- 08/06/2025
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Professional Alex Elliott to look at the 5 biggest golf swing mistakes and how to fix them.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
00:04and this video looking at the five biggest golf swing mistakes and how to fix them.
00:10I'm joined in this video by Alex Elliott, he's a PGA pro and he's got some really simple
00:14and effective advice for what we think are the most common mistakes that might be costing
00:18you hitting slices or hooks or just hitting shots slightly fat or slightly thin, whatever
00:23your issue, hopefully there should be something in this video to really help you out.
00:32Right, so the first one on our list of biggest golf swing mistakes is the grip and it's something
00:38you're going to need to pay attention to. Alex, what do people need to look out for here?
00:42What are the biggest faults in terms of the grip?
00:44I think if we start off firstly with the palm, we all sort of hear this one banded around
00:49quite a lot. So if you're a golfer, if you're right handed, you struggle losing that ball
00:53off to the right and really don't feel you get a big bang for your buck, then we're going
00:57to tend to see this golf club run through the lifeline, where we're actually told to
01:01put the putter actually, for most people. So essentially, when we've got the club in
01:05the palm, we're going to see it very similar to as I've got here. And if you just waggle
01:11that golf club up and down, it's going to feel quite heavy.
01:13And what happens in this scenario is that when you return the club to impact, the way in
01:18which your body works, you're going to more than likely return it slightly open, aren't
01:22you? Slightly open or tenter with driver, potentially add a lot of loft. Right. So like our ability
01:28to create a good efficient hit is dramatically reduced. Yes. So if you're, if you have a fault
01:33in your grip that isn't a weak grip, but a strong grip, what does that look like?
01:37So a strong grip would be, let's say two to three knuckles, maybe even four knuckles showing
01:42really our logo of the glove pointing to the sky and sort of this look to how we're set up
01:47to the ball. Yeah. We're going to see that real hook curvature. So finishing off to the left
01:51for a right handed player, finishing off to right for a left handed player. And that
01:55for me is where we're going to really struggle to control the golf ball, especially in firm
01:59conditions like it is now. Yeah. Like having that strong grip, we're only going to see
02:03sort of lowish ball flights, a lot of hook spin on it. Exactly. So what does the absolutely
02:08technically good grip look like and how can people set it? The one thing I'd say with this,
02:13Neil, is that we've got to be sort of, I always think of people improving their grip by edging
02:17it back slowly because your grip matches how you release the club. So we need to make sure
02:22it's not going from one extreme to the other. Okay. The only sort of caveat to that is if you
02:25do have it in the palm, get it in the finger straight away. But if you are weak, edge it stronger.
02:29If you are really strong, edge it a little bit weaker. But that common ground where I want you to
02:33end up in the end would be a nice simple routine for this as well. If you're out on the golf courses,
02:39grip it sort of in the middle of my shaft, as I've done here, tilt it slightly away, place it in the
02:44fingers and you can see that I've got it right at the base of my fingers. Meaty part on top,
02:50quick test, club feels light. Club down to the ground, we can see sort of two and a half knuckles.
02:55Yep. Fingers on in my right hand and both of these creases should be somewhere around my
03:00right shoulder. Quick question for you, Alex. If you get the left hand grip right, will the right
03:04hand grip then automatically be correct? I think so, yeah. Yeah. You've got a better chance. Right,
03:09fine. So focus, are we saying focus on the left hand grip? I think your left hand grip...
03:12Yeah, the opposite way. Yeah. Simply whatever one you have your glove on, get that right,
03:17will tend to have a better chance of hitting some good shots. Okay, good. And if you get it right,
03:21then you should hit some nice neutral flighted golf shots, a bit like this one. No pressure.
03:27So yeah, nice, simple routine in the fingers, meaty part on top. It's going to give you a much
03:32better chance of returning that golf club back to relatively good to our path.
03:36A bit like that. Very good.
03:47Okay, so next up, alignment. And it sounds easy enough, doesn't it, to get your alignment right?
03:52But it's something that can go wrong quite easily and something that even the best players in the
03:56world are constantly checking, making sure they get it right. So, Alex, how do you get it right?
04:01Firstly, don't aim your shoulders at target. Right. Which might sound like, to you watching
04:06this right now, a comment where you go, well, of course you do. If you're going to throw something
04:11or fire something, you'd be sort of looking at our alignment. And a lot of you will be standing
04:14there going, right, I'm aligning to target, stand up, check. Oh, I look a little bit left here.
04:21Start to adjust ourselves. So it looks like our eyes are perfect. Well, in reality,
04:25it's going to be aiming to the right. It's the club face that you need to worry about,
04:28not your body alignment. So what's a good way of checking it in practice, out on the golf course?
04:34Yeah, I would, like we've got set up here. So I would do these simple things when you're hitting
04:39balls in the range. And if you play on your own in an evening, just throw them down on the ground.
04:43But then we'll also talk through a scenario you can use in a competition. So everything,
04:47Neil's got to start from a ball to target line. Yes. So I would stand behind at the start of a range
04:53session and simply pick out my ball to target line, place the alignment stick down there.
04:58Then I can walk in and it's making sure that our feet, knees, hips, and shoulders all run parallel
05:06to this. And when you do stand up, your shoulder line will be working parallel left to target.
05:11Yeah. So it's like you're almost like you're on a set of train tracks. Exactly that.
05:16And then you're out on the golf course playing a competition. You know you have a tendency to aim
05:20a bit right. How do you make sure that you don't do that? Simple, simple trick. We all got logos on
05:26our golf balls or some others even put lines on our golf balls from a button. Use this line to
05:30advantage on par three tees. And when you're hitting some drives away, stand behind the golf ball again,
05:36as if you've got an extension of what we did during practice, place that down parallel lines. And we can
05:43simply again, build our stance from this, as opposed to building it from this way to the ball,
05:49build it from the ball, upwards. It's called a ball to target line for a reason.
05:53Yeah. And I think the important point to make here is that if you are devoting some time
05:57to your alignment, it won't be wasted. There's a whole host of other good things that will happen
06:02once you've got your alignment spot on.
06:09Right. Next up, the slice. Alex, most of us know how it feels. Most of us, it's very demoralizing when it
06:14happens. What have you got here? I can see you've got a drill for us.
06:18Yeah. I mean, it might look quite strange you're putting this out on the range, but honestly,
06:22I've used this analogy with people who come for lessons and this is really nice and simple. If
06:27I gave you a tennis racket, but we don't have that right here because it's not something that you can
06:31attach quite easily to a golf shot. So let's use our right palm. Okay. Okay. So if we're a slicer
06:36and our golf ball was sort of at this height, we'd work like this. Yeah. And we'd go, well,
06:41of course the ball would work this way. Yeah. Okay. So if we did the opposite to that in golf posture,
06:47but then we just stand upright to hit this ball away like tennis, I wanted to hit the ball away
06:52as far as I could, we'd make sort of this motion. So that would be my club traveling a little bit
06:57more into out, my club face being a little bit more closer to square, if not close to my path.
07:02And this would be quite an easy motion for a lot of us to make with the ball at that height.
07:07Yes. So question then. So it feels like a fairly simple resolution. So how does it look with the
07:14golf club in your hands, Alex? And how, what should people be wary of the kind of body movements that
07:19they're making that are causing them to cut across it? I think that the biggest reference point I would
07:25have for a lot of golfers is when we start the downswing and it, it comes so especially with driver,
07:29we want to hit it far. We want to get that distance. It's right shoulder, right hip working out,
07:35which works this way. Yes. A bit eager to hit it quite a long way and suddenly you come over the
07:39top. Exactly. Whereas in tennis, the ball would come, we'd move in and through. And we'd make that
07:46sort of reaction to a good body movement because we're orientating it to a moving object. Now,
07:51obviously in golf, the little white balls sat still. So we've got to think of an analogy and a nice
07:57simple way would be actually address the golf ball down here, swing up, feel that you meet the golf
08:04ball away. Okay. Now you might think we're actually standing up, but what we're trying to do is get
08:08the club to work this. Right. Yes. Not the other way around. Exactly. Yeah. So we could have two or
08:14three practice swings on the course, on the range, walk into the shot. We've now got the feeling of
08:19being able to work the club through this space as if we're hitting a tennis shot away, but just more
08:25tilted over the golf ball. Okay. Go on then. Hit one for us. Let's see how it looks.
08:28So I'd really make a few waggles, tennis shot away. Imagine I'm hitting that ball down to target.
08:39Arrow straight. If you have a slice, it can be one of those things that takes a little bit of
08:43time to get it out of your game, but work on it. As Alex is saying here, it could really help.
08:47This one is all about starting the golf swing correctly, but let's start with the fault,
08:56Alex. What do people do that cost them in the golf swing here? I think we just put it into two
09:01categories. One, not control the club face and not get the arms and body working together. So
09:06simply it would be closing it too much or open too much. Right. Okay. And that second one looks
09:14as if you're taking it away on the inside. Are you taking it away on the inside? Yeah,
09:17very much so. And I think sort of that open face, especially with longer clubs,
09:21everybody thinks it's a little bit more rounded. It's very tempting to sort of
09:25work it in this direction. Yeah. And it's something you see a lot, isn't it? So what can people do
09:30to resolve the problem? So a nice, simple routine as I've done here is I've simply just placed
09:36my golf club down directly behind my ball. So if we sort of give those two scenarios, if I go too much
09:41on the inside, well, look how the club really works. If I wanted to push that golf club back
09:47as far as I could, I would really want to get arms and the body working together and more of what
09:54would feel like this sort of, I guess the term a lot of people would use, one piece takeaway.
09:57One piece takeaway. Yeah. You hear it a lot. So down behind the ball. I mean, look at the difference
10:01of this here. Yeah. A lot more control. Golf club's gone a lot further back. Yeah. And if you were
10:07to draw a triangle between the club head and your shoulders, that triangle would pretty much be kept
10:11intact for a lot of that, wouldn't it? Exactly. Rather than changing your angles,
10:16changing them means a lot more compensations have got to take place. Yeah. So if you can start the
10:20golf swing correctly, the chances are the rest of the swing will follow and you'll hit better shots.
10:30So the last one on our list is standing up in the downswing. Alex, what do you mean by standing up in
10:34the downswing? I think a lot of people will see another term that they'd use is early extension.
10:38So essentially belt buckle getting higher or standing up and then we see that scoopy sort of
10:44look to our impact position. Right. Okay. Yeah. It's something you do see quite a lot. So how do you
10:49solve the issue? I think you see, even with very good players as well, it's not just sort of your
10:53beginners, your higher handicappers. It's something that happens with a lot. So a simple thing we can do.
10:59I mean, I've just placed my bag here. This could be alignment sticks. If you're watching this at home,
11:02this could actually be the wall behind you. If you've got a few spare minutes each day,
11:07I think the important thing this Neil is we make it flow. Right. Okay. So golf club across our chest,
11:13we don't want to just be position, position, position, because we know in reality, the golf
11:17swings got a bit of flow to it. So what I want you to do here is have the bum just out of touch of
11:22whether it's the wall alignment stick or your golf bag, as I've got here, go through swing, try and touch
11:28it with your left pocket, back, right pocket, through left pocket. And you can really see here
11:33how I'm a lot more over the golf ball throughout the whole motion. Yes. Yeah. And you're avoiding
11:39that issue of standing up, aren't you? You're retaining that posture, that really good posture
11:43that you set at address. I can see that you're still in it. Yeah. As you reach that kind of impact
11:47position. Exactly. And just to sort of preempt a few questions that people might ask to us to
11:52stay more over the golf ball at impact. Well, our belt buckle has to work more to target to give us
11:57the ability to be here. If our belt buckle is a little bit higher, we're going to find it very,
12:01very hard to hit the golf ball in that direction or remain over it. Yeah. It's a really simple way
12:06of thinking about it. Hopefully it's a sort of a non-technical fix for a technical issue that should
12:12help you out. So there you have it. Some really great advice there from Alex. Really simple,
12:18really effective. If you do have any questions, please do post them below. We hope to get back to
12:22as many of you as possible, but that's it for now for West Hill. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
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