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