The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1927-02-11
29-Practice That Pays.

2S-Practice That Pays.
1t is impossible to oyeremphssize
the value OF intelligent practice if
the golfer has any ambition to in
crease his or her skill.
We might as well start with the
positive statement thai ones skill,
after a certain point, cannot be in
creased by playing the game. The
fundamental reason for this is
that there is no chance of profiting
by ones errors. There is a failure,
for instance, with a niblick stroke
from a bunker. Perhaps the same
shot and the same failure oc-
eur two or three other times in the
round. Intelligent practice OF the
the shot, especially after a lesson
from a competent instructor, would
let the player make the shot with a
great deal Of confidence when it
came up in a game. Failure to
learn and practice the shot has the
contrary effect. Not only is there
q feeling In advance that the shot
will be a divver, but that feeling
will extend to any use Of the club
and the players game Is made
worse by abortlve attempts at using
some other club when the niblick
should be used.
Why not follow the amt pro-
cedure as In the learning of any
thing else? Is anyone so foolish
as TO think it possible to become
a musical artist, without instruc-
ton or practice? Can one learn to
become a ball player or tennis
player or football player or sprinter
or lawyer or college professor or
minister or aviator, or anything I'M
der the sun requiring skill, without
instruction and intelligent practice?
Yet 1t Is perfectly safe to say that
more than half of the 10.000.000
golfers of the world never took a
lesson nor ever spent an hour in in
telligent practice.
1t may be noted that reference js
made to intelligent practice. BY
this Is meant the requirement Of
knowledge as 10 just why q certain
grip and stance and pivot and
swing are recommended, and 10
take these points. n at q time,
and test them out thoroughly. In
telligent instruction. of course is
necessary, but will have very little
effect II not followed at once by in
telligent practice. One does not be
come a good piano player through
lessons alone.
30-LearninS Why a Swing Is
Correct.
The main reason why the skill Of
the average golfer remains at such
a low ebb is that he or she does not
know how to. make the stroke.
Much Of this r. occasioned by the
fact that there has been no expert
instruction and much of the re-
mainder Is due to the fact that con-
tinuous play without thoughtful
practice has let variations Of the
right form creep In until the player
often IL worse OF than with nc pre-
vious instruction. He has forgot
ten, or never knew, that the secret
Of skill In golf Is to adopt the best
form possible and never TO make
any variation from it. There IL
nothing truer than that the expert
has attained his or her skill be
cause OF the ability indefinitely to
duplicate a good swing.
1t is also q fact that 81 per cent II
more Of the ability of the star golf
err Is because Of his ability to think.
Players of the ability Of Walter
Hagen and Chick Evans come very
close to doing the exact thing over
and over when the circumstances
are practically the same. In driv-
Ing practice balls from a tee. for IN
stance, 1t Is highly probable that
moving pictures of them would not
show any percentihie variation. pro
vided there ere no adverse w.rf |