Biggest Driving Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Tour Coach Liam James to look at the biggest driving mistakes and how to avoid them!

Transcript

00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly

00:01 and welcome to the London Club and this video

00:03 on the biggest mistakes the players make off the tee.

00:06 We've teamed up with Ping and with tour coach Liam James

00:09 to offer you the best advice that we can

00:11 about how to stop hooking it, how to stop slicing it,

00:14 and also about how to find a little bit more distance

00:16 off the tee as well.

00:18 This is all about trying to make the game

00:20 as easy as possible, so if you do struggle off the tee,

00:23 this video should really help.

00:24 If you're new to the Golf Monthly channel,

00:26 please do hit the subscribe button

00:27 to make sure that you don't miss any of our videos.

00:29 Hit the like button if you're liking the video.

00:31 But let's head out now onto the golf course

00:32 here at the London Club and look at the biggest

00:34 driving mistakes the players make.

00:36 (upbeat music)

00:39 Okay Liam, let's start with a lack of distance off the tee,

00:44 a lack of speed.

00:45 If there was a fault that you see more often

00:47 than not with amateurs that costs them yardage,

00:50 what would it be, do you think?

00:52 - I'd say the biggest fault is them trying

00:53 to generate more speed in the manner that they do,

00:55 so the biggest thing that we start to see

00:58 more than anything is that in a bid to try

01:00 and hit the golf ball harder,

01:02 they're moving from side to side more often.

01:04 And then moving towards the target too much

01:07 is causing them actually to hit down

01:08 on the golf ball even more,

01:10 and essentially slice the golf ball.

01:12 So in a bid to try and hit the golf ball harder

01:14 and further, they're actually hitting it shorter.

01:16 So there are things that you can do in the setup

01:19 that will just make sure that you generate

01:21 a little bit more speed without losing the control

01:24 of where the ball strikes on the face.

01:25 - Yeah, and don't forget, you're looking for that

01:27 kind of high launch, low spin,

01:28 those perfect optimized launch conditions

01:31 to get the most out of your driver.

01:33 - Absolutely, and that's the thing,

01:35 even if players are swinging at slow speeds

01:37 or slower speeds than we see on the television,

01:40 we can still optimize those speeds

01:42 by making sure the impact factors are as good

01:44 as they possibly can be.

01:45 And 90% of the time, that's just how they set up

01:49 to the golf ball, that's got nothing to do

01:50 with what's happening in the swing.

01:51 - Okay, so give us some ideas about what people

01:54 should be looking out for.

01:55 - The biggest thing, first of all, is I think we need

01:57 to maximize everything we can in the setup

01:59 in order to actually wind up behind the golf ball

02:03 and give ourself the biggest range of movement

02:04 we possibly can.

02:05 And a very simple tip for that would be,

02:08 obviously, the first thing to just keep an eye on

02:10 is the ball position, we wanna make sure

02:11 that's inside my left heel.

02:13 But I've got a nice wide base here now,

02:15 but if you have a look, you can see my toes

02:18 are fractionally turned out.

02:19 Now, what that's actually enabling me to do now

02:22 is turn my hips, okay?

02:24 If we see players, which we see a lot of,

02:26 almost turned in with their toes,

02:28 it really restricts their range of movement

02:30 and it's impossible for them to make a full turn

02:32 up to the top of the basket.

02:33 - Yeah, so that little bit more range of movement

02:35 in your hips gives you more range of movement

02:37 in your shoulder, which is what you're looking for

02:39 to actually wind up.

02:40 - And then it's a bigger rotation,

02:41 it's not necessarily more effort,

02:43 it's not them doing it any faster.

02:46 All you're doing simply here is turning your toes out,

02:49 freeing your knees and your hips up

02:50 to complete a full turn.

02:52 And as a result of that, you're going to generate

02:54 more speed.

02:55 - Okay, go on then.

02:55 - Sure, I'll show you.

02:56 - George will do it, hit one for us.

02:58 - So again, ball up off that left heel,

03:01 I've got a nice wide base with my toes turned out,

03:03 I'm going to have a little rehearsal up to the top,

03:05 full rotation, then I'm just going to go ahead

03:07 and give it a hit.

03:08 - Yeah, hopefully, and what you should see

03:14 through the cameras there is just how well-centered

03:17 Liam stays over the shot, he's not making a big sway

03:19 off the ball and then back onto it,

03:21 because if you are, it's quite dangerous that, isn't it?

03:23 - Absolutely, and it may feel quicker,

03:27 it might feel like more effort,

03:28 but essentially all that's going to do

03:30 is increase your off-center hits,

03:32 whereas if you're doing, as we're mentioning here,

03:34 turning your toes out, big wide base,

03:36 nice rotation up to the top,

03:38 you're then going to stay behind it

03:39 and not only swing it faster just due to that,

03:42 but hit the middle of the face more often.

03:43 - Yeah, more speed and more control.

03:45 Okay, so we're going to move on to slices and hooks.

03:48 I think most golfers, their bad shot will likely be

03:50 one or other of these two.

03:52 So Liam, let's talk about,

03:53 I know that you're going to speak about them

03:55 in connection with each other,

03:56 because the thought, I guess,

03:57 is the kind of opposite of each other, right?

03:59 - Absolutely, I mean, you tend to see

04:01 very similar characteristics of a player

04:04 who's slicing the golf ball,

04:05 and then counter to that, you see the opposite

04:08 when you've seen a player hook it,

04:09 and generally, most of those things are coming

04:11 from the way they're setting up to the golf ball

04:13 and actually the way they're placing their hands

04:15 on the grip, so we start with the slicer.

04:18 - Yeah.

04:19 - The biggest thing that we'll start to see

04:20 with excessive slices of the golf ball

04:22 is quite simply where the golf club

04:25 is running through your left hand.

04:26 So players who get it too much into the palm, okay,

04:30 it's going to do two things for you

04:32 if you're too much in the palm.

04:33 It's going to lean you too much towards the target

04:35 in your second hand.

04:36 - And that's a set-up position you see a lot, isn't it?

04:38 - Absolutely right.

04:39 So their head's closer to the target

04:41 than their belt buckle is,

04:43 and that's going to cause them to hit out

04:44 and down on the golf ball,

04:46 and the second thing that grip's going to do

04:47 is that's going to make this club face

04:48 open up too much on the way back.

04:50 So now we've got the golf club coming from the outside

04:53 with the face wide open,

04:54 you're just going to hit slices.

04:55 - Hook then is the opposite issue, is it?

04:58 - Absolutely right.

04:59 So if we see a player with an excessively strong grip,

05:02 now to define strong grip,

05:04 I don't mean strong in strength,

05:05 I mean strong in,

05:07 if I was to look down at my left hand now,

05:09 I can see all four of my knuckles.

05:11 So that would define as a strong grip.

05:14 Now as a result of that,

05:15 what we're going to tend to see

05:17 is not much loft on the golf club at the top.

05:19 So we would call this a closed position with the club face,

05:23 not much loft,

05:24 and now the compensations that the players

05:26 are having to make in order to try

05:27 and get the ball up in the air now,

05:29 we're going to start to see a lot of leaning back,

05:31 and that's going to obviously cause the hook.

05:33 So just by two poor grip positions in the setup,

05:37 all these things, you know,

05:39 the slices are coming over it,

05:40 the hooks, they're leaning back,

05:42 so you've got to be careful with how you're setting up.

05:44 - So that begs the question,

05:45 what's the checkpoint that people need

05:47 to get the right grip on the club

05:49 to be stood correctly at the ball at address?

05:51 - So it's all, keep it really constant with the routine.

05:54 So the biggest thing I would say about this

05:56 is when you see golfers on the golf course,

05:59 it's where they actually place their hands

06:00 on the golf club in their routine.

06:02 So you'll see some players have it down here,

06:04 some players it's up in the air.

06:06 Keep it really consistent.

06:08 We want to hold the golf club up out in front of us,

06:10 shafts parallel with the ground here,

06:12 and I'm just going to run this golf club

06:14 just through the fingers of my left hand.

06:16 And if I place a little look now,

06:18 I just have a look at my left hand,

06:20 I've got a two knuckle left-hand grip now.

06:21 So that's what we would define as a neutral grip.

06:24 That's going to feel much weaker

06:26 to a guy who grips it strong,

06:27 and it's going to feel much stronger to the slices.

06:30 But just by fixing the left-hand grip,

06:33 it's going to offer us the chance to get set up

06:36 fractionally in behind the golf ball with my shirt buttons,

06:39 but now I've got a neutral left hand

06:40 in order to make sure that club face

06:42 is square throughout my swing.

06:43 - Okay.

06:44 Go on then Liam, hit one for us,

06:45 let's see what it looks like.

06:46 - So I'll show you my routine.

06:48 Shaft up in front of me, club in the fingers,

06:51 two knuckle left-hand grip,

06:53 and then I give it a hit.

06:57 - Lovely.

07:03 So there you have it.

07:05 If you are struggling with your driving,

07:06 I think that the advice that Liam has given us there

07:08 shows that it doesn't have to be a big technical fix

07:11 to do with any of the complicated movements

07:13 in your golf swing.

07:14 It can be something simple,

07:15 and a lot of the time,

07:17 these things can be done at address,

07:18 and there's no reason why any golfer can't get them right.

07:22 Thanks for watching.

07:22 We'll see you next time.

07:24 (upbeat music)

07:26 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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