[comdpa]

Golf Machine folks have much to practice. EA, RFT, tracing, monitoring pressure points, look, look, look, etc. More than one can do in a single session. Ben Doyle stressed "new ball, new stance, new grip" Never stand so close to balls that you can rake them into place. Make sure you have to go get the next one. With significant arthritis my practice is limited. I have always practiced to educate my hands. After reading Mike Hebron's book play to learn I have been trying to rethink how I practice. My hand education has been to learn feels of RFT, learn the feel of startdown, the feel of a punch shot etc. Mike suggests that the goal might be learning the feel of the total motion and the ability to visualize the total motion.
This year I am going to focus more on that. I never get better unless I get more consistent. Hitting lots of ball doesn't always cure inconsistency. The comment "what were you thinking!" when you do something stupid might apply here. So if Homer says your mind should be "in your hands" we might expand on that in another thread.

I have a friend who simply says "mats lie" -- I don't even think he gets the pun!

In my experience, mats do two bad things: 1) they can mask fat shots and 2) they can discourage hitting "down".

...which is why I think it is safer to practice in front of a mirror. I used to hit about 300 balls daily on mats....ouch!