How do you practice? What do you spend your time doing? Are you practicing in the most effective way?
The single most important thing to improving your score is how you practice. Most golfers would find this as common sense, but what you’re practicing is less intuitive. Understanding the differences between the two types of practice will significantly improve your game.
The two different types are 1) form practice and 2) performance practice. There is a big distinction between the two, but they can also be confused. For example, someone who has early extension, an extremely common swing characteristic, may not have an issue with making ball-then-ground contact. For this golfer to address his early extension, they will be strictly working on form practice.
Now let’s switch it. If a golfer doesn’t have early extension or any other swing characteristic that would lead to an inability to have ball-then-ground contact, they struggle with ground contact in the correct place. This golfer working on this SKILL is working in performance practice.
To break this down to simpler terms, form practice is how a golfer looks when they swing the golf club, and performance practice is how the ball performs. When breaking down one’s practice into these two categories, it will simplify your goals.
Most people focus their practice on performance practice through form practice. This is a confusing concept at the best of times, but most golfers and some coaches follow it. To know if you have ever done this, ask yourself a simple question: do you quantify your ball flight by how you “feel” during your shot? Or have you ever considered a swing, a bad swing by the ball didn’t do what you wanted it to do, but on camera your physical swing, i.e., manipulation of the club or body, did what you set out to do. This is a classic example of performance practice through form practice.
If you are working on form practice, there should be zero consideration towards the performance of the ball. Generally, you should perform form practice without a ball initially.
To determine whether to transition your form practice into performance practice is based on your ability to perform the desired form at full speed without a ball. Then start slow and move faster with the ball to incorporate it into your performance.
Now, for the TRUE integration from form to performance, it is to test your swing form with the help of a camera against the performance standards that you have set for yourself. All of the form work that you do will never translate into performance without testing it, and all of the performance practice that you put in without a solid form foundation will not translate into a decreased score.
This is the fine line that golfers need to dance in order to improve their score, but most golfers don’t realize the importance of keeping these two skills separate.
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