Practice

In the infamous words of Allen Iverson, “We talking about practice!?!” Yeah we definitely are.

What do you define as practice? I can say working at country clubs since I was 15, very few people REALLY know what it is. What’s interesting is most people at every skill level have struggled with getting good solid practice that produces results, I am no different in that. One thing I can definitely say improved this summer, was my ability to have meaningful practice sessions.

I have come to the conclusion that practice should be broken into the following categories. Mechanical and Mental.

Mechanical practice is exactly what it sounds like. It is grooming the mechanics of your swing, motion, etc. The ONLY time you should work on this is on the range. You hear announcers all the time on TV talking about players struggling playing “golf swing” and not playing “golf.” It is impossible to play your best golf while thinking about the swing. A friend of mine who teaches the best players in the world says that mechanics give you the foundation, but in the moment you’ve still got to be an athlete. Some people might say “I am a feel player so I don’t want to get wrapped up in all those mechanics.” Bull💩. Mechanics worked properly on the range, will make your feel on the course 2nd nature.

My personal best example of that is I have been working on “9 o’clock wedges.” Basically with all of my wedges I’ve worked on knowing the exact yardage it flies when I take it back to my armpit or 9 o’clock. On the range I am very conscious of where my left arm feels and how I release it from there. Once I am on the course however, I am just trying to hit the shot. I have to trust that the mechanical work I put in have in turn developed the feel that I will use on the course to knock it stiff. This is just one example of many. Right now I have a few week break and I am going to work on how my lower body moves through the shot, but come September 10th when I tee it up in New Mexico Open, I will just be playing golf and have to trust that the mechanical work I’ve put in has developed the feel I need.

This is one of my 9 o’clock swings with my GW. This week it was carrying 116 and would pitch forward 2-3 yards.

Mental practice

Mental practice for me might be different than what some others think of it as. In college, I would listen to the same motivational speeches the football and basketball team did, for me that didn’t work. Those sports are played with full on aggression. You can play those sports angry and full of aggression. I have found, for me, the best way to play my best golf is to be in my natural mindset. If you know me at all than you know that is easy going, laughing, and having fun.

My first few tournaments this season I wanted so badly to play well, that I stopped playing like Gerald and tried to be someone else on the course. When I won the Pacific Office Pro Am last year shooting 63, I was so relaxed it was almost comical. I was laughing and joking, would focus for the 30-45 seconds and hit the shot, then go right back to cracking jokes. So my mental practice on that end is just having fun when I’m playing practice rounds and rounds with buddies. I am still studying, learning and figuring out the course. Being carefree doesn’t mean you’re careless. Carefree is accepting whatever comes, while giving it your best. Careless is taking on unnecessary risk, not picking good targets, and not being fully committed.

For me mental practice as well is continuing to put tools in the toolbox as much as possible. For me that means talking to veterans who’ve played professionally for awhile, talking with some guys who’s opinions I really trust that can give great insight, and reading good material. I will preface that though with this old southern term. Too many chefs in the kitchen can ruin a recipe. It’s a tough thing because everyone wants to help, and they mean well. You have to decide when you need advice, who’s advice you need, and most importantly make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to receive it. For me that’s generally about a day or so later after the emotion of the moment has left and I can be in a real place to receive it.

“You have to get comfortable with failure. You actually have to SEEK failure. Failure is where all of the lessons are. Successful people fail a lot, they fail a lot more than the succeed, but they take the lessons from their failures, and use the wisdom to come around to the next phase of success” – Will Smith