Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36W hen I was a junior golfer aspiring to play college golf, I fell into the trap of thinking that a lot of practice would help me reach my goals. I still see that misperception today in junior golfers, and it is often one of the main things I need to teach our freshmen – how to practice with a pur- pose, so that they get the most out of every session. Growing up, I was a range rat who would brag to my parents about how many buckets of balls I hit that day. In retrospect, I should have spent more time with goal-oriented practices. We have all heard the term, “quality beats quantity,” and that is definitely true in golf practice. An honest self-assessment about your game can help you figure out the best things to practice on a regular basis. It is easy to prac- tice what you do best, but you need to make sure you are addressing your weaknesses and turning them into strengths. As a college golf coach I feel like I and my staff coach 10 different individuals rather than a team because everyone has different strengths, weaknesses and needs. Some- times we will sit down with a player who is struggling and have him write out practice goals for the day or for the week. This way, he knows if his practice session was successful, once he’s completed it. Time is limited in college, so getting the most out of a practice session is a must. Having daily and weekly goals for practice and writing them down can help you stay focused on ad- dressing those areas of your game that need the most work. A quality practice session can help you gain confidence in your game because you know you have improved that day – and confidence is everything in golf. We play a lot of tournaments in college at many different courses, so it’s not only important knowing which weaknesses to practice, but also knowing what the upcom- ing tournament course is like. We research courses online to find out their length, types of grasses and kinds of shots our players will face so they can practice with the purpose of preparing for that specific course. If it is a course we have played before, our guys will “play” the tournament course on our driving range. They may even take their yardage book from the year before and hit the tee shots they will face. That is high quality practice, as they are picking targets and visualizing the shots they need to play rather than just banging balls on a range. Quality practice always beats quantity prac- tice, so you need to be honest with yourself about your golf game and work on those ar- eas that could cost you strokes on the golf course. Setting practice goals and having a plan for practice before showing up at the course can keep you focused, and it will allow your practice session to be a productive con- fidence builder. PracticewithaPurpose BYANDREWSAPP Kim Lewellen is the women’s head golf coach at the University of Virginia. Her Cavaliers have won two consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference championships. Andrew Sapp is the men’s head golf coach at the University of North Carolina and is a former Tar Heel collegiate golfer. COLLEGE COACHES’ CORNER Individual Goals Can Promote Team Goals BYKIMLEWELLEN I get a lot of inquiries about the num- ber of golfers on my teams. Present- ly, there are 12 young ladies on our squad; last year we had 15. With only five per team being allowed to engage in competition, the obvious concerns are about playing time. What I’m con- stantly seeking to reinforce with our student athletes is that they are not competing against each other; they are competing against a scoring average. That is, they are challenging the best college players in the country (scoring average 73 and below) and their own personal best score. For our low handicappers and poten- tial All-Americans, evaluating them- selves against the nation’s best allows them to set performance goals that they can constantly work toward. Likewise for our higher handicappers, competing against their personal best provides them with a tangible goal and a consistent means of motivation. I do find that one of the best avenues for improvement seems to be everyone working toward beating their personal best score – high and low handicap- pers alike. This gives them a specific bar to target. We combine this with a system of analytics to find areas where they can improve. Then we design specif- ic practices that will enable them to eventually reach those performance goals. In tournaments or qualifying rounds, we encourage players to com- pete against those goals. If they do not beat their personal best score or play up to that elite scoring average, they go back to the drawing board and fig- ure out what they need to do in order for it to happen. If they do beat that personal record, or “PR,” they imme- diately set a new goal. I love having a large team because it adds to team camaraderie. Once they realize they are not competing against each other, but rather against their personal best and an elite national scoring average, you have a group of individuals pulling for one another and celebrating each other’s accom- plishments. So yes, I have a large team – a group of wonderful young ladies, all trying to reach their personal bests! This makes for many exciting rounds of golf, especially when someone’s close to reaching a “PR” and it is the 18th hole. Now imagine a player standing over a 5-footer to beat her personal best, surrounded by a group of sister teammates cheering when the clutch putt falls. That’s how great memories are made! December 2016 | 9 Subscribe today at juniorgolfmag.net