• 8 months ago
Golf Monthly is one of the world's leading multi-platform golf media brands.
We exist to help golfers get more out of the game they love. Our team of passionate golfers and experts produce authoritative in-depth reviews of the latest golf equipment to help you buy better, tips and advice to improve your game, ideas for golf courses to play and places to stay and coverage of the game at every level from grassroots up to Tour.
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
12:14 (upbeat music)
12:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]