Have you ever practiced a new movement or skill on the range only to have it disappear the moment you walked to the first tee? Most golfers have just that experience when they attempt to master a new skill. Your coach gives you a drill which you diligently perform on the practice tee. Once out on the course, however, it just doesn't show up. Why?

 

To transfer it to the course, practice like you play. Dr. Rick Jensen says, "If you want the skill you're attemptng to learn to show up on the course, you have to expose it to a range of on-course situations..." That means, among other things, practicing from a variety of lies, on hills and to various targets.

 

Remember Truth 3, The Four Steps to Mastery? You must walk each new skill up the four steps, if you expect the skill to show up under all the conditions that golf throws your way. One of those steps is tranfer training, thus the need to practice under conditions that simulate the golf course and the pressure of competition.

Just yesterday Dom was coaching a student who had worked over the winter to improve the kinematic sequence in his swing. The project was coming along well and the student was able,with a nine iron, to hit some of the best golf shots of his life - on the practice tee. Even as Dom handed him a seven iron, then a five wood, and finally a driver, the result was great.

 

Time for the next step. Dom dragged out the simulated hill mats, and had the student aim at different targets on the range, forcing him to go through the entire process of setting and executing strategy for each shot. Dom says, "This was a perfect example of how and why we transfer train. Once we introduced more course-like conditions, he had to work to maintain the new movements, while also going through his process of selecting and hitting real golf shots. His percentage of good shots decreased and we agreed that this would be the next step in his development. He needs to continue to transfer train until his percentage of misses decreases."

 

You've been successful on the range and you expect it to show up on the course. When it doesn't, the assumption is that the cause is mental - you choked. If you haven't transfer trained, you didn't choke; you just didn't yet practice in a way that allows you to take it to the course. You're not yet good enough to choke!

 

That's why, even during a lesson, we vary the conditions under which you hit shots. We suggest ways you can add course-like conditions to your practice by varying lies, targets and distances. We provide drills and practice games that encourage you to keep "score" to simulate the pressure of competition. In our short game and putting schools, we cover how to practice. And we encourage playing lessons, so your coach can observe your process and routine on the golf course and work with you to optimize it.

 

If you want to Master the Game, give us a call. We'll help you develop the ability to practice like you play. Lower scores are sure to follow.