The Correct Way to Practice Golf

There is no substitute for regular and proper practice if you want to improve your competency in golf. It is just not enough with the lessons offered by instructional aids and videos that you may have purchased from the stores. Regular practice develops in your muscles the required capacity and capability. The practice has to be proper with the right kind of exercise done in exactly the manner prescribed to ensure the right use of energy for each exercise.

Though simple, proper practice is what is often missed out. Golfers often go about with the mistaken belief that all that is required to improve their performance is to ensure that they spend sufficient time for practice. However, this is not just true. It is more important to ensure that the practice is proper and follow the rigor and discipline that are prescribed for it. Strictly adherence to the discipline is much more crucial for practice than for the actual game itself.

The monotony in exercise may seem dull and dreary. But they are the key to developing good play in the turf. A way to make your practices interesting is to look at it as an interesting aspect of the game itself from which you can derive immense satisfaction and enjoyment as well. This makes practice all the more vibrant.

There are three parts to your practice session:

1. The warm-up,

2. The fresh stage and

3. The fatigued stage.

The exercises for these three stages are distinctly different from each other. These are to be executed as specified to provide you the best results which you will be able to experience when you play on the greens.

Warm-up:

For someone not familiar with the game of golf, it may seem that all that golf requires is to walk and swing. This is not true. The manner in which the swings are executed is not the same as in an ordinary swing. The coordination of muscle groups in particular ways are that makes the swinging specific. These swings are not carried out ordinarily in the kind of day to day physical movements that are common.

In golf, the muscle groups that are primarily used are your upper torso, arms and lower back. Therefore, these muscle groups are required to be exercised and stretched properly. A proper warm up from head to foot ensures the proper preparedness for these muscle groups to carry out the full range of motion required in the swing along with the required flexibility. Stretching your muscles offers the requisite flexibility and motion. You can get proper guidance from your instructor or trainer if you are not sure what to do.

Fresh Stage

Once you complete the first stage of warm-up, the next task is to develop your skill in the game. This is primarily related to the various strokes such as driving, chipping or putting. Mastering the strokes and controlling your strokes is fundamental to the game.

Your warm up and stretches makes your body lithe and fresh. Your body responds more easily to the specific exercises that you intend to do to improve your skills. You will thus be able to focus more in resolving your problem areas in the game.

Many think that what is required is to spend sufficient time on the golf course. It simply is not true. You need to consider what are the aspects of the game that you need to improve, and whether for instance, short drives are your weakness. Having assessed and determined what your needs to improve your games are, and then these are to be the areas that you should attend to in your putts immediately after your warm-up. Many players do not recognize the fact that about two-thirds of the strokes happen on the green. Inadequate practice on the green results in causing handicap to the players.

Fatigued stage

When you become breathless or gasping from doing the exercise, you need to move on to improve the various aspects of your game that you feel requires improvement or to be perfected. This means that you are already familiar with the motions required and what is now needed is for you to preserve and improve your form.

Correcting a motion or mastering a difficult motion is better done when one is not stressed out. It is better first to focus on correcting a motion or rectifying a problem area. Further strengthening your game can be done later in the driving range.

Some hints and observations while you are at practice that you may find useful:

How much time should one allocate for practice? It is found that consistent and progressive improvement is achieved if one is able to allocate twice as much time to practice as you would to playing the game itself.

Take care to ensure that you rest sufficiently amidst exercises. You should also take rest between the practice stages. You should not end up fighting for breath or stressed out by whatever activity you are doing. These can actually hamper your progress and may even be harmful.

With proper and persistent practice carried out with the rigor and discipline that is prescribed will see you improve the game. You should note your progress; observe the results you see from the exercises. Take one step at a time in moving ahead.