[Lagavulin62]

To this day I have never seen my swing. I would love to see it. I've been told I have a nice swing. Then again they always told me I had a nice voice, but I was horrified the first time I heard a recording of myself as a child. As an adult maybe I'm mature enough to deal with the trauma of viewing my own swing? 

[boogielicious]

15 hours ago, Lagavulin62 said:

To this day I have never seen my swing. I would love to see it. I've been told I have a nice swing. Then again they always told me I had a nice voice, but I was horrified the first time I heard a recording of myself as a child. As an adult maybe I'm mature enough to deal with the trauma of viewing my own swing? 

I can't speak for your swing, but if you hear your voice recorded on a less sophisticated device, it will sound higher and thinner than it does in your head. It takes a good mic and good recording technique to get it to sound right.

As for your swing, have someone film it. But don't be dismayed if it doesn't look like Adam Scott's swing.

[newtogolf]

On 11/12/2016 at 8:19 PM, Lihu said:

I'm certainly not all that good a player, but I have found that when I went from the daily beating up balls to beating them up once or twice a week then playing only 2 times a week that my game has actually improved. I spend a lot more time at work now, and shoot clay and steel on a few of the other days. Golf has taken a "passenger seat" to other things in my life even though it is still a big hobby for me. I expected to get a lot worse and haven't yet, in fact, I think I've gotten better. My muscles are well rested when I play now and I feel like I am making better swings.

I think we had shared our concerns over your practice regimen in your swing thread.  You seemed to be hitting way too many balls and not working on priority pieces but just hitting balls into your net at home.  

Your body needs time to recover and fatigue allows bad habits to creep into your swing in order to compensate.  Like you, I found that cutting back on my range time was beneficial to my time on the course and scores.  I now use the range only when I'm unable to play a full round or to work on a priority piece that I receive from my instructor.    

[iacas]

1 minute ago, newtogolf said:

I think we had shared our concerns over your practice regimen in your swing thread.  You seemed to be hitting way too many balls and not working on priority pieces but just hitting balls into your net at home.

Yup.

[Lihu]

12 hours ago, newtogolf said:

I think we had shared our concerns over your practice regimen in your swing thread.  You seemed to be hitting way too many balls and not working on priority pieces but just hitting balls into your net at home.  

Your body needs time to recover and fatigue allows bad habits to creep into your swing in order to compensate.  Like you, I found that cutting back on my range time was beneficial to my time on the course and scores.  I now use the range only when I'm unable to play a full round or to work on a priority piece that I receive from my instructor.    

 

12 hours ago, iacas said:

Yup.

 

Ironically, my kids were telling me the same thing. . .