Biggest Driving Mistakes and How to Fix Them

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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Tour Coach Liam James to look at the biggest driving mistakes and how to avoid them!
Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly
00:01 and welcome to the London Club and this video
00:03 on the biggest mistakes the players make off the tee.
00:06 We've teamed up with Ping and with tour coach Liam James
00:09 to offer you the best advice that we can
00:11 about how to stop hooking it, how to stop slicing it,
00:14 and also about how to find a little bit more distance
00:16 off the tee as well.
00:18 This is all about trying to make the game
00:20 as easy as possible, so if you do struggle off the tee,
00:23 this video should really help.
00:24 If you're new to the Golf Monthly channel,
00:26 please do hit the subscribe button
00:27 to make sure that you don't miss any of our videos.
00:29 Hit the like button if you're liking the video.
00:31 But let's head out now onto the golf course
00:32 here at the London Club and look at the biggest
00:34 driving mistakes the players make.
00:36 (upbeat music)
00:39 Okay Liam, let's start with a lack of distance off the tee,
00:44 a lack of speed.
00:45 If there was a fault that you see more often
00:47 than not with amateurs that costs them yardage,
00:50 what would it be, do you think?
00:52 - I'd say the biggest fault is them trying
00:53 to generate more speed in the manner that they do,
00:55 so the biggest thing that we start to see
00:58 more than anything is that in a bid to try
01:00 and hit the golf ball harder,
01:02 they're moving from side to side more often.
01:04 And then moving towards the target too much
01:07 is causing them actually to hit down
01:08 on the golf ball even more,
01:10 and essentially slice the golf ball.
01:12 So in a bid to try and hit the golf ball harder
01:14 and further, they're actually hitting it shorter.
01:16 So there are things that you can do in the setup
01:19 that will just make sure that you generate
01:21 a little bit more speed without losing the control
01:24 of where the ball strikes on the face.
01:25 - Yeah, and don't forget, you're looking for that
01:27 kind of high launch, low spin,
01:28 those perfect optimized launch conditions
01:31 to get the most out of your driver.
01:33 - Absolutely, and that's the thing,
01:35 even if players are swinging at slow speeds
01:37 or slower speeds than we see on the television,
01:40 we can still optimize those speeds
01:42 by making sure the impact factors are as good
01:44 as they possibly can be.
01:45 And 90% of the time, that's just how they set up
01:49 to the golf ball, that's got nothing to do
01:50 with what's happening in the swing.
01:51 - Okay, so give us some ideas about what people
01:54 should be looking out for.
01:55 - The biggest thing, first of all, is I think we need
01:57 to maximize everything we can in the setup
01:59 in order to actually wind up behind the golf ball
02:03 and give ourself the biggest range of movement
02:04 we possibly can.
02:05 And a very simple tip for that would be,
02:08 obviously, the first thing to just keep an eye on
02:10 is the ball position, we wanna make sure
02:11 that's inside my left heel.
02:13 But I've got a nice wide base here now,
02:15 but if you have a look, you can see my toes
02:18 are fractionally turned out.
02:19 Now, what that's actually enabling me to do now
02:22 is turn my hips, okay?
02:24 If we see players, which we see a lot of,
02:26 almost turned in with their toes,
02:28 it really restricts their range of movement
02:30 and it's impossible for them to make a full turn
02:32 up to the top of the basket.
02:33 - Yeah, so that little bit more range of movement
02:35 in your hips gives you more range of movement
02:37 in your shoulder, which is what you're looking for
02:39 to actually wind up.
02:40 - And then it's a bigger rotation,
02:41 it's not necessarily more effort,
02:43 it's not them doing it any faster.
02:46 All you're doing simply here is turning your toes out,
02:49 freeing your knees and your hips up
02:50 to complete a full turn.
02:52 And as a result of that, you're going to generate
02:54 more speed.
02:55 - Okay, go on then.
02:55 - Sure, I'll show you.
02:56 - George will do it, hit one for us.
02:58 - So again, ball up off that left heel,
03:01 I've got a nice wide base with my toes turned out,
03:03 I'm going to have a little rehearsal up to the top,
03:05 full rotation, then I'm just going to go ahead
03:07 and give it a hit.
03:08 - Yeah, hopefully, and what you should see
03:14 through the cameras there is just how well-centered
03:17 Liam stays over the shot, he's not making a big sway
03:19 off the ball and then back onto it,
03:21 because if you are, it's quite dangerous that, isn't it?
03:23 - Absolutely, and it may feel quicker,
03:27 it might feel like more effort,
03:28 but essentially all that's going to do
03:30 is increase your off-center hits,
03:32 whereas if you're doing, as we're mentioning here,
03:34 turning your toes out, big wide base,
03:36 nice rotation up to the top,
03:38 you're then going to stay behind it
03:39 and not only swing it faster just due to that,
03:42 but hit the middle of the face more often.
03:43 - Yeah, more speed and more control.
03:45 Okay, so we're going to move on to slices and hooks.
03:48 I think most golfers, their bad shot will likely be
03:50 one or other of these two.
03:52 So Liam, let's talk about,
03:53 I know that you're going to speak about them
03:55 in connection with each other,
03:56 because the thought, I guess,
03:57 is the kind of opposite of each other, right?
03:59 - Absolutely, I mean, you tend to see
04:01 very similar characteristics of a player
04:04 who's slicing the golf ball,
04:05 and then counter to that, you see the opposite
04:08 when you've seen a player hook it,
04:09 and generally, most of those things are coming
04:11 from the way they're setting up to the golf ball
04:13 and actually the way they're placing their hands
04:15 on the grip, so we start with the slicer.
04:18 - Yeah.
04:19 - The biggest thing that we'll start to see
04:20 with excessive slices of the golf ball
04:22 is quite simply where the golf club
04:25 is running through your left hand.
04:26 So players who get it too much into the palm, okay,
04:30 it's going to do two things for you
04:32 if you're too much in the palm.
04:33 It's going to lean you too much towards the target
04:35 in your second hand.
04:36 - And that's a set-up position you see a lot, isn't it?
04:38 - Absolutely right.
04:39 So their head's closer to the target
04:41 than their belt buckle is,
04:43 and that's going to cause them to hit out
04:44 and down on the golf ball,
04:46 and the second thing that grip's going to do
04:47 is that's going to make this club face
04:48 open up too much on the way back.
04:50 So now we've got the golf club coming from the outside
04:53 with the face wide open,
04:54 you're just going to hit slices.
04:55 - Hook then is the opposite issue, is it?
04:58 - Absolutely right.
04:59 So if we see a player with an excessively strong grip,
05:02 now to define strong grip,
05:04 I don't mean strong in strength,
05:05 I mean strong in,
05:07 if I was to look down at my left hand now,
05:09 I can see all four of my knuckles.
05:11 So that would define as a strong grip.
05:14 Now as a result of that,
05:15 what we're going to tend to see
05:17 is not much loft on the golf club at the top.
05:19 So we would call this a closed position with the club face,
05:23 not much loft,
05:24 and now the compensations that the players
05:26 are having to make in order to try
05:27 and get the ball up in the air now,
05:29 we're going to start to see a lot of leaning back,
05:31 and that's going to obviously cause the hook.
05:33 So just by two poor grip positions in the setup,
05:37 all these things, you know,
05:39 the slices are coming over it,
05:40 the hooks, they're leaning back,
05:42 so you've got to be careful with how you're setting up.
05:44 - So that begs the question,
05:45 what's the checkpoint that people need
05:47 to get the right grip on the club
05:49 to be stood correctly at the ball at address?
05:51 - So it's all, keep it really constant with the routine.
05:54 So the biggest thing I would say about this
05:56 is when you see golfers on the golf course,
05:59 it's where they actually place their hands
06:00 on the golf club in their routine.
06:02 So you'll see some players have it down here,
06:04 some players it's up in the air.
06:06 Keep it really consistent.
06:08 We want to hold the golf club up out in front of us,
06:10 shafts parallel with the ground here,
06:12 and I'm just going to run this golf club
06:14 just through the fingers of my left hand.
06:16 And if I place a little look now,
06:18 I just have a look at my left hand,
06:20 I've got a two knuckle left-hand grip now.
06:21 So that's what we would define as a neutral grip.
06:24 That's going to feel much weaker
06:26 to a guy who grips it strong,
06:27 and it's going to feel much stronger to the slices.
06:30 But just by fixing the left-hand grip,
06:33 it's going to offer us the chance to get set up
06:36 fractionally in behind the golf ball with my shirt buttons,
06:39 but now I've got a neutral left hand
06:40 in order to make sure that club face
06:42 is square throughout my swing.
06:43 - Okay.
06:44 Go on then Liam, hit one for us,
06:45 let's see what it looks like.
06:46 - So I'll show you my routine.
06:48 Shaft up in front of me, club in the fingers,
06:51 two knuckle left-hand grip,
06:53 and then I give it a hit.
06:57 - Lovely.
07:03 So there you have it.
07:05 If you are struggling with your driving,
07:06 I think that the advice that Liam has given us there
07:08 shows that it doesn't have to be a big technical fix
07:11 to do with any of the complicated movements
07:13 in your golf swing.
07:14 It can be something simple,
07:15 and a lot of the time,
07:17 these things can be done at address,
07:18 and there's no reason why any golfer can't get them right.
07:22 Thanks for watching.
07:22 We'll see you next time.
07:24 (upbeat music)
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