The Practice Paradox: Why hitting fewer balls with purpose beats mindless range sessions

There’s a scene that plays out at driving ranges everywhere: a golfer feeding ball after ball into the hitting bay, raking ball after ball onto the mat. An hour later, the bucket’s empty, the hands are sore, and the golfer leaves feeling productive.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: that session probably did very little to improve their game—and may have actively made it worse.

The Illusion of Productivity

Volume feels like effort, and effort feels like progress. Hitting a ton of balls creates the satisfying sense that you’ve worked on your game. But practice and repetition aren’t the same thing. Repetition without intention simply grooves whatever patterns you already have—often bad.

Hit balls mindlessly, and you get better at hitting balls mindlessly. That doesn’t transfer to the course, where every shot demands a commitment, confidence and execution.  Having clear direction with your practice, from your golf lesson, gives your practice purpose.

Purposeful practice may not always feel as satisfying as hitting large buckets of balls. It requires patience, discipline and honest self-assessment. However, it is far more effective in producing lasting improvement.

Let’s be clear that this purposeful practice is unlikely to come from a YouTube video because its not specific to you.  On the rare occasion that the YouTube advice is good, the chance that you are working on things in the wrong order is most likely.

The best golfers in the world don’t simply practice more, well, they do but they practice better. Every session has an objective. Every drill has a purpose. They are getting feedback from each shot.   

Every lesson with me will provide you with the tools for this purposeful practice and the ability to self assess the results of each shot, ie why did I hit that shot.  This gives your practice direction instead of jumping between random ideas you saw on YouTube.

For amateur golfers looking to lower their scores, the lesson is clear: stop measuring practice by the number of balls you hit and start measuring it by the quality of your focus.

What Purposeful Practice Actually Looks Like

Each golf lesson will provide you with this purposeful practice instead of mere ball-beating:

A clear, narrow objective. Instead of “work on my swing,” a purposeful goal might be “feel the club float back” or “finish facing the target”.  The goal will be specific enough that you can get valuable feedback from each effort. 

Specific drills, like swinging with your feet together, will help your swing evolve.

You will want to hit balls more often because you will see results from your effort.  How many members at your club have had the same handicap for 10-years?  You can be sure those guys aren’t taking lessons and practicing with purpose.

Feedback and adjustment. Every shot becomes data. Did that ball start where you intended? Did the contact feel solid? Purposeful practice means pausing after misses to diagnose what happened—not just raking another ball over and hoping the next one’s better.

Rest and reflection. Fatigue degrades motor learning. Shorter, focused sessions with breaks between reps outperform marathon range sessions where the last 50 balls are hit with a tired body and a wandering mind.

The Science Behind It

Guided deliberate practice with immediate feedback is the key to improving quickly whether its music or golf.

If you’ve trained with me you’ve probably heard me talk about how learning golf is more like learning to play the violin than improving in another sport.  Running faster or trying harder don’t work here, improving a specific technique does.   When you first play the violin it may sound like you are torturing a cat but with guidance and a better technique soon 2 good “notes” (shots) out of 10 soon becomes 6 out of 10 and later you are playing a song.

Imagine how much faster that process will be discovering with a coach versus trying to find your way on your own.

The Counterintuitive Payoff

Golfers who adopt purposeful practice often report: they hit fewer balls but improve faster. They also find practice more engaging because every shot matters. Just like on the course.  The range becomes a “laboratory for experimentation” ( I stole that phrase) rather than a treadmill for repetition.

You can still enjoy hitting lots of balls but make sure each session includes some specific practice, drills, which you can collect from our lessons.

The bucket mentality is hard to shake. Its fun, and I get it. I love hitting balls sipping coffee and telling stories with Robin at the range in Thailand but if the goal is actually to play better golf, the evidence is clear: a small bucket more often with a specific purpose beats just beating balls.  

Most golfers wait until something goes wrong before scheduling a lesson.

The slice suddenly reappears. Distances start dropping. Ball striking becomes inconsistent. Scores begin creeping higher. Frustration builds, and eventually the golfer decides it’s time to see a professional.

While lessons are certainly valuable when your game is struggling, the smartest golfers understand that instruction isn’t just for fixing problems—it’s also one of the best forms of preventative maintenance available.

Just as you wouldn’t wait for your car engine to fail before changing the oil, you shouldn’t wait for your golf swing to break down before seeking professional guidance.

Small Problems Become Big Problems

Golf swings are constantly evolving. Even highly skilled players experience subtle changes over time due to practice habits, physical limitations, age, flexibility, or simply playing more golf.

The challenge is that many of these changes happen gradually. A slight grip change here. A minor setup adjustment there. A small compensation that develops to fix another issue.

Individually, these changes may seem insignificant. Over weeks and months, however, they can compound into larger swing flaws that become more difficult to correct.

A periodic lesson allows a golf professional to identify these issues early, often before the golfer even notices them affecting performance.

The Best Players in the World Don’t Wait

One of the biggest misconceptions among amateur golfers is that lessons are only for beginners or players who are struggling.

In reality, the world’s best players regularly work with coaches even when they’re playing well.

Why?

Because they understand that maintaining a great swing is often easier than repairing bad habits.

Next week at the US Open you will see almost every tour player has a coach with them on the range.  They’re not there to make changes to their player’s swing, especially right before a major championship.  Those coaches are there for preventative maintenance and to monitor the player’s swing.  

Most of us could learn from that by taking lessons regularly, even when we are hitting it good, to help us reach that next level of performance.

Professional golfers know that small adjustments and regular checkups can prevent larger problems from developing.  The same principle applies to every golfer, regardless of skill level.

Look at it as – you are continuing to discover your golf swing.

Maintaining Good Habits Is Easier Than Breaking Bad Ones

When golfers experience a slump, they often spend weeks or months reinforcing compensations and bad habits before seeking help.

By the time they take a lesson, those habits may be deeply ingrained (often years of swinging that way) and require significant effort to change.

Regular coaching helps golfers stay on the right path. Instead of correcting major flaws, lessons become opportunities to reinforce solid fundamentals, improve consistency, and fine-tune performance.

In many cases, a small adjustment made early can prevent months of frustration later or help you discover the next level of performance.

Confidence Comes from Confirmation

Even when your game feels good, there is tremendous value in knowing you’re working on the right things.

Many golfers wonder:

• Is my setup still sound?
• Has my swing changed without me noticing?
• Am I practicing effectively?
• Are there small issues developing that could hurt my game later?

For me its my posture that tends to get sloppy and if I’m playing good, feeling confident, I tend to start swinging a little harder and soon that leads to problems.

A lesson can provide reassurance that you’re moving in the right direction while identifying areas that deserve attention before they become problematic.

Sometimes the most valuable lesson isn’t learning something new—it’s confirming that what you’re doing is working.  You hear us talk about “discovering your swing” and this is what that’s all about.

Rather than spending months battling avoidable swing issues, golfers who schedule periodic lessons often enjoy more consistent performance, greater confidence, and faster long-term improvement.

A lesson can help ensure that the time you’re spending on the course and practice range is producing the results you want.

Think Long-Term Discovery

Many golfers view lessons as emergency repairs. A better approach is to think of them as routine maintenance.  If you’re only taking lessons when your game falls apart, you’re missing one of the greatest benefits of professional coaching.

Just as regular servicing keeps a vehicle running efficiently, periodic golf lessons help keep your swing functioning at its best.

Whether you’re shooting 75 or 95, preventative maintenance can help protect the progress you’ve worked so hard to achieve.  Discover why some of the most valuable golf lessons happen when everything seems okay.

When golfers adopt this mindset, they often experience fewer slumps, more consistency, and greater enjoyment of the game.

Regular lessons provide guidance, accountability, and expert feedback that can keep your swing healthy before major issues develop.  Don’t wait for your swing to send an SOS, continue discovering your potential with regular lessons.