The example I will talk about is when you are averaging above 90 and wish to be under a 4 handicap player in 3-5 years. It could take longer or less depending on how much golf is a priority in your life and what kind of background in sports you have in general. I will give you the example of the training regime I did to drop from an 8-10 handicap player to shooting Par or better in the space of 2 years. This was also the regime I did when playing Pro-Ams and tournaments.
First of all golf was a massive priority in my life as I wanted to become a golf professional and be a tour player or coach. Everything in my life geared around playing high level golf. The first decision I made was to enlist a coach and made a pact to see the coach either once a fortnight to once a week. I also made sure that when going to these lessons, I would only focus on what the coach asked me to do and not be tempted to add anything of my own.
I would arrange my week where I would play three competition games a week being Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. I would typically have Monday off and would have a lesson early in the week being Tuesday morning. I would then go straight to the range after the lesson to my home course and practice what I was shown as well go through pre-shot routine ready for the next day's competition. I would also play around 5 holes to get comfortable with playing on the course so that I was fully prepared playing the next day.
On the Wednesday I would ensure that I got to the course 1 hour before and spend time warming up and doing some putting and chipping. I would then play my competition round and after the round I would give myself the option to whether to work on an area of the game that was a weakness during the competition.
On the Thursday I would focus solely on improving my technique. This is where I would practice for around 4-5 hours. I would start with 1 hour of Pitching from within 100m, then I would do full swing for around 90 mins, then putting for an hour and then chipping for around 45 mins. For the entire time the theme would be to make sure the correct technique from the golf lesson was applied.
On the Friday it would be exactly the same as Thursday but the theme would be to do half technique and half feel practice. For example the first half of the bucket when hitting balls would be to just focus on technique but the second half would be to simply rehearse seeing the target and just hitting the ball. I wanted the second half to be with total instinct when hitting the ball because I wanted to prep my mind and body for Saturday's competition. Also at the end of the practice I would have an option to play a few holes to again feel comfortable with the course.
Saturday's competition just like Wednesday required me to get to the course 1 hour before warming up with different elements of the game. I would then play my round and again if time permitted, work on a particular weakness after the round for around an hour;
Sunday's competition was very similar again and in ensuring I got to the course an hour before. On the range I might have a little swing thought as it had been a couple of days since I had solid technique practice. I would through ensure I left the warm-up session in complete instinct mode once again so when I got to the tee, there were no swing thoughts. The funny thing is Sunday would be usually where I would play my best golf. I would say the answer to this would be that my mind was at it's clearest and void of any real swing thought as I had just played a round the day before. I found easier to be in the flow very early in the round on a Sunday.
As talked about above, this was a typical week as an amateur while working a night job. When I was a trainee professional, I did start to drop the Sunday round as my other tournament day was replaced for a Monday however I still did the normal practice schedule on the Sunday. I did all this working full time but having a roster that suited my schedule.
If you'd like to tailor a schedule for yourself to shoot in the low 70's or whatever goal you wish to achieve, just let me know.
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