Practice swing vs actual swing

[Neilds]

Paudrig Harrington reckons you should have four Practice swings.

Your muscles should be warmed up on the fourth one so you can hit a good shot.
So horses for courses do what suits you.

Or enough to clear the long grass around the ball

 

[Imurg]

Paudrig Harrington reckons you should have four Practice swings.

Your muscles should be warmed up on the fourth one so you can hit a good shot.
So horses for courses do what suits you.

Can you imagine how long rounds would take if everyone did this.......

 

[timd77]

Imho practice swing looks good because you finish your swing with nice tempo and a full through swing.

Put a ball there and we want to knock the cover off it.
Tempo goes out the window.
Glancing blow and it could go anywhere with the wild slash at the ball.

Lots of us guilty of this!

I thought this was just me…

 

[timd77]

Interesting thread this. I had an awful round at the weekend, swing felt terrible, very few good strikes. Probably the worst I’ve played in years.

I was hitting a horrible shot and thinking ‘where the hell did that swing come from’… just didn’t feel right. So it got me thinking that I need to start taking a practice swing before every shot, if it doesn’t feel right, at least it’s out of the way. Currently I don’t, partly due to not wanting to slow down play. But I guess 5 extra seconds before a shot might save 3 minutes looking for a lost ball, taking an extra shot etc.

 

[Orikoru]

I think this is true for about 95% of golfers. Your practise swing is probably at 75% speed and you just focus on getting a nice smooth tempo. Then you put a ball in the way and everyone speeds up through the contact area because they're trying to smash it. The closest you get to matching your practise swing is probably on a short wedge shot or something like that, where you're not trying to absolutely pelt it.

It doesn't actually matter what your swing looks like though, if it sends the ball where you want it to go. A lot of people get hung up on it, you'd almost believe they'd rather shoot worse scores but get compliments on how nice their swing looks.

I was hitting a horrible shot and thinking ‘where the hell did that swing come from’… just didn’t feel right. So it got me thinking that I need to start taking a practice swing before every shot, if it doesn’t feel right, at least it’s out of the way. Currently I don’t, partly due to not wanting to slow down play. But I guess 5 extra seconds before a shot might save 3 minutes looking for a lost ball, taking an extra shot etc.

I have experimented with not having a practise swing earlier in the year. But it's such an ingrained part of my routine that without it, it felt like I was rushing into the shot and not knowing what I was doing. The practise swing - as Bobmac said earlier is more of a rehearsal. It's mentally going through the couple of things you need to do to make a good swing when you're hitting the ball. If I didn't have a practise swing, and came over the top with an out-to-in path and sliced it miles right I'd think "why did you do that?? You wouldn't have done that in your practise swing!"

 

[Backache]

I'm another who doesn't usually have practice swings, though if I've been waiting a while I might have a couple of loosening swings. These aren't designed to give me a feel for the shot or anything just to loosen up the muscles.

The only time I take practice swings is on chips or pitches from different lies where I want to feel how and where the club interacts with the ground.

 

[jim8flog]

One of my playing mates would have made a half decent golfer if he had hit the ball with his practice swing.

His actual swing was so horrible that it was hard to watch.

A bit Like Jekyll and Hyde between the two.

 

[jim8flog]

As some who very rarely takes a practice swing (why waste the energy effort on an already pained body) hard to advise.

The question comes -"what is it that you are practicing in a practice swing?"

 

[jim8flog]

Paudrig Harrington reckons you should have four Practice swings.

Your muscles should be warmed up on the fourth one so you can hit a good shot.
So horses for courses do what suits you.

If I did what he does and what Olazabal used to do I reckon I would be totally kerred after just a few holes.

 

[nickjdavis]

I don't have a practice swing...more of a practice "swish"....just to get a feel of the club releasing through the impact area.

I usually seem to end up behind a group where one or more of the players goes through a full swing rehearsal...PSR, address, full practice swing...and repeat...and then executes a swing that a lumberjack in a woodcutting contest would be proud of.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

The question comes -"what is it that you are practicing in a practice swing?"

Ideally, the rhythm of the shot. Get rid of any clunky bits of the swing. Get a repeatable motion going.

 

[Neilds]

As some who very rarely takes a practice swing (why waste the energy effort on an already pained body) hard to advise.

The question comes -"what is it that you are practicing in a practice swing?"

Maybe it is like playing the shot for real and then using your real swing as the provisional - which we all know goes long and straight

 

[Patster1969]

I don't have a practice swing...more of a practice "swish"....just to get a feel of the club releasing through the impact area.

I'm probably similar to this really & mostly so that my Shot Scope watch connects with the tag - if often misses the shot if I don't have a pre-swish

 

[HeftyHacker]

I only tend to use a practice swing for wedge shots that aren't 100%, just so I can get a feel for how big a swing I'm aiming for, and unusual lies (uneven, thick rough), and chips/pitches.

Anything else I tend to have a look down the line to pick an aim point then address the ball and pull the trigger.

I've just watched a video of me teeing off on the first in an Open last weekend and from teeing up to hitting the ball it was 12 seconds.