OCTOBER 2011 – COACHES CORNER
THOMAS HENDERSON – ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR
Practice Makes Permanent
If you want to get better at this game there is only one way -Practice!!!
Going to the driving range and hitting ball after ball with your driver with
no target and no goals for the practice session might as well be
regarded as exercise and not practice.
If you want to get better you need
to do regular, effective practice
Effective practice is any practice session where before you
begin you have clearly defined what you will do in that session and how
you will do it.
This way you will have a measure to know if you have achieved your goal.
Once you start doing this type of practice regularly will you start to see real
improvement in your game.
So how do you devise such a practice session?
OCTOBER 2011 – COACHES CORNER
THOMAS HENDERSON – ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR
The first step will be to assess your current full swing game
and decide what aspect of it, if improved will give you
the greatest gains in performance
Taking a golf lesson with an Academy Instructor here at The
Montgomerie is the quickest, easiest and most
accurate assessment of your swing you can get, This
will be time and money well spent. Your swing be will
broken down and explained where and why you are
getting into trouble, before showing you practice drills
to help you improve your areas of weakness
The Academy Instructor will also show you how to assess
your ball flight so you know if you are doing the
prescribed drills correctly and thus improving
Armed with these practice drills you can now design your
effective practice session by following the guidelines
below
OCTOBER 2011 – COACHES CORNER
THOMAS HENDERSON – ACADEMY INSTRUCTOR
•
Set up an effective practice station on a quiet section of the range, with clubs on the
ground for alignment and ball position.
•
There should be at least two practice swings for every ball hit.
•
Give every shot and practice swing your fullest attention, quality is definatley more
important than quantity.
•
Examine your ball flight after every shot and ask yourself if during the swing you
achieved the swing change you are trying to make.
•
Based on the last swing and ball flight decide your focus for the next set of practice
swing and shot.
•
Be sure to stay focused on the goals and drills for that particular practice session. Do
Not allow yourself to drift into reactionary practice where all you are doing is making
corrections based on the previous shot.
Golf is a target game, so spend the majority of your time practicing to a target.
Thomas’ Favorite Hole at The Address Montgomerie Dubai and Why?
My Favorite Hole on the course has to be Hole # 6.
Hitting in to a narrow green from 220 Yards with swirling winds and water waiting long,
short and right nothing but perfection will do. This hole really does make or break your
score.