PSYCHOLOGY
The Brain Game
By Dr. Josh Brant, Clinical Psychologist and Sports Performance Coach
Purposeful Practice
A Roadmap to the Best Golf of your Life
I
n my previous article, I discussed the idea of purposeless practice, loosely defining it as
practicing a skill that doesn’t correlate with the behavior you intend to perform. I suggested
that practicing skills that don’t correlate with the intended behavior is one of the more
significant factors holding golfers back from developing to their full potential. Rarely do I see
golfers on the range working on skills that are going to help them get better at the on course
game. I gave the example of hitting balls on the range with the expectation that “range play”
will translate to effective “on course play.” For most of us, practicing this way, without a clear
purpose, often leads to confusion and frustration. There is an inherent lack of awareness that we
are ingraining two different skill sets; swinging a club on the range and playing the game of golf.
We are often left scratching our heads about why we are not getting better. If we are truly serious
about getting better at the game, we need to practice the necessary skills to be successful at
the game on the course. In other words, our practice needs to become more purposeful; not
purposeless if we want to consistently shoot lower scores.
In the expert performance and sports science literature, purposeful practice is more often
referred to as deliberate practice, but essentially, the terms are interchangeable. Anders Ericsson,
a professor of Psychology at Florida State University, is considered one of the world’s leading
researchers in the field of expert performance. Ericsson’s research has consistently demonstrated
the importance of deliberate practice in maximizing one’s potential. In his latest book, Peak:
Secrets from the New Science of Expertise, co-authored with Robert Pool, deliberate practice
is defined by the following characteristics. As you’re reading through, ask yourself if each of the
characteristics is a component of your practice. If they aren’t, they need to be.
@DrJoshBrant
16 | CSGA Links // July, 2017
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