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Neil Tappin and PGA Pro Alex Elliott talk through the biggest mistakes golfers make when practising their games.
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00:03Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill and this
00:07video in which we're looking at the 7 biggest practice mistakes. We're going to take a look
00:11at everything from building fundamentals, how you practice under pressure, what you
00:16do with the final ball of a session, look at those mistakes that people regularly make
00:21and how to avoid them. In this video we are joined by Alex Elliott, he's a PGA professional,
00:26he's going to provide all the advice you need to make sure that your valuable time spent
00:30on the range is spent in the best way possible. Guys, if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel
00:34please do hit the subscribe button to make sure that you don't miss any of our videos,
00:37hit the like button if you like what you're watching, but let's head over, meet Alex and
00:42find out what the 7 biggest practice mistakes are.
00:54Okay, so the first one on our list relates to the way in which you kind of assess how
01:00you're practicing, in particular Alex, it's about where to video your swing from. It's
01:06one of the points that you came up with, where should you be videoing from and where shouldn't
01:09you be videoing from? For me, for example, if you get an online lesson it's really important
01:14that you get the camera angles from the right place. For one, coach is probably going to
01:18want it from down the line and from face on. And even if this is you just videoing your
01:22swing to do some self-analysis, it's really important because getting it from a different
01:26perspective will make your swing look slightly different.
01:29Okay. So my go-to angles are at 90 degrees, face on.
01:33Okay. And what do you see from that angle? What are the things that people should be looking
01:36at from that angle? I guess from that angle the kind of general things would be swaying,
01:39which is a lot of people would be looking at in their swing. So swaying off, sliding through,
01:44width of the backswing, club face through impact, hands ahead of the ball.
01:47But if you're slightly off the angle, it might look as if your ball position is too far back,
01:51like you're way ahead of the ball through impact when actually you're not whatever it might be.
01:56So actually you need to keep an eye on those things.
01:58Definitely. And then you could actually start critiquing things in your own game that don't
02:02need critiquing. And then you can go off the boil and actually think, well, why is it going off the
02:06boil?
02:06And you could actually think, because you've got the camera in the wrong angle,
02:10this is one of the reasons why you've gone off the boil a little bit.
02:13Which you don't need any more help in playing bad golf. I certainly don't.
02:16Definitely. And then what about down the line?
02:18Down the line, for me, this is where everybody wants to get the videos from.
02:22Yes. We all look at it from the classic over-the-top move.
02:24Am I into it? Am I shallow in the club? For me, really nice and simple.
02:28You can get a tripod, very inexpensive, getting off most online retail stores,
02:32and a holder for your iPad, a holder for your camera phone.
02:35Why? Okay. So here's sometimes I have been known to do this in the past.
02:41Going to the driving range, putting my phone down on the floor,
02:44sort of propped up against the wall, filming myself from ground level.
02:49But that's not good.
02:50No, just again, from the same point of view from looking at it from face on,
02:54it's going to look like a slightly different move.
02:55If you took it down at kind of ground level, I kind of guess you're looking at more of what
03:00the club's doing at impact.
03:02Right. Because you're going to see a lot more of what's happening at ground level.
03:05Whereas you're not going to see necessarily as well what's happening at the top of the swing.
03:07Exactly. And from that perspective, being down there, it could look like the club's coming slightly over the top.
03:12If you had it a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left.
03:14It's going to look like it's two different swings, even though it could be the same swing.
03:18So where exactly should it be then, Alex?
03:20Really nice and simple. A lot of time, you're in a bay, you've kind of got right angles if you're
03:24on a driving range.
03:25I like to have it at hand level. So hand level left to right and hand level up and down.
03:31Because that's going to give you a good perspective of what the overall swing is doing.
03:35Okay, fine.
03:35And if you get a tripod, one, it's steady. Two, you can get the same height every single time.
03:40And again, going back to constants, repetitiveness, this is all we're searching for in our golf swing.
03:45Yeah.
03:45So why not do it when we're actually analysing our swing as well?
03:48Okay, fine. Fine. Okay.
03:49I'll...
03:49Right, I've got you on camera here.
03:51Yeah.
03:51No pressure.
03:52Yeah.
03:54I've got to remember where I'm aiming.
04:06Okay, number six on our list relates to not warming up properly.
04:10Alex, I know this, for everyone watching this, it's not the most exciting topic, is it?
04:13Warming up.
04:14No, definitely not.
04:15But it is important, isn't it?
04:16And we're not going to talk about exactly how to warm up because we've produced video content on that in
04:20the past.
04:21You'll be able to find that on the YouTube channel.
04:23But Alex, talk about what the mistakes are that people make and why you really need to avoid them.
04:28I think we're all so self-critical about what our ball is doing.
04:31So if we're working on a certain thing and we're, say for example, we're trying to draw it with our
04:35coach, which is a common thing everybody tries to work on.
04:37We got on the range and we expect the first ball to be a draw.
04:40And we almost become so self-critical and so kind of predetermined about what the ball flight is doing at
04:45the start.
04:46That can certainly ruin our range session.
04:48Okay, yeah.
04:49So even going out there and saying, right, the first 10 balls and putting 10 balls to the side and
04:53saying, right, this week on this practice session, I'm going to use my odds.
04:56I'm just going to hit a few away, not worry about ball flight and almost kind of detach myself from
05:01ball flight.
05:02And then say after those 10 balls, that's when I start looking at my swing.
05:05And are you starting off slowly and building up pace or you've already done your stretching before that.
05:10So you should be starting at full pace.
05:12I mean, I would always start with pitching wedge or kind of one of my wedges build up through to
05:16seven iron.
05:17So, for example, today, I'd start with a pitching wedge, then probably go eight iron, six iron, four iron, and
05:22maybe then one driver and then back down to kind of hitting the lower irons just while I warm up.
05:27But ultimately, if we can just get tuned in to just getting a bit of contact on the ball.
05:31Yes.
05:32And the ball going down the range, not in specifically towards the target yet.
05:36Yeah.
05:36We don't attach ourselves to bad images, bad history.
05:39And then when we get into the session, we can set the tone of the session when we're actually warmed
05:43up and working on our particular things.
05:45Yeah.
05:45Yeah.
05:45So you can end up starting off on a fairly negative point, which can then affect the whole thing.
05:50Right.
05:50Alex, hit one for us so everyone can see how they hit.
05:53Not hit many.
05:54So this is good.
05:55A good.
05:56This is actually a true reflection.
06:01We're not worried about where it went.
06:02It may have gone straight towards the target, but Alex, we're not worried about where it went.
06:05So there you have it.
06:06If you are heading to the range any time soon, make sure that you do a little bit of warming
06:10up before you start working on your swing first.
06:12Because if you don't, you could ingrain a few faults and a sort of negative attitude towards what's going on
06:19that could affect you in the long run.
06:24Okay.
06:24So number five on our list is something that we all do from time to time.
06:27When we go to the range, you hit one shot, you look at it, you walk off the mat, you
06:31come back on, you hit another one, and you've not really thought too hard about your alignment.
06:36Alex, why is that such a big problem?
06:39For me, there's really two main reasons.
06:41Firstly, just a good habit of getting square alignment.
06:44You get on the golf course and you've got your alignment on the range good.
06:47Hopefully then you transition that to the course.
06:49So for example, if I was aiming straight down at this yellow flag here, if I didn't have a reference
06:54to where I was aiming and I built a habit of aiming a little bit to the right every time.
06:58Which we do.
06:59I mean, people do.
06:59I mean, even the pros do it.
07:00Yeah.
07:01Exactly.
07:02And then you take that to the course, well, then you could start missing it to the right.
07:05Or vice versa, you could actually make compensations in your swing of working a little bit left.
07:10Yes.
07:11So you could adapt to where you're aiming and you could swing it to adapt to where you're aiming.
07:15So I really think square alignment is number one important for just general alignment to target.
07:21But my second biggest point is, it's reference to ball flight.
07:24Okay.
07:25If you've not kind of got a reference to where you're aiming or alignment sticks down on the ground, and
07:29we'll show you that in a second, you could start predicting a ball flight and actually see a ball flight
07:33that travels right to left.
07:35But that's a ball flight that could start left of target and move further left.
07:38It's a pull hook.
07:39Exactly.
07:40Like if we look at the definition of a draw, it's a ball that starts the right of target and
07:44comes onto target.
07:45Yes.
07:45So if we know what target we're aiming at, we know what our actual ball flight is.
07:49Yeah.
07:49So we got on the course, we know what we've got coming out of our locker this week.
07:52Yeah.
07:52Okay.
07:53Well then that begs the, how do you do it?
07:56Okay.
07:56Obviously a lot of you out there I'm sure will have alignment sticks.
07:58If you don't, don't worry.
08:00Use your golf clubs.
08:00They do exactly the same job.
08:02Same.
08:02So how would you set up?
08:03Really nice and simple.
08:04I kind of like call it the train tracks.
08:06I can use two, three alignment sticks.
08:08Firstly, I would always set my ball to target line out and I always like to put this in front.
08:12So if we go straight down towards this yellow flag here, make sure the ball's on that.
08:19Secondly, then we're going to put our feet line.
08:21And for an ideal scenario, this is someone who's just aligning to a target.
08:25If you were drawing it, you'd move your feet line slightly to the right, slightly to the left.
08:28But just to have a baseline to what target you're going at, I like them to have my feet running
08:33parallel to this.
08:34So I'd have two parallel lines, one for my ball to target line, which I like to have in front,
08:38because I really think that gives you a good visual and something to take to the course.
08:42It's almost like a shot tracer pointing where you want it to go and then get into a good habit
08:46of having these feet running parallel.
08:48Okay.
08:49And then the last one as a midpoint reference to check that your shoulders are aligned.
08:54Yeah, exactly.
08:54Shoulders aligned.
08:54Where are my hands?
08:56Have I got a reference?
08:57My hands look too far ahead, too far back.
08:59And ultimately, I think golf's easier if you think of it in straight lines.
09:03Yeah.
09:03If we write, okay, this is my target.
09:05I'm trying to aim towards that rather than the guesswork of going, where am I?
09:10Yes.
09:11So there you have it.
09:11If you're going to the range, you're probably doing so because you want to get better at golf.
09:16And if you want to get better, you have to lay these foundations.
09:19They will make a big difference to the quality of your alignment and your swing as well.
09:32Slightly out of a heel, but it'll do.
09:36Alex, this next one is one I'm definitely guilty of.
09:39My favourite club in the bag is definitely my driver.
09:41And when I go to the range, I probably hit more shots with this club than I do any other
09:44club, partly because I'm trying to enjoy my range time.
09:47But maybe that's not the best way to improve.
09:49No, I think a lot of people, whether that be driver, favourite club is seven iron notoriously for some people.
09:55And you get into a rhythm of just searching for your favourite club and practicing with your favourite club.
09:59So we get to the course.
10:00So, for example, you like driver.
10:02Yeah.
10:02You get to say a six iron that you told me you don't like as much.
10:06You get in a situation where, well, oh, I don't know about this one because I don't actually hit any
10:10shots with it.
10:11Practice with it.
10:12Yeah.
10:12And I think the best and simplest way to do this with each session.
10:15Right.
10:16Okay.
10:16I'm going to hit my odds this session, so my odd irons, and then I'm going to go and hit
10:19my evens.
10:20And then ultimately we're spreading our wear one across our club.
10:24So our equipment lasts a bit longer.
10:26Yeah.
10:26You're going to hit your seven iron that gets absolutely battered where the rest of the golf clubs are okay.
10:29I'm guilty of doing the seven iron too much.
10:32So I just think ultimately the more you can practice like you do on the course, you're going to be
10:37in a better situation.
10:38Yes.
10:38And we know we don't follow a seven iron with a seven iron with a seven iron very often.
10:42We might be a seven iron, might then be a five iron, might be a four iron.
10:45Right.
10:46So you're mixing up the length of the shaft, you're changing ball positions.
10:49Exactly.
10:49Like those subtle changes that you're having to make out on the golf course.
10:52Definitely.
10:52So question then, Alex, a lot of people watching this, they will have problems specifically with a certain club.
10:58And I suspect a lot of people will find that it will be with their three wood or maybe like
11:03their three iron or four iron is a club that they, whenever they have to pull it out, they do
11:07so with a bit of dread.
11:08What's the tactic to improve those areas?
11:10For one, pull it out on the range.
11:13I really think if you were to pull that club out, I wouldn't leave it to the end of the
11:16session.
11:17I would use it in the kind of middle of your practice session.
11:19So once you warmed up, once you've hit a few shots, you've gone into a bit of rhythm and say,
11:23right, for these next 10 shots, I'm going to hit my four iron, for example.
11:27A lot of people don't like long irons.
11:28They try and get it into the air and find a way of hitting it because on the golf course,
11:33there's no pictures.
11:34All we need to have is an ability to, okay, with the long irons, especially for your club golfer, we're
11:39not expected to get it that close.
11:41It's sort of that kind of medium gap where, okay, we've got to get it near the green and then
11:45give us a chance of getting up and down.
11:46Getting up and down.
11:46If we hit the green, fantastic.
11:48Because it's a big thing.
11:49I think if you get into the range and you get your seven iron, you're always hitting it all for
11:52you, Neil, who likes the driver, and you're seeing the driver go down the range.
11:56Mentally, you're like, oh yeah, I've seen this one go.
11:58You get the new six iron out.
12:00You've not seen that go as much.
12:01Yeah.
12:02Straight away, mentally, you're on the back foot.
12:04Yes.
12:04And you're set up, naturally, you're in a dress position.
12:07You're kind of ready to hit driver.
12:08Then you stand over a six iron and it all feels a bit alien, a bit different.
12:12Right.
12:13So there you have it.
12:13Really simple stuff.
12:14If you are heading to the range, practice with a vast majority of clubs in the bag.
12:19Don't just stick to your favourite one.
12:25Okay, so the next one relates to pressure.
12:26A lot of people out there, Alex, will know that they probably should incorporate a bit of pressure into their
12:31practice.
12:32The question I've got for you is, can you really replicate the pressure that you feel on the golf course
12:37and can it help?
12:39I guess you can never really fully replicate it, but you can definitely go a long way to making a
12:44scenario which replicates it as close as you can on the range.
12:47Okay.
12:47So the best way I do it is if you get your iPhone or your smartphone out and you've got
12:52a note speed on your phone,
12:53and say we're on driver at the end of our session, we're going to have 10 golf balls, we're going
12:57to set a fairway,
12:58and we're going to have 10 shots written down on our phone.
13:01And I want us to have a tick if we hit the fairway.
13:04Okay.
13:04Left, right.
13:05And almost set a benchmark, okay, where I am this session.
13:08Okay, now I've got to beat that every single time.
13:11And don't cheat.
13:12Yeah.
13:12The temptation to cheat will be there, but try not to.
13:14So Alex, in this situation, where are the two, what's the fairway?
13:18I'm going to pick, you can see the kind of orangey tree on the right.
13:21I'm going to use the left edge of that one.
13:22Yeah.
13:23And then the same on the left.
13:24We've got kind of two trees here.
13:25It's quite a tight fairway.
13:27Practice hard.
13:27Is that not tight?
13:28Well, I'd be giving myself much more leeway for room than that.
13:31Go on then, Alex, hit one for us and then tell us what you'd then be writing down.
13:34Yeah.
13:35Another point though, if you set a smaller fairway than we get on the golf course, it's then going
13:39to feel a little bit easier as well.
13:40Well, that's true, but my worry would be that I would have no confidence when I got to the golf
13:43course,
13:43because I'd feel like I'd missed all the fairways before going out to play.
13:46Positivity here.
13:47That's what we want.
13:47Yeah.
13:48That's what I'm lacking.
13:49So I'll go through my fall routine as well with each shot.
13:55Right.
13:56Shot number one.
14:07Oh, it's depressingly straight down the middle there, Alex.
14:09What are you writing down there in your notepad?
14:11You just put a big tick next to it.
14:13And we've got the emojis on our phone and I think it's good.
14:15You put the big green tick, put whatever you've got on your phone because going forward mentally,
14:20if you can start seeing repetitiveness, okay, well, I've hit that fairway, I've hit that
14:23fairway, you'll not only build confidence, but you'll probably also develop a stock shot
14:27as well.
14:27Yes.
14:28And having a stock shot is so powerful.
14:30You know, a move that you can make that you know you can get the ball.
14:32Exactly.
14:32Now, question for you then, Alex.
14:34I know this is something that a lot of mental game coaches sort of talk about.
14:38Are you, when you're out on the golf course and you're under pressure, are you kind of,
14:42is there any part of you that's sort of picturing this sort of scenario on the range?
14:45Definitely.
14:46Definitely.
14:46I think whatever you can do, if, for example, you're coming down the last and you're on
14:51to beat your handicap by two shots, we all get a little bit nervous.
14:55We know we're going to lower our handicap now.
14:56You can go back to scenarios and actually, no, I had a tight affair on that range.
15:01I hit it.
15:02So you've got that belief that you can go forward and carry that to the course.
15:05So there you have it.
15:06I mean, golf without question is one of the most mentally demanding sports you can play.
15:10You can prepare for it on the range if you put a little bit of this into play.
15:17Okay, Alex.
15:18Next one.
15:19Machine gun practice.
15:20Something that I've definitely been guilty of in my time.
15:25What's the fault?
15:26What do you see people doing?
15:27If you were to walk down the range, like a local driving range, you'd see someone hit
15:31it, pull another ball, hit it, pull another ball.
15:33And especially if they're struggling with their game on a club that they don't like.
15:37Yes.
15:37Pull.
15:38Hit.
15:38Pull.
15:39Hit.
15:40Where's that gone?
15:41Disgusted.
15:41Pull another one in.
15:42Have another go.
15:43Exactly.
15:43And you don't really take into account what you're doing in your swing.
15:46You're searching for a different feeling every single time.
15:49And I think it then almost becomes a little bit of guesswork to actually, how do I get
15:53the ball for me to be the best possible way?
15:55Yes.
15:56So if we're someone who takes lessons or even if we're not someone who takes lessons,
15:59just taking a little bit of time in between each shot.
16:02One, it replicates what happens on the course.
16:04We've sometimes got five, 10 minute break on a par five, waiting on the tee.
16:08We haven't got that ability to go, oh, I've got another one to go here.
16:11Oh, okay.
16:12That wasn't good.
16:12Right.
16:13Okay.
16:13Reload.
16:13I got a second go here.
16:14We know we only have one go on the course.
16:17Yes.
16:18Of course.
16:18Yeah.
16:18So I kind of come up with a thing.
16:20And this is something that I do.
16:21A lot of people that come for a lesson is a five ball set.
16:23I call it.
16:23Okay.
16:24Three balls, which could be something what you've decided with your coach you want to work on.
16:29So say, for example, you were working on a little bit of club face control in a certain drill.
16:33You'd spend these three golf balls working on that area of the game.
16:36Okay.
16:36And then not really worrying about ball flight too much.
16:39Still having a target to go to.
16:41And then the final two, this is where ultimately I big believe in these two.
16:46We're not tuned in enough when we practice, especially if we're someone who pulls a ball,
16:51hits, pulls a ball, hits into actually performance on the course.
16:54So these two would be change of club, change of target, and trying to replicate going through your full routine
17:00of what happens on the course on the range.
17:03And are you trying to then, with those two balls, trying to lose all kind of technical thoughts of what
17:07you've been working on?
17:08Or are you still thinking about that stuff?
17:10I guess that's a person to person basis.
17:13Personally, I try to get people to have one, possibly two swing thoughts, absolute max.
17:18Definitely going more towards losing the swing thoughts than to having them.
17:22And almost trying to say, right, okay, this is the swing thought I had.
17:25I'm now going to try and hit a draw shot.
17:27I'm now going to try and hit a fade shot.
17:28Being definitely more tuned into the ball flight.
17:30So in the sense of a shot, I'm going to try and hit instead of a specific swing thought, which
17:34would be the other three.
17:35And I always say to everybody as well, machine gun practice, you could get 100 balls and do them in
17:4020 minutes.
17:41Yes.
17:41I say to all the people that I kind of help out.
17:44I say, well, go and get 50 and spend the same time you're hitting 50 as you were 100 or
17:49even longer just by setting them out in five ball sets.
17:52Yes.
17:53You take your time, you know what you're working on, and you're actually getting some real time feedback that's going
17:58to help you out on the course.
17:59And you can pay attention to things like your alignment and your posture and all of those good things that
18:03make a big difference to your game.
18:04Exactly.
18:05So if you are heading to the range, avoid the temptation of pulling a ball, hitting it, pulling another one,
18:09hitting it.
18:10It can actually do more harm than good.
18:25Well, that's my last ball of the session, Alex, and I've hit a bit of a slice there.
18:30What's the mistake?
18:32What you said to me, you said people have a last ball syndrome when they practice.
18:37What is it?
18:38And what's the mistake?
18:39We've only got one ball now, one chance to hit a good shot.
18:42And say, for example, we had 75 balls in our practice session.
18:44We're now on the 75th.
18:45I really believe that people determine their practice session on what that golf ball does.
18:50So if we had 74 good shots and we hit one bad one to finish, they remember that one.
18:55Well, that's true, but we're often told when it comes to practice that your last ball needs to be you're
19:01replicating the first tee shot.
19:03So if you're warming up to go out and play, often the tour players will say the last shot I
19:06hit will be the first shot I hit on the golf course.
19:09Is that not a good theory to have?
19:11Does that put too much pressure on that final ball?
19:13I guess if you perform well and it goes on the range, it's a good thing to do.
19:17But I don't want you to feel that that's going to determine how good your practice was.
19:21I think if we look at it realistically, a lot of people have probably one practice session a week and
19:25then go and play at the weekend.
19:26And they always lose thought of the 74 good shots or the 50 good shots and go,
19:32Blimey Neck, my last shot on Wednesday was a big slice off to the right.
19:37And all they're picturing now on the first tee is the ball doing this.
19:39Yeah.
19:40So again, this is kind of a double edged sword. If it goes well, it's great.
19:43It's fantastic. But what I would say is don't put yourself in a situation where it's the be all and
19:48end all.
19:48OK, well, so if you are heading to the range, try not to put too much of an emphasis on
19:53what happens with your final shot.
19:56So there you have it. Those were the seven biggest practice mistakes.
20:00Guys, I hope you've enjoyed the video. If you have, please do hit the like button and also leave some
20:05comments below.
20:05Was there anything that we were missing from our list? Things that you see when you head to the driving
20:10range?
20:10We'd be really interested to hear your thoughts. We'll get Alex on if there's any questions you have to answer
20:15them
20:15to make sure that you do get the most from your valuable practice time.
20:18Guys, thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.
20:28You
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