 EFFECTIVE LEARNING OF NEW SKILLS Your body learns and remembers motor skills like the golf swing by building detailed
motor performance "maps" (motor learning scientists call them schema) in the nervous system
and brain. It has been shown that new schema are developed better during the early portion of
your practice session while the body and mind are fresh. Increasing fatigue, anxiety or rushing to
finish your workout on time mean slow, maybe even no, learning of new skills.
After completing a warm-up of stretching and 15 or 20 practice shots with a couple of
your "good" clubs, proceed straight to work on your top-of-the-list weaknesses. One day it may
be putting, the next workout it might be long irons, but whatever it is, spend this most valuable
early to middle part of your session adding to your schemata. It's now or never for teaching your
nervous system new skills and grooving the swing of a new club. Get to it early!
Ironically, many golfers tend to hit through all their good clubs first, and only then move
on to the problem areas when there's only a few balls or minutes left to practice. At my golf
center which includes a practice bunker and putting area, the vast majority of golfers head
straight to the practice tee only to finish up with a few minutes in the bunker or on the green.
They do this despite the fact that sand play and putting are major areas of weakness for most
amateur golfers. As explained above, such end-of-workout practice of problem skills has little
benefit. Conversely, the later part of your workout is the ideal time to fortify skills you already
possess.
What if you arrive at the range already tired and tense from a rough day at work or
fatigued from playing another sport or from a gym workout? Forget about training new or weak
skills, as a stressed nervous system will learn nothing. Instead, use this situation to work on
awareness and management of the tension at hand, while working the clubs and skills at which
you are competent.
This is actually a practice method of its known as "fatigued skill practice." Normally
incorporated toward the end of a practice when fatigue is high, the athlete or team practices
known skills or plays requiring recall, but no learning. This recall in the less than ideal
performance state increases command and control of a skill yielding greater reliability in stressful
situations, whether the heat of competition or the heat of the midday sun.
TIP: Practice of new skills is most effective when you are well rested, in a good mood and
after a complete warm-up. Spend 15 to 30 minutes warming up with stretches and a variety
of practice shots, then dedicate the next 30 minutes to training your high-priority
weaknesses. As fatigue increases (and on high-tension days) shift your training back to
practice of known skills to broaden their use into stressful situations.
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