Most golfers do it, but does practicing at home actually help? Who better to answer that question than a group of our we asked our GOLF Top 100 Teachers for help…
Yes, as long as you have feedback
Practicing without feedback is possibly more dangerous than no practice at all.
Giving your practice some structured feedback doesn’t need to be difficult. Here’s an example: If you have a hitting net, attach a length of string vertically to serve as your target line. If you are trying to hit a draw, start the ball to the right of the string and vice versa. If you have a launch monitor, that’s even better!
In the absence of ball feedback, you will have to resort to working on your swing with video replay. But if you do, please use a tripod! Place the camera nearly on the ground, straight down the target line, and as far back away from the ball as you have room to do. 15 feet is great, but 10 will do. Camera angle is terribly important!
If you want to look at your movement, like top of backswing, then you can, for the down the target line view, center yourself in the screen and have the camera at chest high and aligned with your stance. We have long tried to infer swing plane of the club shaft from video. You will hear some noise about placing the camera at hand height, etc. But, folks, you can’t analyze swing plane from a single camera! We are looking for positions your motion moves through. For the face on view make the camera parallel to your stance. If your camera is setup just a little off, you will get some very wrong information.
If you have significant movement corrections to make, this is the best opportunity for you to make them. We can’t play, so it’s time to learn!
Brady Riggs, Woodley Lakes G.C.
Like so many things in golf it’s not the if you are practicing, it’s the how.
Regardless of whether you are at the finest facility in the world or in your own living room what and how you practice is far more important than where you practice.
The biggest key is to define what area of your game you what to focus on and in what way. For example, if you are struggling with your putting try to isolate why it’s a problem. If you are having trouble with distance control set up a few targets (coasters, water bottles, etc) at different distances on your carpet at 15’, 20’, 25’. Work on hitting putts just short, even with and just beyond the target. Assign point values to make it more interesting. If short putts are the issue use a coaster as a mock hole and putt to it from 3’, 6’ and 9’ feet to ingrain better mechanics and confidence.
This type of organized practice won’t just help you at home, it should be your new methodology when we are able to return to the game full throttle. Remember, have a plan, be specific and get to work!
