What’s the Purpose of Your Practice?

Give Your Practice Purpose

Not every practice session is the same.  There’s a world of difference between an hour in a golf dome in the middle of winter and thirty minutes on the practice green the day before your club championship.  However, every practice session needs a purpose.  In this lesson, we’ll discuss different modes of practice and when to use them.

This Lesson Is For You If:

You don’t have a purpose when you practice

You want to get better, more defined results

Three Purposes of Practice

I’ve identified three different purposes for practice.  If you have other categories, feel free to post them in the comments section below, but these three provide a good framework for defining your purpose.

General Improvement

This is the kind of practice session where you’re working on your long term goals.  In my opinion, this should be your purpose the vast majority of the time.

As an example, you may have the goal of improving your contact with your driver.  If you spend part or all of a practice session working toward that goal, it would fall into this category.  You may work on two or three goals within one session, particularly if you spend some time on the range and some time on the putting green.

Do not understand General Improvement as “Just go to the range and hit some shots.”  If you want to see improvement, you need clearly defined goals and a plan for achieving them.  You can find dozens of lessons on practice planning HERE.

Emergency Interventions

When your confidence is shattered because of six three-putts or seven drives that sliced off the planet, you may need an Emergency Intervention practice session.  Every golfer knows what this looks like: you go to the range with only the offending club, and you work until you’ve fixed the problem.

This is different than General Improvement because it has nothing to do with your long term goals.  The purpose here is to get the gremlins out of your putter/driver/lob wedge so you can play golf again.

It should go without saying that Emergency Interventions should represent a very small minority of your overall practice time.  If you’re constantly in emergency mode, you need to step back and reevaluate your approach to your game.

Building Confidence

Building Confidence sessions are exactly what they sound like: time at the range to boost your self esteem.  There are a number of occasions where this type of practice is preferred.

If you have a round coming up, but you haven’t played or practiced in a while, knock the rust off.  Hit a bunch of shots, find some rhythm, and leave feeling good about your game.

You may also use this type of practice to taper down before a big event.  If your club championship is on Sunday, you don’t want to spend Friday and Saturday grinding on drills and making changes.  See some putts go in the hole, hit some drives, and get some rest.

The problem many golfers have is that they are perpetually in this mode.  If you don’t have the goal of improving your game, that’s totally fine.  However, if you want to see your handicap go down, this cannot be your practice purpose most days.

The Takeaway

Every practice session needs a purpose.  If you want to see real improvement in your game, spend the majority of your practice sessions in General Improvement mode, and reserve Emergency Interventions for true emergencies.

• Author
• Recent Posts

Matt Saternus

Editor In Chief at Plugged In Golf

Matt has worked in nearly every job in the golf industry from club fitting to instruction to writing and speaking.

He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.

Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.

Latest posts by Matt Saternus (see all)

• Secrets of a Master Club Builder - October 10, 2024
• Mustard Golf App Review - October 9, 2024
• Podcast Episode 228 – In Depth with Titleist on the New GT Line - October 9, 2024