That’s right, we’re talking about practice

By Sean Rooney on April 20, 2018.

If I asked you why you practise, what would you say?

Every time I ask a client this question, the answer is always the same. Your answer likely mirrors theirs.

Generally speaking, almost everyone says they practise to get better. At first this would logically seem to be the right answer, because after all, practice makes perfect right?

Wrong.

Sadly, this old rallying cry could not be further from the truth. As a coach, I can tell you with complete certainty, practice does not make perfect, it makes permanent. Truth is, perfect practice makes perfect.

The real reason you book practice sessions is to build and retain habits. The big key here being building and retaining the correct habits. Positive ways will lead you toward the change and progression you desire.

If you repeat the same actions over and over again, you will eventually create habits. If the habits you are building are fundamentally incorrect for the outcome you want, you only end up getting better at being worse. See the rather unfortunate irony here?

Let’s use a fitness analogy to make the point. If my goal is to build stronger legs, I will never achieve my goal by doing push ups. I could literally do thousands of them and never once see any gains in my leg strength.

Motion only means progress if you are moving in the right direction. Continually repeating poor habits is actually far worse for your development than completely avoiding practise altogether.

I see people working on things all the time, with no real sense of direction or consistency. They jump from one quick tip to another, never giving themselves a real chance to create and attain dependable habits.

If you want to personally improve, you need to keep things simple. Pick one or two small keys at a time and work them until you own them. Do not try and move or progress from one key to another too quickly.

Habits are instinctive actions which happen with no conscious prompting. They are built over time with consistent repetition. When building habits, you are not done practising when you can execute your new skill properly; you are done when you no longer execute it poorly. This takes far more time and patience than people give themselves.

When working on your game this season, be sure to change your practice paradigm and remember the real reason you are hitting the range. It is not about getting better, it is about building habits… which will help you get better.

Focus on doing the right things, then work on doing them right.

Trevor Moore is a PGA of Canada professional and a TPI Certified Golf Fitness Instructor with the Titleist Performance Institute. Based in Medicine Hat, he runs his Advantage Golf Academy out of Cottonwood Coulee Golf Course and coaches the Medicine Hat College Rattlers golf teams. For comments or questions, you can contact him via his website trevormoore.ca or follow him on Twitter @trevormooreinc.

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