Don’t Guess, Assess (Part 3)

So… assessment is the topic. To briefly recap, we’ve touched on the importance of testing and how it can influence the swing and the performance of our bodies.  I explained that testing comes in many forms and some of these you implemented right away, such as recording and capturing your statistics.

Let’s jump straight into it then, and chat a little more about what kind of testing we can do to improve our game, and by game, I mean the ability to score better.  In a previous article, I discussed how imperative the concept of ‘ play ‘ was and how inherently this is built into every sport we do, and how not only does it improve our motor abilities but teaches us how to compete, focus under pressure and persevere. This is naturally why all good sportsmen and women are “sportsmen”. They have the ability to perform a task when it matters. The good news is, we, as muggles, can practice this, and it’s actually quite fun.

Let us set the scene, shall we? It’s a casual Thursday evening at your local driving range. You’ve just clocked off from work and rushed to the facility to grab a beer, unwind and finish a bucket or two. Of golf balls that is. The sun is setting and, you just have to get some practice in before Saturday’s game with the buddies. You’re a little pushed for time, obviously, it’s getting dark, but the family is waiting at home with dinner almost ready.

You start off with a few PWs to warm up and then begin to work through your bag. Now, you’ve learned in the past that practice doesn’t have to be a scene from a sci-fi film (blasters at the ready) and you’ve decided to do “the drill” you’re working on and pick up a 7 iron. All is going well., the contact is improving, and dispersion is getting a little tighter. The feeling that your coach or YouTuber explained is starting to come on and you’re in the zone, 1 focused shot at a time. Suddenly, you notice the sky getting a little darker, you take a glance at your watch, and that last bucket gets obliterated, smashed into the twilight at a rate of knots, that only a sailor would be proud of. You leave the site sweating and panting, whilst you down your beer and leave in frustration because all the feels fell away and it turned into a hacking session. You think to yourself, “Man!, the session started out so well!?” The truth of the matter is, you were right on track to having a great session, but, where did it go wrong? At what point did you lose the plot? It might have something to do with the time you had, or perhaps you focused too much on the 7 iron. Well, let’s dissect.

Firstly, the beginning of the session was good, you warmed up, began going through your drills, and were sticking to a plan. This is what we call BLOCK practice. Working on a technique-orientated drill to fix a swing fault that you have either self-diagnosed or received from your coach. Thumbs up. The second you felt constricted by time, is exactly where you should have either stopped or had 10 to 15 mins of OPEN practice. Open practice is based more on achieving a goal or objective rather than a technique. It almost always involves a target and teaches us to perform under stress and play the game in front of us. If you’d like to know a little more about these two, have a look at one of my previous articles (LINK to Training vs Practice).

Secondly, in my opinion, when pushed for time, due to life, work, and everything in between. Warm up and always practice openly. It’s a far better use of your time and it will take your mind off of all the nitty gritty rubbish that comes from thinking about a “perfect swing”. It leaves you feeling like you accomplished something during your session.

But how? Well, it’s really quite easy, choose a portion of your game and create a “game”.  Set an objective for yourself and try and complete it. Let me show you how.

Let’s say I want to work on my irons:

Let’s say I want to work on my chipping:

It’s not necessarily about the game you create, it’s more about the fact that you’re putting yourself under pressure to complete a task. You’re testing yourself; you’re testing your skill level. Every game that we play, as I’ve said before, is a test. Nowadays there are so many tools that can assist you with this.

We use apps like UpGame or SpderGolf not just to track our player’s stats but to create game-based training programs to better understand which areas our students need to improve on for them to score better. Service providers like Trackman range, InRange, and Foresight total range are amazing for doing this as well. Testing yourself with actual real-world scenarios that are fun, and challenging and that help you get better at playing the game that is golf, is actually, a thing.

If you’ve never heard it before, you’ve heard it here first..” It’s not about how far or how straight, it’s about how many”. When we practice our game under a “test” environment, we tend to learn more quickly. We figure out a way, a solution to complete the objective in front of us. This is what we do on the golf course. Well, it’s what we should do. Our team recently had a chat with DP World player Romain Langasque. He mentions that even on tour, the Pros challenge and play games against each other on the range. They actually have to force themselves to do their drills, because they love playing the game so much.

Additionally, in recent months I’ve begun testing my students more and more under so-called examination conditions. I’ve found that it works really well in the short game. This is where we see many averages arise, such as putts made from 3, 6, and 9ft or UP & DOWN percentages from around. It’s been powerful in identifying which putts or shots a player struggles with and in turn, I can then look at their technique to find out WHY. Focusing on your technique is great, but at the end of the day, there is really no comments column on the scorecard. Test yourself more often, work on the small things when it comes to technique, and find a way to get it done. You’ll have way more fun practising and end up playing better golf in the end.