Most golfers practice on a routine basis with the mindset that practice makes perfect. A recent blog post from Life in the Rough notes that practice does not make perfect; it makes permanent!

Practice is great, but if you are practicing the wrong techniques, then you are just making those incorrect techniques permanent.

Here are a few examples of practices that can hurt your game:

The Problem of Putt-Putt-Putt: The blog describes this scenario as “You grab three balls and head to the practice green. After finding a putt you’d like to practice with a certain distance and break, you set the three balls down in a line perpendicular to the direction of the hole, maybe 6-12 inches from each other. You step back, read the putt and then address the first ball. You make your stroke, taking note of whether you had the speed and line correct. You then shuffle forward to the second ball and stroke it toward the hole, trying to adapt to what you learned the first time. Finally, you repeat with the third ball.”

The problem here is that you’re not going through your entire putting routine for each putt and that you’re really not learning anything on the second and third putts.

The Power of Routine: This happens when you don’t complete your pre-shot routine during practice shots. If you don’t do it when you practice, you’re depriving yourself of a happy place that you can go to when the pressure mounts.

Can you think of any bad practice techniques that may be hurting your game? Read the full blog post.