“Well, I think I’ll go out to the range and hit some balls.”

How often do you do that and by the end of the bucket are hitting balls better than when you began?

I thought so. Let’s try something different.

What you really mean is that you are going to the range to work on your swing, but you change the focus to hitting golf balls. Stick with your swing.

Put a ball on the ground, or on a tee, but before you hit it, step away from it and do this.

Set up, swing. Set up, swing. Set up, swing. Etc. Not rushing, but with no hesitation between on swing and setting up for the next one. When you finish one swing, put the clubhead on the ground and swing again. Right away.

Pay attention to how a swing feels. Ask yourself, as you go, would this swing given me a good shot?

If no, try to figure out, on the fly, where it needs smoothing out, and fix it on the next swing. If yes, then repeat the feeling of that swing with the next swing.

When you have made a series of satisfying swings in a row, step to the ball and hit it without hesitation.

It might take six or seven swings before you feel that you have one worthy of hitting a ball with.

Getting back to your bucket, say all you did was hit a sixty-ball bucket. Sixty swings. Maybe a practice swing or two in between. 150 swings? And how many were purposeful?

If you practice this new way, you get over 400 swings, each one having a purpose.

Improvement is not about how many balls you hit, but how many good swings you make.