Highly Productive Golf Training Intervals

Breaking practice into 5 minute intervals

5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes

    Practice can make perfect. Practicing several hours a day can be effective. The first few minutes of anything you do are usually the most effective. Apply the "5 minute rule" whenever possible. That is to say, "Try not to work on any one single thing more than 5 minutes at one stretch." You can effectively practice the same thing many times during the same practice session if you break it up into 5 minute intervals. The value of interval training is most evident in putting.
    Putting requires both relaxation and a high level of concentration. The amount of concentration required to putt well is difficult to maintain for a full 5 minutes. Putt your best putts while your concentration is at it highest, then take a break. If you continue, you will only be going through the motions and training yourself to perform at a performance level that is far less than your best. Full swings require less concentration for shorter periods of time. You may find it easy to exceed 5 minutes and still be effective. I tell people to take the breaks anyway. You want to take breaks after some of your best strokes rather than continue in an effort to groove the stroke. Even if it is just a break of a minute or two. No matter how good you are or how good you are swinging there will come a point when your swing will start to fail or at least be less sharp. On a golf course you do not hit shot after shot until your in a groove. Its your first shot that always counts. We should keep this in mind when we decide how we are going to approach our training.