Do you have a plan for your practice sessions?
To make sure you get maximum benefit from minimum time in your practice sessions... It is important you map them out ahead of time.
With no plan, range sessions can often slip into a unfocused "swingathons" as opposed to a focused learning session.
There are a number of different practice plans I use with clients... depending on the goal we are trying to achieve for the session.
One of my favorites is the 4 Quarters practice plan.
Quarter #1
Warm Up
Get your muscles loose get your swing in rhythm and tune your timing while moving up and down the bag. This should be similar to what you do at the start of a warm-up for a tournament or important round. Hit as many shots as you need to feel fully warmed up and ready to test yourself.
Quarter #2
Improvement
This part of the session is for changing old bad patterns into new good patterns. It can vary all the way from swing movements to putting distance control. The goal is to focus on a specific change and make sure you're doing the right kind of repetitions to make it happen.
Quarter #3
Play Simulation
This is one of the most overlooked and most important parts of range practice sessions. When you use your visualization skills you can play entire rounds of golf at the range visualizing holes that you know and golf courses that you know. Make this as realistic as possible. One shot with one club to one target. Then another shot with another club to another target. No mulligans!! If you want to play well it's important that you practice playing well.
Quarter #4
Confidence
It's always good to end a practice session on a positive note. In most practice sessions if you have challenged yourself enough, there will be some things that you struggled with. Use this part of the range session to help rebuild your confidence with the challenges that you struggle with. In this part of the session it's very important you're achieving a high degree of success for each swing. The goal is to build long-term trust that you can overcome challenges. This is what will help you be more confident on the course when it matters most.
You can adapt this 4 Quarter system to different time lengths depending on how much time you have and how much you're trying to get accomplished.
As always feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions!
