Hi Simon

I'm not such an accomplished golfer, yet. So someone please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

I've learned from my own experience that practicing off mats can be a bad idea.

I learned golf practicing off grass, but then after a couple of years changed to a course which used mats on the range.
Pretty soon I developed a bad habit - hitting behind the ball. At least that's what started to happen on the course after a couple of months.

It took me quite some time to realise why I'd begun to hit fat shots.
Practicing on mats was somehow encouraging me to hit fat.
Having been a fairly crisp hitter before I met the mat, it got that I couldn't even drive without taking a divot before the ball sometimes.

Eventually I managed to work out what was wrong.

Here's my theory:


There are two ways that mats can make you hit it fat.

Firstly, if you hit a fat shot on a mat, the club tends to bounce or skid on the surface, and still make a reasonable contact with the ball. So your ball flight will mostly be okay, if a little shorter than normal due to the energy lost in hitting the mat first instead of the ball.
This means that the feedback you're getting from the ball flight could be misleading and telling you that you've made a good shot, when in fact you've hit it fat.
We assimilate what we practice, so over time, you naturally accommodate this into your swing and before you know it, you're swinging the same way on the course, and making fat shots there too.
Only, on the course, a fat shot doesn't produce a decent flight and reasonable length like it does on the mats, it produces a short, erratic flight and mud spattered clothes.

You can try to minimise this effect by listening to the contact of the club with ball. It's difficult when you're in the middle of a swing to hear this, but if you make a swing and instead of concentrating on the swing itself, you listen carefully for the sound of impact, you'll hear a thud-snick when you hit the mat first and then the ball. When you hit the ball first, you'll hear a snick-thud instead, or maybe just a snick.



Secondly, though less influential, is the height of the ball in relation to the height of your feet.
When you stand on turf, your feet naturally sink into the sod a little due to your body weight. Whereas the ball, which weighs very little, won't sink at all and in fact "sits up" on the turf.
This means you're ball is actually a little bit above the level of your feet when playing/practicing on level grass.
But on a mat, your body doesn't really sink at all, so your ball is at the same height as your feet.
So when you practice on a mat, you get used to the ball being a little lower than it is on the course.
But you spend more time practicing than playing, probably. For sure the average golf hits more balls on the range than on the course. So you get used to an unnatural, slightly lower ball position in relation to your body.
And when you get on the course, your swing plane then puts your impact point where you're used to having the ball, which is lower than the ball actually is on the turf.
Actually, it's not the ball which is too high on the course, but your body which is too high on the mat.
To counteract this effect, take plenty of practice swings when you play on the course, concentrating on just clipping the turf, to get the swing plane right.


In summary, either of the above consequences of playing on mats, or both combined, will encourage you to hit fat shots on the course if you're not careful and compensate as indicated.

I'm not saying don't practice on mats - many of us don't have the option of practicing on grass. But you need to take a lot of care that you're hitting the ball first when you do practice on mats, and that you take care that your swing plane is appropriate to the real ball position when you're on the course.



I like to think that this is another example of where functional training is important. That means, practice or training focussed on the activity which you're training for. This sounds obvious, but many people, for example, go to the gym and perform exercises which, while making them fitter or stronger, may not be exercises which will actually help their golf game/swing.

Now I make my practice as close to the real game on the course as possible:

I take my time between practice shots; I vary the shots/clubs I play; I aim for specific targets; I follow my on-course preshot routine; And I always practice off grass when I can.

And if I do have to practice on mats, I take a lot of care about hitting the ball first, and make lots of practice swings the next round I play.

And guess what, now I never hit a fat shot. Well, nearly never.

Hope this helps.
Tom