How We Can All Learn From Jon Rahm
In recent years Jon Rahm has become a two-time Major winner and he's spent large chunks of time as the World No. 1. In Ryder Cups he's quickly become Europe's go-to player, forming a lethal partnership with Sergio Garcia, and he now has 20 tour wins as a professional. And he's still only 28.
If ever there was a golfer at the top of the game who has no discernible weaknesses then it's the Spaniard. And part of that is his practice regime and preparations. When asked this week about how he practises under competition conditions, with drills and little games, he gave all of us a good insight as to how we can all make some improvements.
So while most of us tend to hit balls aimlessly the World No. 2 is doing things very differently.
"I don't find it personally very productive when I go and just do a drill or I have to be here until I finish this, make X amount of putts, X amount of this and that, because I don't feel like I'm giving 100 per cent all the time, right?
"I think it was basketball coach John Wooden who said he always liked to have exact amount of time start to finish so every player would give 100 per cent instead of reserving energy, so a lot of those games that I have are timed. Could be eight minutes, could be 20 minutes, and if I don't got it done, I don't get it done, which is very similar to what we do in real life in pretty much anything," explained Rahm.
Once upon a time Rahm probably wasn't the easiest of characters to warm to, these days he makes as much sense as anyone.
"You can try as hard as you want but you won't always get the chance to succeed and this is golf. So it's easier to give it my all on a drill for 10 minutes and then change to the next one. Because if you do poorly, you kind of need to let it go and got to the next and try to accomplish that.
"So for me, it's not my entire practice, but I can do two or three games in each aspect of the game that in total is basically one to two hours. Sometimes I get it done in the first few minutes and it's done; sometimes I don't get it done.
"But it's just a way for me to put 100 per cent of my attention and focus on getting something done in that moment and have it spread out in different segments. Sometimes you need to do repetition, so it's not always 100 per cent everything."