Neil Tappin and PGA Pro Alex Elliott talk through the biggest mistakes golfers make when practising their games.
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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 kind of assess how
01:00you're practising.
01:01In 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 there's, for example if you get an online lesson it's really important that you
01:14get the camera angles from the right place.
01:16For one, coach is probably going to want it from down the line and from face on and even
01:20if 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.
01:33Okay, and 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, so swaying off, sliding through, width in the backswing,
01:45club face through impact, hands ahead of the ball.
01:48But if you're slightly off the angle, it might look as if your ball position is too
01:51far back, like 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, and then you could actually start critiquing things in your own game that don't
02:02need critiquing and then you can go off the boil and actually think, well why is it going
02:06off the boil?
02:07And 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
02:25club?
02:26For me, really nice and simple, you can get a tripod, very inexpensive, get it off most
02:30online retail stores, and a holder for your iPad, a holder for your camera phone, and
02:35...
02:36Why, okay, so here's sometimes, I have been known to do this in the past, going to the
02:41driving range, putting my phone down on the floor, sort of propped up against the wall,
02:47filming 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 ground level, I kind of guess you're looking at more of what the
03:01club's doing at impact, because you're going to see a lot more of what's happening at ground
03:04level.
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
03:44swing.
03:45So why not do it when we're actually analysing our swing as well?
03:48Okay, fine.
03:49Okay, I'll...
03:50Right, I've got you on camera here.
03:52No pressure.
03:53Yeah.
03:54I don't remember where I'm aiming.
04:06Okay, 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.
04:21You'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
04:27to avoid 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.
04:38We got on the range, and we expect the first ball to be a draw, and we almost become so
04:42self-critical and so kind of predetermined about what the ball flight's doing at the
04:45start, that can certainly 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
05:16up through to seven irons.
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
05:26irons, 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, so you can end up starting off on a fairly negative point, which can then affect
05:49the whole 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 a 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.
06:23Okay, 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, hopefully
06:47then 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.
07:02Exactly.
07:03And then you take that to the course, well, then you could start missing it to the right.
07:05Or vice versa, you 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, but that's a ball flight that could
07:36start 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 call it 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, I'm trying to aim towards that rather than the
09:08guesswork of going, where am I?
09:11And 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.
09:25Slightly 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.
09:50I think a lot of people, whether that be driver, favourite club is 7-iron, notoriously for
09:54some 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, ooh, I don't know about this one because I don't
10:10actually hit any shots with it.
10:12Practise with it, yeah.
10:13Yeah.
10:14And 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
10:24lasts a bit longer.
10:25Yeah, so you don't have that spot in your 7-iron that gets absolutely battered where
10:28the rest of the 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, and I suspect a lot of people will find that it will be with their
11:013-wood or maybe like their 3-iron or 4-iron is a club that whenever they have to pull
11:06it out, they do so with a 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 practise 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.
11:26A lot of people don't like long irons, they try and get it into the air and find a way
11:31of hitting it, because on the golf course, there's no pictures.
11:34All we need to have is an ability to, okay, with 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, I think, if you get into the
11:50range and you get your 7-iron, you're always hitting it, or for you, Neil, who likes the
11:53driver, and you're seeing the driver go down the range, mentally, you're like, oh, yeah,
11:58I've seen this one go.
11:59You get then your 6-iron out.
12:00If you've not seen that go as much, straight away, mentally, you're on 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 hit a standover, a 6-iron, it all feels a bit alien, a bit
12:12different.
12:13Exactly, right.
12:14So there you have it, really 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.
12:25Okay, 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 note speed on your phone, and say we're on driver at the end of our session, we're
12:56going to go ten golf balls, we're going to set a fairway, and we're going to have ten
13:00shots written down on our phone.
13:01And 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, now I've got to beat that
13:10every single time.
13:11And don'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, another 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, because I'd feel like I'd missed all the fairways before going out to play.
13:46Positivity here, that's what we want.
13:47Yeah, that's what I'm lacking.
13:49So, I'll go through my full routine as well, with each shot.
13:55Right, shot number one.
14:07Ah, 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.
14:12Big tick.
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.
14:46I 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.
15:01So you've got that belief that you can go forward and carry 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.
15:16Okay Alex, next one, machine gun practice.
15:20Something that I've definitely been guilty of in my time.
15:24What's the thought, 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
15:30it, pull another ball, hit it, pull another ball, and especially if they're struggling
15:34with their game and on a club that they don't like, pull, hit, pull, hit.
15:38Yeah, pull, hit, where's that gone, disgusted, pull another one in, have another go.
15:42Exactly, and you don't really take into account what you're doing in your swing.
15:45You're searching for a different feeling every single time.
15:48And I think it then almost becomes a little bit of guesswork to actually, how do I get
15:53the ball for me to be the best possible way?
15:55Yes.
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.
16:04We've sometimes got five, ten minute break on a par five, waiting on the tee.
16:08We haven't got that ability to go, oh, I've got another one to go here.
16:11Or, okay, that wasn't good, right, okay, reload, I got a second go here.
16:14We know we only have one go on the course.
16:17Yes, of course, yeah.
16:18So 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 five ball set, I call it.
16:23Okay.
16:24Three balls, which could be something what you've decided with your coach you want to
16:28work on.
16:29So say, for example, you were working on a little bit of club face control in a certain
16:32drill.
16:33You'd spend these three golf balls working on that area of the game.
16:36Okay.
16:37And then not really worrying about ball flight too much, still having a target to go to.
16:41And then the final two, this is where, ultimately, I'm a big believer in these two.
16:46We're not tuned in enough when we practice, especially if we're someone who pulls a ball,
16:50hits, pulls a ball, hits, into actually performance on the course.
16:54So these two would be change of club, change of target, and trying to replicate going through
16:58your full routine of what happens on the course on the range.
17:02Are you trying to then, with those two balls, trying to lose all kind of technical thoughts
17:07of what you've been working on?
17:08Exactly.
17:09What are you thinking about that stuff?
17:10I guess that's a person-to-person basis.
17:13Personally, I try to get people to have one, possibly two swing thoughts, absolute max.
17:17Definitely going more towards losing the swing thoughts than to having them.
17:21And almost trying to go, right, okay, this is the swing thought I had.
17:25I'm now going to try and hit a draw shot.
17:26I'm now going to try and hit a fade shot.
17:28Being definitely more tuned into the ball flight, so in the sense of a shot I'm going
17:31to try and hit, instead of a specific swing thought, which would be the other three.
17:36I always say to everybody as well, machine gun practice, you could get 100 balls and
17:39do them in 20 minutes.
17:41I say to all the people that I kind of help out, I say, well, go and get 50 and spend
17:46the same time you're hitting 50 as you were 100, or even longer, just by setting them
17:51out in five ball sets.
17:52You 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.
17:59And you can pay attention to things like your alignment and your posture and all of those
18:02good things that make a big difference to your game.
18:04So if you are heading to the range, avoid the temptation of pulling a ball, hitting
18:08it, pulling another one, hitting it.
18:10It can actually do more harm than good.
18:25Well, that's my last ball of the session, Alex, and I've hit a bit of a slice there.
18:30What's the mistake?
18:32What you sent to me, you said people have a last ball syndrome when they practice.
18:37What is it, and what's the mistake?
18:39We've only got one ball now, one chance to hit a good shot.
18:41And say, for example, we had 75 balls in our practice session.
18:44We're now on the 75th.
18:45I really believe that people determine their practice session on what that golf ball does.
18:50So if we had 74 good shots and we hit one bad one to finish, they remember that 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.
19:02So if you're warming up to go out and play, often the tour players will say the last shot
19:06I hit will be the first shot I hit on the golf course.
19:08Is 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.
19:17But I don'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
19:24a week and then go and play at the weekend.
19:27And they always lose thought of the 74 good shots or the 50 good shots and go,
19:32oh, bloomin' heck, my last shot on Wednesday was a big slice off to the right.
19:36And all they're picturing now on the first tee is the ball doing this.
19:39So again, this is kind of a double-edged sword.
19:41If it goes well, it's fantastic.
19:44But what I would say is don't put yourself in a situation where it's the be-all and end-all.
19:48OK, well, so if you are heading to the range, try not to put too much of an emphasis
19:52on what happens with your final shot.
19:55So there you have it. Those were the seven biggest practice mistakes.
19:59Guys, I hope you've enjoyed the video. If you have, please do hit the like button
20:03and also leave some comments below.
20:05Was there anything that we were missing from our list, things that you see
20:08when you head to the driving range?
20:10We'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.
20:12We'll get Alex on if there's any questions you have to answer them
20:15to make sure that you do get the most from your valuable practice time.
20:18Guys, thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.
20:25www.microsoft.com