In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Katie Dawkins. They discuss some of those simple lessons we all get taught when we first pick up the game but that we all forget! These are the simple and effective tips that can make a huge difference to your scoring potential. Katie's advice should help you from tee-to-green!
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to West Hill Golf Club
00:03and this video in which we're going to take a look at the seven tips that every golfer forgets.
00:09Now these are all things that you'll pick up as you play golf over the years. The really simple
00:13stuff that can actually make a big difference to your scoring but that from time to time we all
00:19forget. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of Katie Dawkins. She's a PGA pro,
00:24she's one of the Golf Monthly top 50 coaches and she's going to talk you through everything
00:28you need to know and it should help you in all areas of the game from tee to green.
00:32Right, let's get started.
00:38Right, so for our first one we're going to talk about the speed of your swing and in particular
00:42the tempo of your golf swing. Katie, what do people forget here? I think people tend to forget that
00:49this is a golf swing, it's not a golf hit and I think that's probably the key thought for a lot
00:55of people to kind of bank in the memory banks because actually the fact, the act of the golf
01:00swing suggests that there's a natural flow to it, there's a natural swing back and swing through.
01:05The problem people tend to find is that they've got lots of swing thoughts going on in there in
01:10their minds and that tends to stunt this nice natural rhythm that we're looking for in the golf
01:15swing. So you tend to find people thinking about stuff too much and therefore even if you're a decent
01:20sports person, you've got a good ability to hit a ball with a racket, a club, a bat, whatever you
01:26happen to be using, that can sometimes disappear just because you're overthinking it and you're
01:31trying to hit it and trying to force the ball to do what you want it to do.
01:34It's such a good point. I think my specific issue on this, I think, is that I tend to start getting
01:40too aggressive when I'm on the golf course, under pressure, start snatching at it a little bit too much.
01:45So, okay, so most people watching this will know, tempo, really important. So how do people practice it?
01:52How do you make sure that you don't go too far wrong?
01:54I think it's important to have something that you can take out on the golf course with you because
01:58like you said, there's situations out there where you need a little bit of restraining perhaps.
02:04So you actually need just to calm things down a bit. So a really good drill to do that is to
02:11actually maybe do one of your practice swings or just your sole practicing with your feet
02:15together. Because what that does is it starts to create this lovely, freewheeling, chilled out
02:22tempo. If you go at it like a bat out of hell with your feet together, guess what? You fall
02:27over. So you're throwing yourself, throwing yourself off balance.
02:30Okay, so if you are somebody like me who has a tendency to snatch at their shots a little bit
02:34too much, that feeling that you're hitting and not swinging, try to incorporate that into
02:38your pre-shot routine.
02:39Okay, so we have reached the inevitable part of this video, which we're going to talk about
02:48alignment and most golfers watching this will know how important it is. And yet there'll
02:52be a lot of people watching this that don't do it correctly every time. And that's because
02:56they're forgetting something. What is it that golfers tend to forget about aiming properly?
03:01I think the biggest thing golfers tend to forget with alignment is they forget that it's not
03:05their body that's lined up to the target. They're on those old train tracks. So the ball and the
03:10target are on one train track, your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are on the other.
03:15So in theory, you're running parallel to your target. But the problem is when a lot of people
03:19set up to the ball is they look down their shoulder and they tend to kind of shuffle themselves
03:24and aim themselves at. So they've skewed themselves across the line.
03:27Yes. So what's the process? How do you get it right time and time again?
03:32So you need to build it into your pre-shot routine. So you need to stand behind the ball,
03:36use your club almost like a ruler, point it at your target, pull the club down and pick
03:40yourself a mini target just in front of the ball. It's so much easier to get yourself lined
03:45up on those train tracks because you can see the tracks down there. When we're looking up
03:49at the target, it's much easier to have a little shuffle, do a little dance and immediately
03:54you've pushed yourself offline. So having a mini target is probably my biggest tip for this.
04:00And being able to aim yourself to that is much, much easier than the longer one.
04:04Yeah. And it's so important. So if you can just do what Katie said and get it right more
04:08often, chances are you'll also start making better swings, better contacts and just generally
04:13playing golf a little bit better.
04:19Okay. So we've come down to the green here and Katie, we're talking about chipping. What
04:23do people forget to do in a situation like this?
04:27I think the biggest problem people have when it comes to shots out on the course around the
04:31green is they choose the wrong club. Right. So I think there's that idea that because I'm
04:36chipping, I need to look good. And they want that Sevee-esque sort of high floaty shot that's
04:41going to land right by the flag and zip back and stop. That's not reality. Reality would
04:46be if I was to give you a ball and throw it to the flag, I'm not going to go up and over
04:52like that because I've got no control over it. The bounce is going to be more unpredictable.
04:56Everything's just a little bit more dangerous. My safest possible option would be to almost
05:01play lawn bowls basically. So I'd roll it on the first available bit of green. It would
05:05run to the flag. Yeah. So then what I'd want you to do out on the golf course, it's kind
05:11of put into your hand the club that best fits that carry and roll. Right. So for me, that
05:17went low and rolled out. So it'd probably be something like an A time. Yeah. The majority
05:21of people would not be choosing an A time from here. Well, I think that they possibly just
05:25automatically grab the lob wedge or the sand wedge. Yeah. Whatever shot they're facing
05:29around the green. I know that I'd probably have a tendency to do that a bit from time to
05:33time, just immediately pick the club. You just want to look the best you can
05:35possibly look. Yeah. And for a lot of people, that's the ball in the air. But what's interesting
05:39about this case is that you're saying work backwards, figure out what the shot looks like,
05:43the best, most reliable looking shot, what it looks like, and then pick your club. So
05:48with this little short chip, this almost tick tock action, I can afford to mishit it a little
05:53bit and still get away with it. I think that's the important bit. Go on then, mishit it for
05:57us and get away with it. That's the important, mishit it and get away with it. Oh, great.
06:01So all I'm going to do is just that little tick tock, bounce it on that top bit and let
06:06it roll around. This is good. This is very good. You told me to mishit it. And I said
06:11no. No, you did it perfectly. But I think the point remains, keep it simple is the best
06:15way to do it. Posture. It's something that I think most golfers understand how important
06:24it is to have a nice athletic posture. Yet the amount of golfers that you see out on the
06:27course who have stood over the ball, not looking particularly athletic. Why is it so important
06:34to get right firstly, Katie? It's so important to get right because posture,
06:38good posture gives you good balance, which in turn gives you control in your golf swing.
06:43And we want control in our golf swing, right? We don't want to stand there in a position
06:47where we're rocking about the place. And this is what happens when the position that you're
06:51setting up in is poor. You're setting up in a state of almost sitting down or sometimes
06:57tipped over too much. But the one we see the most is the fat bag, kind of slightly lazy
07:02posture almost. What you've got there is you've got the weight on the heels. So you're going
07:07to swing the club back and you're going to be rocking around, rocking all over the place.
07:11What we want to see is a more of a planted onto the balls of the feet and the ability to actually
07:17be in balance as you come back to the ball. Good posture to begin with is usually going
07:22to mean better posture as you hit the shot. Poor posture, you're just not going to introduce
07:26any of the bigger muscles. So you're not going to get that lovely rotation and that lovely
07:31weight transfer through the ball. So what's a good tip, what's a good checkpoint to make
07:34sure you're in the right posture? You could stand in front of a mirror at home and actually
07:38take your posture if the mirror's there, take your posture, set yourself up, have a look,
07:42go, yeah, all right, that's great. But we want something we can take onto the golf course.
07:47You do see people out there going tippy over, flex your knees and going through almost a
07:51little routine in their heads, but that can introduce tension. In good posture, you should
07:56be able to, a bit like you're about to return to serve in tennis, you should be able to give
07:59your heels a little tap. That tells us we're ready to run somewhere, tells us we're athletic.
08:05If you're setting up to the ball and you try and do that and you think, oh blimey, I'm rocking
08:09back already because I can tap my toes. If you're a toe tapper, your posture's lacking athleticism.
08:15It's a really simple tip and if you do have issues with your posture over the ball, then
08:20maybe introduce that into your pre-shot routine. It could make all the difference.
08:29Okay so we're going to talk about bunker play and obviously the two biggest mistakes are
08:33either leaving it in the bunker or thinning it over the back. The lesson that people forget
08:38here is that the bunker shot, the greenside bunker shot, is the only one in which you're
08:42not trying to make contact with the ball first, right?
08:45Exactly and I think this is the thing is that we don't want to hit the ball first, we want
08:50to hit the sand behind the ball so it floats out on that lovely cushion. So it's really important
08:55here that we address the part we want to hit. So we're actually addressing the sand behind
08:59the ball. Okay so talk us through how you do it. So it's important to almost think of the ball
09:04as being sat on a fried egg, so the ball is the yolk essentially. Just draw a couple of
09:09little circles, obviously not allowed to do this in real play for obvious reasons, but
09:14draw a couple of circles around the ball and you can even give yourself three circles in
09:18a row almost like traffic lights. Practice hitting the right bit of sand. So if I was to
09:23have a little practice traffic light if you like, so I'm going to set myself up, swing back,
09:28swing through and take the whole thing out. What I'm then going to do is set myself up to the back of the
09:34egg where the ball is and again, almost try and repeat it. So I'm just letting the ball
09:39get in the way, but I'm aiming to hit the back of that egg. Perfect, great shot. And you'll notice,
09:46I mean that description there that Katie's given is so simple. It's something that every golfer can do,
09:50but you do need to practice these things. Trust it and practice it. It should help.
09:56Okay, so our next one is about grip pressure. And this is starting to feel actually a bit like a
10:05personal counselling session for me because I know that under pressure I have a tendency to really
10:10squeeze the grip and strangle the grip. And I know that's not good, but can you explain to everyone
10:16why it's not good? So the first thing is you're not alone. Probably 90% of the people that I teach
10:21are strangling the club. Now the effect that this has on your ability to get back to that ball is
10:27huge. The reason being, if you're holding the club in an appropriate manner, an appropriate amount
10:33of pressure is being applied, you're holding it almost like a tube of toothpaste with the lid off.
10:37So that would be quite a good way of remembering it. What people tend to do is they tend to go from
10:42setting themselves up, holding it all right, and then suddenly the squeeze comes in. So you've got a nice
10:48relaxed hold where the club's on the ground. Check out what my club face does when I squeeze it.
10:53That's literally down to me strengthening my grip. My forearms are contracting and therefore
10:59shortening. And lo and behold, you can imagine the shots that you're going to get from that.
11:03Yeah, if you've got an iron in the hand, you're likely to hit, I would think, you're likely to hit
11:06fins, maybe tops. Absolutely, yeah, you are. But also it's the impact that it has on your rhythm,
11:13which we've talked about before. You want that free, easy swing. You want that lovely flow to your
11:20golf swing. Yeah. So as Katie said, a nice, light grip pressure, it'll help your rhythm,
11:25it'll help all sorts of different things in your golf swing.
11:32Okay, so the number one tip on our list that golfers forget is they forget to aim at the middle of the
11:38green, in particular when the flag is cut tight to one side or another. So imagine for a second
11:45that the green behind Katie and I here, imagine that flag is tucked just over the bunkers on the
11:49right-hand side. I appreciate it's not today, but imagine that it is. That's a really dangerous flag.
11:55Yeah. Especially when you consider, Katie, you've got so much room to aim at on this green, haven't you?
12:00And we've all said it. We've all got up there and gone, damn it, I'm in the bunker. Look how much room
12:05there is on the left. Yes. And for some reason, we tend to go at tiger line at the flag stick.
12:12Something that will really help you to avoid this and remind you that actually the middle of the
12:16green, you want to be on the middle of the green because you're never going to get a really long
12:20putt. You're never going to be too far from the flag, are you? No. But it's just a safe place to be.
12:25But a way that you can do that is actually pay attention to what's behind the green. So for example,
12:31here we've got two tall fir trees just to the right of where our flag is, but that's the centre of the
12:36green. I'd be thinking about aiming at those and use that as my marker, as part of my pre-shot
12:41routine. Just draw my attention to what's at the back. It lifts you up body language-wise, so you're
12:46looking up. You're visualising a decent shot because you're going at something that's beyond the green.
12:52Yeah. And it just takes your attention away from any trouble that might be sneaking around in the
12:57foreground. Come on Katie, let's finish off with a good shot, shall we? So that flag, let's be honest,
13:02is in a pretty good spot. I'm not giving you any excuses here. Oh right, no pressure.
13:11Lovely shot. Nice, high, soft draw, very easy. And I think it goes to show that if you're out on the
13:17golf course and you're thinking about how to compile a score, maybe just have one round of golf where you
13:21just aim at the middle of the green. Forget about where the flag is, see what it does to your score.
13:26It might just help. Okay, so there you have it. That's our look at the seven tips that every
13:31golfer forgets. If you've enjoyed the video, please do hit the like button. If you have any questions
13:35or any comments, leave them below. But that's it for now from West Hill.
13:39Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.