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