One of the nice, unexpected benefit of my new job as a teaching professional is that I actually practice quite a bit. Many of you might be saying, “You’re a golf pro, of course all you do is play golf!”, but my fellow golf pros know that this is not the case. In many instances, those who work in the golf business play and practice less than others due to their jobs. It’s simply the nature of the beast, and I was no different in my job as a head professional; I rarely played and practiced just as little.
But now I have gone from famine to feast – in a big way. I practice every day now, in part because I am still building up my lesson clientele, and also because you have a bit of time between lessons and what better way to kill some time than to hit golf balls? But along with this new found freedom to practice has also come a renewed commitment on my part to make my game better. Essentially I am doing what I wish so many students would do: practicing slowly, with a purpose and a goal in mind. I don’t get impatient or try to fix my swing in one day, but I am committing myself to work on small elements each time, using a mirror A LOT, and also supplementing that with some video review. So far, the results have been good on the range (haven’t had time to go out to the course yet) as my ball striking is beginning to improve.
One thing I have learned from this time on the range is that patience is key, and you must be patient with a swing change. Habits are hard to break, and only focused practice make you better. This is a hard concept for people to grasp sometimes in our fast-paced society, where we want results NOW! But in golf, slow definitely wins the race, so take your time, practice QUALITY over QUANTITY and you will see results over time. Enjoy the practice time and treat it like a game of its own – it’s GOT to be better than being at work, so have fun with it!
