In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Tour coach, Liam James to offer some insight into fixing your iron play faults.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly,
00:02and welcome to the London Club,
00:03and this video looking at the biggest iron play faults
00:06and how to fix them.
00:08Now we've teamed up with PING and tour coach Liam James
00:11to offer you some really simple and effective advice
00:13in three key areas.
00:15So, if you're missing your approach shots,
00:17short of the green,
00:17or you're struggling with pushes or pulls,
00:19there really should be something in this video
00:21that will help you out.
00:23Right, let's head out now to the golf course
00:24here at the London Club and get started.
00:27Okay, Liam, so the first fault
00:29that we're gonna look at here is missing short.
00:31I think for a lot of people watching this,
00:33their most consistent miss when hitting into the green
00:35is gonna be coming up short.
00:36It's no surprise,
00:37that's where most golf courses tend to have the most trouble,
00:40tends to be short of the green.
00:42So how do you make sure that you're striking the ball
00:44that bit more consistently
00:45so that you're hitting the yardages you want to hit?
00:48Yeah, so as you referred to,
00:49obviously most of the common faults
00:50when a player's missing short
00:52is when they're hitting the ball too short.
00:54As you referred to, obviously,
00:55most of the common faults when a player's hitting short,
00:58we tend to see all that come from the contact.
01:00So if we can do everything possible
01:02in order to enable ourselves some ball first contact
01:05and a bit of a more solid hit,
01:07the golf ball as a result of that
01:08is gonna go its full distance.
01:09Yeah, so you're looking to hit the ball before the ground,
01:12and how do you get the right angle of attack
01:16into the ball to make sure that you do that?
01:18So we've got a basic drill here.
01:19So quite a common fault that we start to see
01:21with a lot of players is,
01:22as obviously they take their golf club up to the top,
01:25we start to see a lot of head movement away from the target.
01:28Now, as a result of that,
01:31the weight shifted quite a long way away from the target now.
01:34So if it's not moving back,
01:36we're gonna start to see some contacts before this stick,
01:39we're gonna hit the ground early,
01:40or if anything, we're gonna thin the golf ball as well.
01:43Both of those contacts,
01:44we're not gonna get the full yardage.
01:46So a little drill here and a nice basic drill
01:48is I'm just gonna place this alignment stick here.
01:51That's just inside my right heel.
01:53Now, as I do some practice swings,
01:55my only focus really here now is just to make sure
01:58we stay nice and still all the way up
01:59to the top of the backswing.
02:01So I'm gonna go up to the top, stay nice and still,
02:03and now when I swing down and through,
02:05we can start to see the divot is plenty after this stick.
02:09That's gonna ensure my contact.
02:10Yeah, so a lot of golfers might think,
02:11well, I've been told that when I move
02:13to the top of the backswing,
02:14my weight goes onto my right side.
02:15Is that not the case?
02:17More so with the woods,
02:18we start to see a little bit more movement
02:19away from the target, only a hair really with the woods,
02:22but again, really consistent iron players
02:25and really solid iron players,
02:26we don't see a lot of head movement.
02:28So there's not much movement away from the target at all.
02:30So we wanna try and stabilize that as much as we can.
02:33Okay, go on then, let's hit a couple of shots.
02:35Okay, right.
02:36So again, two or three practice swings here.
02:38I'm just gonna have a nice practice swing up to the top.
02:40No real head movement away from the target
02:43and then full weight transfer into my left side,
02:46making sure that I'm taking a divot.
02:48Let's give it a go.
02:49Okay.
02:55Lovely.
02:57And I guess Liam, no one's really in danger
02:59of actually striking that alignment stick,
03:01but it's a really clear visual guide for you
03:03just to know.
03:04Absolutely.
03:05It just gives you a little bit of an awareness really.
03:07It's a bit of a cue on the floor,
03:09just to make sure that we're staying nice
03:11and still on the way back
03:12and we're getting the weight shifting on the way through.
03:14Yeah, so if you're coming up short with your iron shots,
03:16make sure your angle of attack is correct into the ball.
03:19You should be able to get the strikes
03:20that little bit purer
03:22and get your distances more consistent.
03:23Okay, Liam, so we've got another ball striking drill,
03:25similar sort of thing,
03:27but slightly different way of approaching it.
03:28Yeah, same concept.
03:29It's another drill that's really gonna help
03:32and ensure some weight transfer
03:34and some weight shift towards the target.
03:35So I'm just gonna take my normal address position here,
03:38just one to two inches behind the golf ball.
03:41Okay, so that's gonna obviously make the ball
03:43a little bit further forward in my stance now
03:45as it normally would be.
03:47Same concept up to the top.
03:48We're gonna make sure that we're staying nice
03:50and stable with our head,
03:51but because that golf ball's now two inches
03:53further forward than it would originally be,
03:55we've gotta make sure that we're shifting over to it
03:57to ensure that contact.
03:58And if you don't, you're catching it sort of three inches fat
04:00and it'll be very, very clear.
04:01Exactly right.
04:02And it will just really highlight
04:04how stable your head needs to stay on the way back
04:06and how much you need to shift on the way through.
04:08Yeah, and if you can get that part right,
04:10if you can get that angle of attack into the ball right,
04:12you should start striking your iron
04:13that little bit better.
04:14Okay, so next up, we're gonna look at the push.
04:17Liam, where does it come from?
04:19Where does the push come from in the golf swing?
04:21So as a rule, obviously,
04:22if we start to see the golf ball,
04:24a push defining as the ball starting out to the right
04:27and staying to the right,
04:28we start to see the golf club is too open
04:31at some point during the golf swing.
04:32Now, the most common fault that we start to see
04:35that leads to that is the wrist position
04:38at the top of the backswing.
04:39So we start to see quite a cupped left wrist position,
04:42which obviously as a result of which
04:44causes the club face to be too open
04:46at the top of the backswing.
04:47Right, okay.
04:48And I guess you don't want people to be thinking too much
04:51about the angle of their wrist at the top
04:54because you've still got to play golf.
04:55So how do you sort the problem out
04:57without getting too technical?
04:59So a little drill that you can just do on the driving range,
05:01and I think it's important as well,
05:03you can do a few different practice swings
05:05and we can do this tee drill in a second.
05:08And it's important to just do two or three of these
05:10in a practice swing and then go ahead and hit a shot,
05:12as you say, without getting over technical
05:14or too much thinking.
05:15Now, the simple drill is if you just place your left hand
05:18on the golf club, as you normally would,
05:21and you just slide a tee peg here, just down the glove.
05:25Okay, so that's just inside my global hand now.
05:27And all we're going to try and fulfill now
05:29as we swing to the top in my rehearsal
05:31is that when I get to the top of that backswing,
05:34if my left wrist position is in the right place,
05:36which is a flat left wrist,
05:37this tee peg just runs perfectly flat down my forearm.
05:41Now, if I start to get too much this way,
05:44that's now just applying a bit of pressure
05:46so I can feel that I'm in the wrong position
05:47with my left wrist.
05:48Right, and it's a really nice,
05:49I guess it gives you a little something to think about.
05:51You realize that you've done it at the top.
05:53Just a little trigger and a little feel for you
05:55when you're having your practice swings
05:56to make sure you're doing it right.
05:57Right, fine, so you wouldn't actually hit a ball
05:58doing that, would you?
05:59No, I would just do two or three practice swings
06:01without, no ball, just getting a feel
06:04for what it is I want to do.
06:05And then I'd go ahead and hit a shot with that new feel.
06:07Okay, take the tee out then, Liam.
06:10Just hit one for us.
06:11Just show everyone on camera, hopefully,
06:13what a good proper back swing position looks like.
06:15If I just run you up to the top,
06:17I'm just going to have two or three rehearsals.
06:19I'm just going to have a little look at that at the top.
06:20So that's my flat left wrist.
06:22And I'm just going to go ahead and hit one
06:24with my flat left wrist.
06:29Perfect, and it didn't push it.
06:31I can confirm that was not a push.
06:33And okay, so I guess it's probably not related,
06:36but for those players who've got the opposite problem,
06:39so they tend to, their bad shot into the greens
06:41tends to be a pull.
06:43What's the best drill to help them out on that?
06:44Again, so the rule will be, what's the club face doing?
06:47So we're starting to see,
06:49generally what we start to see with a pull
06:51is the club face is closing too quickly through impact.
06:54Okay, so obviously that's making the golf ball
06:56start to the left of target and stay to the left of target.
06:59So a very simple drill again,
07:01and just refer that back to a practice swing.
07:04If I hold the golf club just down at the bottom here now,
07:06so I've got all of this golf club running at my left side,
07:10all I'm going to feel now as I just mimic impact
07:13is that as I swing through the golf ball,
07:15I want this shaft to stay firmly away from me.
07:18So if I'm doing that,
07:19that's showing me that I'm not flicking my wrist
07:22through impact, okay?
07:23And as a result of which,
07:24that's going to stabilize the club head for me.
07:27So if you're releasing the club,
07:28if you have that tendency to release the club
07:31a little bit too early,
07:32show us, you'll feel the club-
07:34Absolutely, so you'll just feel,
07:36as you come into the golf ball here,
07:39if I release the golf club too early,
07:41you can see that that's making contact with me.
07:43If I just delay that release for a little bit longer,
07:46I've got plenty of room between me and the golf club,
07:48and as a result of which, that club face is staying square.
07:51Yeah, and I guess the whole point here is
07:53that's really simple and a really effective way
07:55of giving you a feel for what to do.
07:57Absolutely, and it's always good to have a reference
07:59away from the golf ball, two or three practice swings,
08:02just getting a feel for it,
08:03and then go ahead and hit a shot without too much thought.
08:07So there you have it.
08:08Whether you're coming up short on the green,
08:09you're pushing your approach shots,
08:10or you're pulling them.
08:11Hopefully Liam's tips here will help you
08:13get your ball striking back on track
08:15and help you hit the ball closer to the flag.