My hands can't cope!

I have just started a new regimé of practice and for the first three days i felt fine about starting at 7:00am and practicing up until 6:00pm.

The only problem is, my hands are all blistered and now i can't grip the club properly.

What shall I do? Carry on and try toughening my hands up or take a break until they heal and carry on?

Well, you could tape the blisters and carry on. Maybe try wearing gloves on both hands for the next while (and still tape. A broken blister is an invitation for infection).

Hi James,

I admire you work ethic and the effort you are attempting to put into your game, however I feel that you could be harming your long term game.

Not even VJ or Tiger spend that much time at the range or practice ground, you need to take good long breaks during the day maybe an hour mid-morning and a two hour lunch with an extra hour break in the afternoon.

The reason you should take these breaks is that if you become tied with over practice like hitting to many balls in one session then your swing will change and become lazy, hence damage your swing.

There is nothing wrong with practicing all day but take plenty of breaks, as for the blisters let them heal a bit before starting again.


Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

Thanks for your support guys this has give me some good insight into what to do. I think the best thing to do is to take many breaks and don't over work myself because it could damage my game in the future like you said.

Thanks for your help

James

Been there. Soak hands in hot {warm} SALT water. This will build up callous on your palms & fingers.

Plan on going pro? Do you have a coach that is telling you to practice that much?....Sounds a bit much to me for practice....Believe me, I don't mind hitting the range and the putting /chipping green for 2-3 hours everyday...That just seems a bit too long.JMO

Your practice regime seems a bit extreme, I would take a break until they heal. However by doing this you have uncovered a big problem, your grip, if you are getting blisters, it means you are having grip problems. The fact that you got blisters by difinition means the club is moving in your hands, a bit like good shoes, properly fitted shoes that won't let the feet move around and you can walk or run all day without blisters on your feet, you'll be tired, but no blisters, by contrast, feet start moving around, blisters show up.

Once your hands heal, work on that grip, try hitting three balls in a round without letting go of club or regripping, you should be able to do that easily, if the club moves after the first or second shot and you must regrip, then your grip is incorrect, either in placement or grip pressure.

As a general rule, usually gripping to tightly will result in blisters, but not always. Sometimes it results from hitting toe or heal shots, causes the club to twist in the hands. Once in great while, it is caused by using the wrong size grip for your hands, but that is rare.

As to practice, I wouldn't go beyond a few buckets, followed by no more then hour on the practice green, and maybe hour on the putting green, you can cover that in three hours easily. would be like playing two rounds of golf. Anything beyond that, and your body will just be too tired, your body will begin to compensate, your swing will suffer.

If your hands are not coping you are not practising enough. You should be up at first light, and should not finish until darkness and your hands should be bleeding. Henry Cotton practised until his hands bled.

James, it serves no purpose to practice so much that you get blisters that prevent you from practicing. Find the point where blisters begin to occur. Practice only until that point and no more. For me, that point is about 500 balls. When you must practice longer than that, go to the practice green or chipping green and continue your practice there. It will be very difficult to get blisters when you putt or chip.

You appear dedicated, here's some reading material for more information on practice:

http://www.golf-tuition-online.com/g...se-method.html (Practice: Purpose and Method)