In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Top 50 Golf Coach Ged Walters to provide his 5 best ball striking drills. He'll help you with your angle of attack and weight transfer to improve the quality of your striking. If you are heading to the range to work on your game, this video is a must watch!
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00:00If you're looking to shoot lower scores this year then one thing you'll undoubtedly need to do is
00:04strike the ball consistently well and that's exactly what this video is all about. We've got
00:09five of the best ball striking drills for you. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Jed
00:14Walters. Jed is one of Golf Monthly's top 50 coaches. He's got some really simple and effective
00:20advice on ensuring that you'd strike the ball before the ground. Now it's also important to
00:24say this video is coming to you in partnership with KBS shafts. They have a whole shaft range
00:29from driver all the way through the bag, all designed to help you get the most from your
00:34equipment. Right we're here at the London Club, let's get started.
00:48This drill is all about ensuring that you catch the ball before the ground. It doesn't matter
00:53whether you're hitting a wedge or hitting a long iron, that's the same principle all the way through.
00:57So it's something we all need to work on. Jed, what's the drill and how does it work? Okay,
01:02instant feedback is what it really is all about. So if I take a tee and I just scratch a line
01:07in the ground here. So from that point of view there I've now got a focal point from which I
01:16can work around. So here with a long iron that ball position is going to be a little bit further
01:22towards my lead side and from there it's about making swings and trying to get the club to hit
01:30the ball on the turf. So I want to be really brushing the line and left of it for me away. Yes
01:36and crucially you're not hitting the ground behind the line. That's the number one thing that you're
01:41trying to avoid and the great thing about this drill Jed is that you're taking practice swing
01:44after practice swing after practice swing and you get that instant feedback. Is your body working in
01:49the right way to deliver the club in the right angle of attack? Definitely, now obviously that
01:52will change. So if I took wedge in there, ball position then is going to go more central so that
01:58can be even more, can be deeper this side here. But the one thing I'm going to find is if I was
02:02to make a practice swing here and hit the wrong side of this line, then I know that our body's
02:07back here. Right okay, well I've hit the ground there. Well there's the line, hit the ground back
02:11there. So what I'm looking for is to keep the pressure moving forwards so I can hit the ground
02:15to the left. You can see there I've hit the ground sort of way in front of the line there
02:19by just keeping the body moving in the right direction. Okay so then you make a series of
02:23practice swings and then eventually you get to a point you put the ball on the line,
02:27you hit a shot and then you get the feedback of what you're doing actually in the swing itself.
02:30Exactly, got it. Okay so in the setup I've got a 50 degree wedge here so centered ball position
02:41and then just making sure that I get my body working in the right order.
02:49Perfect, hopefully you could hear through the mics the quality of the strike there,
02:52absolutely perfect. And you can see this divot is starting I'd say not quite almost an inch
02:58after the line, which is exactly what you're looking for. So use this really simple drill,
03:03it will really help your ball striking.
03:05Okay so this drill is all about controlling the low point in the arc of your swing,
03:10something that's so important for good quality ball striking. Jen, you've got a ball on the tee
03:14here, what are we doing? We're getting used to with this one just the difference in the line
03:18that we could get. We practice most of our golf on a mat, on driving range, it's flat,
03:23it's the same level as your feet. You get on a golf course and it's above your feet,
03:27below your feet, it's different slopes. So the first thing we need to do is just make sure that
03:30we're adaptable, we're not just going to sit on a mat, we're going to sit on a mat, we're going to
03:34adaptable and we can adjust. So we've got this one teed up here and I'm literally just going to
03:39clip it off the tee, just as plain and simple as that. So my ball position and everything is
03:45going to be the same but now you can see you know this is what you know good three and a half inches
03:49above my feet. So I just want to get used to being able to be slightly more adaptable,
03:54say if this was a ball above my feet situation where I've got my normal ball position but I'm
04:00now just adapting to the lie, I just want to clip it away. Beautiful, good strike. So what's next?
04:10So what's next now is we now need to look at it from the point of view of improving the ball
04:15striking itself. So the ball goes back on the same tee and now what you're going to do is about four
04:22inches behind it and so you know it's not a million miles away from the length of your club
04:26head is I'm going to put another tee. Okay, same height? Same height. Now the key with this is anybody
04:34who struggles sort of so fat shots, thin shots, top shots, all those kind of things, generally it happens
04:41because the weight of the body is too far back so we start to scoot, we start to flip. Well
04:47first thing you're going to do then is you're going to hit that tee. So we've just got to miss it.
04:50So the simple drill here is hit the ball, don't hit the tee. Yeah so that's going to now encourage
04:56a little bit more of a downward angle and to have that I've got to make sure that I'm moving my body
05:00in the right direction. Okay, simple task here then. Dead simple, so just don't hit the tee.
05:10Very good, okay and there it is. Good contact. Right but there's a third part. There's a third
05:16element to this drill. So if I take a third tee and I now put it here so it's on the opposite side
05:24around the same distance from the one that's at the back. Okay, so now what we're looking at doing
05:32is not just missing this tee but now I want to hit this one. Yes. Because that now is giving me
05:38the feeling of that downward angle of attack, controlling the low point, more target side. Again
05:43we're back to being ball turf which is everything that good ball striking is. Is, okay. Okay, so now
05:50I just want to miss the back tee, hit the shot and try and clip this tee that's in front here.
06:01Yeah, it's a really solid contact and it's a really simple drill that one to just help you
06:05establish that right angle of attack so the club bottoms out in exactly the right place because
06:10that is where really good quality contacts come from.
06:13Here's a great ball striking drill for those golfers that don't want to get caught thinking
06:17too technically about the golf swing. It can really help. Jed, what is it? So it's about
06:23trying to make a comfortable speed swing and stop as fast as you can beyond impact. Okay. What it
06:28does is it gets the body to organize itself a little bit more naturally. We play our best golf
06:32when we're in the subconscious, when it doesn't, you're not thinking about anything. So that's what
06:36we want to try and encourage. So for me, I'm going to try and do a little bit more of a
06:40So that's what we want to try and encourage. So from this drill here, it's simply just taking,
06:45uh, you know, a lofted club at nine, nine here, and we're just going to make some swings,
06:49which only go maybe halfway back. But the key to it is feeling like the downswing,
06:55the focus is just stop. What you'll find is when you look at it from face on at this point here,
07:02I'm not really doing anything other than stopping yet. You can see how my weight's moving forward.
07:07My pelvis is tucking underneath the torso. So I'm extending, extending to the legs,
07:12to the pelvis, to the spine. And I've got a little rotation in there as well.
07:16And you're nicely connected between your arms and your body as well.
07:20What I'm looking at when I see this is just how good the impact position is just by doing such a
07:25small and simple golf swing. It trains everything to just happen in the order that it really wants
07:30to happen. It's almost the brain, which confuses it and makes it happen in different ways. Yeah.
07:34So you can start off at slower speeds and then just build up your speed and you can go
07:39flat out speed if you wanted to there. So when you're accustomed to the drill,
07:43you could be a little bit more and get some real crispness to what's happening there. And you can
07:49see where those divots are always left of where I'm taking the setup. It's developing that speed
07:55into it, but just focusing on the stop as quickly as you can. So from a setup point of view,
08:00you're only thinking about putting a little bit more pressure into your lead foot.
08:05Just almost like that there, just pushing down into the ground a little bit more,
08:08keeping that pressure there and then just making a nice controlled swing,
08:12stopping as quickly as you can beyond impact.
08:18Yeah. And you can see that divot. It's perfect. It's just after where the ball would have been.
08:22Just this shot of Jed here just shows you so many good things about the golf swing. If you can
08:27focus on finding that position, the chances are the quality of your ball striking will greatly
08:32improve. This drill is all about swing direction, something that's going to really help you with
08:41your iron ball striking. Jed, what's the thinking here? What's the drill about?
08:45So all great ball strikers have a fairly neutral swing direction. So that's not to say that it is
08:52always a bit to the right, somewhere a little bit to the left, but it's minute. We're talking
08:58a couple of degrees left of target, couple of degrees right of target. Not excessive, which you
09:03would see from people who would slice and hook it. They might be 10 degrees to the right, 10 degrees
09:07to the left. So getting your swing direction more neutral will help you control your centeredness
09:13of strike and also help you control how your body then wants to move towards the target. So you can
09:18control the ground contact to get those lovely crisp ball turf strikes. Yeah. And it sounds
09:23complicated, but it doesn't have to be. If you have a really good drill that can help you sort
09:26of visualize what you're trying to achieve and that's what we're doing here. So talk us through
09:30it. Okay. So we're looking from sort of both perspectives. Obviously I've got this little
09:35station set up here. This is just as a quick visual really to what would represent a fairly
09:42neutral swing plane of being sort of up and down. But the swing direction is literally what the club
09:48is sort of doing as it comes here through the impact. So if I was like sort of this there,
09:54that will be a swing direction quite a lot to the right. That will be quite a lot to the left.
09:59So this is tailored relative to you as the individual. If you were somebody who slices
10:05the golf ball. Pulls it or slices it. You're coming across the ball. Yeah. So you'd have a
10:09swing direction, which would be if I put it into sort of a 2D visual on the floor would be a bit
10:15like that. So right. Okay. Well, what you need to do is practice the opposite. So we would turn the
10:22sticks out to the right. I mean, that's probably somewhere in the regions of 40 degrees maybe
10:30to the right. So right. Okay. Your visual then, if you were somebody who's coming here,
10:34your visual is to swing the club in the downswing between the sticks. Yeah. And then suddenly your
10:40angle of attack improves. The amount of the face you're getting on the ball improves. The quality
10:45of the strike goes up. It can do so many good things for you. Yeah. Yeah. And then vice versa.
10:50If you hook the golf ball, then you would just turn them the opposite way and feel like you were
10:54coming across a little bit more. Now, bear in mind, these are feels what you're feeling and
10:58what really happens are completely different. You know, a slicer would feel like they're swinging
11:03way off to the right. And when you look at the swing direction, it's probably still a little
11:06bit left. It's just that, you know, if what feels hugely one way might move at eight degrees, but
11:12if you were already 10 left, then you're still a little bit left. But the important point is it's
11:17more than neutral. So you're going to make your striking better. You're going to make your start
11:22lines better. You're going to make your overall ball striking better. Yeah. So this is one for
11:25those players who have big shapes in their game. So either big draws or big fades. If you want to
11:30just rein those in slightly, you'll improve the quality of your ball striking. And this is a great
11:35way to do it. Okay. So this is a ball striking drill aimed specifically at those golfers who
11:44have a tendency to hang back through impact, hit the fat shots and the thin shots that we all hate
11:49so much. And it's a, it's a great one for the range. Talk us through it, Jed. Okay. So on the
11:55driving range, you could use the basket, the balls come in. It's simply just propping your trail side
12:01up. So all your pressure, all the weight goes to the lead side. You're probably going to be talking
12:0790 to 95% of your pressure is going to be lead side. So that's going to mean, well, I can't go
12:12back because I'm up on an angle. That's going to keep me there. So I'm going to get used to feeling
12:17what it's like to have the pressure forward through impact. And it's going to give you the ability then
12:22to have a nice downward angle attack and give you those lovely ball turf crisp strikes. Yeah. And
12:26that feeling of what the correct contact should feel like. So Jed, go for it then. Talk us through
12:31this drill. So I've just put my bag on the ground there. Um, and all this is going to do is this is
12:36just going to help me elevate my trail foot. So from here and bear in mind, you only need to sort
12:42of hit lofted clubs out. We're not talking about doing this with driver. It's just getting used to
12:45doing it with like a wedge or a nine iron or something. Um, so just taking, you know, if that
12:50was my normal set up there, then what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to take my trail foot.
12:55I'm just going to lift it and I'm just going to rest it on the back of my bag. So now all my
12:58pressure is into my lead side. So from here, I'm going to keep the pressure into my lead leg. I'm
13:05going to flex it a little bit more than normal just because it's taking all the weight pretty
13:09much. You'll notice then on my right leg, I'll sort of really straighten out a little bit. As
13:13you see from this angle is very little flex left in there. Um, keeping the pressure then pushing
13:18down into the left leg. I'm just going to make little swings now. So it's going to be a little
13:21half swing back and then just down. So you see the angle of attack is going to come down. It's
13:26going to help me find a low point more to the left. So I just need to keep my arms nice and extended.
13:32You know, I'm not going to swing to there. I'm not making a full follow through. I'm just
13:36making a nice back and through swing. So if I was to click this one now,
13:40I'm set. I'm ready. And I'm just going to make a nice smooth swing.
13:48Yeah. And you've got that little ball to strike. You will really, really struggle to hit the ground
13:52before the ball. If you try this drill and they say it's a great one for getting your body in the
13:56right position, get the weight moving towards the target. So the club hits the ball before it hits
14:01the ground. Give it a go. So there you have it. That's Jed's five best ball striking drills. If
14:06you are having issues with the quality of your iron strikes, then give some of those drills a
14:11go. If you can find a feel that helps you hit the ball before the turf, then you should start hitting
14:16your irons much better. But that's it for now from the London Club. Thanks very much for watching.
14:21We'll see you next time.