Play like a kid. We’ve all heard that phrase. It means to play free, fearlessly and have fun.
Last week I wrote about knowing your carry distance with each club, and how knowing those yardages frees you up to make confident swings. One of my readers made a comment which is the inspiration for this topic.
As a side note, if there are topics you would like me to write about, feel free to leave a comment about what you would like me to discuss. Anything from practice to playing to gym work to general golf stories. Anything golf related is fair game.
So, how do you play like a kid?
It starts with how you practice.
Golfers don’t practice properly, and it is holding them back from being able to play free on the course. Go to any driving range and what do you see? Ball after ball flying from each hitting bay at some non-descript target. 5-10 balls with a club. Move onto the next 5-10 balls with a different club. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
This is called block practice. Block practice has a place. A certain amount of time should be spent in block practice, especially when there is something specific in your swing you are working on. It is also effective as part of a warm-up.
But block practice creates a rhythm which is not natural to golf.
Think about it. Do you hit ball after ball on the golf course with the same club at some general target? Of course not. You hit different clubs and types of shots at specific targets with as much as five minutes between shots.
If you’re working on something specific in the swing, block practice has you focusing on technique and not result. On the golf course result is what matters, not technique. Too many golfers who struggle in a round try to fix their swing which usually makes things worse. Why? Because they are focused on technique and not on result. They focus on technique because that’s how they practice.
If you grew up playing other sports, did you spend all your practice time learning a fundamental? No. You spent some time on fundamentals, but you spent as much if not more time applying those fundamentals into drills which simulated playing the sport. For instance, basketball players spend time learning the fundamentals of a jump shot, but they spend more time simulating game conditions in various drills or scrimmages to apply the learned fundamentals of a jump shot.
You should be doing the same thing with golf practice.
How many times have you said to yourself, I hit it great on the range, but I hit it terrible on the golf course.
Here’s how to start fixing it, so you can start bringing it from the range to the golf course.
The type of practice you should be spending the majority of your time on is random practice. Notice I said majority and not all. Don’t abandon block practice. It is important, just as learning the proper technique of a jump shot is important.
When I was kid, one of my favorite things to do at the range (and still is) was to hit the range picker as it traversed the range picking up golf balls. My friends and I would rifle all kinds of shots at the picker trying to hit it. I have never thought of a fundamental when I tried to hit a low punch draw with a 7-iron in order to rattle the protective cage around the person driving the picker. I just tried to hit the shot and the picker. We did it for fun not realizing we were developing skills which translated to the golf course. This is an example of random practice.
Another example of random practice is to select three different clubs and three separate targets. Pick one target on the left, one in the middle and one on the right. Hit one ball with one club to a target. Hit the next ball with a different club to the second target. The third ball with the third club to the third target. Take 30 seconds to one minute between each shot. Go through your pre-shot routine with each shot just as you would on the golf course. This helps focus your mind on the task of hitting the ball at the target.
One of my favorite forms of random practice is to try and curve balls around a yardage marker or flag on the range. I’ll start by hitting a ball to the right of the marker or flag and getting it to curve to the left of the marker or flag. Once I do it five times, I’ll try to start the ball farther right of the marker or flag and hook it to the left of the marker or flag. Or I may switch to fading the ball around the marker or flag. To start, if you fade the ball, hit fades around the marker or flag. If you draw the ball, hit draws around the marker or flag. With each shot, go through your pre-shot routine.
What you’re doing is training your mind to switch focus from technique (swing) to result(playing).
The other benefit of random practice vs. block practice is it’s fun. For instance, if you played basketball you’ve probably played a game called HORSE. It’s a game where a player calls out a shot. If the player makes the shot, the other player(s) have to make the shot. If the other player(s) miss, they get a letter. First one to spell HORSE loses. Sometimes called shots are easy or normal shots, but sometimes they are plain crazy and fun. Just like trying to hit low 7-irons at the cart picker. Fun.
Why? Because learning and working on technique can be dull and boring. Trying and getting the ball to do what you want is fun.
Start spending more time with random practice. It helps take learned techniques and apply them to skill development. Have fun with it. Try to hit the range picker, and you might just find yourself playing like a kid!
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As always, smile when you’re playing because it’s a privilege and joy to get to play the great game of golf. Appreciate every time you stick a tee in the ground or pick a ball out of the cup. Now, go golf!