Biggest Driving Mistakes and How to Fix Them | Golf Monthly - video Dailymotion

Golf Monthly

In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Tour Coach Liam James to look at the biggest driving mistakes and how to avoid them!

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappan here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the London Club and this video on

00:04the biggest mistakes the players make off the tee. We've teamed up with Ping and with tour coach Liam

00:09James to offer you the best advice that we can about how to stop hooking it, how to stop slicing

00:14it and also about how to find a little bit more distance off the tee as well. This is all about

00:19trying to make the game as easy as possible so if you do struggle off the tee this video should

00:24really help. If you're new to the Golf Monthly channel please do hit the subscribe button to

00:27make sure you don't miss any of our videos. Hit the like button if you're liking the video but

00:31let's head out now onto the golf course here at the London Club and look at the biggest driving

00:35mistakes the players make. Okay Liam let's start with a lack of distance off the tee, a lack of

00:45speed. If there's a fault that you see more often than not with amateurs that costs them yardage

00:50what would it be do you think? I'd say the biggest fault is them trying to generate more speed in the

00:55manner that they do so the biggest thing that we start to see more than anything is that in a bid

01:00to try and hit the golf ball harder they're moving from side to side more often and then moving

01:05towards the target too much is causing them actually to hit down on the golf ball even more

01:10and essentially slice the golf ball so in a bid to try and hit the golf ball harder and further

01:15they're actually hitting it shorter so there are things that you can do in the setup that will just

01:20make sure that you generate a little bit more speed without losing the control of where the

01:24ball strikes on the face. Yeah and don't forget you're looking for that kind of high launch,

01:28low spin, those perfect optimized launch conditions to get the most out of your driver.

01:33Absolutely and that's the thing even if players are swinging at slow speeds or slower speeds than

01:39we see on the television we can still optimize those speeds by making sure the impact factors

01:44are as good as they possibly can be and 90% of the time that's just how they set up to the golf

01:49ball that's got nothing to do with what's happening in the swing. Okay so give us some ideas about what

01:54people should be looking out for. So the biggest thing first of all is I think we need to maximize

01:58everything we can in the setup in order to actually wind up behind the golf ball and give

02:03ourselves the biggest range of movement we possibly can and a very simple tip for that would be

02:08obviously the first thing to just keep an eye on is the ball position we want to make sure that's

02:12inside my left heel but I've got a nice wide base here now but as you have a look you can see my

02:18toes are fractionally turned out now what that's actually enabling me to do now is turn my hips

02:24okay if we see players which we see a lot of almost turned in with their toes it really restricts

02:29their range of movement and it's impossible for them to make a full turn up to the top of the

02:33back. Yeah so that little bit more range movement in your hips gives you more range movement in

02:37your shoulder which is what you're looking for and then it's a bigger rotation it's not necessarily

02:43more effort it's not them doing it any faster all you're all you're doing simply here is turning

02:48your toes out freeing your knees and your hips up to complete a full turn and as a result of that

02:53you're going to generate more speed. Okay go on then. I'll show you. Hit one for us. So again

02:59ball up off that left heel I've got a nice wide base with my toes turned out I'm going to have a

03:04little rehearsal up to the top full rotation then I'm just going to go ahead and give it a hit.

03:13Yeah hopefully and what you should see through the cameras there is just how well centered

03:17Liam stays over the shot he's not making a big sway off the ball and then back onto it because

03:21if you are it's quite dangerous that isn't it? Absolutely and it may feel like might feel quicker

03:27it might feel like more effort but essentially all that's going to do is increase your off-center

03:31hits whereas if you're doing as we're mentioning here turning your toes out big wide base nice

03:37rotation up to the top you're then going to stay behind it and not only swing it faster just due

03:42to that but hit the middle of the face more often. Yeah more speed and more control. Okay so we're

03:46going to move on to slices and hooks I think most golfers their bad shot will likely be one or other

03:51of these two so Liam let's talk about I know that you're going to speak about them in connection

03:55with each other because the thought I guess is the kind of opposite of each other right? Absolutely

04:00I mean you know you tend to see very similar characteristics of a player who's slicing the

04:05golf ball and then counter to that you see the opposite when when you've seen a player hook it

04:09and generally most of those things are coming from the way they're setting up to the golf ball and

04:13actually the way they're placing their hands on the grip so we start with a slicer. Yeah. The

04:19biggest thing that we'll start to see with with excessive slices of the golf ball is quite simply

04:24where the golf club is running through your left hand so players who get it too much into the palm

04:30okay it's going to do two things for you if you're too much in the palm it's going to lean you too

04:34much towards the target in your second and that's a setup position you see a lot isn't it? Absolutely

04:39right so their head's closer to the target than their belt buckle is and that's going to cause

04:44them to hit out and down on the golf ball and the second thing that grip is going to do is that's

04:48going to make this club face open up too much on the way back so now we've got the golf club coming

04:52from the outside with the face wide open you're just going to hit slices. Hook then is the opposite

04:57issue is it? Absolutely right so if we see a player with an excessively strong grip now to

05:03define strong grip I don't mean strong in strength I mean strong in if I was to look down at my left

05:08hand now I can see all four of my knuckles so that would define as a strong grip now as a

05:14result of that what we're going to tend to see is not much loft on the golf club at the top so

05:20we would call this a closed position with the club face not much loft and now the compensations that

05:26the players are having to make in order to try and get the ball up in the air now we're going to

05:29start to see a lot of leaning back and that's going to obviously cause the hook so just by two

05:35poor grip positions in the setup all these things you know the slices are coming over it the hooks

05:41they're leaning back so you know you've got to be careful with how you're setting up so that begs the

05:45question what's the checkpoint that people need to get the right grip on the club to be stood

05:50correctly at the ball at address so it's all keep it really constant with the routine so

05:55the biggest thing I would say about this is when you see golfers on on the golf course it's where

05:59they actually place their hands on the golf club in their routine so you'll see some players have

06:04it down here some players it's up in the air keep it really consistent we want to hold the golf club

06:09up out in front of us shafts parallel with the ground here and I'm just going to run this golf

06:14club just through the fingers of my left hand and if I place a little look now I just have a look at

06:19my left hand I've got a two knuckle left hand grip now so that's what we would define as a neutral

06:23grip that's going to feel much weaker to a guy who grips it strong and it's going to feel much

06:28stronger to the slicers but just by fixing the left hand grip it's going to offer us the chance

06:35to get set up factually in behind the golf ball with my shirt buttons but now I've got a neutral

06:40left hand in order to make sure that club face is square throughout my swing okay go on then Liam

06:45hit one for us let's see what it looks like so I'll show you my routine shaft up in front of me

06:50clubbing the fingers two knuckle left hand grip

06:53and then I'll give it a hit

07:00lovely so there you have it if you are struggling with your driving I think that the advice that

07:05Liam has given us there shows that it doesn't have to be a big technical fix to do with any

07:09of the complicated movements in your golf swing it can be something simple and a lot of the time

07:14these things can be done at address and there's no reason why any golfer can't get them right

07:19thanks for watching we'll see you next time

Biggest Driving Mistakes and How to Fix Them | Golf Monthly

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