The one thing I hear more often than not on the lesson tee is the desire to be consistent. Golfers have this dream that if they could just hit the same shot over and over again life would all be ok. They then get to work trying to train our golf swings to repeat the same movement over and over again, trying to mimic the same feels and impact positions. There are two huge problems with this mindset, first and foremost, you would be the first person to ever be able to repeat the same swing twice in a row. There are too many moving body parts in a golf swing to think we can replicate the same swing every time. Secondly, if you did build a consistent swing it would end up hurting your golf game more than helping. Golf is played on an ever-changing field, the type of grass you're hitting off of affects the swing, the slope affects the swing, your physical state affects your swing. If you only have one swing that works great off the flat fairway lies of a driving range, once you experience something different that swing will fall apart. So, what are we looking for if it's not consistency? Control.
Tour players don’t work to be more consistent, what they aim for is to have control over their golf ball. Control is the ability to know what your golf ball is going to do. Players that hit a 40-yard slice can easily become single-digit handicaps if they learn to control their slice. It doesn’t mean they have to fix the slice, it means that they need it to slice 40 yards every single time, not 10 yards one swing and 60 yards another. This goes for all parts of your game, your putting should never be consistent, it should always be in control though. Chipping? Every chip has so many different factors that come into play, good luck trying to make the same swing for every chip. Those who can control their chipping are the ones winning those $5 Nassau's.
If searching for consistency isn’t a good use of my practice time how do I develop control? Simple, stop trying to hit the same shot over and over again. When practicing, play different progressive games with yourself where each shot changes the target of the next shot. Leapfrog is the ultimate version of progressive games where each shot has to go past the previous one but cannot go longer than the barrier you set for yourself. If you are trying to work on hitting it straighter, do a horizontal version of leapfrog where you hit the first shot as far away from a target as possible and hit each shot progressively closer. Having an efficient technical swing certainly helps in developing control of your golf ball, but through skill practice, anyone can learn to control their swing and therefore control their golf ball.