I wanted to discuss Block Vs Random Practice. Part of my job as a physical therapist revolves around motor control. Other than the mental aspect, motor learning and motor control is golf 101. It is a very motor driven sport that includes fine-tuning hand-eye coordination and body movement to get the appropriate result. 

Golf is an input. I.E. our body moves a certain way on the golf ball. The output is the result of the shot. Did what we want to happen, happen?

The “Why” Behind Block

I’ll leave the “what” to the professionals who know this stuff better than I do, but the “why” behind this has to be straightforward for you. 

There is block practice and random practice. If you want to improve your golf game, it is going to be my hypothesis (based on research revolved around motor learning) that you should do both. Common sense, right? A rather straight-forward answer, but you have to include block and random practice in your repertoire in order to improve your game. 

This is due to myelin generation and formation. Myelin is the insulation around your nerves that can thicken and enhance the more you do something. The obvious answer of going to the range or putting green is about doing many repetitions in a certain amount of time. The more you do the same thing over and over, thee myelin around your nerve fibers enhances/thickens/enlarges. This speeds up the signal of what we are trying to do. The increased the thickness (or the insulation of our nerves) of the myelin, the quicker & more efficient signal we have.

It is comparable to having a really good internet signal vs a crummy one. A crummy internet signal, by the time that you have hit the ball, still hasn’t gotten to where it needs to go. With efficient myelin and block practices/repetition, you enhance the signal and make it stronger so by the time you hit the ball, everything has come together properly and you get a better input on the ball. Seemingly so, the output is closer to what you want. 

Block practice becomes important because we speed up the efficiency of our motor control and increase the cellular signals with the myelin development happening with repetition. 

The “Why” Behind Random Practice

Here is the kicker with block practice, it is only that beneficial in an acute period of time. Random practice would be out on the golf course playing. Random practice is going to improve long-term results. 

That’s where you need to have a little bit of both. You can’t just go to the range and pound balls and repeat the same thing and expect it to have carryover into the random practice (which would be the golf scorecard). It is going to be a short-term thing. That is why so many people do well at the range and feel good…they get to do the same thing over and over again. In that time frame you have “improved your internet signal” but when you complete random practice, it is a completely different stimulus and input to the body.

You have to have random practice so your body get accustomed to different scenarios in the environment such as:

1. Looking at the lie of the ball

2. Looking at the distance of the shot

3. Putting together what the appropriate distance is

4. Setting up with aim

5. Setting up with your address

6. Taking the club the right amount back at the right speed

7. The impact of the ball.

You have to put this together for the particular shot that you have. That’s where you need to have the element of random practice to continue improving taking in all the information in the environment and coming up with the best combination of things for the output that we want. 

Should I Be Doing Block Practice or Random Practice?

Random practice is going to help you long-term. My thought process is this: If you are a lower handicap and only have 1 thing to improve on, you probably should focus on block practice.

If you are generally trying to improve and lower your scores, you have to have a little bit of the block practice (I recommend if you are going to go to the course, start at the range), but the majority of your time should be out playing and getting better at taking in the information from the environment. Depending on where you are at, different swing instructors might tell you differently, but that is the element of block practice vs random practice. It is a very simple idea, not overly complex, but it is crucial in the role it plays with short-term vs long-term results. You need both.

Think about the last season, what did you tend to go towards on a percentage scale? Did you do more block practice? Did you do more random practice? Did you have a pretty healthy combination of both? 

The research behind motor control is going to tell us. How many people are dedicating their time to both and analyzing their game to find out what they need to work on. If you have a specific thing that you are tending to struggle with, do some block practice, hammer it out, then go back to the course and see how it goes.

If the generalized, “I’ve got a lot of stuff I need to work on and just need more exposure to course management,” fits you…then emphasize a little bit more of random practice. You cannot avoid one of the other all together forever. 

At the core of that, your body has to have the capacity to handle what you are asking it to do. Do not forget about the nuts and bolts of what we do which is getting your body ready to go. 

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