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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional Alex Elliott to look at the main reasons why golfers get stuck at the same handicap for long periods. Alex offers some insights into the traps golfers fall into and provides advice on how to move forwards and possibly even to get your handicap down.
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00:00Hello everyone and welcome to the London Club. In this video we're going to take a look at the top
00:0410 reasons that golfers do not get better. Looking at everything from the mental challenges out on
00:10the golf course to some of the tough shots that are costing you. Right let's head out and get started.
00:18Right so number 10 on our list and the first one we're going to look at Alex is making
00:22swing changes mid-round. Yeah I think this can work both ways like you could make a swing change
00:29actually hit a decent shot if you've been struggling throughout that round but then you
00:34sort of question yourself well what did I do differently? You try it again and then the ball
00:37goes off in a different direction. So question for you then Alex, how many swing thoughts do you think
00:43is the right number of swing thoughts for a ball? I like to have two just in the sense of
00:47like having
00:48a back swing thought and then a trigger thought. Okay for example like mine would be take it wide
00:55and then belt buckle to target just to make sure I get through the ball but the two feelings that
01:01are something that are easy to do. Right okay. It's not like move this do this. No not a really
01:07technical complicated move. Exactly that and just actually if you're going to make a swing change
01:12either maybe get it from a YouTube video or get some advice from a PJ bro. Yeah so as Alex
01:17said two swing
01:18thoughts stick with them while you're on the golf course if it hasn't worked then make a change
01:23don't make that change while you're on the course.
01:28So number nine on our list is about distance. Alex what is it? Yeah I mean this might be a
01:34bit
01:34of a contradiction to what you've probably heard on online before and if you don't drive it far
01:39enough it's actually hard to lower your scores. Right okay so let's say you've got somebody out
01:44there who hits it 200 yards but pretty straight what sort of handicap would you say they could get to
01:49before they start to struggle to get any lower from that point? I would say trying to access
01:53single figures potentially. Right. Because you're going to drive it to a point where you're always
01:57going to have a medium to long iron into majority of par fours whereas we know long irons are hard
02:03to hit greens and it's hard to hit close so your proximity to the hole it's just generally harder
02:08to lower your scores that way. Yeah. Now Alex has got some advice on his YouTube channel about how to
02:13hit the ball further off the tee. We have plenty of videos about the same topic on our YouTube channel.
02:17If you are struggling on that front take a look at some advice to help you hit the ball a
02:21bit further.
02:22It could be the thing that is stopping you from shooting lower scores.
02:29Okay so this one is about being too hard on yourself putting too much pressure on your shoulders
02:34to perform. Alex what do you think is the mistake here that sort of causes players to play poorly?
02:40I think obviously we all want to play our best golf we all invest a lot of money a lot
02:43of time
02:44and we put the pressure on ourselves to perform and if it doesn't happen we get a little bit wound
02:50up sometimes potentially and it's a downward spiral. I agree with you right and I've definitely fallen
02:54foul of this in the past but we're all human beings it's kind of natural to want to play your
02:59best every
02:59time you go out especially if you've been investing in clubs and lessons so how do you take pressure
03:04away from yourself? I think it's basically managing your expectations so it's going out there going
03:10actually well I'm going to just enjoy today and to Athens. Right you think about this I bet you've
03:15done this exact scenario you've not played for two or three weeks you've come out and played your
03:18best golf. Yes. It's been raining you've gone out with waterproofs on wet gloves on expectations no
03:23one will shoot a good score today probably shot a good score. Yes. Expectation levels are lower you can
03:28relax and actually let your creative juices flow. Yeah so don't be too hard on yourself golf is a
03:34difficult sport maybe sort of try and feel your way into the round and then see how things are going
03:38before you
03:39start building any expectations because trying to go out there every single round from the first shot
03:43trying to shoot your lowest score is very difficult. Number seven is not tracking your stats. A lot of
03:53really valuable information that you might just be giving up on by not tracking your stats. Yeah. What
03:58should people be looking out for Alex here? I just think something things simple like how many fairways are
04:03we hitting how many greens regulation and then on that are we missing it more left or more right? Okay
04:08so it
04:08gives you an idea about how to work on your game but then also an idea about how to strategize
04:13while
04:13you're on the golf course. Yeah like take this flag here it's a right hand side flag if you miss
04:17more
04:17to the right it's probably not a good idea to short side yourself. Yes. So you can build in knowledge
04:21about your game as well as working on the correct areas and not just the areas you like to work
04:26on.
04:27Yeah and so you might have a theory about where you miss you might have a theory about how many
04:32fairways
04:32you hit how many greens you hit but actually backing it up with the data gives you that framework doesn't
04:36it?
04:36Exactly that and then you actually start to see improvements because you're actually working
04:41on the areas that need work. Yeah okay Alex you're going to have to hit this one for me. So
04:45we've
04:45got 191. Alex has got a very very skinny Cobra 4 iron in his hands. This is really going to
04:52test you
04:52out isn't it? And it's cold. And it's cold. You've taken it on Alex. You've actually committed
05:03exactly the crime that you were guarding helping people guard against. Yeah. But Alex's got a good
05:08short game so I'm sure he'll be fine.
05:13This one is about not having exactly the right equipment for your game. Alex what's the big mistake
05:19here? Yeah I think there's two. One with driver which most people probably think about when they
05:23go for a driver fitting but also with irons it's having the correct length and lie angle to help
05:28you play better golf. Okay so if you get it wrong what will players see? So if a club is
05:34too long
05:34and therefore the lie angle is too upright we'll start to see that golf ball launch a little bit left
05:40for the majority of your shots and even more so with lofted irons. If it was the opposite if that
05:45angle is too flat we're going to see that shot start to the right. Now where do most people swing
05:49this golf club? A little bit over stand up create it a little bit flatter out to the right. Yeah
05:55so
05:55having the right equipment for you crucial in terms of your accuracy with your irons. What about with
05:59the driver? With the driver I think we all have this thing about we have to have the stiffest shaft
06:03we
06:03have to have the club with the most or the least loft to act like we can hit it a
06:08long way. We're
06:09actually optimizing the correct shaft and possibly more loft for most golfers is going to make you hit it a
06:15so that low loft low spin performance might be good for your best swing and your best strike and
06:21your best shot but how often is that going to actually cost you when you've not got your best
06:26swing and strike on the ball? Exactly and that's where we want to play our better golf right we
06:30want to be able to get around the golf course round our handicap when we're not playing our best golf.
06:34Yeah some really handy advice there for getting the right equipment for your game.
06:42So number five on our list is about putting and Alex everyone could do with holding a few more
06:48putts doesn't matter what handicap you are but what's the sort of advice here what's the mistake
06:52that people make? I think we always try and get a little bit complicated because we think now our golf
06:59game is based on such fine margins it's now a hole not a fairway and not a green we've got
07:04to be really
07:05perfect. Okay yeah but so you're telling me we don't have to be perfect? Well not really no I
07:09think a lot of us try and be too perfect and then we don't have any flow to our stroke.
07:14Okay so if
07:15flow to your putting stroke is so important then give us a quick tip how do you get it? So
07:19I like to
07:20think of it like this I think a lot of it comes from grip pressure I always picture tiger now
07:24that's
07:24the analogy that I have his hands look comfortable on the club yeah so we're in there hands looking
07:29comfortable maybe give the shoulders a bit of a waggle and I have the practice swings looking at the hole
07:34just tuning myself into my senses about what I've got to actually do. Yeah and if you can do that
07:40then you don't have to think too much about how hard you're hitting the ball it should happen
07:44naturally yeah um come on then Alex I'm going to put you under pressure make it for us. You've given
07:47me a left to right here. I've given you a slight left to right although greens are perfect I'm giving
07:51you no excuses.
08:01Oh dear not enough flow. Not enough flow but a lovely putt.
08:08Okay so number four on our list is about strategy and Alex it's about the eight out of
08:13ten rule explain. Yeah I think no matter what level you are it's using this strategy where if I have
08:20a
08:20shot that I'm about to hit if I can't pull it off eight times out of ten then possibly it's
08:25rethinking
08:26either the club or error aiming. Okay good so how does it apply in this scenario? Well this is a
08:31tough
08:32hole here at the London club right water all down the left one place you can't go is left now
08:36most club
08:37golfers we hit it with a bit of a slice so you might think you know what if me take
08:41this fairway
08:42I've got to aim at the trouble. Yes. Let it come in whereas actually we know if I aim down
08:47the middle
08:47maybe hopefully hit the bullet straight but worst case scenario I'm in the right rough I'm in play.
08:52Yeah and you can always recover you can always make a sort of four or five the further up you
08:57get
08:57up the hole but if you're in the water off the tee because you've hit that brilliant tee shot that's
09:01gone dead straight then you're not going to be able to recover that. Exactly. Yeah so think about the
09:06eight out of ten rule while you're out on the golf course use it to your advantage it could really
09:09help. So number three is not warming up okay how many of us are guilty of not doing anything before
09:19we go and play golf to warm our bodies up it's really important also the other point here is that
09:24not
09:24everyone is going to have a facility like there is here at London club where you can go and hit
09:27balls
09:27if you do have a facility like this what's the best way of doing it kind of quickly because most
09:32people
09:33out there don't have hours to spend before they tear. I would if you've got a facility like this
09:36I'd do five minutes putting five minutes chipping finish off a little bit on the range head straight
09:42to the first tee whereas most people actually do it in the reverse yes but I want to do the
09:47last thing
09:47on the range the first thing I'm going to do on the first tee. Right so you're imagining that first
09:51tee
09:51shot that you're going to be hitting. Exactly. Okay and then if you don't have a facility like this
09:55so you don't have any practice facilities whatsoever how should you do it? Stretching just use your locker room
10:02like you can actually mobilize your body quite easily just by going in the locker room doing a
10:07few dynamic stretches and if you're wondering where to get that advice my TPI's got loads of
10:12different exercises and I use them quite regularly if I know if I'm going playing a tournament with
10:16a golf course that's got no range I'll go and spend 10 minutes in the locker room. Yeah it's really
10:21simple
10:21stuff and again it's the sort of preparation that we all know we should do but we often fail to
10:26do it
10:26if you do commit to doing it chances are those first few holes you might just score them a bit
10:31better.
10:36So number two on our list and it's something that stops a lot of golfers from lowering their
10:40handicaps lowering their scores is that they don't have a shot for a scenario like this they don't work
10:46on those scoring shots. Alex? Yeah and I think even for a higher handicap right in a scenario like
10:52this on a long par four we're going to be in a situation where we're going to have this 30
10:55yard chip
10:56for our third shot more often than not. Yes and even for higher handicappers you want to be getting
11:01it up and down every now and again you certainly never want to be getting down in four which means
11:06executing this shot a little bit better so Alex give us a tip. So I always think most people would
11:11resort most lofted clubs to probably get a shot like this I use the rule if I can chip it
11:15run it
11:16last resort get it in the air. Okay. So nice and simple fall slightly towards the back of your stance,
11:21narrow stance full width apart and wait on your lap. Okay. This makes it more of a long chip rather
11:27than like a pitch. Okay so which club have you got? So I've got pitching bench. Okay go on then
11:32let's see it.
11:32There we go I'm looking for around about two to three feet on running it up there as much as
11:37possible.
11:41Yeah lovely and just notice how simple that action is it's something that every golfer can try and
11:47replicate themselves keep it simple hit it a bit closer you might get it up and down a bit more
11:51often.
11:55Okay so number one the number one fault that is holding golfers back and stopping them from
12:00scoring their best is Alex? Practice. Right yeah so not using the range in the best way possible.
12:07Like I call it like machine gun fire people get their 100 ball that's gone in 30 minutes.
12:12Yeah and I think most people watching this will have heard this sort of tip before and they
12:16go to the range myself included with the best intentions yeah but before you know it suddenly
12:21you've hit 30 shots very quickly and you've stopped thinking about anything that you're working on
12:25so what's a good way of kind of thinking about it and committing to doing it properly?
12:29I think playing your hardest hole at your golf club in your head is a great way to actually well
12:35get
12:35over that hole but also tune yourself into actually playing some shots rather than out there just
12:40trying to make a perfect swing and oh that wasn't good right adjust do this yeah actually get out there
12:45and do something that reflects what you're going to do what you're trying to do on the golf course.
12:49So let me ask you then Alex so you've got driver in your hand here you're imagining the fifth hole
12:54or whatever it is at your course are you actually picturing the fairway what do you what do you see?
12:59Definitely I'm quite a person a visual person so for me it helps me picture the fairway I picture
13:04the shot and I'll set a boundary between let's say the two red flags in front of us.
13:08Right let's test you out then so what is the boundary what's the shot that you're hitting?
13:11Okay what can you see? So we'll use the fifth at my golf club it is as narrow or it
13:16perceives looks
13:17as narrow as these two red flags so I hit a fade so I'm thinking right can I fade it
13:22off the left
13:23flag into the middle of that fairway? Okay that's what I'm picturing. So I would do this as well going
13:29through my full routine because that's really important you reflect and you mirror what you want
13:35to do in the middle round on a Saturday. Yeah so you're more comfortable in all of those scenarios
13:39out the course. Beautiful beautiful and it's it's simple processes like that if you are serious
13:52about shooting low scores a bit more often than preparing yourself for the pressure of these
13:57scenarios getting you the most out of your practice time it's absolutely essential. So there you have it
14:03that's our look at the top 10 reasons golfers do not get better at the game hopefully you've found
14:08some of Alex's tips in there helpful some useful things to take out with you on the golf course
14:13going forward if there is anything that you think we've missed please do leave some comments below
14:18we'd love to hear what you think but that's it for now from the London club thanks for watching we'll
14:22see you next time
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