Why am I on the range?
Yesterday I was thinking about the fact that most of us simply take it for granted that the place where golfers routinely practice should be the range. Now, I spend most of my time on the range and there can be no doubt that in order to practice certain parts of your game, visit to the range is just perfect.
You just have to understand why you are on the range and what the purpose of your practice is.
There are three reasons why you might want to be on a driving range:
1. Warming up before playing
How many balls do you need to get warm and comfortable. In my experience the problems lie in hitting way too many balls and then working in the inevitable few bad shots. You can imagine all the negativity which could occur from all this. I like the 26 ball drill hitting either 2 balls per club (it makes you change clubs more often) or 3 with slightly fewer clubs.
2. Working on your technique
Today is January the 4th and it’s certainly thentime of year to invest in your technique. When the latest motor learning advice is to repeat motions using regular drills and practice swings and get feedback in say a mirror, how many balls do you need? Not many at all right? This is also something that should forma very small part of your practice plan in summer.
3. Developing your skills
Probably the main reason why you should be on the range in summer is to working on hitting certain shots, perhaps one that let you down on a previous round. These might be things like hitting draws or high shots or working on a certain type of lie. In summer this should be the main reason to be on the range.
The main reason given to me however when I ask somebody why they are on the range, I often get looked at quizzically and then after a while get the answer “I’m hitting balls”.
Just hitting is not good practice! Think about it, where on the course are you going to hit 50 7 irons from the same lie, to no target in particular, in very quick succession with balls that belong to somebody else?
Why are you here?
