Learn how to perfect the 3 different kind of practice sessions

GOLF Top 100 teacher Matt Killen has worked with some of the very best players in golf, including Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods. And he knows that when pros come to their practice, they’re meticulous. They leave nothing to chance. Most recreational golfers couldn’t be less meticulous when it comes to their practice. They hit a few golf balls with no rhyme or reason, then head onto the course and wonder why they struggle.

Killen, alongside golf and travel correspondent Alexandra O’Laughlin, are here to change that. The first step is understanding the different kinds of practices, because as Killen explains, there are three of them:

using the training aid
This is one of the hottest training aids on Tour — its coach-inventor explains the best way to use it
By: Luke Kerr-Dineen

Many amateurs confuse practicing and warming up. A warmup is getting you ready to play…not learning to play. Warming up is exactly that: getting warm and ready to play your round.

Performance practice is your chance to get into game mode. Hit each ball with your full routine, like you would in a tournament, focused on trying to accomplish a goal.

Mechanical practice is the opposite. You’re not caring about the result, you’re working on your swing; doing the same thing over and over to make a change.

In the video above, the pair explain how to use each of them. And to help you along their way, check out these series of Perfect Practice products — a set of training aids design

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.