A few months ago my friend Mike McFadden, a well-know PGA professional from Germany, suggested I read "Motor Learning and Control ...," by Richard A Magill.  This is a VERY deep and comprehensive book that includes discussions on how we learn skills and how we can effectively practice to learn skills.  No way I am suggesting you put this on your reading list!  And I took about 2 months to read it, in small bites.

That said, though, there are some great nuggets of information in it that are worth sharing with you....

• If you are working to learn a new golfing skill - like for example improving your pitching and chipping - and reach a plateau in your improvement - see this as a good thing.  Plateaus of learning often are a normal part of learning a skill. 

• There is much research to support the idea that banging golf balls on the range is not the optimum way to improve.  Find ways to make your practice sessions variable - hit to different targets, hit different types of pitches and chips, do not hit the same putt over and over again. 

• Research also shows that another value of variable practice is that it is often associated with an increase in the amount of performance error during practice. That might be hard to swallow - but it reminded me of something John Wooden, the world's greatest basketball coach, said - "The team that makes the most mistakes wins."  Hum.

• Finally, research shows that short practice sessions are more effective than long ones.  So practice in short bursts, take a break, practice some more if you want to.  But this is better than a long practice session.

Recently I discovered a great Amazon Kindle book on Putting Improvement by George Connor, a PGA professional in Connecticut.  The principles that I noted above are in fact discussed in this book, and he also presents a number of good practice drills that you can use to help you improve your putting.  The Kindle book title is "Drill Your Way To Great Putting."  I highly recommend it. 

 

And here is a link to a short video where George Connor discusses some good block and variable-practice puttings drill you can use to help you improve your putting:

 

   George Connor - Some Block and Variable-Practice Putting Drills 

 

The days of hitting and raking golf balls to improve your game are gone - you deserve better.