In this video, staff writer Dan Parker is joined by PGA Pro and well-known YouTuber Peter Finch to provide his best 5 golf swing tips. Regardless of your ability, you're certain to benefit from the advice Peter offers in this golf tuition video - whether it's tips on how to aim properly, how to hit fairway woods sweetly every time or what your swing thoughts should be - Peter Finch has got you covered.
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00:00Right, welcome Pete, Finch, we've got you back where it all began, I guess. A bit of coaching,
00:04some tips for everybody at home at the beautiful range here at Fornby Golf Club.
00:10We've got a couple of questions from readers we're going to get stuck into in a bit, but first a
00:13couple of basics I want to start with you. In your long time as a coach, prior to being a content
00:18creator. I mean, medium time. Why are you trying to make me sound so odd? You know, in the grand
00:22scheme of the history of the year. Why do you think you sound wise? I'm young, I'm still energetic,
00:28I've still got it. So as a young, hip content creator and formerly very young coach. Appreciate
00:32that, thank you. What is the tip you sort of gave out the most? What's a real common thing that you
00:37taught people that maybe people sort of forget back at home?
00:42Face, understanding of where the face is aiming throughout the swing. So I think a lot of people,
00:46when they have a lesson and if they've seen their swing on video, they'll say, oh, you know, I'm
00:51coming over the top, I'm slicing it, I'm hitting a hook, I'm coming from the inside, flipping the hands.
00:55They'll jump to a technical explanation and big major swing changes before they even look at the
01:03club face. So the amount of lessons I've given where people are hitting a slice, they say I'm
01:08coming over the top, I'm moving left, I'm hitting a slice, I've tried to come from the inside or the
01:12rest of it. When you actually look at their club face throughout the swing, it's open, their grip is
01:18too weak and they don't have control over the actual thing which is hitting the ball. So with those guys and
01:24girls, I mean, if they're swinging and that club face is open, so pointing to the right of the
01:29target for a right-hander and they would swing on play, nice neutral path and their impact would send
01:35the ball off to the right-hand side with an open face. What the brain will do, because it's a target
01:39orientated sport, is automatically try and send the club a little bit more out. That way there's a way
01:44to try and correct with paths. So before even getting onto any aspect of the swing, club face.
01:52Club face is key. Very good. I think something we could all take away with us if you're struggling
01:57a little bit, think about that club face, maybe think about that grip as well before we start major
02:01swing changes. Okay Pete, next up, what's the best piece of swing advice that you think too many golfers
02:09ignore? Aim. Ah. Thanks for watching, appreciate that. So, I mean, I always, there's a perfect
02:18example I had with a lesson of my Nigel who, we were seeing each other for a good 12 months, regular
02:25lessons, and he was swinging it unbelievable. Like his ball flight, you could aim him down a straight road
02:32and he'd be middling it every single time. It was so consistent. But then he'd always come back and he'd say,
02:38Pete, I'm shooting eight over, nine over. I'm hitting a slice. I just can't find the fairway.
02:44It's always going off to the right hand side. And this was very confusing for me because obviously in
02:48the, when we were coaching, everything was, was great. It looked great. So we had a playing lesson
02:53and it pretty quickly became evident right from the first hole that he was aiming consistently
03:0020 to 30 yards right at target. And then he was putting his normal swing on it that we've been
03:05working really hard on. The ball was finishing 20, 30 yards right. And he was like, I'm slicing it.
03:10I'm pushing it. What's going on with my swing? Nothing, Nigel. And they say it like that,
03:16I let it go for a three hole. So when I did come up with the explanation, I looked like an absolute genius.
03:20But basically, if you are playing golf, there's something that you need to remember
03:27and you need to take to heart. This is a target orientated sport. And yet, aim of club face,
03:35of body is one of the, is one of the few things that golfers overlook consistently. Same with grip,
03:42same with like things like posture. If you think about this, if you were watching an archer and an
03:46archer was consistently aiming 20 yards right of the target, would that not be a red flag that this is
03:53not Robin Hood. Like this is the worst archer that you've ever seen. And yet, if you're watching this,
03:59if you're listening to this, when was the last time you actually worked on your aim in a target
04:04orientated sport? And I'm going to guess that probably 70, 80% of you haven't worked on where
04:09they're aiming for ever. And it's, it's a crazy thing. And it's one of the reasons why golf is
04:15such a crazy, frustrating sport. But to give you a very, very quick overview of this,
04:22you've got two lines you need to be worried about. Target line, which is the imaginary line going from
04:27your ball to where you want it to finish. Now I'm going to do parallel alignment here. So this is
04:33aiming your body and your club along the same line. Well, the same path. What I mean by that
04:39is if you imagine a train track here, outer rail, inner rail, this is parallel alignment. So your body
04:46doesn't technically aim at the target. It sits parallel to your target line. Now this is an
04:52alignment if you want to hit the ball relatively straight. If you're someone who hooks the ball
04:57consistently, this alignment might switch over to the right. It might switch over to the left,
05:02but it's just understanding your club face and how that interacts with your aim. But my God,
05:07please, please, please, please work on your aim before you start messing around with other things.
05:13Sounds like it's frustrated you quite a lot, Pete. It's just so obvious that we don't do it.
05:18No. When was the last thing you worked on your aim? To be honest with me.
05:20I'm in the 70 to 80%. I don't do it at all. I don't do it at all. What do you do out on course,
05:24though? Is there a little rude, like, what's your pre-shot? If I took all this away, right?
05:28Yeah, yeah. And we're on a hole here and you've got whatever iron in hand. What do you do on course to
05:32then help and make sure that's consistent and we don't do a Nigel as I'm going to refer to?
05:36So first of all, we need to establish what target line is. So let's say I'm aiming down here towards,
05:43well, let's keep it really simple. So I'm going down here towards this first yellow flag.
05:46Got you. Now imagine this was 200 yards in the distance.
05:49Yeah. Okay. It's a lot easier to line up to something just in front of the ball
05:54than it is a long way away. So behind the ball, I'd establish what my target line is.
05:59So from my ball to this yellow flag here, usually I just lift my shaft up. I draw it down straight
06:06line and then I pick something just in front of my ball. So this little worm cast. Very good.
06:14Yeah. Worm cast, everybody. Yeah. David Attenborough, come for your job.
06:17So I'd go with this worm cast here. I'd start with my feet together. I'd aim my club face at the worm cast,
06:24which I know sits on my ultimate target line. And because my feet are together,
06:29my toes, my knees, my hips, my shoulders are all square and they're all parallel to my club face.
06:34All I need to do then is separate my feet the appropriate amount. And I know that I'm in the
06:39line parallel to my target line with my body. Easy as that. Simple as that. But again,
06:44it's just routine. It's doing it again and again and again. Again, that's something I don't do on
06:47course enough for every shot. And I definitely don't work on my aim. So I think you're pretty
06:52frustrated by this and I get it. But just think about it. Just think about this. I'm getting told
06:58off at school here. Think about it. In any other target driven sport, you would be considered crazy
07:05if you didn't work on where you're aiming it. But in golf, it's like, ah, it doesn't matter.
07:09It doesn't matter. It does. It really matters. If you want to get better, you've got to know where
07:13you're aiming.
07:17Okay. Next up, Pete, we all have swing thoughts. We have lots of thoughts. Sometimes it can get a bit
07:22busy, but when you're working on something and have to go out on the course and play,
07:27how many swing thoughts would you suggest people have actually on the golf course? And then no
07:32shout about what you're thinking about at the minute to help people kind of identify that.
07:35So in an absolute ideal world, you shouldn't have any.
07:39Yes. You shouldn't have any. The simplest, the simplest way of doing this in the simplest way of
07:45demonstrating this and I'll need a willing volunteer. Thank you so much. I believe you're one of those
07:50left-handed people. I am. Yeah, I do. I do it all the wrong way around.
07:54In every culture, there are some. So we have basically very simple here. So target down
08:00towards that first yellow flag. This guy here. Yeah. Just give it a chuck and kind of...
08:03Just throw it. Yeah, try and hit it if we can. Throw right-handed. Oh, you throw right... Of course.
08:07Of course he does. Why wouldn't he? So throw it right-handed. Down we go. Okay. Cool. Same again.
08:15Just throw it down towards the target. This time, try and keep your elbow
08:19at a 90-degree angle towards the floor. And throw it. And throw it.
08:26That's going to look great on camera. Look at that go in.
08:29That's wonderful. Great accuracy. I'm just throwing it.
08:32How wonderfully awkward did that feel? Awful.
08:34All I could think about was my elbow and how silly I looked.
08:37So the point that I'm trying to get across here is you are playing a sport which involves pretty much
08:43every single part of your body. It is moving in a synchronized or sometimes a non-synchronized manner
08:49trying to propel a golf ball down towards your target. The whole motion, whole operation takes
08:55usually a second or less. The chances are of making an effective swing on the course while you're thinking
09:02of these different aspects of your technique are almost zero. Because you don't have time,
09:09you have different whys, you have different winds, you have different conditions. The chances of actually
09:15making a swing change whilst you're playing are so small that it's almost not worth it.
09:21Now, you may be thinking, well, Pete, you're a golf coach. You give lessons on how to change technique.
09:28What on earth are you talking about? Well, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to something
09:32called the driving range. This is a part of a golf course or hopefully in your local town and area
09:38where you can come and practice and work on your technique in the safety, surroundings and comforting
09:45manner which doesn't involve keeping a track of a score. The whole point of practice is that you work
09:52on your swing here, you ingrain changes like that first throw you did that was natural that you
09:57weren't thinking of it because you've done it all your life. Then you take it out of the golf course
10:02and you trust the fact that you've practiced enough to make that change. Right.
10:07Because as soon as a target's introduced, that's where your thought needs to be. Yeah.
10:12Not on the process. If you're out on the golf course, the chances are, the chances are you will have
10:20a swing thought. Yeah. Golf is such a hard sport and when you see and when you interview the very
10:26best players, when you ask them about like a monumental round that they've had, often they'll
10:31talk about not really remembering much of it or being in the zone because they've got their technique
10:36and they're trusting it to the extent that they're just going out and playing golf in its purest form.
10:40You know, they're not thinking about anything. However, to get to that point, often having a swing thought,
10:46which is as simple as possible and often which is orientated around target is the best thing to do.
10:54So extending arms down towards the target, that's a bit of a weird funky drill. There's things which
11:00you can do about tempo, about trying to keep yourself on an even keel mentally. There are things and
11:06thoughts that you can have. What you don't want to be doing is getting on the golf course and thinking,
11:11oh, I need to have a little bit more pronation in my elbow. I need to tuck my right shoulder in
11:17external rotation. These kind of things won't translate into better shots. It might feel
11:25like it's making a difference. It's like a comfort blanket. If you go out on the golf course,
11:30which is a big scary place, but you think, I haven't got this swing thought. Yeah.
11:33This swing thought I can cling to. More often than not, if you would watch your video on the golf course,
11:37some of your swing, the changes aren't there, which is why you need to practice it here. So
11:42if there is a swing thought that you have on the course, something like just a tempo drill.
11:47That's why, just something, like you said, something to grasp onto to keep yourself,
11:51I don't know, quite granted to the swing during the game.
11:56Like having something which allows you a little bit of a feeling of smoothness, of being in control,
12:03that's fine, but try and keep it away from those big technical thoughts and really work on them on
12:09the range before you go on the course. That's the only way you're going to improve. That's the only
12:13realistic way you're going to be able to change your swing. I think good tips there. Let's clear that
12:16mind and let's just throw it like I did first time, I guess. Yes, it's the hardest thing to do that.
12:22Yeah. So if you are, if you do have swing thoughts on the course, you can do slip into it. It's not,
12:27yeah, you're very much not alone. My 99% of golfers are there with you. Try and drift it a little bit,
12:31good stuff. Right, Pete, last two bits. We've got some questions from readers. Actually, the first
12:39one's from Dan in Solihull, which is from me. I want to work on compressing my irons better. I can hit
12:46it okay, but I'm not getting that nice fizz and that thump into the ground that we spoke about,
12:51the sort of all turf contact I'm really after. Have you got a drill for Dan in Solihull who can
12:57help them work on that? Well, Dan, thanks for calling in. Yes, I do. I kind of caveat this
13:03very slightly because if you want to compress your irons, so we're talking here about the feeling of
13:09compression, of squeezing that ball first and then hitting the turf. Yeah. Not compression. The golf
13:14orchid is a very different thing. So if you are a golf nerd out there, don't get on the keyboard and
13:19get excited. We're talking about the feeling of compression. Thanks very much. There was somebody
13:24Harper. Oh, there was someone there. There was someone there. I remember doing a video on this
13:27a while ago, talking about compressing the irons. Which in my head is the voice that all
13:34kind of internet notes have. That's the comment voice. Yeah. Yeah. Which I think everyone understands.
13:39So, compressing the irons. Two things I do need to say about this. Now, it's perfectly possible to hit the
13:47ball and then the turf from a multitude of different positions coming into the ball. However, having said
13:55that, I do have a lot of lessons really of people trying to hit the ball first in the turf, but
14:02consistently hitting fats and thins. Now, something which is a common occurrence with those golfers
14:07is that the club for a right-handed golfer, or you're left-handed so we can flip this around for a
14:11mirror edit if you want. We'll move into the ball from this position. So, coming over the top and then
14:19moving down. Now, this is a steep position. Okay. Now, you would think, well, okay, if it's a steep
14:25position, I can hit down. Yeah. And it is perfectly possible to do that. However, if you come down and
14:32steep and you're trying to send the ball straight, but the club is moving in this direction, with a target
14:38going to take the ball, you're naturally going to react to that because if you're stuck in that
14:42position, the ball's going to go over here super low. So, what tends to happen is when golfers move
14:49in this position, they will back up. So, the body will start to move towards the back foot and then
14:55they will try and open the club face to try and get the ball back to target, which is why you hit thins
15:01and fats now and hit it clean at times. So, a lot of golfers will be really trying to hit down,
15:07but they're not allowing themselves to do that because it would just be a scuttler across the
15:11left-hand side. So, you need to make sure that if you do want to compress the ball properly,
15:16because you need to be moving a little bit straighter, a little bit more in a neutral kind
15:20of pattern plane into the ball. First thing to say. So, if you are trying, but you are struggling,
15:26it might just be a path plane issue rather than an actual impact issue. So, having said that,
15:33having said that as a caveat. Having said that. So, a drill that you can use. Now,
15:39this. T-peg. T-peg. Congratulations. We've got a golfer with us, ladies and gentlemen. This is a T-peg.
15:46I think this is a T-peg. Is that the whistly? Looks like it. Not the whistly. I've never actually
15:52played that. It's just a swan. It's just a swan or a goose. We're not, you know. Canadian goose.
15:56You know, we're not. Geese are fine animals as well. I'm not going to presume what that bird is.
16:01Exactly. Just because you like swans more than geese. If you are a goose watching,
16:04it doesn't mean any offence. Sorry. So, what we're going to do with this T,
16:08is we're going to place it in the ground just after the ball. Now, if you want to work on path
16:14as well, let's say our target line here is again towards this first yellow flag. Yeah.
16:20If I put the T-peg in the ground slightly towards the outside of the golf ball,
16:26this is going to help path as well. Ah, okay. I see. So, it's just doing two things at once. Exactly.
16:31Because the idea of this drill is to get set up, hit the ball first, and then hit the T. However,
16:39the thought process is to take the ball out of this completely. Your idea here is to hit the T
16:47and not the ball. Yes. Does that make sense? I think so. So, if you manage to forget about the ball,
16:55which is a problem with golfers when I think about hitting the ball, if that's out of the way
17:00in your mind's eye, and you're focused on the T-peg, if you manage to hit that T-peg out of the ground,
17:06your club will have to be moving down through the point of impact. Yeah. So, you'll be hitting the
17:12ball first, collecting it during the downswing, and the club will continue to move downwards
17:17if it wants to make contact with that T-peg. Does that make sense? It all makes sense. I would,
17:22could I see it? Could I see it in my own eyes? You certainly can. I'll go a little bit straighter down
17:26the range. Go for a straight one, yeah. Just because of the position of the cameras,
17:29and we don't want to, we don't want to mess those up. Confuse everybody. So, there's a long time to
17:33set up. Now, we're not, we're not putting it that far in front of the ball. I've actually moved it
17:36a little bit further in front than really is necessary here. Like, it could only be an inch or so.
17:41And like I said, you can do this without a ball to begin with. Yeah. But we're swinging here,
17:46and we're just focused on trying to get that T-peg out of the ground.
17:49See here? There it is. Look at that. Beautiful little snappage there. That means the swan's,
17:57the swan's dead. The goose is dead. That's what we're going for. Now, my target here was to get
18:02that T-peg. Like I said, it was a little bit far forward, but managed to make contact,
18:07snapped the T-peg. So, if anything else, I know there that my club has been moving down through impact,
18:14so I've managed to make contact with the ground and hit the T-peg. I mean, I wasn't really aiming at anything
18:19particular there, but the sound and the strike, I also knew that it was that kind of contact.
18:24Very simple drill, but it also allows you to kind of play a trick on your mind as well. Yeah,
18:30definitely. Because you're taking away the ball, which is a big issue. I know this sounds really
18:35silly, but there's so many golfers watching this and understanding that they can have great practice
18:40swings. You know, they can hit the ground with their practice swings. As soon as the ball is
18:44introduced... It all gets a bit weird, doesn't it? Things start to go wrong. What if someone's
18:48practicing on a map and we've got a beautiful grass range here at Formby, but is it like,
18:52you know, is that when we put a towel in front of it or just some kind of object?
18:55No. It's an object that you can hit away. Okay. So, it could be a broken tee. Yeah.
19:00For example, right? Just something that you're not going to miss. Like, don't use 20 pound notes.
19:05Well, it depends who you are. It's not what, just distributing them out onto the range.
19:09I mean, if Jeff Bezos is watching this. Probably hit 20 pound notes, to be fair,
19:12but something that can be moved after the ball. Exactly, because that's what you want to focus on hitting.
19:17Got you. The ball is just very much getting in the way. Well,
19:20down in Solihull, I hope that was really useful and you can take that away with you and get better
19:24hitting those irons. Right, lastly then, Pete, Howard and Peterborough got in touch and he is
19:32topping his fairway wood, both off the tee and off the deck. Need some help with it. It's a valuable
19:36club in the bag, something to get right. What are some tips? And some general striking tips,
19:40I guess, for these quite tricky clubs. So, first thing to say, it is a difficult club to hit.
19:45There's not a lot of loft on there and that automatically makes people try and lift it up in
19:51the air. Now, if you're topping your fairway wood, most likely as you're coming through impact,
19:58the body is backing up and away. The club head overtakes the hands in this kind of motion and that's
20:05where the club is ascending through impact on its angle of attack. Well, not angle of attack,
20:10angle of attention. And that is why you're catching the top of the ball and not hitting it flush.
20:16It's something that a lot of people struggle with, as said. So, don't worry, you're going to be okay
20:22and we're all here for you. All right? It's a safe space. It's a safe space. Now, we used in a drill
20:28previously, we did use a tee peg. Now, I've got another tee peg. I was just seeing what's coming out of the
20:32different tees out of your pocket every time. Now, this tee peg's from the Nest. Now, the first
20:35tee peg we used from the Weasley. I've never been there and I don't know where the nest is.
20:39Where are these coming from? I don't know. It's definitely my bag. I've not picked up a random
20:43one in the car park. Of course. I don't know. Someone's obviously gifted me some tees. Now,
20:48I'm going to put the ball to the side for just one second. I'm going to pop the tee in the ground.
20:54And I'm just going to leave just a little bit of it showing. Just a little bit of it showing. Now,
20:59very, very simply, we want the club to be moving through impact with the fairway woods,
21:05hitting the ball, and then just bruising the ground. Just giving it a little caress as it goes
21:12through. Bruising the ground. Just bruising it. We just want it skimming along it. We don't want a big,
21:17deep divot, even though you can still hit a successful shot like that. We just want that briefest
21:23moment of contact. Okay. Bruising the ground. I'm learning. The way to do that is to control
21:32low point. Okay. So as the club moves through impact, it comes down and then eventually it'll
21:37start rising up. It's this middle bit, right at the bottom, which is what you need the control of.
21:43Okay. So with this tee peg, all I want you doing is setting up to it as you would a fairway wood.
21:49So the ball is going to be just inside that left heel. Just going to take half a swing back. And
21:55as we move through, you just want to get the feeling that we can just click that tee peg. Okay. So it's
22:01only a little bit out of the ground. You just want that feeling so that you can just click it as we go
22:07through. Okay. That is controlling low point. Now you might say, well, Pete, that's really simple.
22:16It is. And that's the key because this is a hard club to hit. We don't need those complicated
22:21thoughts. Okay. If you can clip that tee peg and you can control low point, you're halfway there.
22:27Okay. Now, second thing, if you want to have something technical to think about,
22:32is all about where your sternum position is. Okay. Now sternum, right here, middle of the chest,
22:40pretty much keeps the rib cage together. Very important. If you don't have one, consult your
22:43doctor. But I'm presuming most of you will. Are we doing well to sat up watching this video?
22:48Listen, if you're topping your fairway wood, you don't have a sternum. Wow.
22:52You've got to be, your priorities are in the wrong place. All right. Get this checked out first. So
22:56when we talk about low point, what this is referring to is the imaginary circle that the club takes
23:03around the body. It's not a circle. It moves into different shapes that you think about the swing
23:09going around the body as a circle. Okay. Whatever you want to think about it, clock face, the aurora of
23:15the sun, I don't know, whatever. A circle. Yeah. I can't do any circular things. Now the circle,
23:22basically the centre, if you think about it being in the sternum, the bottom of the circle is going
23:27to be here, which is right in line with that sternum on the ground. Okay. Now, if you move through and
23:33you back up, the circle shifts to the right and the bottom of the circle, the bottom of the swing off,
23:40will be before the ball, which is why you hit tops and all the rest of it. So we can use that T-peg,
23:45drill, but really simply, as you move through the ball, try and keep the sternum position over the
23:51top of the golf ball. Okay. In reality, with a fairway, with a driver, as the club's getting
23:57longer and the ball moves further forward, the sternum will often be slightly behind the ball.
24:02Don't need to worry about that too much. There's a swing thought. Try and feel like the sternum
24:07stays on top. If your sternum stays on top of the golf ball, you will not be able to move in this
24:12direction. Now you can combine those two feelings, T-peg drill, sternum over the top of it, but
24:20I think set up as far as getting the ball position right as well, the sternum on top
24:27and just get the feeling of clicking that T-peg as you go through.
24:31But it's the same without a T, if the ball's on the ground, safe healing, same drill.
24:37Good work. That was it. I think it was really clear. So Howard in Peterburg, thank you for that.
24:42That's really simple. Some really great drills there, Pete. Some really great pieces of advice.
24:47As the young, vibrant coach that you are, thank you for coming on the channel.
24:51I don't feel it now. I'm out of breath.
24:53Thanks for sharing some tips with us, Pete.
24:55All right, guys.
24:56Pass your breath. Let's go get one.
24:58Thanks for watching.
24:58Cheers.