If your golf swing is in a bit of a rut, it might be tempting to start all over again from the ground up. But before you go down that route, stop and consider these six tips from Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Alex Elliott that should get you on the route to better golf without having to totally change your swing.
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00:00Is your golf swing in such a mess right now? You're thinking about rebuilding it totally
00:04from the ground up. Well before you go down that time consuming and probably expensive path
00:10I'm going to be joined in this video today by Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Alex Elliott who's going to
00:14give us six top tips to get you back on track without changing your entire swing. I'm here at
00:21Kettleson Park Golf Club today let's get started. Right okay we're on the range now Alex I want to
00:26talk about before people go and change their whole swing and their whole identity of their golf is to
00:31maybe two for one here change your practice routine up a little bit and change that practice routine to
00:36focus more on strike and swing because strike could be the problem right? Yeah I mean especially with
00:40driver right a lot of people forget this there's something called gear effect okay so you could make
00:44a good swing but the strike could be a little bit out and if you hit it out the heel yeah heel twisting
00:49forward curve with left to right curvature for a right-handed golfer and out the toe right to left
00:54curvature and a lot of people forget that because when we're looking down at the shot we think oh
01:00that's curved because I've done something random whereas actually we've just maybe got it a two
01:04fingers a finger off the center which is going to cause that curve yeah so maybe people watching at
01:09home aren't actually swinging that bad and don't need the full it's just they're a few inches out so
01:13maybe let's think of something about strike what sort of tips have you got for strike drills yeah so
01:18this drill would be the same for irons and driver right the gear effect would only count for driver
01:24okay but I think this is really going to complement you with your irons too so if you look down there
01:28closely Dan I've just set up like a really tight little this is this is scaring me yeah it's quite
01:34narrow isn't it and you can start off a little bit wide if you want to start like that and make
01:38it a little bit narrower but essentially miss both teeth legs you're going to find the center okay don't
01:42worry if you hit the outer one to start with or the inner one I'd actually say that's probably a good thing
01:46you then got to focus of how you're going to change that right and as a club golfer you're
01:51not going to be perfect straight away but knowing what the feedback you've got if you always toe or
01:56always heel you know how you're going to fix that brilliant so because I think a lot of people maybe
02:01don't actually know they're like why is it going that way 100 where I'm actually hitting it from this
02:05is going to give you that that visual audio cue as well 100 was what you're going to do is you're
02:09going to rule out that it's not strike right because then if it's still curving and you hit the middle
02:13then that might be where you've got to go and seek further advice maybe we do go change your
02:16swing then like we said this is before you have to change your swing if you're still messing up go
02:19change your swing okay so I'm going to give this one a go so I've got it it looks very narrow as
02:24I'm looking down but I'm just going to trust and work on that feeling of right okay I'm going to bring
02:29it through that center oh yeah that plays so uh if you're doing that tick what what happens if I've
02:38hit this one on the right or this one on the left so if hitting this out one we're probably going to find the
02:42heel of the golf club yeah because our club has moved a little bit further away and then we're
02:45gonna get the slice there yeah I've moved on the hit on the inside one we're gonna hit multi-toe
02:49we'll probably get more of that hook shot I think the thing to remember here is we only want to
02:52change our swing and we're saying don't do that first but people rush to change their swing because
02:57they're worried about ball flight exactly so this is a really really good one I think so two for
03:01one here change that practice routine think about that strike because that could be what's causing you
03:05issues more than your actual golf swing right Alex before people start thinking about changing their entire
03:10swing should we take a look at the grip um what pieces of advice would you give for someone who's
03:14not striking it great or they're pulling it or they're slicing it and how they can just alter a
03:19little bit of their grip to help with that first things first I'd make sure that your club is in the
03:24fingers oh interesting yeah um just purely sometimes we have it in the palm which if we have a little
03:29look at that closer there then you can see a big gap in between my little finger and where the club is
03:34yeah essentially it makes it very very hard to square the face very very hard to swing the club with any
03:39momentum and essentially overall leafy motion with that is that the club face is probably going to
03:44be open is that going to lead to a bit of inconsistency of strike as well if it's not in those fingers
03:48definitely and with driver it's just going to be absolutely so the first thing just to combat that
03:54I would look at and it's it's a really sort of little Ben Hogan tip here that with all the fingers
03:58on and just take them off and leave this here yeah the club should stay interesting if it
04:04falls you know it's more in the palm because our meaty our padded area isn't there to sort of create
04:11a little bit of an right that's a great little just check for yourself actually isn't it okay good
04:14but then you also mentioned slice and you also mentioned hook yeah so really nice and simple
04:19with that as long as we've got that club in the fingers if you hook the gold ball nice and simple just
04:24from player cam here rotate your hands more towards the left half of the golf club if you slice the
04:30golf ball just rotate both non-glove and glove hand to the right inside the golf ball it's that easy
04:36and just have a go at that because how you hold the club has a very very big impact on how you
04:40control the face and i think it's probably the last thing people go to because it feels very strange
04:46and it feels very odd because it's like i'm not used to that yeah but it's gonna have a direct
04:50impact on how you control the face and that's essentially what the ball flight is going to do and
04:54and it is although it feels more extreme it is a bit easier than having a full swing change right it's
04:59just it's a few little notches here and there and it'll feel weird for the first 15 20 shots
05:03get yourself on the range just adjust that grip slightly as alex told us there depending on where
05:08you're hitting the ball and don't change your whole swing do you want to hit one for us now because i
05:12will on the 17th here and i would like to see you go for one okay all right so i've got a little bit of
05:17the case of the pools today so i'm going to go a little bit weaker perfect and see if that helps
05:20we just keep that face a little bit open oh my ball striker catch a piece this is a part five by the
05:31way just going to mention that i'd be happy there just off the back right i think you make it up and
05:34down from there with that pin so yeah just before you go and change your whole golf swing as alex
05:39said tinker with that grip and see how you get on so another thing to think about before entirely
05:44changing your swing alex is just tightening up that short game and your scores can come down
05:48considerably making a few more up and downs right 100 i like i think the most common sort of issue
05:53for golfers is they spend so much time on driver and want to bomb it but they only use it maybe
05:5711 12 times around but this could be used on every single green yeah now this tip is nothing to do with
06:03technique it's about choosing the right loft and the right landing zone so i've got two t-pegs down
06:07it down like i've got one at 50 of the way yeah so this would be like our 50 in the air 50 rollout
06:12sure i've got another one here which would be our sort of 25 in the air yeah 75 rollout now right
06:18now many golfers don't know what shot is good for them so i want you to pick two clubs i've got my
06:22pitching wedge here which is my moral one then i've got my 58 which is my more 50 in the air 50 rollout
06:29and just get into tune with what loft and what role requires for that shot and what you might prefer
06:35as a goal for anyway you might get on more with your 58 you might actually prefer a little bit less
06:38100 because guarantee you'll prefer a different wedge to me yeah and golf is very personal so
06:43practice that and find out what's good for yourself so okay i'm going to play both there first one my
06:47more raw one so i'm going to focus on the t-peg not the hole okay let the club do the work for me
06:56a little bit downhill hello hello that was the first take can i just say as well and then this one
07:03here was more in the air shot now i'm a golfer that i i know this i've done this show many times
07:08i prefer less i'm the same i want i want that shot i want the ball rolling a bit more like a
07:14bit more control of it so exactly and proofs in the pudding i guess so these shots get me a little
07:18bit more nervous oh and you haven't both pretty handy well one in and one up and down so just
07:27tightening up that short game visualizing the shot a little bit more before you go and change
07:31the swing entirely bring those scores down with better wedge play okay alex finally then uh we're
07:36going to chat clubs and maybe before that swing has to change you have a little mo t of your bag
07:41and what's in there we can chat a few things here we can chat maybe gapping loft and lie um put some
07:48new grips on it should you loft and lie first because i think some people maybe don't understand
07:52how that affects their game definitely so loft and lie will affect your clubs even more so in the
07:57most lofted clubs okay so the more loft you have basically it's called face plane tilt and if i sort of
08:03grab a 50 degree here let's say you had a very upright lie angle that would be the toe off the
08:08ground yeah okay this would point all off very left as i say more loft more effective side so if you
08:14have very upright clubs it can cause your ball to start massively left okay if you have very flat golf
08:19clubs which should be the sort of heel off the ground the ball can start significantly off to the
08:23right now sometimes you do get fitted if you slice it that could be a pretty good thing or you push it
08:28because it can help you iron out some bad shots but a general mot if you're seeing bad characteristics
08:33of shots that are left maybe too upright and it's something you can get adjusted you might have
08:38already been fit and that was fine maybe your swings changed or maybe you haven't been fit before
08:43definitely worth checking out um should we talk you've got a great example of it here actually in
08:46your set of clubs and you've given yourself a little bit more help where you need it in in the longer
08:51irons you think maybe a split set for the perhaps more experienced golfer or even a beginner is a bit more
08:56helpful what what i'd suggest is let's just go beginner first i wouldn't even want them to carry
09:01a four or five eye four or five hybrid yeah that's a great shot make it easier that's what i'd suggest
09:07and then for your intermediate slash more experience you've got to think people don't want to be buying
09:11clubs all the time so if you're an intermediate golfer with aspirations of practicing a lot playing a lot
09:16i would definitely say that sort of combo set whether you go blades a little bit bigger to a little bit
09:20bigger yeah or just go muscle back to sort of a more forgiving guy in the long one i think so i mean
09:25listen if alex elliott's still using these at the top of the bag get that four iron blade out of your
09:29bag now okay um let's talk gapping finally then especially the top of the bag and i think with
09:34golfers especially they maybe want that five and four hybrid getting this area of the bag right can
09:39help your scores out a little bit more maybe help your swing out if you're swinging easier into
09:43different hybrids or fairweight woods definitely like i mean i i would always say first on that gapping
09:48i don't want people to really use a three wood oh really i use five wood and that's what i'd recommend
09:53for most golfers and actually they hit it a little further because that three was a bit close to the
09:56driver's you're acting like where's it actually being not necessarily that like most of these
09:59golfers are going to use their three wood or five wood off the deck yeah three was a very hard club
10:03to get in the air so essentially having a little bit more loft a little bit of a deeper face it's
10:07going to help you get it up so i would always suggest going driver five wood and then maybe another
10:12maybe a three hybrid in there then four five brilliant oh that's a great shot on the five but
10:17actually i hadn't thought because it's only a couple of degrees isn't it and it will be a bit easier
10:20and then get those wedges right as well the the bounce uh the gapping in there yeah i mean how
10:25i'd base that on and most people's i mean it's very changeable depending what brand depends what
10:30your pitching wedge from your set will be yeah but how would base this have a look at your specs online
10:35or even ask your pro what loft is my pitching wedge and then base it on four degree increments
10:40from that it might be that it's 52 it might be that it's 50 but base it on the pitching wedge in
10:45yourself yeah brilliant brilliant advice and it might seem basic stuff and if you're watching your
10:49swings a mess you're like why are we talking about this but before you go through that drastic change
10:53make sure everything you're using is correct first and then go from there okay like so we've spoken
10:58about timing about short game chipping before changing your swing entirely should we chat about
11:02the putter now i thought you're gonna maybe suggest change your actual physical grip which you could
11:07do but you're talking about changing the material of it go for a different type of grip yeah i mean there are
11:11so many out there i mean you could go thick yeah rounded thick with a flat front i think it's a good way of
11:18making putter feel new rather than invest in 300 pounds and a brand new head and brand new
11:24full putter just go to your local pj pro let them recommend something go oh you know what i need a
11:29change i need to look down some differently to feel something different and that could just be the
11:33difference that makes your whole these must make foot yeah i think that goes to the whole bag as well
11:37maybe re-grip the irons re-grip the driver something different to look down on a different feel maybe a
11:43swing will tighten up because of it right so there you have it some brilliant bits of advice i think all golfers
11:47should be following before they go through that massive swing change that i think we all really
11:52want to avoid big thanks to alex elliott for joining us in that video some brilliant tips he's
11:56giving you there to head out into the range or head out into the course to better your game if there's
12:01something we maybe missed or something you've tried that's worked before you've totally rebuilt your
12:06swing let me know down in the comments i'd love to hear from you but for now from kettleston park golf club
12:11i'll see you next time