THREE RULES OF BETTER PRACTICE
Don’t just hit the range and smash a basket of balls into oblivion... Use your time productively, like this...
Set sessions to 45 minutes max
It’s easy to think that the longer you practise the more progress you’ll make, but this isn’t always the case. Research suggests 45 minutes is the maximum a human can fully concentrate on a task and gain maximum benefit from it. Any longer than this in a continuous session and your concentration and physical abilities will begin to decrease. Plan exactly what you want to do and achieve in each practice session... and ensure it doesn’t last longer than 40 minutes, 45 max.
Set the appropriate difficulty
It’s tempting to practise shots you’re already good at, but to improve, you have to push yourself. If the tasks you set are too easy you’ll get bored and won’t improve your technique or develop any new skills. But if it’s too hard, you won’t be able to achieve the targets you set yourself and you’ll then become frustrated. The quality of your practice depends on finding the appropriate difficulty level in your tasks. You should be working slightly above what you believe you’re capable of.
Monitor and record your results
It’s essential you set specific tasks and record your results each time you practise. This creates useful pressure and helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses and monitors your progress. Pay attention to each shot you hit, analyse how and why you got the result you did and use this to hone your skills as you practise – rather than relentlessly hitting one shot after another. Write down any thoughts or discoveries you have and any questions that arise for further research, or to ask your coach.
#7 KEEP A PERFORMANCE DIARY
In fact keep two. Call the first your Recipe for Success and the second your Recipe for Distress.
Very few golfers spend any time reflecting on what went wrong – or right – on any given day. If you can establish the things you did when you played well or poorly by writing them down, you can begin to see patterns in your performance processes and behaviours. From there you can understand what works for you and what does not.
There are quicker and more indepth ways you can do this...
Ball control and self-control. In this speedier process, examine your performance under each heading. What went well today? What went badly? Write your thoughts down in the appropriate diary. It needn’t take more than five minutes.
Assess your day against my six performance keys: physical, technical, tactical, mental, emotional and spiritual (desire, enjoyment, motivation). Clearly this is a longer process, but potentially more rewarding as you will form a fuller and more accurate picture of the processes that are helping… and the ones that are not. Oliver Morton
#8 WORK HARDER ON YOUR PRE-ROUND STATE
What are you typically doing before leaving for the course? If you’re rushing around, making phone calls and putting yourself under pressure to get things done, you’ll release cortisol – the stress hormone – into your bloodstream; and it will still be there as you tee off. If you can instead keep your pre-round activity steady, calm and under control, you’ll feel much more relaxed when you get to the course.
The mainstay of this is to give yourself plenty of time to get everything done, and that includes your drive to the course. But one other good way to do this is to consider what music you play in the car on the way. Music is a moodsetter, even a rhythm setter. Your pre-round playlist can put you in your most effective state for play, or can take you out of it. Ask yourself what mood gives you your best golf; are you better when fast and purposeful, or slow and methodical? Pick the music that fits that mood and rhythm.
#9 IMPROVE YOUR BODY LANGUAGE
Science has proved that body language can and does affect performance. Social psychologist and Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy demonstrated how posture can influence the chemicals our brain releases into our system. Slouching releases more cortisol, a stress hormone; a more expansive posture, with upright spine with the eyes looking upwards, promotes higher levels of testosterone, a hormone that encourages a feeling of confidence and power. Both influence how committed we will be to the swing we make. On top of this, looking downward prompts us to internalise and reflect, pulling us away from the task at hand. Slouching, of course, can also creep into your posture.
To create good body language, good themes are ‘neutral’ or ‘balanced’. Become literally levelheaded, looking neither up nor down. Don’t round your shoulders, or puff out your chest. If you can act as if someone watching you wouldn’t know if you were having a shocker or the round of your life, you can use your body language to promote a state of steadfastness and calmness… helping you make your best effort on every shot. Karl Morris
#10 KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
The club golfer typically has a limited understanding of what is actually going on in their swing, so range drills, internet surfing and swing thoughts are often little more than guesses, designed to improve whatever issues we think we have. A session on a launch monitor – many club pros now offer them, or visit a Top Tracer range – gives you objective data that puts an end to this often fruitless and frustrating guesswork. This valuable feedback mechanism can inform everything from how to apportion practice time to understanding which Youtube tips are actually relevant to you.
A launch monitor session is also great for providing a baseline for the parameters that are key to your specific performance issue. As you work on your game, you can book new sessions and track the data to chart your progress. This will help you understand if the short-term action you are taking is actually working, and if you are moving in the right or wrong direction longterm. Oliver Morton
‘SCIENCE HAS PROVED THAT BODY LANGUAGE CAN AND DOES AFFECT PERFORMANCE’