Should You Make Practice Swings?

In the past when I played golf, whether as an amateur or professional, I rarely made a practice swing when hitting Long Game shots.  However I always made at least one Practice Swing when Putting, Chipping or Pitching.  Most of the time it was multiple Practice Swings when Chipping or Pitching.  I guess I felt that I really wanted to rehearse those two swings over and over since they are such sensitive shots.  I never really thought about it, it just felt good to me to do it.  It made me feel more confident about the upcoming shot.  My instincts were correct on the Short Game Shots and not correct on the Full Swing Shots.

In practice, when you are working on grooving your swing or learning something new, a Practice Swing can be invaluable.  A Practice Swing is really what I call a Rehearsal Swing.  You are hopefully making the same motion as you will in the real swing.  Would you make a speech in front of your peers without rehearsing it first?  The answer is no.  You would have to be crazy or suicidal to do that.  The same principle applies to Practice Swings.  Especially, on the practice tee. 

Practice or Rehearsal Swings are what I referred to in the last lesson as Short Term Muscle Memory.  What that means is, you are letting your muscles and body feel what it feels like to make the swing motion the way that you want to make the swing.  You be the Boss!  You do not want your muscles and body to do what they want to do, if they have not been fully trained and conditioned to swing correctly.  You will most likely hit a poor shot.   When you create Short Term Muscle Memory by making a Practice Swing, your muscles and body now know what to do on the real swing.  Unfortunately, Short Term Muscle Memory is just what it says, Short Term.  You don’t have to remember the details of the following statement, just remember the point.  According to experts in the field movement and motor learning, humans lose 30% of their Short Term Muscle Memory every 30 seconds.  Therefore, after you make your Practice Swing, you should address the ball and start your backswing within 5 to 8 seconds.  That is plenty of time, try it.  That way you will only lose 30% of you STMM and you will still have 70% of your Practice Swing feel leftover. 

The good news is that when a movement is repeated over time, a Long-Term Muscle Memory is created for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.  So, work hard now making your Rehearsal Swings in practice.  And someday you may not have to worry about them so much.