In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional Alex Elliott to look at the 5 biggest golf swing mistakes and how to fix them.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to Westhill
00:03Golf Club and this video looking at the five biggest golf swing mistakes and how
00:09to fix them. I'm joined in this video by Alex Elliott, he's a PGA pro and he's got
00:13some really simple and effective advice for what we think are the most common
00:17mistakes that might be costing you hitting slices or hooks or just hitting
00:21shots slightly fat or slightly thin, whatever your issue, hopefully there
00:24should be something in this video to really help you out.
00:31Right, so the first one on our list of biggest golf swing mistakes is the grip
00:37and it's something you're going to need to pay attention to. Alex, what do people
00:41need to look out for here, what are the biggest faults in terms of the grip? I
00:44think if we start off firstly with the palm, we all sort of hear this one
00:48banded around quite a lot, so if you're a golfer, if you're right-handed, you
00:52struggle losing that ball off to the right and really don't feel you get a
00:55big bang for your buck, then we're going to tend to see this golf club run
00:59through the lifeline, where we're actually told to put the putter actually
01:02for most people, so essentially when we've got the club in the palm
01:06we're going to see it very similar to as I've got here and if you just waggle
01:11that golf club up and down it's going to feel quite heavy. And what happens in
01:14this scenario is that when you return the club to impact, the way in which your
01:18body works, you're going to more than likely return it slightly open aren't you?
01:23Slightly open or tensor with driver potentially add a lot of loft, so
01:27our ability to create a good efficient hit is dramatically reduced. Yes, so if
01:32you have a fault in your grip that isn't a weak grip but a strong grip,
01:36what does that look like? So a strong grip would be let's say two to three
01:40knuckles, maybe even four knuckles showing really our logo of the glove
01:43pointing to the sky and sort of this look to how we're set up to the ball.
01:47We're going to see that real hook curvature, so finishing off to the
01:50left for a right-handed player, finishing off to right for a left-handed player
01:53and that for me is where we're going to really struggle to control the golf ball
01:58especially in firm conditions like it is now. Like having that strong grip
02:02we're only going to see sort of lowish ball flights, a lot of hook spin on it.
02:06Exactly. So what does the absolutely technically good grip look like and how
02:11can people set it? The one thing I'd say with this Neil is we've got to be sort
02:14of, I always think of people improving their grip by edging it back slowly
02:18because your grip matches how you release the club, so we need to make
02:21sure it's not going from one extreme to the other. Okay. The only sort of caveat
02:25to that is if you do have it in the palm get it in the fingers straight away but
02:28if you are weak edge it stronger, if you are really strong edge it a little bit
02:31weaker. But that common ground where I want you to end up in the end would be a
02:36nice simple routine for this as well if you're out on the golf courses, grip it
02:39sort of in the middle of my shaft as I've done here, tilt it slightly away,
02:43place it in the fingers and you can see there I've got it right at the base of my
02:47fingers, meaty part on top, quick test, club feels light, club down to the ground
02:53we can see sort of two and a half knuckles, fingers on in my right hand and
02:58both of these creases should be somewhere around my right shoulder. Quick
03:01question for you Alex, if you get the left hand grip right will the right hand
03:04grip then automatically be correct? I think so yeah, you've got a better
03:08chance. Right fine, so focus, are we saying focus on the left hand grip? I think
03:12your left hand grip, yeah the opposite way, yeah simply whatever one you have your
03:16glove on, get that right, we'll tend to have a better chance of getting some good
03:19shots. Okay good and if you get it right then you should hit some nice neutral
03:23flighted golf shots, a bit like this one. No pressure, so yeah nice simple routine
03:29in the fingers, meaty part on top, it's going to give you a much better chance
03:33of returning that golf club back to relatively good to our path.
03:39A bit like that, very good.
03:47Okay so next up alignment and it sounds easy enough doesn't it to get your
03:52alignment right but it's something that can go wrong quite easily and something
03:55that even the best players in the world are constantly checking, making sure they
03:58get it right. So Alex how do you get it right? Firstly don't aim your shoulders
04:03at target, which might sound like to you watching this right now a comment
04:08where you go well of course you do, if you're gonna throw something or fire
04:11something you'd be sort of looking at alignment and a lot of you will be
04:14standing there going right I'm aligning to target, stand up check, oh I look a
04:19little bit left here, start to adjust ourself so it looks like our eyes are
04:24perfect, well in reality it's going to be aiming to the right. It's the club face that you
04:27need to worry about not your body alignment. So definitely. What's a good
04:31way of checking it in practice out on the golf course? Yeah I would like I've got set
04:36up here so I would do these simple things when you're hitting balls in the
04:40range and if you play on your own in an evening just throw them down on the
04:43ground but then we'll also talk through a scenario you can use in a competition
04:46so everything Neil's got to start from a ball to target line. Yes. So I would stand
04:51behind at the start of a range session and simply pick out my ball to target line
04:56place the alignment stick down there then I can walk in and it's making sure
05:01that our feet, knees, hips and shoulders all run parallel to this and when you do
05:07stand up your shoulder line will be working parallel left to target. Yeah so
05:12it's like you're almost like what you're on a set of train tracks. Exactly that.
05:15And then you're out on the golf course playing a competition you know you have
05:19a tendency to aim a bit right how do you make sure that you don't do that? Simple
05:23simple trick we all got logos on our golf balls or some others even put lines
05:28on our golf balls from a button use this line to advantage on par 3 tees and when
05:33you're hitting some drives away. Okay. Stand behind the golf ball again as if
05:36you've got an extension of what we did during practice place that down parallel
05:42lines and we can simply again build our stance from this as opposed to building
05:48it from this way to the ball build it from the ball upwards it's called a ball
05:52the target line for a reason. Yeah and I think the important point to make here
05:55is that if you are devoting some time to your alignment it won't be wasted
05:59there's a whole host of other good things that will happen once you've got
06:03your alignment spot on.
06:08Right next up the slice Alex most of us know how it feels most of us it's very
06:13demoralizing when it happens and what have you got here I can see you've got a
06:18drill for us. Yeah I mean it might look quite strange you're putting this out on
06:21the range but honestly I've used this analogy with people who come for lessons
06:25and this is really nice and simple if I gave you a tennis racket but we don't
06:29have that right here because it's not something that you can attach quite
06:32easily to a golf shot so let's use our right palm. Okay. Okay so if we're a slicer
06:36and our golf ball was sort of at this height we'd work like this. Yeah. And we'd
06:41go well of course the ball would work this way. Yeah. Okay so if we did the
06:44opposite to that in golf posture but then we just stand upright to hit this
06:49ball away like tennis once hit the ball away as far as I could we'd make sort of
06:54this motion so that would be my club traveling a little bit more into out my
06:58club face being a little bit more closer to square if not close to my path and
07:02this would be quite an easy motion for a lot of us to make with the ball that
07:07height. Yes so question then so it feels like a fairly simple resolution so how
07:13does it look with the golf club in your hands Alex and how what should people be
07:17wary of the kind of body movements that they're making that are causing them to
07:21cut across it. I think that the biggest reference point I would have for a lot
07:25of golfers is when we start the downswing and it it comes to especially
07:28with driver we want to hit it far we want to get that distance it's right
07:33shoulder right hip working out right which works this way. Yes. You get to hit it
07:38quite a long way and suddenly you come over the top. Exactly whereas in tennis
07:41the ball would come we'd move in and through and we'd make that sort of
07:47reaction to a good body movement because we're orientating it to a moving object
07:51now obviously in golf the little white ball is sat still so we've got to think
07:56of an analogy and a nice simple way would be actually address the golf
07:59ball down here swing up feel how you meet the golf ball away okay now you
08:05might think well Alex is standing up but what we're trying to do is get the club
08:09to work this motion. Right yes and not the other way around. Exactly yeah so we could
08:14have two or three practice swings on the course on the range walk into the shot
08:18we've now got the feeling of being able to work the club through this space as
08:22if we're hitting a tennis shot away but just more tilted over the golf ball. Okay
08:27go on then hit one for us let's see how it looks. So I'd really make a few waggles
08:30tennis shot away imagine I'm hitting that ball down to target. Arrow straight
08:39if you have a slice it can be one of those things that takes a little bit of
08:43time to get it out of your game but work on it as Alex is saying here it could
08:47really help. This one is all about starting the golf swing correctly but
08:55let's start with the fault. What do people do that cost them in the golf
09:00swing? I think we just put it into two categories one not control the club face
09:03and not get the arms and body working together so simply it would be closing
09:08it too much or open too much. Right okay and it looks in that second one looks
09:14as if you're taking it away on the inside. Are you taking it away on the inside? Yeah
09:17very much so and I think sort of that open face especially with longer clubs
09:21everybody thinks it's a little bit more rounded it's very tempting to sort of
09:25work it in this direction. Yeah and it's something you see a lot isn't it so what
09:29can people do to resolve the problem? So a nice simple routine as I've done here
09:34is I've simply just placed my golf club down directly behind the ball so if we
09:39sort of give those two scenarios if I go too much on the inside well look how the
09:43club really works if I wanted to push that golf club back as far as I could I
09:49would really want to get arms and the body working together and more of what
09:54would feel like this sort of I guess the term a lot of people would use one piece
09:57takeaway. Yeah you hear it a lot. So down behind the ball I mean look at the
10:01difference of this here yeah a lot more control golf clubs gone a lot further
10:06back. Yeah and if you were to draw a triangle between the club head and your
10:09shoulders that triangle would pretty much be kept in intact for a lot of that
10:13wouldn't it? Exactly rather than changing your angles yeah changing them means a
10:17lot more compensations have got to take place. Yeah so if you can start the golf
10:20swing correctly the chances are the rest of the swing will follow and you'll hit
10:24better shots.
10:29So the last one on our list is standing up in the downswing. Alex what do you
10:33mean by standing up in the downswing? I think a lot of people will see another
10:37term that they'd use is early extension so essentially belt buckle getting
10:40higher or standing up and then we see that scoopy sort of look to our impact
10:45position. Right okay yeah it's something you do see quite a lot so how do you
10:49solve the issue? I think you see it even with very good players as well it's not
10:52just sort of your beginners your higher handicappers it's something that
10:56happens with a lot. So a simple thing we can do I mean I've just placed my bag
11:00here this could be alignment sticks if you're watching this at home this could
11:03actually be the wall behind you if you've got a few spare minutes each day I
11:07think the important thing of this Neil is we make it flow. Right okay. So golf
11:12club across our chest we don't want to just be position position position
11:15because we know in reality the golf swings got a bit of flow to it so what I
11:19want you to do here is have the bum just out of touch of where it's the wall
11:23alignment stick or your golf bag as I've got here go through swing try and touch
11:28it with your left pocket back right pocket through left pocket and you can
11:32really see here how I'm a lot more over the golf ball throughout the whole
11:37motion. Yes yeah and you're avoiding that issue of standing up aren't you you're
11:41retaining that posture that really good posture that you said at address I can
11:45see that you're still in it yeah as you reach that kind of impact position.
11:48Exactly and just to sort of preempt a few questions that people might ask to
11:51us to stay more over the golf ball impact well our belt buckle has to work
11:55more to target to give us the ability to be here if our belt buckle is a little
12:00bit higher we're gonna find it very very hard to hit the golf ball in that
12:03direction but remain over it. Yeah it's a really simple way of thinking about it
12:07hopefully it's a sort of a non technical fix for a technical issue that should
12:12help you out. So there you have it some really great advice there from Alex
12:17really simple really effective if you do have any questions please do post them
12:21below we'll hope to get back to as many of you as possible but that's it for now
12:24from West Hill thanks for watching and we'll see you next time