- 4 minutes 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.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
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
00:09head
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. 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. 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
01:22hit a good
01:22drive down here. What's the first part of the thought process for you and then what's the second
01:26part? So I'm selecting my club. So in this case it does require a driver on this par five. I
01:31would then
01:32be stood behind my golf ball because I'm taking into account one the shot that I'm about to play
01:36straight 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
02:17and all I want you to look at is what shot am I going to play. Now for many of
02:22us 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
02:36a 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
02:54because 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
03:03and if
03:04you do that you should be able to hit shots a little bit like Alex has just hit there. Okay
03:08so 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
03:34the 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
03:42get 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
03:52the ball
03:52a bit too far forward but then we feel the need to help it up in the air. Now actually
03:57in 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
04:03ball
04:03half a ball further back than you would naturally and focus on making a little bit of a divot target
04:10side. So a nice little analogy here Neil, I've got this tee down on the ground, is think about you've
04:15got an out of bounds side behind the golf ball, an inbound side on the target side of the golf
04:19ball
04:20and to start with just try and make a bit of a bruising divot on that target side and then
04:26take
04:26that same swing thought of the ball a little bit further back and making that divot on target side
04:31into your shot. Now this requires a little bit of trust, trust in the fact that the technology at
04:35work within the hybrid is going to help get the ball up in the air. So I recommend you do
04:38this at
04:38the range because the more shots that you hit where you feel that you're sort of slightly hitting down
04:43on it the more comfortable you'll be in a scenario like this on the golf course. But as Alex says
04:47have this as a swing thought on the course, it could help. Alex the stage is set, you've got 225
04:53yards
04:53over water to a tight flag, I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong. I'm going to try him at
04:58the
04:58bunker here. Okay, good idea. Here we go. So again, I've moved it a little bit further back and I'm
05:04just focusing on where I'm contacting that ground. Safe, pushed. Safe. Not much of a divot but I mean
05:14I was taking a good look and as you'd expect, Alex is a PGA pro, the divot is slightly after
05:20where
05:20that T-peg is and if you can have that image in mind before hitting shots like this, it gives
05:24you a
05:24really positive outlook that could really make a difference. Okay, so if you want to shoot better
05:30scores this year, then hitting the ball onto the green from scenarios like this is I'd say a bit
05:37of a must. 100%. Yeah and I think Alex, what would be great here is if you could come up
05:42with some
05:42advice for me to help me become a bit more consistent from this sort of yardage. So avoiding hitting those
05:48kind of bad shots that end up costing you a bogey when you're in actually really a good position.
05:52Yeah, I think it's probably the most frustrating thing in golf. You feel like you've done the hard
05:55work from the tee and you get here. Okay, so a nice rule of thumb, anytime you've got a club
06:00that's
06:00seven iron and below, I want you to go and commit to a round of doing this and see what
06:05results you
06:05get of playing a three-quarter shot. Okay, right. So this example here is 144 yards. Would actually be
06:12a comfortable, maybe quite hard nine iron for me. I'm going to go one club more. Okay. I'm going to
06:18use
06:18my A-time and I'm going to follow this process. So I'm going to firstly grip down and I would
06:25have
06:25even amount of grip at the top of the bottom of the club. Okay. Rather than being gripped right at
06:29the top. How much is that taking off the shot, do you think? For me, probably about five yards. Okay.
06:32But I don't want you to think about it as sort of in detail as that. Just think about it.
06:36It's giving
06:37you more control. More control. So you've clubbed out but giving yourself more control. Exactly. The next
06:41thing I want you to think about is just moving that ball a position back. So my A-time would
06:46roughly be around, let's say, just left in my zip. I'm going to move it just to sort of on
06:51my zip.
06:51Okay. An example. And then when you're in the shot, just make that shoulder height swing through to
06:57shoulder height swing and pose that finish for three seconds. As simple as that. It is simple. I think
07:02it's something that we could all do or we could certainly all at least give it a go. As you
07:07say,
07:07in a practice round, see how well you score. It could become one of those things that becomes
07:10absolutely crucial to you when you're competing with a card in hand. 100%. Go on then, Alex. Have
07:16a go for this. Okay. So here we go. So I've already gripped down. I'm moving that ball position back
07:23and I'm making that tail swing. Lovely. Nice draw back towards the flag. And it just looks controlled,
07:33doesn't it? I think you can just see from Alex's swing there that it's not rushing into the ball.
07:37It's controlled. It's easy. And that's where consistently good strikes come from.
07:42Okay. So we're on the 12th hole here at the International. Par three, as you can see,
07:46stretched out behind me. And I suspect you already know where we're going with this.
07:49But there's some really important points that we need to make. Now, obviously, we're going to tell
07:53you to aim at the middle of the green in a scenario like this and take the flag out of
07:56play.
07:57The question is, Alex, how do you commit to doing that? Because a lot of mistakes come into play,
08:01even when people have the right intention in mind.
08:03A hundred percent. I think straight away, nice and simple, it's picking something out in the
08:07far ground. So for example, we've got these alignment sticks aimed at just on the end tree
08:13here. And that becomes a real good focus point. Anytime we just aim at the middle of the green,
08:17we can sort of maybe get drawn into the flag. So having that discipline, aiming about something
08:22in the far ground is where I go with it. Gives you a bit more focus. And then you're saying
08:26in
08:26practice, you would actually lay some alignment sticks down on the golf course, would you?
08:29If I'm going out on my own, which sometimes I do in the late summer evenings, I would pick out
08:35hard shots like this at my golf course and firstly, put my yellow line down. So this would be my
08:39ball
08:40to target line. Really key that we put this one down first because then we can build our stance
08:46around with the blue alignment stick, our ball to target line. Not the other way around because
08:51what I see for most golfers, we tend to do a bit of a bad mistake here is aim our
08:55body. This would
08:56then translate to our ball to target line being a little bit right at that. And as you can see
09:00from
09:01this shot, that's not going to end well. Let's say you're playing in a competition. You don't have
09:05your alignment sticks with you. How 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
09:26of
09:26actually getting the green and achieving our objective or having hopefully a two putt par,
09:31but then creating sort of an intermediate target of a divot. So essentially everything goes back to
09:37this 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. Right. This shot is tricky.
09:45I know. It's 175 odd yards, isn't it, Alex? It's windy. I'm going to try. So here we go.
09:52Being disciplined. And like we said, if you're on your own, put these down. It's really good for you.
10:02Beautiful. Looks pretty good. Beautiful. It's actually finishing
10:07just to the right of that branch that you picked out there. I'll take it.
10:10That's perfect. Couldn't be better. So I think that that shows if you can have the discipline
10:14around how to aim in tricky scenarios around the golf course that will build that positive mindset
10:19that you need to 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 putt it, putt it, which we can here because we've only got a
10:41little bit
10:42of fringe to go through. If I can chip it, run it. And then last resort, get it in the
10:47air.
10:48And now a few things you've got to take into account when going through that mantra is obviously
10:51the lie, the obstacle in front of you. But in this situation, we've got nothing in front
10:56of us and we've just graded what club we're going to use with a difference in the lie.
11:00Okay, fine. So what's then the sort of thought process, the swing thought for each of these
11:05shots? So putting here, I mean, it's a little bit hard. A lot of people would go with,
11:11take it back this far, go through this far to have a gauge of distance. How I do it,
11:15I make maybe three or four more practice swings, but looking towards target. Right. Okay. That just
11:21gives you a feel for that distance. Exactly that. Just trying to see what I think I've got to put
11:26into the shot in order to get it to go that distance. What I like about that also is that
11:30it keeps you quite loose in your grip pressure. So it stops you getting too tense while you stood
11:34over the ball. And that's what 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 to get there.
11:41We actually need a little bit of a lighter grip pressure to help us get it that way. Go on
11:45then,
11:45hit this one for us. This is going to move a little bit left to right as it goes over
11:49that brow.
11:49This is tricky. I think you judged that. I think that could be pretty good. Really well. Get out a
11:58bit.
11:59Go on. Very 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? So I'm going to play this in my nine
12:10iron. I use my nine as my chip and run club. Seven iron for me, I just feel it comes
12:14off a bit too
12:15hot. Fast. Yeah. Yeah. And I like the fact that nine gives you a bit of loft as well. So
12:19how I play
12:20this, I grip right down towards the bottom of the grip. I walk in a little bit closer, trying to
12:27encourage that shaft angle to get a little bit steeper. Pull my left foot back, put my weight on
12:31my left with the ball back. Just keep the triangle back and through. And through. Simple as that.
12:43And again, trying to get it to roll out like a putt. Yeah. Very good. Simple. And I think that's
12:47the key there. If you keep it as simple as that, what can go wrong? I know what can go
12:52wrong. I'm sure you do too, but fewer things can go wrong. Okay. So this is the higher tariff
12:56shot. Then this is the wedge shot. How are you thinking about this one? So I've gone with
12:59my 50 degree. Many of us might carry three or four different wedges in our bag. And this
13:04is sort of my lower lofted specialist wedge. How I play this one is very similar to the last
13:09one, to be honest. Okay. I wouldn't change too much apart from ball position. Okay. I'm just
13:14going to move it a little bit more towards the middle. Still keep my weight
13:17on my left and still keep this triangle in this sense because I don't really need to
13:21play it too high. You don't need to have loads of height, but you want that a little bit
13:24more loft. You want that a little bit more check control. Exactly. Okay. So I'm in, picturing
13:29the same. That's really well played. Hopefully you can see just how simple Alex has made those.
13:38Is that going to go in? Not quite. Hopefully you can see how simple Alex has made those three
13:43shots. And that's, I think the key here. If you can make these shots as simple as possible,
13:49then you're giving yourself the best possible chance of getting it close and getting away
13:52with a par. So there you have it. That's our look at the five best on course swing tips.
13:57Hopefully you found that useful and some, a couple of nuggets in there that you can take
14:01with you onto the golf course. The next time you plan, it should help your scoring. If
14:05you've enjoyed the video, please do hit the like button. But that's it for now from The
14:08London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Comments