Common Golf Practice Mistakes
Neil Tappin and PGA Pro Alex Elliott talk through the biggest mistakes golfers make when practising their games.
Transcript
00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill and this
00:07video in which we're looking at the seven biggest practice mistakes.
00:11We're going to take a look at everything from building fundamentals, how you practice under
00:14pressure, what you do with the final ball of a session, look at those mistakes that
00:20people regularly make and how to avoid them.
00:22In this video we are joined by Alex Elliott, he's a PGA professional, he's going to provide
00:27all the advice you need to make sure that your valuable time spent on the range is spent
00:31in the best way possible.
00:32Guys, if you're new to the Golf Monthly channel, please do hit the subscribe button to make
00:36sure that you don't miss any of our videos.
00:38Hit the like button if you like what you're watching, but let's head over, meet Alex and
00:42find out what the seven biggest practice mistakes are.
00:55Okay so the first one on our list relates to the way in which you assess how you're
01:01practising.
01:02In particular Alex, it's about where to video your swing from.
01:05It's one of the points that you came up with, where should you be videoing from and where
01:09shouldn't you be videoing from?
01:10For me, for example if you're getting an online lesson, it's really important that you get
01:15the camera angles from the right place.
01:16For one, the coach is probably going to want it from down the line and from face on.
01:20Even if this is you just videoing your swing to do some self-analysis, it's really important
01:25because getting it from a different perspective will make your swing look slightly different.
01:30So my go-to angles are at 90 degrees, face on.
01:33And what do you see from that angle?
01:35What are the things that people should be looking at from that angle?
01:36I guess from that angle, the kind of general things would be swaying, which a lot of people
01:40would be looking at in their swings.
01:42So swaying off, sliding through, width in the backswing, club face through impact, hands
01:47ahead of the ball.
01:48But if you're slightly off the angle, it might look as if your ball position is too far back,
01:52like you're way ahead of the ball through impact when actually you're not, whatever
01:55it might be.
01:56So actually you need to keep an eye on those things.
01:58Definitely.
01:59And then you could actually start critiquing things in your own game that don't need critiquing
02:02and then you can go off the boil and actually think, well, why is it going off the boil?
02:06And you could actually think, because you've got the camera in the wrong angle, this is
02:11one of the reasons why you're going off the boil a little bit.
02:13Which you don't need any more help in playing bad golf, I certainly don't.
02:17And then what about down the line?
02:18Down the line, for me, this is where everybody wants to get their videos from.
02:22We all look at it from the classic over-the-top move, am I into it, am I shallowing the club?
02:26For me, really nice and simple.
02:28You can get a tripod, very inexpensive, you can get it from most online retail stores
02:32and a holder for your iPad, a holder for your camera phone.
02:35And why, okay, so here's sometimes, I have been known to do this in the past, going to
02:41the driving range, putting my phone down on the floor, sort of propped up against the
02:46wall, filming myself from ground level, but that's not good.
02:50No, just again, from the same point of view, from looking at it from face on, it's going
02:54to look like a slightly different move.
02:56If you took it down at kind of ground level, I kind of guess you're looking at more of
03:00what the club's doing at impact, because you're going to see a lot more of what's happening
03:04at ground level.
03:05Whereas you're not going to see necessarily as well what's happening at the top of the
03:08swing.
03:09Exactly, and from that perspective, being down there, it could look like the club's
03:11coming slightly over the top, if you had it a little bit to the right, a little bit
03:14to the left.
03:15It's going to look like two different swings, even though it could be the same swing.
03:18So where exactly should it be then, Alex?
03:20Really nice and simple.
03:21A lot of the time you're in a bay, you've kind of got right angles if you're on a driving
03:25range.
03:26I like to have it at hand level, so hand level left to right, and hand level up and down,
03:31because that's going to give you a good perspective of what the overall swing is doing.
03:35Okay, fine.
03:36And if you get a tripod, one, it's steady, two, you can get the same height every single
03:39time.
03:40And again, going back to constants, repetitiveness, this is all we're searching for in our golf
03:45swing.
03:46So why not do it when we're actually analysing our swing as well?
03:48Okay, fine.
03:49Fine.
03:50Okay, I'll...
03:51Right, I've got you on camera here.
03:52Yeah.
03:53No pressure.
03:54Yeah.
03:55I don't remember where I'm aiming.
04:07Okay, number six on our list relates to not warming up properly.
04:10Alex, I know this, for everyone watching this, it's not the most exciting topic, is it, warming
04:14up?
04:15No, definitely not.
04:16But it is important, isn't it?
04:17And we're not going to talk about exactly how to warm up, because we've produced video
04:19content on that in the past.
04:20You'll be able to find that on the YouTube channel.
04:23But Alex, talk about what the mistakes are that people make and why you really need to
04:27avoid them.
04:28I think we're all so self-critical about what our ball is doing.
04:31So if we're working on a certain thing and we're, say, for example, we're trying to draw
04:34it with our coach, which is a common thing everybody tries to work on, we get on the
04:38range and we expect the first ball to be a draw, then we almost become so self-critical
04:42and so kind of predetermined about what the ball flight's doing at the start, that can
04:46certainly ruin our range session.
04:48Okay, yeah.
04:49So even going out there and saying, right, the first 10 balls, and putting 10 balls to
04:53the side and saying, right, this week, on this practice session, I'm going to use my
04:56odds, I'm just going to hit a few away, not worry about ball flight, and almost kind of
05:00detach myself from ball flight and then say, after those 10 balls, that's when I start
05:05looking at my swing.
05:06And are you starting off slowly and building up pace, or you've already done your stretching
05:09before that, so you should be starting at full pace.
05:12Exactly.
05:13I mean, I would always start with pitching wedge or kind of one of my wedges, build up
05:16through to seven iron.
05:17So for example, today, I'd start with my pitching wedge, then probably go eight iron, six iron,
05:22four iron, and maybe then one driver, and then back down to kind of hitting the lower
05:25irons just while I warm up.
05:27But ultimately, if we can just get tuned in to just getting a bit of contact on the
05:31ball, and the ball going down the range, not even specifically towards the target yet,
05:36we don't attach ourselves to bad images, bad history, and then when we get into the session,
05:41we can set the tone of the session when we're actually warmed up and working on our specific
05:44things.
05:45Yeah.
05:46So you can end up starting off on a fairly negative point, which can then affect the
05:49whole thing.
05:50Right, Alex, go ahead and hit one for us so everyone can see how they hit.
05:54Not hit many, so this is good.
05:55This is actually a true reflection.
06:01We're not worried about where it went.
06:02It may have gone straight towards the target, but Alex, we're not worried about where it
06:05went.
06:06So there you have it.
06:07If you are heading to the range anytime soon, make sure that you do a little bit of warming
06:10up before you start working on your swing first, because if you don't, you could ingrain
06:14a few faults and a sort of negative attitude towards what's going on that could affect
06:19you in the long run.
06:21Okay, so number five on our list is something that we all do from time to time when we go
06:28to the range.
06:29You hit one shot, you look at it, you walk off the mat, you come back on, you hit another
06:33one, and you've not really thought too hard about your alignment.
06:36Alex, why is that such a big problem?
06:39For me, there's really two main reasons.
06:41Firstly, just a good habit of getting square alignment.
06:44You get on the golf course and you've got your alignment on the range good.
06:47Hopefully then you transition that to the course.
06:50For example, if I was aiming straight down at this yellow flag here, if I didn't have
06:54a reference to where I was aiming and I built a habit of aiming a little bit to the right
06:57every time-
06:58Which we do.
06:59I mean, people do.
07:00I mean, even the pros do it.
07:01I'm guilty of that.
07:02Yeah.
07:03Exactly.
07:04And then you take that to the course, well, then you could start missing it to the right
07:05or vice versa.
07:06You could actually make compensations in your swing of working a little bit left.
07:11So you could adapt to where you're aiming and you could swing it to adapt to where you're
07:15aiming.
07:16So I think square alignment is number one important for just general alignment to target.
07:21But my second biggest point is, it's reference to ball flight.
07:25If you've not kind of got a reference to where you're aiming or alignment sticks down on
07:29the ground, and we'll show you that in a second, you could start predicting a ball flight and
07:32actually see a ball flight that travels right to left.
07:35But that's a ball flight that could start left of target and move further left.
07:38It's a pull hook.
07:39Exactly.
07:40Like if we look at the definition of a draw, it's a ball that starts the right of target
07:44and comes onto target.
07:45So if we know what target we're aiming at, we know what our actual ball flight is.
07:49So we got on the course, we know what we've got coming out of our locker this week.
07:52Yeah.
07:53Okay.
07:54Well, then that begs the, how do you do it?
07:56Obviously, a lot of you out there, I'm sure we'll have alignment sticks.
07:58If you don't, don't worry.
07:59Use your golf clubs.
08:00They do exactly the same job.
08:02So how would you set up?
08:03Really nice and simple.
08:04I kind of like caught the train tracks.
08:06I can use two, three alignment sticks.
08:08Firstly, I would always set my ball to target line out and I always like to put this in
08:11front.
08:12So I'm going to put it down towards this yellow flag here and make sure the ball's
08:18on that.
08:19Secondly, then we're going to put our feet line and for an ideal scenario, this is someone
08:24who's just aligning to a target.
08:25If you were drawing it, you'd move your feet line slightly to the right, slightly to the
08:28left, but just to have a baseline to what target you're going at.
08:31I like them to have my feet running parallel to this.
08:34So I'd have two parallel lines, one for my ball to target line, which I like to have
08:38in front because I really think that gives you a good visual and something to take to
08:42the course.
08:43It's almost like a shot tracer pointing where you want it to go and then get into a good
08:46habit of having these feet running parallel.
08:49Okay.
08:50And then the last one as a midpoint reference to check that your shoulders are aligned.
08:54Shoulders aligned, where my hands, have I got a reference, my hands look too far ahead,
08:58too far back.
08:59And ultimately, I think golf's easier if you think of it in straight lines.
09:03If we write, okay, this is my target.
09:05I'm trying to aim towards that rather than the guesswork of going, where am I?
09:11So there you have it.
09:12If you're going to the range, you're probably doing so because you want to get better at
09:15golf.
09:16And if you want to get better, you have to lay these foundations.
09:19They will make a big difference to the quality of your alignment and your swing as well.
09:33Slightly out of the hill, but it'll do.
09:36Alex, this next one is one I'm definitely guilty of.
09:39My favourite club in the bag is definitely my driver.
09:41And when I go to the range, I probably hit more shots with this club than I do any other
09:45club, partly because I'm trying to enjoy my range time, but maybe that's not the best
09:48way to improve.
09:49No, I think a lot of people, whether that be driver, favourite club is 7-iron notoriously
09:54for some people.
09:55And you get into a rhythm of just searching for your favourite club and practising with
09:59your favourite club.
10:00So we get to the course.
10:01So for example, you like driver, you get to say a 6-iron that you told me you don't like
10:05as much.
10:06You get in a situation where, well, I don't know about this one because I don't actually
10:10hit any shots with it.
10:11Practice with it.
10:12Yeah.
10:13And I think the best and simplest way to do this with each session, right, OK, I'm going
10:16to hit my odds this session, so my odd irons, and then I'm going to go and hit my evens.
10:21And then ultimately, we're spreading our wear one across our club, so our equipment lasts
10:25a bit longer.
10:26You don't have that spot in your 7-iron that gets absolutely battered where the rest of
10:28the golf clubs are OK.
10:29I'm guilty of doing the 7-iron too much.
10:33I just think ultimately, the more you can practise like you do on the course, you're
10:37going to be in a better situation.
10:38Yes.
10:39And we know we don't follow a 7-iron with a 7-iron with a 7-iron very often.
10:43We might be a 7-iron, might then be a 5-iron, might be a 4-iron.
10:45Right, so you're mixing up the length of the shaft, you're changing ball positions, like
10:50those subtle changes that you're having to make out on the golf course.
10:52Definitely.
10:53So question then, Alex, a lot of people watching this, they will have problems specifically
10:57with a certain club.
10:58And I suspect a lot of people will find that it will be with their 3-wood or maybe like
11:03their 3-iron or 4-iron is a club that whenever they have to pull it out, they do so with
11:07a bit of dread.
11:08What's the tactic to improve those areas?
11:11For one, pull it out on the range.
11:13I really think if you were to pull that club out, I wouldn't leave it to the end of the
11:17session.
11:18I would use it in the middle of your practice session.
11:19So once you've warmed up, once you've hit a few shots, you've got into a bit of rhythm
11:22and say, right, for these next 10 shots, I'm going to hit my 4-iron, for example.
11:27A lot of people don't like long irons.
11:28They try and get it into the air and find a way of hitting it.
11:32Because on the golf course, there's no pictures.
11:34All we need to have is an ability to, okay, for the long irons, especially for your club
11:38golfer, we're not expected to get it that close.
11:41It's sort of that kind of medium gap where, okay, we've got to get it near the green and
11:45then give us a chance of getting up and down.
11:47If we hit the green, fantastic, because it's a big thing.
11:49I think if you get into the range and you get your 7-iron, you're always hitting it
11:52or for you, Neil, who likes the driver and you're seeing the driver go down the range
11:56mentally, you're like, oh, yeah, I've seen this one go.
11:59You get then your 6-iron out, you've not seen that go as much, straightaway, mentally, you're
12:03on the back foot.
12:04Yes, and you're set up, naturally, you're in a dress position, you're kind of ready
12:08to hit drive and then you stand over a 6-iron, it all feels a bit alien, a bit different.
12:13So there you have it.
12:14Really simple stuff.
12:15If you are heading to the range, practice with a vast majority of clubs in the bag.
12:19Don't just stick to your favourite one.
12:22Okay, so the next one relates to pressure.
12:27A lot of people out there, Alex, will know that they probably should incorporate a bit
12:30of pressure into their practice.
12:32The question I've got for you is, can you really replicate the pressure that you feel
12:35on the golf course and can it help?
12:39I guess you can never really fully replicate it, but you can definitely go a long way to
12:43making a scenario which replicates it as close as you can on the range.
12:47So the best way I do it is if you get your iPhone or your smartphone out and you've got
12:52a notepad on your phone and say we're on drive at the end of our session, we're going to
12:56have 10 golf balls, we're going to set a fairway and we're going to have 10 shots written down
13:01on our phone.
13:02And I want us to have a tick if we hit the fairway, left, right.
13:05And almost set a benchmark, okay, where I am this session, okay, now I've got to beat
13:09that every single time.
13:11Don't cheat.
13:12The temptation to cheat will be there, but try not to.
13:15So Alex, in this situation, where are the two, what's the fairway?
13:18I'm going to pick, you can see the kind of orangey tree on the right, I'm going to use
13:21the left edge of that one and then the same on the left.
13:24We've got kind of two trees here.
13:25That's quite a tight fairway.
13:26Practice hard.
13:27I've been giving myself much more leeway for room than that.
13:31Go on then Alex, hit one for us and then tell us what you'd then be writing down.
13:34Yeah.
13:35Another point though, if you set a smaller fairway, then on the golf course, it's going
13:39to feel a little bit easier as well.
13:40Well that's true, but my worry would be that I would have no confidence when I got to the
13:43golf course, so I'd feel like I'd missed all the fairways before going out to play.
13:46Positivity here, that's what we want.
13:48Yeah, that's what I'm lacking.
13:49So I'll go through my full routine as well, with each shot.
13:53Right, shot number one.
14:01Oh, depressingly straight down the middle there Alex.
14:09What are you writing down there in your notepad?
14:11You just put a big tick next to it.
14:13And we've got the emojis on our phone and I think it's good, you put the big green tick,
14:17put whatever you've got on your phone because going forward mentally, if you can start seeing
14:21repetitiveness, okay well I've hit that fairway, I've hit that fairway, you'll not only build
14:25confidence but you'll probably also develop a stock shot as well.
14:27Yes.
14:28And having a stock shot is so powerful.
14:29You know, a move that you can make that you know you can get the ball.
14:32Now, question for you then Alex, I know this is something that a lot of mental game coaches
14:36sort of talk about, are you, when you're out on the golf course and you're under pressure,
14:40are you kind of, is there any part of you that's sort of picturing this sort of scenario
14:44on the range?
14:45Definitely, definitely.
14:47I think whatever you can do, if for example you're coming down the last and you're on
14:51to beat your handicap by two shots, we all get a little bit nervous, we know we're going
14:55to lower our handicap now, you can go back to scenarios and actually know, I had a tight
14:59affair on that range, I hit it, so you've got that belief that you can go forward and
15:04carry that to the course.
15:05So there you have it, I mean golf without question is one of the most mentally demanding
15:09sports you can play.
15:10You can prepare for it on the range if you put a little bit of this into play.
15:18Okay Alex, next one, machine gun practice, something that I've definitely been guilty
15:23of in my time.
15:24What do you see, what's the fault, what do you see people doing?
15:27If you were to walk down the range now, your local driving range, you'd see someone hit
15:31it, pull another ball, hit it, pull another ball, and especially if they're struggling
15:35with their game and on a club that they don't like, pull, hit, pull, hit, pull, hit, where's
15:40that gone?
15:41Disgusted, pull another one in, have another go.
15:43Exactly, and you don't really take into account what you're doing in your swing, you're searching
15:46for a different feeling every single time, and I think it then almost becomes a little
15:51bit of guesswork to actually, how do I get the ball for me to be the best possible way.
15:56So if we're someone who takes lessons, or even if we're not someone who takes lessons,
15:59just taking a little bit of time in between each shot, one, it replicates what happens
16:03on the course, we've sometimes got a 5, 10 minute break on a par 5, waiting on the tee,
16:08we haven't got that ability to go, oh I've got another one to go here, oh okay that wasn't
16:12good, right okay, reload, I've got a second go here, we know we only have one go on the
16:17course.
16:18Yes, of course, yeah.
16:19So I kind of come up with a thing, and this is something that I do with a lot of people
16:21that come for a lesson, is a 5 ball set I call it, 3 balls which could be something
16:26what you've decided with your coach you want to work on, so say for example you were working
16:30on a little bit of club face control in a certain drill, you'd spend these 3 golf balls
16:34working on that area of the game, and then not really worrying about ball flight too
16:39much, still having a target to go to, and then the final two, this is where ultimately
16:44I'm a big believer in these two, we're not tuned in enough when we practice, especially
16:49if we're someone who pulls a ball, hits, pulls a ball, hits, into actually performance on
16:53the course.
16:54So these two would be change of club, change of target, and trying to replicate going through
16:59your full routine of what happens on the course on the range.
17:03Are you trying to then, with those two balls, trying to lose all kind of technical thoughts
17:07of what you've been working on, or are you still thinking about that stuff?
17:10I guess that's a person to person basis, personally I try to get people to have one, possibly
17:16two swing thoughts, absolute max, definitely going more towards losing the swing thoughts
17:20than to having them, and almost trying to get it right, okay this is the swing thought
17:25I had, I'm now going to try and hit a draw shot, I'm now going to try and hit a fade
17:28shot, being definitely more tuned into the ball flight, so in the sense of a shot I'm
17:31going to try and hit, instead of a specific swing thought, which would be the other three.
17:36And I always say to everybody as well, machine gun practice, you could get a hundred balls
17:40and do them in twenty minutes, I say to all the people that I kind of help out, I say
17:45well go and get fifty, and spend the same time you're hitting fifty as you were a hundred,
17:49or even longer, just by setting them out in five ball sets.
17:53You take your time, you know what you're working on, and you're actually getting some real
17:56time feedback that's going to help you out on the course.
18:00And you can pay attention to things like your alignment, and your posture, and all of those
18:03good things that make a big difference to your game.
18:05So if you are heading to the range, avoid the temptation of pulling a ball, hitting
18:08it, pulling another one, hitting it, it can actually do more harm than good.
18:12Ah, well that's my last ball of the session Alex, and I've hit a bit of a slice there.
18:30What's the mistake, in what you sent to me, you said people have a last ball syndrome
18:36when they practice, what is it, and what's the mistake?
18:39We've only got one ball now, one chance to hit a good shot, and say for example we had
18:43seventy-five balls in our practice session, we're now on the seventy-fifth, I really believe
18:46that people determine their practice session on what that golf ball does.
18:51So if we had seventy-four good shots, and we hit one bad one to finish, they remember
18:54that one.
18:55Well that's true, but we're often told when it comes to practice that your last ball needs
19:01to be, you're replicating the first tee shot, so if you're warming up to go out and play,
19:05often the tour players will say the last shot I hit will be the first shot I hit on the
19:08golf course.
19:09Is that not a good theory to have?
19:10Does that put too much pressure on that final ball?
19:13I guess if you perform well and it goes on the range, it's a good thing to do, but I
19:17don't want you to feel that that's going to determine how good your practice was.
19:21I think if we look at it realistically, a lot of people have probably one practice session
19:25a week, and then go and play at the weekend, and they always lose thought of the seventy-four
19:29good shots, or the fifty good shots, and go, oh, bloomin' heck, my last shot on Wednesday
19:35was a big slice off to the right, and all they're picturing now on the first tee is
19:38the ball doing this.
19:40So again, this is kind of a double-edged sword.
19:42If it goes well, it's fantastic, but what I would say is, don't put yourself in a situation
19:47where it's the be-all and end-all.
19:48Okay, well, so if you are heading to the range, try not to put too much of an emphasis on
19:53what happens with your final shot.
19:55So there you have it, those were the seven biggest practice mistakes.
20:00Guys, I hope you've enjoyed the video.
20:01If you have, please do hit the like button, and also leave some comments below.
20:05Was there anything that we were missing from our list, things that you see when you head
20:09to the driving range?
20:10We'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.
20:12Well, get Alex on, if there's any questions you have, to answer them, to make sure that
20:16you do get the most from your valuable practice time.
20:18Guys, thank you for watching, we'll see you next time.