grizbear
New member
I try and work out swing issues on the driving range and hit a small bucket to warm/loosen up before the round
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IME, that feeling may not be forever.
For years, I could not really find focus on the range and felt the same as you. A couple of years ago I found myself hitting 2000 balls a week at the range for the entire summer. Couldn't do it every week but most. I found that I had finally found focus there working on quality of strike and distances, working the ball, visualizing a certain shot and trajectory and making it happen. All of a sudden I found it a lot of fun to go to the range and do those things.
Don't get me wrong, I'd rather be on a course than a range and, if I don't have a lot of days to golf I'll do the course over the range. But if I could do something every day of the week, I'd probably split days on the range and on the course.
The range is much more efficient if I'm trying to make swing changes. I can get more done on the range in 2 hours than I could playing 10 rounds of golf. The problem with most golfers is they are still playing golf swing and not golf during their round. They never get to the point where they are uncosciously competent, as Jim Flick explains below:
Confidence comes from controlling the ball, but how do you go from hitting solid and accurate shots on the range to producing those same shots on the course? It's helpful to understand the four stages of becoming a confident player:
First, you are unconsciously incompetent. You have no idea what to do in your swing or how to get there. This is the stage in which you learn the basics of the swing.
Second, you are consciously incompetent. You know what you want to do with your swing, but you can't do it. You use drills prescribed by your teacher. It's helpful to place rods or clubs on the ground to set up a "learning station" to check your alignment.
Third, you are consciously competent. On the range, you hit balls to perfect your swing, but you have to think mechanically to make the shot happen. Because you're using verbal cues and thinking of positions, you often lose your tempo and rhythm.
Fourth, you are unconsciously competent. The best golfers compete in this stage. On the course they think about the conditions, select the right club, and play shots from point A to point B by focusing on the target. They no longer think about positions but feel how to use the club to create shots.
So how do you get from the first stage to the fourth? As Jack Nicklaus once told me, "I practice mechanics and play by feel."