Simple, Boring Advice To Lower Your Handicap

Happy Monday,

We hope you’ve had a great weekend of golf…

This week

Simple, Boring Advice: We share what the data says about lowering your handicap.

Weekly Skills Game: Don't miss our regular skills challenge to keep your practice sessions fun and effective.

Tip of the Week: A quick, actionable advice to apply immediately to your game.

Quick Video: How to make your chipping practice more realistic.

Enjoy.

Simple, Boring Advice

I’ve been digging deep into the data we’ve collected this year, via our surveys and from our Break X Golf users to better understand what is most important when aiming to lower your handicap.

I would love to have some fancy new shiny object to show you, but in reality, getting better is all about doing the basics incredibly well. Here is what the data suggests:

1. Keep playing stats

Most golfers think they know why they play poorly but are often wrong. Keeping playing stats is the only surefire way to know how you played and where to focus your attention.

Yes, it’s boring and takes 5-10 minutes a week, but it’s the biggest bang for your buck if you want to shoot lower scores.

Break X Golf is a great product for turning your playing stats into a practice plan, but keeping playing stats (ideally strokes gained data) is hard work. I’m working on a free and paid solution for keeping great playing stats as we speak. I’ll share the new tools as soon as they are ready.

2. Work on things that you know will make you better

Ryan Fricker was on our podcast a couple of weeks ago and shared a great insight into how he thinks about improving his golf game.

“In practice, I first work on the things I know will help me shoot lower scores – can I chip the ball a little closer, can I hit one more green a round, can I keep the ball closer to the fairway? Before considering the things that might make me better, like working on my backswing, or trying to find a new coach or new driver…that’s what I’ve found works best for me.”

This really resonated with me, as I reflect on how many golfers try to look like they are working hard on their golf game, but miss the foundational aspect of scoring in golf – It’s not about how, it’s about how many.

Find a way to get the ball closer to the hole with the technique you have. Yes, working on your technique is important for the longer term, but most golfers I have lots of unused potential with their current technique.

3. Quality over quantity

This comes from the data I’ve been looking at from our Break X Golf users. We’ve had some golfer make some amazing handicap jumps in the past 12 months and I wanted to look at what their practice data revealed…

It's not about how long you practice, but how effectively you use that time and how consistently they turn up. Golfers made great progress with just 1-2 hours of practice a week as long as:

• Practice activities closely matched weaknesses in their playing stats

• Practice had a clear goal and feedback

• Practice was done regularly so they could see progress

This is very similar to going to the gym. Doing the same exercises week after week, with intensity and gradual progression creates adaptation. Skilled-based sports like golf are not that different.

Focus on deliberate practice – pay attention to where your shots finish, think how you can improve with each rep and show up each week.

I realise this isn’t the most exciting piece to read, but it’s the unsexy truth. If you want to get better at golf over the coming 12 months, you don’t need much time, as long as you focus on the points above and show up each week.

Check out this week’s short video for a great place to get started.

Happy golfing – Will @ Golf Insider

Break X Golf Skills Game

In science, the following type of practice is called ‘differential learning’. It has proven to be really effective in helping people learn a new skill.

The reason is because your brain needs to understand how actions affect the outcome. Try this out in your next range session if you are trying to make a change in your swing this autumn.

If you want more games like this one check out Break X Golf

Break X Golf is a sister project to Golf Insider and was co-founded by Will Shaw.

You can check it out here.

Realistic Chipping Practice

golfinsideruk

View more on Instagram

Happy golfing – The Golf Insider Team

P.S. If you’ve enjoyed this week, please share this with a friend using the link below.