making the most of your golf time

In life and in golf, our most valuable resource is time. When we’re young, we mistake the fact that fewer obligations means we have ample time to pursue our goals but as we get older, it becomes quite clear that success often depends on our ability to manage our time and use it productively. In a long-term specialization sport like golf, where success takes years of hard work, even younger players need to be careful to use their time wisely.

For serious golfers, dividing golf time into three distinct areas: training, practicing, and competing, can accelerate progress and reduce frustration.

Training

Any activity that requires conscious thought is considered training. Almost all skilled activities require training. Think about the amount of training the military, police, pilots, etc. must undergo to become skilled professionals. Often training can be uncomfortable or fraught with failure. During training, it’s important to put aside expectations and judgement – results are unimportant. Here are some examples of training:

• Spending time with a coach in a lesson
• Working on a new movement pattern (e.g. slow-motion swings, etc.)
• Hitting balls and thinking about technique

Practicing

Practice is the bridge between training and competing. It can best be described as the time in which you evaluate and test your results to determine if you need more training or are ready for competition. Although we might be aware of our training goals, practicing gives the opportunity to begin to shift thoughts from the conscious to the subconscious state-of-mind. Here are some examples of practicing:

• Hitting 10 balls to a target on the range and recording how many of the 10 shots were within an acceptable distance from the target
• Completing a challenge on the putting green such as making five putts in a row from six feet

Competing

Players are competing whenever they’re on the course and keeping track of score. When competing, results are all that matter. This means that successful golfers must understand the changes in both approach and thought process that need to take place when they leave training and practicing and move to the course. Tour players play their best golf when they quiet their mind over the ball and eliminate technical thoughts. That’s typically something less experienced golfers have difficulty doing. Here are some keys to competing:

• Avoid technical or other thoughts that keep the mind active and in an information-processing mode
• Emphasize visualization and feel before the shot and then make the target the only focus over the ball

Conclusion

​More serious golfers hoping to reach their potential and avoid long periods of frustration, must be disciplined enough to manage and track their time according to their development phase and playing schedule. Using the approach described above and adjusting the percentage of time devoted to each area -- training, practicing, and competing – will provide a serious golfer with a way to get the most from his or her golf time. It also pays to seek the advice of a trusted coach when designing these kinds of improvement plans.