Why You Need This: Today I'm going to explain "Why Not to Get in a Rhythm on the Range."

Tell me if you've been here before.  You get to the range before your round and start warming up.

You start to groove in your swing.  You start to have visions of having a really good round because your swing is becoming automatic on the range.

Then you get out to the course..........and it's a different story.

Well, you're not alone.  I know that's happened to me on many occasions, and I'm sure it's happened to most of your friends at some point as well.

Once you hear the reason that this happens, you're going to wonder why you hadn't thought of it before.

In today's video, I'm going to let you in on some secrets that will help you make your range sessions transfer onto the course much more easily.

I can't wait to show you these few keys that will have your game on the course more closely imitating your practice sessions.

Let's get started.....

 

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 6:50

Video Transcription:

If I had a nickel for every time I was asked this question, I’d be rich. You’ve probably thought this thousands of times with your own game.

Why is it I go to the driving range, I grab my 7 iron or whatever club it is, I make a few swings, and I am just hitting it perfect shot, after shot, after shot are flying toward my target, they’re nice and solid.

Everything’s going great. I switch over, maybe hit 10 or 15 in a row with the driver, it starts out a little shaky, but once I get a few going, it’s like a laser, right down the middle of the fairway.

Then I jump over to the first tee, and I quickly snap-hook one into the water to the left, or block one out to the right into the woods. Why does that happen? Why can you hit it so good on the range, and then it just completely falls apart on the course?

That’s exactly what I’m going to go over today, and I’m going to talk about some key research.

If you follow the prescription that I give you on practicing the proper way on the range, it is going to make you perform better on the course, and most importantly, perform better when it matters, under the gun, when you really need that great shot.

Usually what happens when we practice on the driving range, we try to get into a rhythm. We’ll grab our 7 iron or whatever our favorite club is, 8 iron, pitching wedge, whatever it may be.

We’ll hit 10 or 15 shots until we find that rhythm where we hit that ball nice and straight right down the middle of the fairway. We hit another one, and another one, another one, we feel fantastic.

Well, the problem with that is, when you go to the golf course, you don’t get to do that. You only get one swing. It’s not your ability to hit 15 shots in a row well, which seems like it should be, but in reality, it’s not hitting 15 in a row well, it’s how well you adapt from one club to another.

So if I have my 4 iron, for example here, and I want to switch over to my pitching wedge or my driver, how well can I adapt to the changes in the length of the club?

How well can I adapt to the changes in what the club feels like, and the weighting of the club? How well can I adapt in how hard or how easy I’m swinging?

That’s what determines how well you’re going to play on the course. That’s what they call transfer.

When we’re on the driving range, it feels better to hit the same club over and over again, and get that false sense of hitting the ball fantastic.

But if you really want to improve, that’s not the proper way to practice on the driving range. Here’s what I recommend doing.

Grab any club you like to start with. Let’s say we start out with our wedge, or our pitching wedge. I’m going to pick a target, that’s the number one thing.

If I don’t pick a target on the range, and I just blindly hit out there, when I go to the course and now all of a sudden I have to pick a target, everything falls apart.

If you don’t want to fall apart on the course, we need to practice as most efficiently or as most realistically as we do on the course. So always pick a target there.

Always go through a little bit of a mini pre-shot routine. You don’t have to step back off the ball and all that kind of thing, but pretend like each shot counts.

What I like to do is keep a point system. I’m going to give myself a little bit of a target out there around the flag that I’m aiming to that I want to hit it in.

Let’s say with the pitching wedge, it’s 10 yards to the right, or 10 yards to the left. If I can land it in that zone, that’s a good shot. Also want to hit it fairly solid when I’m doing that.

So I’ll make a few swings with my pitching wedge here, and I’m going to try to land it in that zone. Doesn’t matter where the zone is, I’m just going to pick one in my mind and make a swing.

Now as soon as I get one into that zone, I hit a nice, straight shot there, I’m immediately going to switch clubs. As soon as I hit one good shot, I’m going to switch.

I don’t want to keep on hitting good shots with the same one over and over again. Again, your ability to play well on the course is not how many times in a row you can do something, it’s how easily you can vary what you’re doing, or how easily you can switch from club to club.

So now, I’m going to grab a different club. I’m also going to switch my target. On the course, you never hit to the same target once in a row, unless you hit a ball out of bounds, which you definitely don’t want to be doing that, or in the water.

So I’m going to aim to a different part of the driving range. I’m maybe going to visualize a hole on the course that I would be hitting this club on, and then I’m going to make another swing and again, give myself a zone.

With a driver it’s going to be a bigger zone, with a pitching wedge it’s going to be a smaller zone. You can adapt that to your skill level. I don’t want to pick targets that are so small, this is also something called the challenge point, also a lot of motor learning research on this.

I don’t want to pick zones that are so tight that I can’t complete them, or so big that I complete all of them. You want about a 60 to 70 percent success rate on these.

So again, once I pick out that new zone, I pick the appropriate size of that zone, then I’m going to make another swing and see if I can hit that target.

There we go. I’m going to hit another club. As soon as I hit one good one, I’m going to switch clubs again. A driver, a pitching wedge, maybe even mix it up a little bit with a chip shot.

Take a little break between each swing. Step back out, take a little bit of time between the balls if you want to.

Those are going to help these things to transfer much more efficiently to the course. You’re also going to notice a couple added benefits with this.

Number one, you’re going to play better, because now you’re practicing what you really need to be good at.

Number two, you’re going to be able to more accurately judge how big of a zone you can hit into consistently.

So if we hit that 15 or 20 7 irons in a row, we start to get the feeling we can hit it into this tiny little area. We go out to the course and we aim right for the flag, and we knock it over in the water.

When we’re doing drills this way, we’re going to say OK, I need a zone about this big to hit my 7 iron in on the first try. Now I know which flags to go for and which times to lay up and play a little bit more conservatively.

So again, let me recap on these drills. You follow this, and I promise you it will transfer to the course much more efficiently. All the motor learning research shows that.

We’re going to hit one shot, has to be to a specific target with a specific zone we’re going to hit it in. As soon as we hit one good shot, we’re going to vary clubs.

Never pick the same target twice in a row, and ever hit more than one good shot in a row.

Vary those clubs up and pick an appropriate challenge point, or an appropriate difficulty level where you can be 60 to 70 percent successful.

You follow those tips, and your range sessions are going to turn a lot more into your real game. You’re going to play better on the course.

All right, so we’ve talked about these range drills that are really going to help you to get much more consistent and transfer that to the golf course.

But where do we take it from there? What if our spine angle is moving around all over the place, and our head’s moving around?

It’s going to be tough to be consistent no matter what we’re doing and how we practice. That’s where I want you to take the time to go back into the Top Speed Golf System.

Start working through the Stable, Fluid Spine. Work through the level number one, video number one. Work your way up the drills.

As you complete each one o these drills, you’re getting one step closer to your goals. As you start to compound these on top of each other, you get to where you want to be.

As you complete level two and level three, it becomes completely automatic. Take what we talked about here today on how to practice, and pair that up with your great technique you learned in the Top Speed Golf System, and your improvement is just going to skyrocket.

I’ll see you in the Stable, Fluid Spine.