- 3 years ago
In this video Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Alex Elliott to discuss the 5 best on course swing tips. As we head into the competitive part of the season, these tips are about having just the right level of technical thought to play your best. These tee-to-green tips should help you find a swing that delivers good shots under pressure.
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00:00 - Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly,
00:02 and welcome to this video in which we're gonna look
00:03 at the five best on-course swing tips.
00:06 Now these are all things that will help you
00:08 as we head into the competitive part of the season.
00:11 Nothing too technical, but they're all designed
00:13 to help you think clearly on things
00:15 that are really gonna help you swing the club better
00:17 and score better as well.
00:19 Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Alex Elliott.
00:22 He's one of the Golf Monthly Top 50 coaches,
00:24 and as I say, his advice is really simple
00:26 and really effective.
00:27 Right, we're here at the London Club, let's get started.
00:30 (upbeat music)
00:32 Right, so the first one on our list
00:38 relates to how you prepare for golf shots.
00:41 Now Alex, you've got a line on the ground here.
00:43 You've put an alignment stick on the ground.
00:45 Why have you done that?
00:46 - I want you to think about this in every single shot,
00:48 a thinking zone and a playing zone.
00:51 Like golf's one of those sports, isn't it,
00:53 where some advices don't think about anything.
00:56 - Yeah. - Think about this,
00:57 think about that, whereas I want you to think
00:58 about two zones where you can be
01:01 a little bit more swing aware.
01:03 You can think about what swing thoughts
01:04 or what you've been working on with your PJ Pro.
01:06 And then once you step across this line,
01:09 you sort of let the shot dictate the swing
01:12 a little bit more.
01:13 - Okay, so tell us then,
01:15 so if this was you in this scenario,
01:17 and you're trying to hit the shot that we're facing here,
01:19 it's a tricky par five,
01:21 you need to hit a good drive down here,
01:23 what's the first part of the thought process for you,
01:25 and then what's the second part?
01:26 - So I'm selecting my club,
01:28 so in this case it does require a driver on this par five.
01:31 I would then be stood behind my golf ball
01:33 because I'm taking into account,
01:35 one, the shot that I'm about to play,
01:36 straight down target, that's gonna help my alignment.
01:39 But I'm also thinking about my two swing thoughts right now.
01:42 So for me, I get a little bit slidey,
01:45 so I'm making two practice swings,
01:47 exaggerating almost no slide and just a lot of turn.
01:52 So I'm thinking about my swing,
01:53 but I'm actually practically putting it into play as well.
01:56 - Right, so this is stuff that you would have
01:58 that you're working on at the range,
01:59 you're focusing on that here.
02:00 - 100%.
02:01 - And then you step over that line, and how does it change?
02:03 - So once I've stepped over that line,
02:05 what I like to do, Neil,
02:06 this is a really good point actually,
02:07 is stand directly behind my ball though.
02:09 'Cause then I'm actually getting a view
02:11 of what my ball to target line is.
02:13 So I'm stepping across this line,
02:15 I'm leaving that baggage behind,
02:17 and all I want you to look at is,
02:19 what shot am I gonna play?
02:21 Now, for many of us, if we're a higher handicapper,
02:24 that might seem a little bit unrealistic,
02:26 but how I'd bring this to life for you is,
02:28 imagine you're in the trees, and you had to hit a low shot.
02:30 Your environment would dictate
02:32 what shot you're about to hit.
02:33 - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:34 - So I want that to be as best you can.
02:35 Picture it, almost play a bit of a shot tracer
02:37 out in your mind, and then when you pull on the trigger,
02:40 you've got a better chance of playing the shot.
02:42 - Beautiful.
02:46 Slight fade, straight down the middle.
02:48 Yeah, and I think if you can employ this tactic,
02:51 it means that you don't have to be
02:52 without any technical thoughts on the golf course,
02:54 'cause a lot of people struggle
02:56 with having either too many technical thoughts or too few.
02:59 This just gives you the structure that you need
03:01 to be able to put it into play in the best way possible,
03:03 and if you do that, you should be able to hit shots
03:06 a little bit like Alex has just hit there.
03:08 Okay, so for this one, we're talking about
03:09 the longer shots that you need to hit from the fairway.
03:12 Shots that so many golfers, myself included,
03:15 really struggle with, you know,
03:16 your sort of 200-yard-plus shots.
03:19 And Alex, what's the advice to help people
03:21 get a bit more performance out of their clubs
03:23 in a scenario like this?
03:24 - I think first off, I would say
03:26 for higher-handicap golfers,
03:28 have more hybrids in your bag than long irons.
03:31 Just a little bit easier, a little bit more forgiving,
03:33 and they help you get it in the air.
03:34 - Yeah, and I think for most people watching this,
03:36 they probably, a lot of people
03:37 will already follow that tactic.
03:39 So how do you get the most out of them?
03:41 How do you make sure that you get
03:41 the strike that you're looking for?
03:43 - Well, I think the misconception with these is
03:45 we see it look a bit like a wood with a hybrid,
03:48 or with our longer irons, maybe they get a bit chunkier.
03:51 And we put the ball a bit too far forward,
03:53 but then we feel the need to help it up in the air.
03:56 Now, actually in golf,
03:58 it's a bit counterintuitive to do that.
04:00 I always think about it the opposite way.
04:02 I want you to move the ball,
04:03 half a ball further back than you would naturally,
04:07 and focus on making a little bit of a divot target side.
04:11 So a nice little analogy here, Neil,
04:12 I've got this tee down on the ground,
04:14 is think about you've got an out-of-bounds side
04:16 behind the golf ball,
04:17 an in-bounds side on the target side of the golf ball.
04:20 And to start with,
04:21 just try and make a bit of a bruising divot
04:24 on that target side.
04:25 - Yes.
04:26 - And then take that same swing thought
04:28 of the ball a little bit further back,
04:29 and making that divot on target side into your shot.
04:31 - Now this requires a little bit of trust.
04:33 Trust in the fact that the technology at work
04:35 within the hybrid is gonna help get the ball up in the air.
04:37 So I recommend you do this at the range,
04:39 because the more shots that you hit
04:40 where you feel that you're sort of
04:42 slightly hitting down on it,
04:43 the more comfortable you'll be
04:45 in a scenario like this on the golf course.
04:46 But as Alex says,
04:47 have this as a swing thought on the course,
04:50 it could help.
04:51 Alex, the stage is set.
04:52 We've got 225 yards over water to a tight flag.
04:55 I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong.
04:57 - I'm gonna try it at the bunker here.
04:59 - Okay, good idea.
05:01 - Here we go.
05:02 So again, I moved it a little bit further back,
05:04 and I'm just focusing on where I'm contacting that ground.
05:07 - Safe, pushed.
05:13 Not much of a divot,
05:14 but I mean, I was taking a good look,
05:15 and as you'd expect, Alex is a PGA pro,
05:18 the divot is slightly after where that T-peg is.
05:21 And if you can have that image in mind
05:22 before hitting shots like this,
05:23 it gives you a really positive outlook
05:25 that could really make a difference.
05:27 Okay, so if you wanna shoot better scores this year,
05:31 then hitting the ball onto the green
05:34 from scenarios like this is, I'd say, a bit of a must.
05:37 - 100%.
05:38 - Yeah, and I think, Alex, what would be great here
05:41 is if you could come up with some advice for me
05:44 to help me become a bit more consistent
05:46 from this sort of yardage.
05:47 So avoiding hitting those kind of bad shots
05:49 that end up costing you a bogey
05:50 when you're in actually really a good position.
05:52 - Yeah, I think it's probably
05:53 the most frustrating thing in golf.
05:54 You feel like you've done the hard work
05:55 from the T and you get here.
05:57 Okay, so a nice rule of thumb,
05:58 anytime you've got a club that's seven, nine and below,
06:02 I want you to go and commit to a round of doing this
06:04 and see what results you get of playing a three-quarter shot.
06:07 - Okay, right.
06:08 - So this example here is 144 yards.
06:11 Would actually be a comfortable,
06:13 maybe quite a hard nine-nine for me.
06:15 I'm gonna go one club more.
06:17 - Okay, yeah.
06:18 - I'm gonna use my ace iron.
06:20 And I'm gonna follow this process.
06:21 So I'm gonna firstly grip down
06:24 and that would have even amount of grip
06:26 at the top and the bottom of the club.
06:27 - Okay.
06:28 - Rather than being gripped right at the top.
06:28 - How much is that taking off the shot, do you think?
06:30 - For me, probably about five yards.
06:32 - Okay.
06:33 - But I don't want you to think about it
06:34 as sort of in detail as that.
06:36 Just think about it as giving you more control.
06:37 - More control, so you've clubbed out,
06:39 but giving yourself more control.
06:40 - Exactly.
06:41 The next thing I want you to think about
06:42 is just moving that ball a position back.
06:44 So my eight iron would roughly be around,
06:47 let's say just left of my zip.
06:49 I'm gonna move it just to sort of on my zip.
06:51 - Okay.
06:52 - For example.
06:53 And then when you're in the shot,
06:54 just make that shoulder height swing
06:57 through to shoulder height swing
06:58 and pose that finish for three seconds.
07:00 As simple as that.
07:01 - It is simple.
07:02 I think it's something that we could all do.
07:03 Or we could certainly all at least give it a go.
07:06 As you say, in a practice round.
07:07 See how well you score.
07:08 It could become one of those things
07:10 that becomes absolutely crucial to you
07:11 when you're competing with a card in hand.
07:14 - 100%.
07:15 - Go on then Alex, have a go for this.
07:16 - Okay, so here we go.
07:18 So I've already gripped down.
07:21 I'm moving that ball position back.
07:23 And I'm making that tail swing.
07:25 - Lovely.
07:30 Nice draw back towards the flag.
07:32 And it just looks controlled, doesn't it?
07:33 I think you can just see from Alex's swing there
07:35 that it's not rushing into the ball.
07:37 It's controlled.
07:38 It's easy.
07:39 And that's where consistently good strikes come from.
07:41 Okay, so we're on the 12th hole here
07:43 at the International.
07:44 Par three, as you can see, stretched out behind me.
07:46 And I suspect you already know where we're going with this.
07:49 But there's some really important points
07:51 that we need to make.
07:52 Now, obviously we're gonna tell you
07:53 to aim at the middle of the green in a scenario like this
07:55 and take the flag out of play.
07:57 The question is, Alex, how do you commit to doing that?
07:59 Because a lot of mistakes come into play
08:01 even when people have the right intention in mind.
08:03 - 100%.
08:04 I think straight away, nice and simple,
08:06 it's picking something out in the far ground.
08:08 So for example, we've got these alignment sticks aimed at
08:11 just on the end tree here.
08:13 And that becomes a real good focus point.
08:15 Anytime we just aim at the middle of the green,
08:17 we can sort of maybe get drawn into the flag.
08:20 So having that discipline, aiming about something
08:22 in the far ground is where I go with this.
08:24 - Gives you a bit more focus.
08:25 And then you're saying in practice,
08:27 you would actually lay some alignment sticks
08:28 down on the golf course, would you?
08:29 - Yeah, if I'm going out on my own,
08:31 which sometimes I do in the late summer evenings,
08:34 I would pick out hard shots like this at my golf course
08:37 and firstly put my yellow line down.
08:39 So this would be my ball to target line.
08:41 Really key that we put this one down first
08:43 because then we can build our stance around
08:46 with the blue alignment stick, our ball to target line.
08:49 Not the other way around because what I see for most golfers,
08:53 we tend to do a bit of a bad mistake here is aim our body.
08:56 This would then translate to our ball to target line
08:58 being a little bit right at that.
08:59 - And as you can see from this shot,
09:01 that's not gonna end well.
09:02 Let's say you're playing in a competition.
09:04 You don't have your alignment sticks with you.
09:06 How are you focusing on this process in that scenario?
09:10 - So I think we can thank Bernhard Lange for this one.
09:12 I like to stand behind the golf ball,
09:14 pick out my objective in the far distance.
09:17 So we've said this tree,
09:18 but I would go to the extreme of picking out a leaf
09:21 on that tree or a branch.
09:23 So aim small, miss small,
09:25 have a better chance of actually getting the green
09:27 and achieving our objective of having hopefully
09:29 a two-put par, but then creating sort of
09:32 an intermediate target of a divot.
09:35 So essentially everything goes back to this yellow line.
09:38 - Yeah. And you can see in the foreground,
09:39 much easier to align yourself with something
09:41 that's right here than it is something in the distance.
09:43 - 100%.
09:44 - Right, this shot is tricky.
09:45 - I know.
09:46 - It's at 175 odd yards, isn't it Alex?
09:47 It's windy.
09:48 - I'm gonna have to do it first.
09:50 I'm gonna try.
09:51 So here we go, being disciplined.
09:53 And like we said, if you're on your own,
09:55 put these down, it's really good for you.
09:57 - Beautiful.
10:04 Looks pretty good.
10:05 - Beautiful.
10:05 It's actually finishing just to the right of that branch
10:09 that you picked out there.
10:10 - I'll take it.
10:11 - It's perfect. Couldn't be better.
10:12 So I think that that shows if you can have the discipline
10:14 around how to aim in tricky scenarios around the golf course
10:17 that will build that positive mindset
10:19 that you need to hit good shots.
10:21 Okay, so the last tip on our list is about shot selection.
10:24 Really important, especially when it comes to the short game
10:27 'cause there's so many different options.
10:28 - Yeah.
10:29 - Alex, we've got three golf balls set out
10:30 in front of us here to explain the thinking.
10:33 What is that thinking?
10:34 - So I use this little mantra
10:35 and it's something that I do every time I play.
10:38 If I can put it, put it, which we can here
10:41 because we've only got a little bit of fringe to go through.
10:43 If I can chip it, run it.
10:45 - Okay.
10:46 - And then last resort, get it in the air.
10:47 And now a few things you've got to take into account
10:50 when going through that mantra is obviously the lie,
10:52 the obstacle in front of you.
10:54 But in this situation, we've got nothing in front of us
10:57 and we've just graded what club we're gonna use
10:59 with a difference in the lie.
11:00 - Okay, fine.
11:01 - So what's then the sort of thought process,
11:03 the swing thought for each of these shots?
11:06 - So putting here, I mean, it's a little bit hard.
11:09 A lot of people would go with, take it back this far,
11:12 go through this far to have a gauged distance.
11:14 How I do it, I make maybe three or four more practise swings
11:18 but looking towards target.
11:20 - Right, okay.
11:21 That just gives you a feel for that distance, yeah?
11:22 - Exactly that.
11:23 Just trying to see what I think I've got to put into the shot
11:27 in order to get it to go that distance.
11:28 - What I like about that also
11:30 is that it keeps you quite loose in your grip pressure.
11:32 So it stops you getting too tense
11:33 while you're stood over the ball
11:34 and that's what you're gonna need
11:35 if you're gonna judge the distance right.
11:37 - Exactly, especially on long puts like this.
11:38 If you start tensing up, you'll find it hard to get there.
11:41 We actually need a little bit of a lighter grip pressure
11:43 to help us get it that far.
11:45 - Go on then, hit this one for us.
11:45 - So it's gonna move a little bit left to right
11:48 as it goes over that brow.
11:49 - This is tricky.
11:50 I think you judged that.
11:55 - I think that could be pretty good.
11:56 - Really well, get out of it.
11:58 - Go on.
12:01 Very good, nicely played.
12:02 Okay, so then now you're faced with the chip and run shot.
12:05 What's the swing thought,
12:06 the technical approach to the chip and run?
12:09 - So I'm gonna play this in my nine iron.
12:11 I use my nine as my chip and run club.
12:12 Seven iron for me, I just feel it comes off a bit too hot.
12:15 - Fast, yeah.
12:16 - Yeah, and I like the fact that nine iron
12:17 gives you a bit of loft as well.
12:19 So how I play this,
12:21 I grip right down towards the bottom of the grip.
12:25 I walk in a little bit closer,
12:26 trying to encourage that shaft angle
12:28 to get a little bit steeper.
12:30 Pull my left foot back,
12:31 put my weight on my left with the ball back,
12:33 just keep the triangle back and through.
12:35 Simple as that.
12:36 - Go on then.
12:37 - And again, trying to get it to roll out like a putt.
12:45 - Yeah, very good.
12:46 Simple, and I think that's the key there.
12:48 If you keep it as simple as that,
12:50 what can go wrong?
12:51 I know what can go wrong.
12:52 I'm sure you do too, but fewer things can go wrong.
12:54 Okay, so this is the higher tariff shot,
12:56 then this is the wedge shot.
12:57 How are you thinking about this one?
12:58 - So I've gone with my 50 degree.
13:00 Many of us might carry three or four
13:02 different wedges in our bag.
13:03 And this is sort of my lower lofted specialist wedge.
13:07 How I play this one is very similar to the last one,
13:09 to be honest with you.
13:10 - Okay.
13:11 - I wouldn't change too much apart from ball position.
13:13 - Okay.
13:14 - I'm just gonna move it a little bit more
13:15 towards the middle.
13:16 Still keep my weight on my left
13:18 and still keep this triangle in this sense
13:19 because I don't really need to play it too high.
13:21 - You don't need to have loads of height.
13:23 But you want that little bit more loft,
13:24 you want that little bit more check control.
13:26 - Exactly.
13:27 So I'm in, picturing the same.
13:29 - That's really well played.
13:34 Hopefully you can see just how simple Alex has made those.
13:38 Is that gonna go in?
13:39 - Not quite.
13:41 - Oh, hopefully you can see how simple Alex
13:42 has made those three shots.
13:43 And that's, I think, the key here.
13:46 If you can make these shots as simple as possible,
13:49 then you're giving yourself the best possible chance
13:51 of getting it close and getting away with a par.
13:53 So there you have it.
13:54 That's our look at the five best on-course swing tips.
13:57 Hopefully you found that useful
13:58 and a couple of nuggets in there
14:00 that you can take with you onto the golf course
14:02 the next time you play and it should help your scoring.
14:05 If you've enjoyed the video,
14:05 please do hit the like button.
14:07 But that's it for now from the London Club.
14:08 Thanks for watching.
14:09 We'll see you next time.
14:10 (upbeat music)
14:13 (upbeat music)
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