How much time is too much time spent over the ball before hitting?

It’s a question you may have asked yourself — or perhaps thought about after watching your playing partner waggle and re-grip the club for 90 seconds before finally pulling the trigger.

It’s important to feel comfortable over the ball before starting your swing, but exactly how long should that take? GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lynn Marriott addressed this question in a recent video posted to the LPGA Professionals YouTube page — and her answer may help you improve (and perhaps curtail) your pre-shot routine in a helpful way.

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According to Marriott, players should be doing minimal thinking after addressing the ball. If you find your mind wandering and your limbs getting restless as you stand over your shot, you could probably benefit from Marriott’s concept of the “Think Box” and the “Play Box.”

The Think Box is basically a space away from where you address the ball where you can sort out all your thinking about the shot to come. Once you’re comfortable with the task at hand — yardage, club selection, shot strategy, aim — step in to your address position in the Play Box. From here, Marriott says it should take less than 10 seconds to execute your shot.

The Think Box/Play Box concept is useful because it engages your full attention to the task at hand, Marriott says.

“It’s about being present through your senses. It’s about being an athlete. It’s about making golf a sport again,” Marriott says. “Once you step in, you aim and align and you go.”

If you find that 10 seconds isn’t enough time in your Play Box, you need to revaluate how you’re spending time in your Think Box.

“After nine seconds, you start to have that internal dialogue,” Marriott says. “So make sure that you organize every shot. There’s a place to think and there’s a place to play.”

Give Marriott’s advice a try to reign in your wandering mind and start hitting more focused shots.