6 Golf Tips | Golf Monthly

  • 8 months ago
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Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to this video
00:03 in which we are going to take a look at six golf tips you should ignore. These
00:08 tend to be the things that amateurs say to other amateurs and they can actually
00:12 do you more harm than good. Right let's head out onto the golf course here at
00:16 Fox Hills, take a look at the six golf tips you should ignore.
00:25 Okay so we're joined by Alex again and Alex the first one on the list is about the
00:30 position of your left elbow in the golf swing. Explain to me what it is that
00:34 people get told here. There's a lot of talk where we've got to keep this left
00:37 elbow straight and left arm straight and now okay there may be reasons why we
00:42 actually bend the left elbow due to grip but if we just look at it just as a whole
00:46 and saying I don't think there should be so much pressure on keeping the left
00:50 arm straight. Okay so can I just play devil's advocate here for a second? You
00:55 don't want to be in a position where you're in that position. No, no. So
01:00 there is some truth to this that you shouldn't be in that position there. Why
01:03 is that not a good position to be in? Ultimately it's going to create a very
01:07 inconsistent bottom of the arc. Now anytime I see a motion like this I tend
01:11 to kind of classify people that may be a little bit scoopy into the golf ball
01:15 but the thing with this, look at Jordan Spieth, he was a world number one
01:20 Masters winner. He is what we kind of classify as slightly bent at the top.
01:25 Okay so what's an okay position to be in at the top? What I would say is we
01:29 don't want to feel like we're locked out because that's really going to limit our
01:33 rotation. Anytime that we feel like we concentrate on trying to keep that
01:37 straight we start to create a lot of tension through the whole body.
01:40 Anytime we create tension it's hard to create rhythm, it's hard to create a good
01:43 consistent swing. So even when I swing, and as I come to the top, I would
01:47 never be locked out, I would never be at 90 degrees, but I would have a slight
01:52 kink in my arm. Just be relaxed. Yeah so it's just, I guess this is one for
01:56 anyone out there that's really getting a bit too focused on keeping this very
02:00 straight. It all can become very mechanical and so lacking in that kind
02:05 of free-flowing movement that you're looking for. Exactly and if we look at
02:07 Ernie Els, Jordan Spieth, all free-flowing movements. We're not stood here like a
02:12 mechanical robot really focusing on this because our focus is on this then, not
02:16 the shot in hand. Yeah so there you have it. Don't worry too much about keeping
02:19 this elbow perfectly straight during the golf swing.
02:24 So for the next one as you can see we are on the putting green and Alex, it's
02:31 again another tip that you'll hear people give to each other which is that
02:35 you've got to keep your wrists really locked down, have a repeatable
02:39 consistent putting stroke. But actually again it's a thought that can do more
02:43 harm than good. Why? Exactly well if you just imagine you're going to address the
02:47 ball on the floor there. If you feel the wrists are locked, straight away we're
02:50 going to get tension in the arms, tension in the shoulders and it becomes a very
02:54 wooden, no flowing motion. Now there are techniques where we
02:59 potentially get the arm in the arm lock and we do create it to be locked out. So
03:03 putting is very individual to you and if you're using that kind of grip then
03:07 that's okay for that technique. Yes but otherwise for most of us who aren't
03:11 using an arm lock grip, actually you want a little bit of freedom in your wrist.
03:16 We look at Jack Nicklaus, one of the best putters, best short game,
03:19 having that flow, even feeling, I'm not saying flick it, but a little bit of
03:24 giving the lead wrist. Okay. It's going to help you develop feels and help you
03:27 longer putts, shorter putts and just overall help you flow. But as you say you
03:32 don't want to flick it. I guess the truth again there's always an
03:36 element of truth behind all of these. And the truth is you see a lot of
03:39 players when they get into that position there, they kind of do all of
03:42 the work by flicking the wrist of the ball and why is that not a good idea?
03:46 Almost going to hit up on the ball, we're going to hit above the equator, we could put
03:50 in the face left, put in the face right. So what I would tend to give as my advice if
03:55 I was holding it a more traditional way is that we want a motion that's driven
03:59 mainly by the arms and the body and very little with the wrist. So if I make this
04:04 motion here you wouldn't stick out that I'm flicking the golf ball club. No. But I
04:10 have an element of softness to my wrist and that's what I want you to have, the
04:14 element of softness almost like you're squeezing a tube of toothpaste. Yeah so
04:17 just that little bit of, I guess you could call this a little bit of lag
04:21 actually, in your wrist. It's going to help the freedom of your stroke, the flow
04:24 of your stroke, ultimately improve your overall consistency on the greens.
04:33 Okay so the next one on our list relates to lag and it's something that a lot of
04:37 amateurs go in search of because they know that it's the kind of that secret
04:41 ingredient that delivers more power. But why is lag itself something that players
04:46 should sort of not be so worried about searching for? I think it's a dangerous
04:50 topic for most people. It can for me cause them to stiffen up, put in the face
04:56 right a target and really become very obsessed in creating a move that looks
05:00 very false in rehearsal. Now there are essence in saying that okay we've got to
05:05 kind of create the opposite scenarios to what we've got but I would say for most
05:10 people if you look at you've got a good grip, good body movement, good sequencing
05:14 that will help you create lag. Okay fine. Rather than going searching for it
05:19 directly. So don't be led down the path and thinking it's this kind of magic you
05:23 know little single thing that you can do that's going to deliver more power.
05:27 Exactly we're not saying it's not important, it is, but being too focused on
05:31 it can be the wrong avenue for you. Okay go on then hit one for us Alex. Okay.
05:37 Okay lovely shot and I think we'll show that again from the sort of square or
05:47 angle. You'll be able to see that Alex creates lag in his golf swing but he does
05:51 it for a whole host of other things that are working well. Trying to focus purely
05:54 on delivering that lag it's probably not the right way to go.
05:59 Okay so the next one on our list relates to chipping Alex what is it? So I always
06:09 hear this especially when we're trying to create a bit of spin around the
06:12 greens. Put the ball back, get the hands forward, hit down the golf ball. I was
06:17 told it as a junior. Yeah I was actually taught that as being the right way to
06:21 chip. I mean there probably are times and scenarios where we probably want to adopt
06:25 a similar technique for that but sometimes by putting that ball back and
06:29 the hands forward all we're doing there is exposing that leading edge and it's
06:33 gonna dig. And you're gonna potentially duff it which is something that I am
06:37 very familiar with Alex. So if that's not the right technique for chipping what is
06:41 the right technique? Well I like to make sure the ball is a little bit more
06:45 central so the rule of thumb that I use is my stance I like to have just wide
06:50 of a clubbed width apart. Okay. And if the chip becomes a little bit longer I get a
06:53 little bit wider accordingly. Ball position just on my zip or just the
06:58 right of my zip and then from there hands on the golf ball because now we've
07:02 got an opportunity to display some loft and hit slightly down on it which is a
07:06 good recipe for creating spin. And crucially you're gonna be employing a
07:09 bit more of the bounce of the golf club so the clubs just glide off the top.
07:13 Exactly you've got a much more margin for error so in the winter when you're
07:16 chipping or it's a bit of a wet lie, a bit of a bad lie, you've got a bigger margin for error.
07:19 No you've just put yourself under a bit of pressure there because it is winter here.
07:23 It is very wet underfoot. This is a real prime scenario for duffing it isn't it?
07:28 And that's exactly why you shouldn't have the ball back in your stance and your hands
07:31 forward. Exactly. So yeah show us how it's done Alex. Okay no pressure.
07:37 Well it just grabbed on you there but as you could see absolutely no danger that
07:45 the club was gonna dig and that Alex was gonna duff that one.
07:50 That's not your best Alex. Now if we were playing golf in that scenario I might be
08:04 tempted to say to you just slow it down a bit because it looked a bit ragged.
08:08 Yes, yeah it looked a little bit off balance I guess. But actually it's a tip again, it's a tip that
08:14 gets handed from one amateur to the next that might not be that useful. Now if we
08:19 look at the top players in the world they're trying to swing the club as fast
08:22 as they can. It's all about distance in the modern game so I'm really reluctant
08:27 to tell someone to slow it down. I'm more bothered about the tempo of the swing.
08:31 Okay fine. So my speed might be the same as yours but we have slightly different
08:35 tempo and how we go about it. Okay fine so that begs the question how do you
08:40 work on tempo? Tempo is one of those things isn't it that you either have one
08:43 day or you don't. Yeah so the analogy that I like to use and I use this on the course as
08:48 well so not just in my practice. I imagine a rev counter that works from
08:51 transition down to the golf ball so on the downswing. Okay. So a lot of people
08:57 like that swing there would have looked like the high peak and the higher revs
09:00 in your car were really early in the downswing. Right at the top almost. Exactly. I want you to feel like you
09:06 build up to that so we're peaking our revs just before impact. Yeah and it's I
09:11 guess it's the reason why many of the world's best players they look like they
09:14 swing the ball and swing the club quite easy but they hit the ball very
09:18 hard because they actually they don't get speed until they really need it most.
09:22 I mean Ernie Owls as soon as I think rhythm and tempo he comes straight to my
09:26 mind. Yeah so next time someone says to you I think you might need to slow it
09:30 down just check yourself and think actually it's tempo it's a smoother
09:34 tempo that I need that might just help you straighten things out hit better shots.
09:38 Okay Alex I'd say the number one thing that you hear amateurs say to other
09:45 amateurs that pros really don't like is keep your head down. Yeah. You know you
09:50 hit a bad shot there or you lifted your head. Especially when you see a top shot.
09:53 I hear that all the time. Why is that unhelpful advice? Well just in terms of
09:59 if we look at how we want to work through the golf ball we want to be very
10:03 rotary through the golf ball and we want to be very smooth and we want to be
10:07 through the golf ball. Now to help us do that the chin has to lift we have to
10:12 start looking towards the target. Yeah I mean take a look at the way that
10:16 Henrik Stenson swings the golf club or the way that Anna Kosorenstam
10:19 exactly hit the ball both of them through impact their head would be at
10:23 kind of that angle wouldn't it? Exactly so what I would say is anytime that we
10:27 are trying to keep our head down is what the tip that we hear this is really
10:31 limiting our ability to swing through and rotate. We're using club head speed
10:36 and it's gonna do more harm than good because that face could be pointing left
10:40 and right because we're really relying on our hand-eye coordination to time it.
10:44 Now Alex I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and say there is an element of truth
10:48 to don't keep don't lift your head and that element of truth is that you don't
10:53 want people to lose their posture their spine angle you don't want someone to
10:57 kind of sort of lift up or I guess you'd less see people dipping down. Is that
11:02 true? Is that fair? Yeah that's the kind of I think where it kind of gets a little
11:06 bit led down the wrong Avenue and we say lift our head. In an ideal world I
11:11 like to think the goal swing we get light we get heavy and we get light but
11:16 through doing this our head roughly stays around the same position we never
11:20 want to see too many changing levels. Yeah okay well hit one for us then Alex
11:25 we can see what you mean. So what I try and feel is in terms of trying to get me
11:28 to get my head to move towards target I try and imagine I'm gonna follow the
11:32 spots on the golf ball down to target. Okay good.
11:37 Lovely so there you have it don't focus too hard on keeping your head down
11:45 during the golf swing chances are you're hitting bad shots it's not because
11:48 you're not looking at the ball through impact it'll be something different
11:51 hopefully Alex's tip will show you what to do. So there you have it that's our
11:54 list of the six golf tips you should ignore. Guys please do leave some
11:58 comments below is there anything that you think we've missed any tips that
12:02 you've been given in the past that have actually done you more harm than good
12:05 we'd be really interested to hear your thoughts but for now thanks for watching
12:09 we'll see you next time.
12:11 you
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