What If Golfers Thought About Practice Like Runners?

As a physical therapist, I spend a lot of time thinking about how the body adapts to training.

One thing I've always found interesting is how differently runners and golfers think about practice.

If a runner told their coach they went from running 15 miles per week to 40 miles per week overnight, most coaches would immediately recognize the problem. The conversation would turn to workload, recovery, and gradually building capacity.

In golf, however, it's common to hear things like:

"I hit 300 balls yesterday."

Rarely does anyone ask, "How many do you normally hit?"

More Isn't Always Better

Practice is essential for improvement. There is no substitute for quality repetitions.

But there's also a point where fatigue begins to influence movement.

As fatigue accumulates, swing mechanics can change. Timing changes. Decision-making changes. The quality of each repetition often declines.

If your goal is to build a repeatable golf swing, practicing poor-quality repetitions may not be helping as much as you think.

This isn't about practicing less. It's about practicing smarter.

Golf Is Becoming More Athletic

Today's golfers are faster than ever.

Many competitive golfers are intentionally training to increase clubhead speed through strength training, jumping, medicine ball work, and overspeed training.

A swing at 115-125 mph is no longer just a technical movement—it's an explosive athletic movement.

That raises an interesting question:

Should we think differently about how we manage practice volume?

Build Capacity Before Chasing Volume

One principle that applies across many sports is progressive overload.

Runners gradually increase mileage.

Weightlifters gradually increase training load.

Throwing athletes gradually build throwing volume.

The goal isn't simply to do more—it's to expose the body to slightly greater demands, allow recovery, and adapt.

Golf may benefit from the same mindset.

If your body is only accustomed to 50 full-speed driver swings, jumping to 200 in one session may not be the best recipe for either performance or long-term durability.

Not Every Swing Has the Same Cost

A putting session isn't the same as a speed training session.

Twenty slow rehearsal swings don't stress the body the same way as twenty maximum-effort driver swings.

Just as runners have easy runs, long runs, interval sessions, and recovery days, golfers may benefit from thinking about different types of practice instead of simply counting balls.

Technical practice, speed training, on-course play, and short-game work all place different demands on the body.

Recovery Is Part of Training

One of the biggest lessons endurance sports have taught us is that fitness doesn't improve during the workout.

It improves afterward.

Training provides the stimulus.

Recovery allows the body to adapt.

If fatigue is high enough that your swing quality is declining, another bucket of balls may not be the answer. Sometimes the best performance gains come from recovering well and returning ready to practice with high quality.

My Perspective as a Physical Therapist

As physical therapists, we spend our careers helping people build capacity.

Whether we're returning a runner to marathon training or helping someone recover after surgery, we don't usually ask, "How much can we do today?"

We ask, "How much can they recover from and adapt to?"

I think golf performance deserves the same question.

Rather than chasing more practice for the sake of more practice, perhaps the goal should be to build a body that can tolerate high-quality practice consistently over months and years.

Because in the long run, the golfer who can practice well tomorrow may have an advantage over the golfer who simply practiced more today.