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We exist to help golfers get more out of the game they love. Our team of passionate golfers and experts produce authoritative in-depth reviews of the latest golf equipment to help you buy better, tips and advice to improve your game, ideas for golf courses to play and places to stay and coverage of the game at every level from grassroots up to Tour.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video in which
00:04we are going to take a look at six golf tips you should ignore. These tend to be the things
00:09that amateurs say to other amateurs and they can actually do you more harm than good. Right,
00:14let's head out onto the golf course here at Fox Hills, take a look at the six golf tips
00:18you should ignore.
00:21Okay, so we're joined by Alex again and Alex, the first one on the list is about the position
00:31of your left elbow in the golf swing. Explain to me what it is that people get told here.
00:35There's a lot of talk where we've got to keep this left elbow straight and left arm straight
00:40and now, okay, there may be reasons why we actually bend the left elbow due to grip but
00:45if we just look at it just as a whole and saying, I don't think there should be so much pressure
00:49on keeping the left arm straight.
00:50Okay, so can I just play devil's advocate here for a second? You don't want to be in
00:56a position where you're in that position there.
00:59No, no.
01:00So there is some truth to this, that you shouldn't be in that position there.
01:03Why is that not a good position to be in?
01:05Ultimately, it's going to create a very inconsistent bottom of the arc.
01:09Anytime I see a motion like this, I tend to kind of classify people that may be a little bit
01:14scoopy into the golf ball but the thing with this, look at Jordan Spieth.
01:18He was a world number one, master's winner.
01:22He is what we kind of classify as slightly bent at the top.
01:25Okay, so what's an okay position to be in at the top?
01:28What I would say is we don't want to feel like we're locked out because that's really going to limit our rotation.
01:33Anytime that we feel like we concentrate on trying to keep that straight, we start to create a lot of tension
01:39through the whole body. Anytime we create tension, it's hard to create rhythm, it's hard to create a good
01:43consistent swing. So even when I swing is, and as I come to the top, I would never be locked out,
01:48I would never be at 90 degrees but I would have a slight kink in my arm.
01:53Yeah.
01:53Just be relaxed.
01:54Yeah, so it's just, I guess this is one for anyone out there that's really getting a bit too focused on
01:59keeping this very straight and it all can become very mechanical and so lacking in that kind of free
02:05flowing movement that you're looking for. Exactly, and if we look at Ernie Owls, Jordan Spieth,
02:09all free flowing movements, we're not stood here like a mechanical robot really focusing on this
02:14because our focus is on this then, not the shot in hand.
02:17Yeah, so there you have it. Don't worry too much about keeping this elbow perfectly straight during the golf swing.
02:28So for the next one, as you can see, we are on the putting green and Alex, it's again another tip
02:32that you'll hear people give to each other which is that you've got to keep your wrists really locked
02:38down to have a repeatable consistent putting stroke but actually, again, it's a thought that
02:43can do more harm than good. Why?
02:44Exactly. Well, if you just imagine you're going to address the ball on the floor there, if you
02:48feel the wrists are locked, straight away we're going to get tension in the arms, tension in the
02:52shoulders and it becomes a very wooden, no flowing motion.
02:56Yes, true.
02:57Now, there are techniques where we potentially get the arm in the arm lock and we do create it to
03:02be locked out. Putting is very individual to you and if you're using that kind of grip,
03:07then that's okay for that technique.
03:09Yes, but otherwise, for most of us who aren't using an arm lock grip, actually,
03:13you want a little bit of freedom in your wrist.
03:16We look at Jack Nicklaus, one of the probably the best putters, best short game,
03:20having that flow, even feeling, I'm not saying flick it, but a little bit of giving the lead wrist,
03:26it's going to help you develop feels, it's going to help you longer putts, shorter putts,
03:29and just overall help you flow. As you say, you don't want to
03:33flick it because I guess the truth, again, there's always an element of truth behind all of these.
03:37Yes. The truth is, you see a lot of players,
03:39when they putt get into that position there, they do all of the work by flicking the wrist
03:44of the ball. Why is that not a good idea? Almost going to hit up on the ball,
03:48we're going to hit above the equator, we could put the face left, put the face right. What I would tend
03:53to give as my advice, if I was holding it in a more traditional way, is that we want a motion
03:59that's driven mainly by the arms and the body and very little with the wrist. If I make this motion
04:04here, you wouldn't stick out that I'm flicking the golf ball club, but I have an element of softness
04:12to my wrist. That's what I want you to have, the element of softness, almost like you're squeezing
04:16a tube or toothpaste. Yes. Just that little bit of, I guess you could call this a little bit of lag,
04:21actually, in your wrist. It's going to help the freedom of your stroke, the flow of your stroke,
04:25ultimately improve your overall consistency on the greens.
04:33Okay. The next one on our list relates to lag. It's something that a lot of amateurs go in search
04:39of because they know that it's that secret ingredient that delivers more power. Why is lag
04:45itself something that players should not be so worried about searching for? I think it's a
04:50dangerous topic for most people. It can, for me, cause them to stiffen up, point the face right
04:56at a target, and really become very obsessed in creating a move that looks very false in rehearsal.
05:03Now, there are essence in saying that, okay, we've got to create the opposite scenarios to what we've
05:07got, but I would say for most people, if you look at you've got a good grip, good body movement,
05:13good sequencing, that will help you create lag. Okay, fine. Rather than going searching for it
05:19directly. Yeah. So don't be led down the path of thinking it's this kind of magic, you know,
05:23little single thing that you can do that's going to deliver more power. Exactly. We're not saying
05:28it's not important. It is, but being too focused on it can be the wrong avenue for you. Okay, go on then,
05:33hit one for us, Alex. Okay.
05:43Okay, lovely shot. And I think we'll show that again from the sort of square on angle. You'll
05:48be able to see that Alex creates lag in his golf swing, but he does it for a whole host of other
05:52things that are working well. Trying to focus purely on delivering that lag is probably not the right way
05:57to go. Okay, so the next one on our list relates to chipping, Alex. What is it?
06:07So I always hear this, especially when we're trying to create a bit of spin around the greens.
06:13Put the ball back, get the hands forward, hit down the goal ball. I was told it as a junior.
06:18Yeah, I was actually taught that as being the right way to chip.
06:22I mean, there probably are times and scenarios where we probably want to adopt a similar
06:26technique for that. But sometimes by putting that ball back and the hands forward, all we're doing
06:31there is exposing that leading edge and it's going to dig. And you're going to potentially duff it,
06:36which is something that I am very familiar with, Alex. So if that's not the right technique for
06:41chipping, what is the right technique? Well, I like to make sure the ball is a little
06:44bit more central. So the rule of thumb that I use is my stance, I like to have just wide of a
06:50club with the part. Okay. And if the chip becomes a little bit longer, I get a little bit wider
06:54accordingly. Ball position, just on my zip or just the right of my zip. And then from there,
07:00hands on the golf ball, because now we've got an opportunity to display some loft and hit slightly
07:05down on it, which is a good recipe for creating spin. And crucially, you're going to be employing
07:09a bit more of the bounce of the golf club, so the clubs should just glide off the top of the
07:13turf. Exactly. You've got a much more margin for error. So in the winter, when you're chipping,
07:16or it's a bit of a wet lie, a bit of a bad lie, you've got a bigger margin for everything.
07:19No, you've just put yourself under a bit of pressure there, because it is winter here.
07:23Yeah. It is very wet underfoot. This is a real
07:26prime scenario for duffing it, isn't it? Yeah. And that's exactly why you shouldn't
07:29have the ball back in your stance and your hands forward. Exactly.
07:32So yeah, show us how it's done, Alex. Okay. No pressure.
07:41Well, it just grabbed on you there, but as you could see, absolutely no danger that
07:45cub was going to dig and that Alex was going to duff that one.
07:59That's not your best, Alex. Now, if we were playing golf, in that scenario,
08:03I might be tempted to say to you, just slow it down a bit, because it looked a bit ragged.
08:08Yes. Yeah, it looked a little bit off balance, I guess.
08:11But actually, it's a tip, again, it's a tip that gets handed from one amateur to the next,
08:15that might not be that useful. Yes. Now, if we look at the top
08:20players in the world, they're trying to swing the club as fast as they can. It's all about
08:24distance in the modern game, so I'm really reluctant to tell someone to slow it down. I'm
08:28more bothered about the tempo of the swing. Okay, fine.
08:32So my speed might be the same as yours, but we have slightly different tempo on how we go about it.
08:36Okay, fine. So that begs the question, how do you work on tempo? Tempo is one of those things,
08:42isn't it, that you either have one day or you don't?
08:44Yeah. So the analogy that I like to use, and I use this on the course as well,
08:48so not just in my practice, I imagine a rev counter that works from transition
08:52down to the golf ball, so on the downswing. Okay.
08:56So a lot of people like that swing there would have looked like the high peak and the higher revs
09:00in your car were really early in the downswing. Right at the top of those.
09:04Exactly. I want you to feel like you build up to that, so we're peaking our revs just before impact.
09:10Yeah, and I guess it's the reason why many of the world's best players, they look like they
09:14swing the club quite easy, but they hit the ball very hard because actually they don't get speed
09:21until they really need it most. I mean, Ernie Owl, as soon as I think
09:24rhythm and tempo, he comes straight to my mind. Yeah. So next time someone says to you,
09:28I think you might need to slow it down, just check yourself and think actually it's tempo,
09:33it's a smoother tempo that I need. Exactly.
09:35That might just help you straighten things out, hit better shots.
09:43Okay, so Alex, I'd say the number one thing that you hear amateurs say to other amateurs that pros
09:48really don't like is keep your head down. You've hit a bad shot there or you lifted your head.
09:55Especially when you see a top shot. I hear that all the time.
09:57You hear it all the time. Why is that unhelpful advice?
10:01Well, just in terms of if we look at how we want to work through the golf ball,
10:06we want to be very rotary through the golf ball. Now, to help us do that, the chin has to lift. We have
10:12to start looking towards the target. Yeah. I mean, take a look at the way that
10:16Henrik Stenson swings the golf club or the way that Anna Kasorenstam hit the ball. Both of them,
10:21through impact, their head would be at kind of that angle, wouldn't it?
10:24Exactly. So what I would say is any time that we are trying to keep our head down,
10:29is what the tip that we hear, this is really limiting our ability to swing through and rotate.
10:35We're using club head speed and it's going to do more harm than good because that face could be
10:39pointing left and right because we're really relying on our hand-eye coordination to time it.
10:44Now, Alex, I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say there is an element of truth
10:48to don't lift your head. That element of truth is that you don't want people to lose their posture,
10:55their spine angle. You don't want someone to lift up or I guess you'd less see people dipping down.
11:02Is that true? Is that fair? Yeah. That's the kind of, I think,
11:04where it kind of gets a little bit led along down the wrong avenue when we say lift our head. In an
11:10ideal world, I like to think the golf swing, we get light, we get heavy, and we get light. But
11:16through doing this, our head roughly stays around the same position. We never want to see too many
11:21changing levels. Yeah. Okay. Well, hit one for us then,
11:24Alex. We can see what you mean. What I try and feel is in terms of trying to get me to get my head
11:29to move towards target, I try and imagine I'm going to follow the spots on the golf ball down to target.
11:34Yeah. Okay. Good.
11:41Lovely. So there you have it. Don't focus too hard on keeping your head down during the golf swing.
11:46Chances are, if you're hitting bad shots, it's not because you're not looking at the ball through
11:49impact. It'll be something different. Hopefully, Alex's tip will show you what to do.
11:53So there you have it. That's our list of the six golf tips you should ignore. Guys,
11:57please do leave some comments below. Is there anything that you think we've missed? Any tips
12:01that you've been given in the past that have actually done you more harm than good? We'd be
12:05really interested to hear your thoughts. But for now, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.