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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins. They discuss some of those simple lessons we all get taught when we first pick up the game but that we all forget! These are the simple and effective tips that can make a huge difference to your scoring potential. Katie's advice should help you from tee-to-green!
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
00:03and this video in which we're going to take a look at the seven tips that every golfer forgets.
00:09Now these are all things that you'll pick up as you play golf over the years. The really simple
00:13stuff that can actually make a big difference to your scoring but that from time to time we all
00:19forget. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Katie Dawkins. She's a PGA pro,
00:24she's one of the Golf Monthly top 50 coaches and she's going to talk you through everything
00:28you need to know and it should help you in all areas of the game from tee to green.
00:32Right, let's get started.
00:38Right, so for our first one we're going to talk about the speed of your swing and in particular
00:42the tempo of your golf swing. Katie, what do people forget here? I think people tend to forget that
00:49this is a golf swing, it's not a golf hit and I think that's probably the key thought for a
00:55lot
00:55of people to kind of bank in the memory banks because actually the fact, the act of the golf swing
01:00suggests that there's a natural flow to it, there's a natural swing back and swing through.
01:05The problem people tend to find is that they've got lots of swing thoughts going on in there in
01:10their minds and that tends to stunt this nice natural rhythm that we're looking for in the golf
01:15swing. So you tend to find people thinking about stuff too much and therefore even if you're a decent
01:20sports person, you've got a good ability to hit a ball with a racket, a club, a bat, whatever you
01:26happen to be using, that can sometimes disappear just because you're overthinking it and you're
01:31trying to hit it and trying to force the ball to do what you want it to do. It's such
01:34a good point.
01:35I think my specific issue on this, I think, is that I tend to start getting too aggressive when I'm
01:42on
01:42the golf course, under pressure, start snatching at it a little bit too much. So, okay, so most people
01:47watching this will know, tempo really important. So how do people practice it? How do you make sure
01:52that you don't go too far wrong? I think it's important to have something that you can take
01:57out on the golf course with you because like you said, there's situations out there where you need
02:01a little bit of restraining perhaps. So you actually need just to calm things down a bit.
02:09So a really good drill to do that is to actually maybe do one of your practice swings or just
02:13your
02:14a sole practicing with your feet together because what that does is it starts to create this lovely
02:21freewheeling chilled out tempo. If you go at it like a bat out of hell with your feet together,
02:26guess what? You fall over. So you're throwing yourself, throwing yourself off balance.
02:30Okay. So if you are somebody like me who has a tendency to snatch at their shots a little bit
02:34too much,
02:34that feeling that you're hitting and not swinging, try to incorporate that into your pre-shot routine.
02:44Okay. So we have reached the inevitable part of this video, which we are going to talk about
02:48alignment and most golfers watching this will know how important it is. And yet there'll be a lot of
02:52people watching this that don't do it correctly every time. And that's because they're forgetting
02:57something. What is it that golfers tend to forget about aiming properly? I think the biggest thing golfers
03:02tend to forget with alignment is they forget that it's not their body that's lined up to the target.
03:07They're on those old train tracks. So the ball and the target are on one train track,
03:12your feet near hips and shoulders are on the other. So in theory, you're running parallel to your target.
03:17But the problem is when a lot of people set up to the ball is they look down their shoulder
03:21and they
03:22tend to kind of shuffle themselves and aim themselves at. So they've skewed themselves across the line.
03:27Yes. So what's the process? How do you get it right time and time again?
03:32So you need to build it into your pre-shot routine. So you need to stand behind the ball,
03:36use your club almost like a ruler, point it at your target, pull the club down and pick yourself a
03:41mini
03:41target just in front of the ball. It's so much easier to get yourself lined up on those train
03:46tracks because you can see the tracks down there. Yeah. When we're looking up at the target, it's
03:50much easier to have a little shuffle, do a little dance and immediately you've pushed yourself offline.
03:56Yeah. So having a mini target is probably my biggest tip for this and being able to aim yourself
04:02to that is much, much easier than the longer one. Yeah. And it's so important. So if you can just
04:06do what
04:06Katie said and get it right more often, chances are you'll also start making better swings,
04:11better contacts and just generally playing golf a little bit better.
04:19Okay. So we've come down to the green here and Katie, we're talking about chipping.
04:23What do people forget to do in a situation like this?
04:27I think the biggest problem people have when it comes to shots out on the course around the green
04:32is they choose the wrong club. Right. So I think there's that idea that because I'm chipping,
04:36I need to look good and they want that savvy-esque sort of high floaty shot that's going to land
04:41right
04:41by the flag and zip back and stop. That's not reality. Reality would be if I was to give you
04:47a
04:47ball and throw it to the flag. Go on then. Yeah, right. I'm not going to go up and over
04:52like that
04:52because I've got no control over it. The bounce is going to be more unpredictable. Everything's just a
04:57little bit more dangerous. My safest possible option would be to almost play lawn bowls basically. So
05:02I'd roll it on the first available bit of green and it would run into the flag. Yeah. So then
05:08what
05:09I'd want you to do out on the golf course is kind of put into your hand the club that
05:13best fits that
05:14carry and roll. Right. So for me that went low and rolled out so it'd probably be something like an
05:19eight iron. Yeah. The majority of people would not be choosing an eight iron from here. Well, I think that
05:24they'd possibly just automatically grab the lob wedge or the sand wedge. Yeah. Whatever they're
05:28whatever shot they're facing around the green. I know that I probably have a tendency to do that
05:32a bit from time to time just immediately pick the club. You just want to look the best you can
05:36possibly look and for a lot of people that's the ball in the air. But what's interesting about this
05:40case is that you're saying work backwards figure out what the shot looks like the best most reliable
05:44looking shot what it looks like and then pick your club. So with this little short chip this almost tick
05:50tock action I can afford to miss hit it a little bit and still get away with it. I think
05:55that's
05:55the important thing. Go on then. Miss hit it for us and get away with it. That's the important miss
05:58hit
05:58it and get away with it. Oh great. So all I'm going to do is just that little tick tock
06:04bounce it on
06:05that top bit and let it roll around. This is good. You told me to miss hit it and I
06:11said no.
06:11No you did it perfectly but I think the point remains keep it simple it's the best way to do
06:16it.
06:21Posture it's something that I think most golfers understand how important it is to have a nice
06:24athletic posture yet the amount of golfers that you see out on the course who have stood over the
06:29ball not looking particularly athletic. Why is it so important to get right firstly Katie? It's so
06:36important to get right because posture good posture gives you good balance which in turn gives
06:41you control in your golf swing and we want control in our golf swing right yeah we don't want to
06:46stand
06:46there in a position where we're rocking about the place and this is what happens when the position
06:50that you're setting up in is poor you're setting up in a state of almost sitting down or sometimes
06:57tipped over too much but the one we see the most is the fat back kind of slightly lazy posture
07:02almost
07:03what you've got there is you've got the weight on the heels so you're going to swing the club back
07:08and
07:08you're going to be rocking around rocking all over the place what we want to see is a more of
07:13a
07:14planted onto the balls of the feet and the ability to actually be in balance as you come back to
07:19the
07:19ball good posture to begin with is usually going to mean better posture as you hit the shot yeah poor
07:25posture you're just not going to introduce any of the bigger muscles so you're not going to get that
07:28lovely rotation and that lovely weight transfer through the ball so what's a good tip what's a good
07:33checkpoint to make sure you're in the right posture you could stand in front of a mirror at home and
07:38actually take your posture if the mirror's there take your posture set yourself up have a look go
07:42yeah all right that's great but we want something we can take onto the golf course you do see people
07:48out there going tippy over flex your knees and going through almost a little routine in their heads
07:52but that can introduce tension okay in good posture you should be able to a bit like you're about to
07:57return to serve in tennis you should be able to give your heels a little tap that tells us we're
08:02ready to run
08:02somewhere tells us we're athletic if you're setting up to the ball and you try and do that and you
08:08think oh blimey i'm rocking back already because i can tap my toes if you're a toe tapper your posture's
08:14lacking athleticism it's a really simple tip and if you do have issues with your posture over the ball
08:19then maybe introduce that into your pre-shot routine it could make all the difference
08:29okay so we're going to talk about bunker play and obviously the two biggest mistakes are either
08:33leaving it in the bunker or thinning it over the back the lesson that people forget here
08:38is that the bunker shot the greenslide bunker shot is the only one in which you're not trying to make
08:43contact with the ball first right exactly and i think this is the thing is that we don't want to
08:49hit
08:49the ball first we want to hit the sand behind the ball so it floats out on that lovely cushion
08:53so it's really important here that we address the part we want to hit so we're actually addressing the
08:59sand behind the ball okay so talk us through how you do it so it's important to almost think of
09:04the
09:04ball as being sat on a fried egg so the ball is the yolk essentially just draw a couple of
09:09little
09:09circles obviously not allowed to do this in real play for obvious reasons but draw a couple of circles
09:15around the ball and you can even give yourself three circles in a row almost like traffic lights
09:20practice hitting the right bit of sand so if i was to have a little practice traffic light if you
09:25like
09:25so i'm going to set myself up swing back swing through and take the whole thing out what i'm then
09:31going to do is set myself up to the back of the egg where the ball is and again almost
09:37try and repeat
09:38it so i'm just letting the ball get in the way but i'm aiming to hit the back of that
09:41egg
09:44perfect great shot and you'll notice i mean that description there that Katie's given is so simple
09:49it's something that every golfer can do but you do need to practice these things trust it and practice
09:55it it should help okay so our next one is about grip pressure and this is starting to feel actually
10:05a
10:05bit like a personal counseling session for me because i know that under pressure i have a tendency to really
10:10squeeze the grip and strangle the grip and i know that's not good but can you explain to everyone
10:16why it's not good so the first thing is you're not alone probably 90 of the people that i teach
10:21are strangling the club now the effect that this has on your ability to get back to that ball is
10:27huge
10:28the reason being if you're holding the club in an appropriate manner an appropriate amount of pressure
10:33is being applied you're holding it almost like a tube of toothpaste with the lid off so that would be
10:37quite a good way of remembering it what people tend to do is they tend to go from setting themselves
10:43up
10:44holding it all right and then suddenly the squeeze comes in so you've got a nice relaxed hold where
10:48the club's on the ground check out what my club face does when i squeeze it that's literally down to
10:54me strengthening my grip my forearms are contracting and therefore shortening and lo and behold you can
11:01imagine the shots that you're going to get from that if you've got an iron in hand you're likely to
11:04hit
11:04fins yes maybe tops absolutely yeah you are but also it's the impact that it has on your rhythm which
11:14we've talked about before you want that free easy swing you want that lovely flow to your golf swing
11:20yeah so as katie said a nice light grip pressure it'll help your rhythm it'll help all sorts of different
11:26things in your golf swing okay so the number one tip on our list that golfers forget is they forget
11:37to aim at the middle of the green in particular when the flag is cut tight to one side or
11:43another so
11:43imagine for a second that the green behind katie and i here imagine that flag is tucked just over the
11:49bunkers on the right hand side appreciate it's not today but imagine that it is that's a really dangerous
11:55flag yeah especially when you consider katie you've got so much room to aim out on this green haven't
12:00you and we've all said it we've all got up there and gone damn it i'm in the bunker look
12:04how much room
12:05there is on the left yes and for some reason reason we tend to go at tiger line at the
12:11flag stick
12:12something that will really help you to avoid this and remind you that actually the middle of the green
12:17you want to be on the middle of the green because you're never going to get a really long putt
12:21you're never going to be too far from the flag are you no but it's just a safe place to
12:25be
12:25but a way that you can do that is actually pay attention to what's behind the green so for example
12:31here we've got two tall fir trees um just to the right of where our flag is but that's center
12:36of
12:36the green i'd be thinking about aiming at those and use that as my marker as my part of my
12:41pre-shot
12:41routine just draw my attention to what's at the back it lifts you up body language wise so you're looking
12:47up you're visualizing a decent shot because you're going at something that's beyond the green yeah
12:52and it just takes your attention away from any trouble that might be sneaking around in the
12:57foreground come on katie let's finish off with a good shot shall we so that flag let's be honest
13:02is in a pretty good spot not giving you any excuses here all right no pressure
13:11lovely shot nice high soft draw very easy and i think it goes to show that if you're out on
13:17the
13:17golf course and you're thinking about how to compile a score maybe just have one round of golf where you
13:21just aim at the middle of the greens forget about where the flag is see what it does to your
13:25score
13:25it might just help okay so there you have it that's our look at the seven tips that every golfer
13:31forgets
13:32if you've enjoyed the video please do hit the like button if you have any questions
13:35or any comments leave them below but that's it for now from west hill thanks for watching we'll see you
13:40next time
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