How I Practice | Full Practice Session with Andrew Jensen

It's Monday morning. I haven't had like a hard practice session in in well over a week. Been busy working and traveling, but I woke up 95% recovered today on Whoop. And I already had planned to have a serious practice session today. So, I'm going to have a serious practice session today. And hopefully you can learn a little bit on how to up your practice. So, uh yeah, let's let's go have a hit. [Music] All right, I can already hear some people in the comments because there's been some great people lately like he's not a pro. Oh, he sucks. Well, here's a little like backstory as to why this video is titled the way it is and why I think I can share some experience from my life in the professional world of golf to help your game. For the better part of a decade, I played full-time. I had four years with status on the Canadian Tour, Mackenzie Tour, a year of status on the Latino-American tour. I missed a lot of cuts. I shot some low rounds. I've won professional golf tournaments. I've lost a lot of money playing professional golf. And then last year, I broke my arm. And that kind of took me out of full-time playing. So now my job is YouTube. I make two videos a week. I try to play some tournaments here and there. And it's no surprise that I struggle more times than I play well. But that doesn't take away from the fact that I've been around the professional game for so long. I've practiced and played with some of the best golfers in the world, PGA Tour winners, I can call friends, and I still work very hard at a very high level on my game. And it may not show in results when I play tournaments because I play a tournament every few weeks or every couple months. And it's it's apples and oranges to compare it to YouTube, but I hope that my experience as a professional golfer can help you as you want to get better with your game. Starting my day on the short game, I start with some basic putting technical stuff. I've got my Vizio putting template. Um, you can see the greens are punched. So, typically I'll hit these putts from about 6 to 7 ft, but with the greens being punched, I'm going with maybe about 4 feet. This is just a great technical way to start the day. Hit the tea gate there. So, start on over. I'm going to do this until I make 50 of these putts. And then you'll see I'll pepper in and out some one-handed ones. I like to be a left-handed putter and I'll do some putts with the left hand and then kind of finish up with both hands just to get a good feel for things. Here I'm doing another little technical chipping drill. I've got my alignment stick out there. I'm working on essentially club face control. If I'm hitting good chips, they're going to land on that stick or just around it. If I'm hitting poor ones, they'll start to land a little bit away from the sticks. this drill here. Working on where I want to land the golf ball. So, I've thrown a coaster down and that's where I want to land it. These first few were pretty pretty poor. Maybe I was hesitant to miss the c hit the camera, but I get a groove here. This is a great drill that just gets you focused on where you want that golf ball to land. And then what you can do is chip to a hole, but put something you want to land it on first because when you're out on the golf course, it's great to visualize where you want it to land. Now, I'm going to go into some some play. This is a drill I've talked about before. I get three balls and I'm going to go all around the green and just get these up and down. There's only two ways to end this game. I either get all three up and down five times or two out of three up and down 10 times. So, I'll just keep rolling around the green, short, far, bunkers, bumping runs, flop shots, you name it. And I'm going to do this until I get the required up and downs. So, that first one, you can see I got all three. This one here, I will have gotten two of them up and down. So, that's one and one. And now we're going to go to a little longer, more challenging shot. And this one, I hit some good shots, but did not get any of them up and down. So, like I said, I'm going to go around until I get either the clean three out of three five times or two out of three 10 times. that I'm on the driving range. I'm going to start this session with just a warm up. I've grabbed 20 golf balls and I'm just letting the body move. I'm not focused on technique whatsoever. I'll stretch in between shots. This is just a warmup. Like I said, it's just getting the motion, really accentuating the turn back and the turn through. So, I typically do this with, you know, a sand wedge or a pitching wedge. And then I will get a mid iron and uh start to feel some longer swings with a longer golf club. But again, this warmup, I'm not really thinking about anything other than moving my body at various speeds and really letting it warm up. Just like in the gym, you want to warm up before you get into the hard stuff. And that's exactly what this is. Then I'm going to go into a little more kind of technical drill feel. You've seen me do this uh with Dan a handful of times on the channel. I get an elastic resistance band between the knees. And I want to feel that band pulling as long as I can through the golf swing, through the back swing. I want to keep that lower body stable. And then if I can let that left knee kind of move forward while pulling the right knee, if you will, doing a lot of rehearsals just to really feel it. This is a drill that is a little bit technical in what it's accomplishing, but it's it's a feel thing cuz then when you take the band off, you're really going to feel what it's like to have the knees and the lower body move the way you want it to move. My tendency is the left knee buckles on the way back. So, the resistance band, it's just great for me to keep that left leg strong and uh have the sequencing do what we want it to do on the way down. Going to move into another little technical field drill. Put an alignment stick up against the club in my left hand. And this is just something that is a club face control drill. Just hitting little pitch wedges, log wedges, sand wedges. And you'll notice obviously I got to keep that club shaft leaning. And if I flip it, I'm going to hit myself with the stake. So, this is a rhythm thing. This is a club face control thing. This is one of my favorite drills. If I can't do this, I'm really in trouble. But, I was really grooving it. So, that was an encouraging 20 golf balls to do with the drill. Now, transition into a little more play, if you will. That post out there is 83 yards. And I want to try to flight these three quarter lob wedges and land it right at the post. These shots are a little more focused on the rhythm, the routine, and then what I'm thinking over the golf ball. Just focusing on a target and and turning back and turning through to that target. Not thinking about technique, not thinking about execution. This is just something for me to feel. And I'm trying to simulate my routine that I do on the golf course. So when I get on the golf course, you know, I've practiced this kind of stuff. A little bit windy. So really focused on the rhythm cuz when it is windy, it's easy to get a little jumpy and maybe manipulate the club face trying to keep it down. So it was just great day to practice the wedges because of that wind. Range balls, they do kick up sometimes. That's a bit frustrating, but I'm focused more on my routine, my thinking. Got a little fast on that one. You'll notice these next two just a little quick in the transition and that's where the club face can roll over on me a little bit. So, rhythm is super super important. This last one, see, I'm rehearsing. Just making sure I keep it smooth and slow. And then you'll notice this last one was a beauty. Pretty sure I think it hit the thing on the one hop. Now going to go into the driver. I don't hit a lot of drivers when I practice, but on a day like today where I'm really thinking on feel and rhythm and because of this wind, it's actually a great day to to hit a few drives. Again, not getting too too technical. Just really it's about a feel. And you'll notice throughout this whole practice session, I do this little thing, which is a drill I did when I was about 19 years old, just allowing that club to drop. I have a tendency to get the left arm a little tight and and it pulls the club down, and that's where my misses can get really erratic. So, if I keep that left hand or left arm loose, the club will shallow naturally and kind of follow my body. That was a really good one there. But again, when I'm over the golf ball, I'm just trying to to think about a target and just let it go. I make these rehearsals feeling what I want to feel. But when I'm over the golf ball, I've I've let it go and I'm just trying to simulate what I would do out on the golf course. And that's pick a target and just let it go. That was a good one. And you'll also notice throughout this practice session, I've been really mindful of of cranking my turn. What happens to me sometimes is I do get a little tight and short. And then when that happens, the arms can race and that's where I've huzzled a few or that's where I really start to flip it, if you will, cuz I'm just out of sync, out of sequence. So, lot of shots where I'm working on the turn and the rhythm and the sequencing. Transition now into a fun thing where this is just I'm hitting punch shots. I've got a sixiron here and I'm trying to flight these things. I've been struggling with these shots of lately again because like I've said, rhythm has been getting a little off, hands have been getting a little active, and if I'm not sequencing right, that's where I'll huzzle it or I hit these pole hooks, so to speak with uh with these punch shots, man, all of these that was just a little thin. All of these punches were money. They felt so good. I wish the drone could uh pick up the audio cuz the sound was really, really cool. Then I'm uh moving on to a little more play. I' I've done a lot of feel stuff. I've done a lot of practicing a lot of drills. Now it's time to just simulate golf course. So I'm picking different shots with different clubs, going through a routine, and just simulating what I would do on the golf course and reacting accordingly to the shot. So that first one, I think, was a pitching wedge. Now I've got my lob wedge just looking at one of the stakes out on the range. And you've noticed I've done my full routine. And when I do that, you know, it's it's a little easier to have a better rhythm on the range, especially on a windy day like today. So still kept with the lob wedge here and um moved it just to another stake of a target. Little high one there. But that rhythm, you can see was was was spot on. Change clubs. Go through a routine. You pick a target, just let it go. Now it's about just reacting to a target, having good rhythm, having good tempo, if you will, and letting it happen. And if I can finish and balance and rhythm at the driving range, it's a good indication that I'll be able to do that on a golf course. Cuz on the golf course, I do sometimes get a little rushed. So if I'm a little rushed, I'm not holding my finish. And it's just it all kind of starts from the takeaway and then quick in transition and then can't hold a finish cuz I'm quick. Little gapper here. Felt really good. Yeah, switching clubs. I think this is my sand wedge now. Or no, maybe this is lob wedge. Just hitting different shots. I highly recommend this as part of your practice because it's very very easy that we just start hitting the same club over and over and over again. I do intervals of about 20 balls with any given club, but it's it's easy to just get stuck in a rut. And on the golf course, you don't hit the same shot with the same club to the same target over and over again. So, changing clubs, changing targets is just a great way to simulate what you're doing on the golf course when you're on the driving range. Like I said earlier, I've been working on my turn. So, these ones here are what I like to call freezers where I'm cranking a turn, just holding at the top and then rotating through. It's easy for me to get kind of short and quick. So, these these drills, the freezers are really really good for me. I I exaggerate the turn, but you'll notice the club gets in a good spot. And then these are just real speed swings. And last but not least, fill your divots. You got to fill your divots after a good day practicing. That's my morning. Going to go have some lunch now, get a workout in, and then start editing this. Back when I was a full-time player, I'd be coming back out to practice in the afternoon, play a few holes, but life looks a little bit different now. And I'm okay with that. I hope you you learned a little bit from this. The wind and the conditions of the the greens kind of determine my practice. I used to come out with like a strict plan and sometimes, you know, there's things you can't control and that would change that plan and maybe it would get to me. So, I just kind of go out to the course with a rough idea of what I want to do, but then I let the conditions determine that. So, those punch greens, I couldn't spend as much time on the short game as I wanted, but I made the most of it and I fully understood that when the ball was hitting the greens or the putting there was going to be things that were pretty wonky and that was okay. And then the wind was up, so I let that determine my practice. So, a little more feeloriented practice, not so technical. If the wind was down, I probably would jump on Flight Scope Meo. And I I'm really working on flighting my wedges. I I just launched them way too high, so I would have done that, but with range balls windy like this, you could see they go really high very easily. So, didn't get to do that, but that's something I wanted to do. Focused more on feel. For the most part, most of my stuff was shorter shots because, yeah, you really want to dial in your short game, your wedge play, and then the creativity, hitting punch shots with the sixiron, working on the feel as opposed to just being so hampered down with the technique. It's a good start to my week. Going to practice a few more days this week and just keep building on this and keep working on my routine and keep getting my head a little bit stronger and getting more comfortable in like tournament scenarios. And hopefully by the time I compete again in July, I can be comfortable out there and play a little bit better than I played last week. Uh, if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe if you're not subscribed, and see you in the next video. Peace.