Is Hitting Golf Balls Into A Net Good Practice?

Hitting golf balls into a net can indeed improve the swing and ball striking elements of your game as well as swing feel and ball striking. Along with some other helpful training tools, coaching, and a training strategy, this can offer an easy, convenient and effective training method.

However, simply standing in front of the net with no purpose or intention behind your training will only get you sweaty and a bit frustrated and even make your game worse. Let’s explore how to make your net sessions effective and get some real gains in your game!

The Pros Of Using A Practise Net – Convenience & Cost

The first and most obvious one is the convenience of it. Set it up in your garden or garage, get the balls and clubs, and off you go. For many golfers, the logistics of loading clubs into the car and driving to the range is something for weekends only.

Plus, the cost of using the net after purchase is zero. Provided you don’t miss the net and hit too many over your neighbor’s wall and keep having to replenish balls, there is no cost outside of the initial purchase.

Over time the hitting mat may take some punishment and need to be replaced or repaired, and possibly the net and targets could take some wear and tear too, but we’re talking in the thousands of shots here.

Using The Net To Improve Your Swing Feel & Ball Striking

The golf swing is very much about feel, and every golfer feels their swing differently. The goal is to develop a good feel on the swing and to have it balanced, fluid, and consistent.

Achieving this will take time, effort, and money, as in most cases, some level of coaching will be required to establish an excellent fundamental action and then fine-tune elements of the swing.

At the range, a lot is going on around you. Other players, noise, and you can get ‘distracted ‘by watching your ball flight shot after shot and then looking to correct errors there and then.

In most cases, unless you have your coach with you, it’s unlikely that you will be able to successfully ‘fix’ an aspect of your swing on the range alone.

Alone on the hitting mat, you can focus in or ‘zone’ in on your swing elements, like club path or different setups. You can focus on how the strike feels at impact as you work through each training phase.

Improving ball striking is a critical part of playing good golf, and this is why all the pros spend so much time focussing on this. If you want to play better golf, then your first point is to become a better ball striker, and your net can help you do that.

Every golfer KNOWS when they have flushed a shot! It just feels incredible! That sound off the clubface and the effortless contact and not feeling the ball impact off the clubface are all signs that you’ve hit it GREAT!

Hitting balls into the practice net can and will help you achieve better ball striking, but again the key point here is to have a proper practice plan! Without this, you are doing nothing more than a cardio workout.