00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and this video on
00:04the biggest mistakes that players make off the tee. We've teamed up with Ping and with tour coach
00:09Liam James to offer you the best advice that we can about how to stop hooking it, how to stop
00:13slicing it and also about how to find a little bit more distance off the tee as well. This is
00:19all
00:19about trying to make the game as easy as possible so if you do struggle off the tee this video
00:23should
00:24really help. If you're new to the Golf Monthly channel please do hit the subscribe button to
00:27make sure you don't miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you're liking the video but let's
00:31head out now onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the biggest driving mistakes that
00:35players make. Okay, Lynn, let's start with a lack of distance off the tee, a lack of speed. If there
00:45was
00:45a fault that you see more often than not with amateurs that costs them yardage, what would it be, do
00:51you think?
00:52I'd say the biggest fault is them trying to generate more speed in the manner that they do so
00:56the biggest thing that we start to see more than anything is that in a bid to try and hit
01:01the golf ball harder
01:02they're moving from side to side more often and then moving towards the target too much is causing them
01:08actually to hit down on the golf ball even more and essentially slice the golf ball. So in a bid
01:13to try and hit
01:13the golf ball harder and further, they're actually hitting it shorter. So there are things that you can do in
01:18the
01:18setup that will just make sure that you generate a little bit more speed without losing the control
01:24of where the ball strikes on the face. Yeah, and don't forget you're looking for that kind of high
01:27launch, low spin, those perfect optimized launch conditions to get the most out of your driver.
01:33Absolutely, and that's the thing. Even if players are swinging at slow speeds or slower speeds than we
01:39see on the television, we can still optimize those speeds by making sure the impact factors are as good
01:44as they possibly can be. And 90% of the time, that's just how they set up to the golf
01:49ball. That's got
01:50nothing to do with what's happening in the swing. Okay, so give us some ideas about what people should
01:54be looking at. So the biggest thing first of all is, I think we need to maximize everything we can
01:59in the
01:59setup in order to actually wind up behind the golf ball and give ourselves the biggest range of
02:04movement we possibly can. And a very simple tip for that would be, obviously, the first thing to just
02:09keep an eye on is the ball position. We want to make sure that's inside my left heel. But I've
02:14got a
02:14nice wide base here now. But as you have a look, you can see my toes are fractionally turned out.
02:19Now,
02:20what that's actually enabling me to do now is turn my hips. Okay, if we see players, which we see
02:26a lot
02:26of, almost turned in with their toes, it really restricts their range of movement. And it's impossible
02:31for them to make a full turn up to the top of the back. Yeah, so that little bit more
02:35range movement in
02:35your hips gives you more range movement in your shoulder, which is what you're looking for.
02:39Absolutely. And then it's a bigger rotation. It's not necessarily more effort. It's not them doing
02:45it any faster. All you're all you're doing simply here is turning your toes out, freeing your knees
02:50and your hips up to complete a full turn. And as a result of that, you're going to generate more
02:54speed. Okay, go on then. Let's show I'll show you through it. Hit one for us. So again, ball up
03:00off
03:00that left heel. I've got a nice wide base with my toes turned out. I'm going to have a little
03:04rehearsal
03:04up to the top, full rotation. Then I'm just going to go ahead and give it a hit.
03:13Yeah, hopefully, and what you should see through the cameras there is just how well centred
03:16Liam stays over the shot. He's not making a big sway off the ball and then back onto it. Because
03:21if
03:21you are, it's quite dangerous that, isn't it? Absolutely. And it may feel like, might feel quicker.
03:27It might feel like more effort. But essentially, all that's going to do is increase your off-centre
03:31hits. Whereas if you're doing, as we're mentioning here, turning your toes out, big wide base,
03:37nice rotation up to the top, you're then going to stay behind it and not only swing it faster just
03:41due to that, but hit the middle of the face more often. Yeah, more speed and more control.
03:46Okay, so we're going to move on to slices and hooks. I think most golfers, their bad shot will likely
03:50be
03:51one or other of these two. So Liam, let's talk about, I know that you're going to speak about them
03:55in connection with each other. Because the fault, I guess, is the kind of opposite of each other,
03:59right? Absolutely. I mean, you tend to see very similar characteristics of a player who's slicing
04:04the golf ball. And then counter to that, you see the opposite when you've seen a player hook it. And
04:09generally, most of those things are coming from the way they're setting up to the golf ball and
04:13actually the way they're placing their hands on the grip. So we start with the slicer. Yeah.
04:19The biggest thing that we'll start to see with excessive slices of the golf ball is quite simply
04:23where the golf club is running through your left hand. So players who get it too much into the palm,
04:30okay, it's going to do two things for you if you're too much in the palm. It's going to lean
04:34you too
04:34much towards the target in your second. And that's a setup position you see a lot, isn't it?
04:38Absolutely right. So their head's closer to the target than their belt buckle is. And that's going
04:43to cause them to hit out and down on the golf ball. And the second thing that grip's going to
04:47do is
04:47that's going to make this club face open up too much on the way back. So now we've got the
04:51golf
04:52club coming from the outside with the face wide open. You're just going to hit slices.
04:55Hook then is the opposite issue, is it?
04:58Absolutely right. So if we see a player with an excessively strong grip now to define strong grip,
05:04I don't mean strong in strength. I mean strong in, if I was to look down at my left hand
05:09now,
05:09I can see all four of my knuckles. So that would define as a strong grip. Now, as a result
05:15of that,
05:16what we're going to tend to see is not much left on the golf club at the top. So we
05:20would call this
05:21a closed position with the club face, not much loft. And now the compensations that the players
05:26are having to make in order to try and get the ball up in the air now, we're going to
05:30start to
05:30see a lot of leaning back. And that's going to obviously cause the hook. So just by two poor
05:35grip positions in the setup, all these things, you know, the slices are coming over it, the hooks,
05:41they're leaning back. So, you know, you've got to be careful with how you're setting up.
05:44So that begs the question, what's the checkpoint that people need to get the right grip on
05:48the club to be stood correctly at the ball at a dress?
05:51So it's all, keep it really constant with the routine. So the biggest thing I would say about
05:56this is when you see golfers on the golf course, it's where they actually place their hands on the
06:01golf club in their routine. So you'll see some players have it down here, some players it's up
06:05in the air. Keep it really consistent. We want to hold the golf club up out in front of us,
06:10shafts parallel with the ground here. And I'm just going to run this golf club just through
06:14the fingers of my left hand. And if I place a little look now, I just have a look at
06:19my left
06:19hand. I've got a two knuckle left hand grip now. So that's what we would define as a neutral grip.
06:24That's going to feel much weaker to a guy who grips it strong. And it's going to feel much stronger
06:29to
06:29the slices. But just by fixing the left hand grip, it's going to offer us the chance to get set
06:35up
06:36fractionally in behind the golf ball with my shirt buttons. But now I've got a neutral left hand
06:40in order to make sure that club face is square throughout my swing.
06:44Okay. Go on then Liam, hit one for us. Let's see what it looks like.
06:47So I'll show you my routine. Shaft up in front of me, clubbing the fingers, two knuckle left hand grip.
06:55And then I'll give it a hit.
07:02Lovely. So there you have it. If you are struggling with your driving, I think that the advice that Liam
07:08has given us there shows that it doesn't have to be a big technical fix to do with any of
07:12the
07:12complicated movements in your golf swing. It can be something simple. And a lot of the time,
07:17these things can be done at address and there's no reason why any golfer can't get them right.
07:22Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
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