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Practice Playing. Don’t Play Practicing - June 2025
Practice Smart
Often, when I am working with my clients I hear, “When I am at the range my swing is smooth and I hit my targets, but when I get onto the course everything seems to change. I want to be able to reproduce what I am doing on the range when I actually play a round.
If you identify with this issue, it will help to discern the difference between a practice mindset and a play mindset. The practice mindset is analytical. It’s about hip rotation, and elbow angles, and swing planes. The play mindset is about only feeling your swing and hitting your target.
The practice mindset is an important one to have while a player is working on specific skills, lies, or areas of mechanical flaw. The practice mindset is the self-coach that corrects and compliments. The practice mindset is aware of the technical aspects of the golf swing before, during, and after the swing. However, the practice mindset has no place in competition on the golf course.
The play mindset is one filled with the feeling of the swing, allowing the player to hit the determined shot. The play mindset knows nothing of elbows, and hips, and planes. When the golfer is in the play mindset, thoughts of all the “stuff” he has been working on should cease. This is the mindset that allows the golfer to trust their practice... and play. In the play mindset, there is no last shot, no next shot, or even the consequence of this shot. Instead, only the feel if the current swing and the shot at hand. Consider the analogy of a billiards player. He must be aware of the shot at hand, including the angle, where he will leave cue ball after the shot, and for the really good player, the next three or four shots. However, when he takes this shot, all thoughts of table management had better be out of his mind or he is in serious trouble. He needs to just focus at the point on the cue ball he’s intending to hit and feel the smooth stroke of the cue.
Now, back to the frustrated golfer. To improve his ability to transfer his range success to the golf course, he should spend more time at the range in the play mindset - intentionally removing all analysis and mechanical thought and just feeling the swing and playing golf.
Michael Riggs, ONE Way® Golf CEO & Founder, can be reached at www.WeDevelopYou.com/Riggs by email at Michael@WeDevelopYou.com or by phone at 970.674.2818.