5 Biggest Golf Swing Mistakes
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.
Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
00:04 and this video looking at the five biggest golf swing mistakes and how to fix them.
00:09 I'm joined in this video by Alex Elliott, he's a PGA pro and he's got some really simple
00:14 and effective advice for what we think are the most common mistakes that might be costing
00:18 you hitting slices or hooks or just hitting shots slightly fat or slightly thin, whatever
00:23 your issue, hopefully there should be something in this video to really help you out.
00:27 Right, so the first one on our list of biggest golf swing mistakes is the grip and it's something
00:38 you're going to need to pay attention to.
00:40 Alex, what do people need to look out for here?
00:42 What are the biggest faults in terms of the grip?
00:44 I think if we start off firstly with the palm, we all sort of hear this one banded around
00:49 quite a lot.
00:50 So if you're a golfer, if you're right handed, you struggle losing that ball off to the right
00:53 and really don't feel you get a big bang for your buck, then we're going to tend to see
00:57 this golf club run through the lifeline.
00:59 Where we're actually told to put the putter actually, for most people.
01:04 So essentially when we've got the club in the palm, we're going to see it very similar
01:07 to as I've got here.
01:09 And if you just waggle that golf club up and down, it's going to feel quite heavy.
01:13 And what happens in this scenario is that when you return the club to impact, the way
01:18 in which your body works, you're going to more than likely return it slightly open,
01:22 aren't you?
01:23 So slightly open or tenser with drive and potentially add a lot of loft.
01:26 So our ability to create a good efficient hit is dramatically reduced.
01:31 So if you have a fault in your grip that isn't a weak grip, but a strong grip, what does
01:36 that look like?
01:37 So a strong grip would be, let's say, two to three knuckles, maybe even four knuckles
01:41 showing really our logo of the glove pointing to the sky and sort of this look to how we're
01:46 set up to the ball.
01:47 We're going to see that real hook curvature.
01:49 So finishing off to the left for a right handed player, finishing off to the right for a left
01:52 handed player.
01:53 And that for me is where we're going to really struggle to control the golf ball, especially
01:58 in firm conditions like it is now.
02:01 Like having that strong grip, we're only going to see sort of lowish ball flights, a lot
02:05 of hook spin on it.
02:06 So what does the absolutely technically good grip look like and how can people set it?
02:11 The one thing I'd say with this, Neil, is that we've got to be sort of, I always think
02:15 of people improving their grip by edging it back slowly because your grip matches how
02:19 you release the club.
02:21 So we need to make sure it's not going from one extreme to the other.
02:24 The only sort of caveat to that is if you do have it in the palm, get it in the fingers
02:26 straight away.
02:27 But if you are weak, edge it stronger.
02:29 If you are really strong, edge it a little bit weaker.
02:32 But that common ground where I want you to end up in the end would be a nice simple routine
02:36 for this as well.
02:37 If you're out on the golf courses, grip it sort of in the middle of my shaft as I've
02:41 done here.
02:42 Tilt it slightly away, place it in the fingers and you can see that I've got it right at
02:46 the base of my fingers.
02:48 Beaty part on top, quick test, club feels light, club down to the ground, we can see
02:53 sort of two and a half knuckles, fingers on in my right hand and both of these creases
02:58 should be somewhere around my right shoulder.
03:01 Quick question for you Alex, if you get the left hand grip right, will the right hand
03:04 grip then automatically be correct?
03:06 I think so, yeah.
03:07 You've got a better chance.
03:08 Right, fine.
03:09 So focus, are we saying focus on the left hand grip?
03:11 I think your left hand grip...
03:12 I think the right hand is...
03:13 Yeah, the opposite way.
03:14 ...much worse.
03:15 Yeah.
03:16 So if you get that right, we'll tend to have a better chance of getting some good shots.
03:19 Okay, good.
03:20 And if you get it right, then you should hit some nice neutral flighted golf shots, a bit
03:25 like this one.
03:26 No pressure.
03:27 So yeah, nice simple routine in the fingers, meaty part on top, it's going to give you
03:32 a much better chance of returning that golf club back to relatively good to our path.
03:38 Bit like that.
03:42 Very good.
03:42 Okay, so next up, alignment.
03:49 And it sounds easy enough, doesn't it, to get your alignment right, but it's something
03:53 that can go wrong quite easily and something that even the best players in the world are
03:56 constantly checking, making sure they get it right.
03:59 So Alex, how do you get it right?
04:01 Firstly, don't aim your shoulders at target.
04:04 Right.
04:05 Which might sound like, to you watching this right now, a comment where you go, "Well,
04:08 of course you do."
04:09 If you're going to throw something or fire something, you'd be sort of looking at alignment
04:13 and a lot of you will be standing there going, "Right, I'm aligning to target, stand up,
04:18 check.
04:19 Oh, I look a little bit left here.
04:20 Start to adjust ourself."
04:22 So it looks like our eyes are perfect.
04:24 Well, in reality, it's going to be aiming to the right.
04:26 It's the club face that you need to worry about, not your body alignment.
04:30 So what's a good way of checking it in practice, out on the golf course?
04:34 I would, like we've got set up here.
04:36 So I would do these simple things when you're hitting balls in the range.
04:40 And if you play on your own in an evening, just throw them down on the ground.
04:43 But then we'll also talk through a scenario you can use in a competition.
04:46 So everything, Neil, has got to start from a ball to target line.
04:50 So I would stand behind at the start of a range session and simply pick out my ball
04:55 to target line, place the alignment stick down there.
04:58 Then I can walk in and it's making sure that our feet, knees, hips, and shoulders all run
05:05 parallel to this.
05:06 And when you do stand up, your shoulder line will be working parallel left to target.
05:11 Yeah.
05:12 So it's like you're on a, almost like you're on a set of train tracks.
05:14 Exactly that.
05:16 And then you're out on the golf course playing a competition.
05:19 You know you have a tendency to aim a bit right.
05:21 How do you make sure that you don't do that?
05:23 Simple, simple trick.
05:25 We all got logos on our golf balls or some of us even put lines on our golf balls from
05:28 a putting.
05:29 Use this line to your advantage on par three tees and when you're hitting some drives away.
05:34 Stand behind the golf ball again as if you've got an extension of what we did during practice.
05:40 Place that down, parallel lines, and we can simply again, build our stance from this as
05:47 opposed to building it from this way to the ball, build it from the ball upwards.
05:51 It's called a ball to target line for a reason.
05:53 Yeah.
05:54 And I think the important point to make here is that if you are devoting some time to your
05:57 alignment, it won't be wasted.
05:59 There's a whole host of other good things that will happen once you've got your alignment
06:03 spot on.
06:05 Right, next up, the slice.
06:10 Alex, most of us know how it feels.
06:13 It's very demoralizing when it happens.
06:16 What have you got here?
06:17 I can see you've got a drill for us.
06:18 Yeah, I mean, it might look quite strange you're putting this out on the range, but
06:22 honestly, I've used this analogy with people who come for lessons and this is really nice
06:26 and simple.
06:27 If I gave you a tennis racket, but we don't have that right here because it's not something
06:30 that you can attach quite easily to a golf shot.
06:33 Let's use our right palm.
06:34 Okay.
06:35 Okay, so if we're a slicer and our golf ball was sort of at this height, we'd work like
06:39 this.
06:40 Yeah.
06:41 And we'd go, "Oh, of course the ball would work this way."
06:43 Yeah.
06:44 Okay, so if we did the opposite to that in golf posture, but then we just stand upright
06:48 to hit this ball away like tennis, once I hit the ball away as far as I could, we'd
06:53 make sort of this motion.
06:55 So that would be my club traveling a little bit more into out, my club face being a little
06:59 bit more closer to square, if not close to my path.
07:02 And this would be quite an easy motion for a lot of us to make with the ball at that
07:07 height.
07:08 Yes.
07:09 So question then, so it feels like a fairly simple resolution.
07:12 So how does it look with the golf club in your hands, Alex?
07:15 And what should people be wary of, the kind of body movements that they're making that
07:20 are causing them to cut across it, like you say?
07:22 I think that the biggest reference point I would have for a lot of golfers is when we
07:26 start the downswing, and it comes to, especially with driver, we want to hit it far, we want
07:30 to get that distance, it's right shoulder, right hip working out, which works this way.
07:36 Yes.
07:37 In tennis.
07:38 You get to hit it quite a long way and suddenly you come over the top.
07:39 Exactly.
07:40 Whereas in tennis, the ball would come, we'd move in and through.
07:45 And we'd make that sort of reaction to a good body movement because we're orientating it
07:50 to a moving object.
07:51 Now, obviously in golf, the little white ball is sat still.
07:55 So we've got to think of an analogy and a nice simple way would be actually address
07:59 the golf ball down here, swing up, feel how you meet the golf ball away.
08:04 Okay.
08:05 Now you might think, well, Alex is standing up, but what we're trying to do is get the
08:08 club to work this direction.
08:10 Right, yes.
08:11 Not the other way around.
08:12 Exactly.
08:13 Yeah.
08:14 So we could have two or three practice swings on the course, on the range, walk into the
08:17 shot.
08:18 We've now got the feeling of being able to work the club through this space as if we're
08:22 hitting a tennis shot away, but just more tilted over the golf ball.
08:26 Okay, go on then, hit one for us.
08:27 Let's see how it looks.
08:28 So I'd really make a few waggles, tennis shot away.
08:32 Imagine I'm hitting that ball down to target.
08:39 Arrow straight.
08:40 If you have a slice, it can be one of those things that takes a little bit of time to
08:43 get it out of your game, but work on it as Alex is saying here, it could really help.
08:52 This one is all about starting the golf swing correctly, but let's start with the fault.
08:57 What do people do that cost them in the golf swing?
09:00 I think we just put it into two categories.
09:02 One, not control the club face and not get the arms and body working together.
09:05 So simply it would be closing it too much or open too much.
09:11 Right, okay.
09:12 And it looks in that second one, looks as if you're taking it away on the inside.
09:15 Are you taking it away on the inside?
09:17 Yeah, very much so.
09:18 And I think sort of that open face, especially with longer clubs, everybody thinks it's a
09:22 little bit more rounded.
09:23 It's very tempting to sort of work it in this direction.
09:26 Yeah.
09:27 And it's something you see a lot, isn't it?
09:28 So what can people do to resolve the problem?
09:31 So a nice simple routine as I've done here is I've simply just placed my golf club down
09:37 directly behind the ball.
09:38 So if we sort of give those two scenarios, if I go too much on the inside, well look
09:42 how the club really works.
09:44 If I wanted to push that golf club back as far as I could, I would really want to get
09:51 arms and the body working together and more of what would feel like this sort of, I guess
09:55 the term a lot of people would use, one piece takeaway.
09:57 Yeah, you hear it a lot.
09:59 So down behind the ball, I mean, look at the difference of this here.
10:03 A lot more control.
10:05 Golf club's gone a lot further back.
10:06 Yeah.
10:07 And if you were to draw a triangle between the club head and your shoulders, that triangle
10:10 would pretty much be kept intact for a lot of that, wouldn't it?
10:13 Exactly.
10:14 Rather than changing your angles, changing them means a lot more compensations have got
10:18 to take place.
10:19 So if you can start the golf swing correctly, the chances are the rest of the swing will
10:23 follow and you'll hit better shots.
10:30 The last one on our list is standing up in the downswing.
10:32 Alex, what do you mean by standing up in the downswing?
10:34 I think a lot of people will see, and the other term that they'd use is early extension.
10:38 So essentially, belt buckle getting higher or standing up, and then we see that scoopy
10:43 sort of look to our impact position.
10:45 Right.
10:46 Okay.
10:47 Yeah.
10:48 So how do you solve the issue?
10:50 I think you see it with very good players as well.
10:52 It's not just sort of your beginners, your higher handicappers.
10:55 It's something that happens with a lot.
10:57 So a simple thing we can do, I mean, I've just placed my bag here.
11:00 This could be alignment sticks.
11:01 If you're watching this at home, this could actually be the wall behind you.
11:05 If you've got a few spare minutes each day.
11:07 I think the important thing with this, Neil, is we make it flow.
11:10 Right.
11:11 Okay.
11:12 So golf club across our chest.
11:13 We don't want to just be position, position, position, because we know in reality, the
11:17 golf swing's got a bit of flow to it.
11:19 So what I want you to do here is have the bum just out of touch of where it's the wall,
11:23 alignment stick, or your golf bag as I've got here.
11:26 Go through swing, try and touch it with your left pocket, back, right pocket, through left
11:31 pocket.
11:32 And you can really see here how I'm a lot more over the golf ball throughout the whole
11:37 motion.
11:38 Yes.
11:39 Yeah.
11:40 And you're avoiding that issue of standing up, aren't you?
11:41 You're retaining that posture, that really good posture that you said at address.
11:44 I can see that you're still in it as you reach that kind of impact position.
11:48 Exactly.
11:49 And just to sort of preempt a few questions that people might ask to us to stay more over
11:52 the golf ball and impact.
11:54 Well, our belt buckle has to work more to target to give us the ability to be here.
11:58 If our belt buckle's a little bit higher, we're going to find it very, very hard to
12:02 hit the golf ball in that direction, but remain over it.
12:05 Yeah.
12:06 It's a really simple way of thinking about it.
12:07 Hopefully it's sort of a non-technical fix for a technical issue that should help you
12:12 out.
12:14 So there you have it.
12:15 Some really great advice there from Alex.
12:17 Really simple, really effective.
12:18 If you do have any questions, please do post them below.
12:21 We'll hope to get back to as many of you as possible.
12:24 But that's it for now from West Hill.
12:25 Thanks for watching.
12:26 We'll see you next time.
12:26 [Music]