How to Bring Your Pre-Shot Preparation Together
Once you decide which elements you are going to include in a pre-shot preparation, you will need to bring them all together into a routine that can be used over and over again, prior to every swing you make on the course. The order with which you move through your routine is up to you, but it should be the same each time. Also, you may want to strongly consider using a last look up at the target as your final move prior to walking up to the ball. This is a target-based game, after all, so reminding yourself of the target for your swing is a great mental image to take with you into the stance.
With all of your decisions made, you can probably guess what is going to come next in this process – practice! Just like you practice your swing technique, you need to practice going through your pre-shot routine as well. This is easy enough, as long as you have the patience to stick with it during your practice sessions. Instead of firing off practice balls as quickly as possible on the range, take your time and go through your pre-shot routine prior to every swing. Sure, you won’t wind up hitting as many balls in the end, but those you do hit will be far more meaningful. By using your routine in practice, it is quickly going to become a natural part of your golf process. Hopefully, after a period of time spent practicing, your routine will just naturally occur out on the course.
You need to pay attention to the time you are taking on each shot when using your routine. If, during practice, you determine that your routine is too long, think about ways in which you can make it shorter without losing any of the essential components. It’s never a good thing to drag down the pace of play for those around you, and you don’t want to force your playing partners to watch you perform some long, drawn out routine time after time, all day long. Basically, only include elements which you deem to be necessary, and cut out everything else. In the end, you should be able to develop a process which gets the job done without slowing everything down unnecessarily.
One of the main reasons that you need to keep your pre-shot routine concise is the fact that you don’t want to feel like you have to rush through it each time. You actually want to be able to take your time and relax for just a moment, so you shouldn’t be trying to pack too much activity into this space. You should feel prepared and focused by the time the routine has concluded – and you won’t feel that way if you are racing through it from start to finish.
Success with a pre-shot routine is just like everything else in golf – it comes down to practice. If you work on this part of your game on the driving range, it should quickly become an asset out on the links. If you fail to work on it in practice, and instead just expect it to work when you walk to the first tee, you are in for a disappointment. Only those who put in the work during practice will see positive results on the course, and that holds true even when talking about pre-shot routines.
