A fun way to practice: made up chipping drill

There are tons of ways to stay engaged and challenge yourself during practice. Instead of just hitting chip shots for 30 minutes I play games such as this one that keep my brain focussed while providing a specific goal to my practice. It’s one of an unlimited number of ways in which you can supercharge a short practice session.

How do you make practice challenging and fun?

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7 Responses to "A fun way to practice: made up chipping drill"

Nick Chertock says:

May 17, 2013 at 8:53 am

Good idea to keep short game practice fun. I like to hit balls at all sorts of objects. Most amateurs know they need to work on their short game but I’m convinced that boredom is the #1 culprit for why they don’t, not a lack of time. It only took you a few minutes to hit all those pitches and it’s more than many people who supposedly want to imporve practice their short game in a year.

Here’s my most recent effort to make a game of chipping practice.

https://vimeo.com/64395039
Randy says:

May 17, 2013 at 1:02 pm

Great drill Dan….Very interested to see some if the other drills you work on to practice.
Jonski says:

May 18, 2013 at 2:10 am

Hi Dan, I found your blog late last year and have really enjoyed reading about your progress right from the beggining. I hope that the new sticks and swing coach will enable you to continue to make great progress this year.

I like to practice down the range by taking 60 balls and splitting them up to hit at different targets. I hit 10 balls each with my driver and a long iron at a 30 yard wide target. If I hit 6/10 on target then that counts a sucess. If I can do that 3 times in a row in successive visits to the range then I reduce the wide of the target by 5 yards. With my short game I hit 5 balls each to targets at 50, 60, 70, 80 and 90 yards. I also hit 3 ball each at targets in the 10 – 40 yard range using a variety of shots, including the lob shot.

I do have a question for you though, Dan. I’m looking into getting custom fit for clubs as my current set are old, cheap and not particularly suited to my swing. However there are some aspects of my swing that getting new clubs will not help. I’m working on reducing how steep I’m coming into the ball as I have been hitting the ball quite low, but do you think that getting new clubs at the same time as changing the swing is a good idea or not. After all, if once you have made changes to your swing, will it have been a waste of time and money if the new clubs don’t match the changed swing?
lorenzo says:

May 18, 2013 at 7:57 am

A kind of pratice I find very effettive is to play 9 holes with 2 balls alternating one hole playing the best ball (i.e. playing 2 balls from the best ball location and so on) and the following hole playing the worst ball.
Its is fun but also interesting because it is not only hitting but also a “mind” exercise because of the continuos changes between conservative and aggressive play.

More related to the short game is also playing on the course avoiding on purpose to hit to the greens. Again also a strategic exercise because it forces you to think a lot on the best area to miss the green and how to get the easisest up&down chance.then you can count how many up&down you can make.
Btw it is an excellent way to play conservative and to play a bogey or par round that can end with surprisingly low results because it tends to remove all the high numbers from the scorecard!
Turtle says:

May 21, 2013 at 9:57 am

After seeing that slow-mo of the chip at the end golf channels on TV have to introduce a pin cam or hole cam of some sort. Great TV. Just don’t know how it would work.
Clay Ballard says:

June 12, 2013 at 3:14 pm

Hey Dan: This is a great way to practice. There was a study done on free throw shooting that proves why this works. Two groups of athletes shot free throw in the hundreds every day for a month. Group A shot from the free throw line every time. Group B shot from varying distances, both short and long of the free throw line.

In the end Group B improved by over 15% more than group A since they developed the ability to adjust their shot and control distance. If you have ever read the Talent Code, this is a great example of deep practice. As opposed to strictly repetition.

A drill I use with students is the 100 ball drill. In this drill you use ten balls spread all around off the green. You chip to one hole from all the different places. You then putt the 10 balls and mark how many you got up and down. Repeat this 10 times and mark you total. this will allow you to track your up and down percentage easily. You will be pleased when you find how quickly your percentage rises.

Keep up the hard work!!
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