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In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by Top 50 Golf Coach Ged Walters to provide his 5 best ball striking drills. He'll help you with your angle of attack and weight transfer to improve the quality of your striking. If you are heading to the range to work on your game, this video is a must watch!
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00:00If you're looking to shoot lower scores this year then one thing you'll undoubtedly need to do is
00:04strike the ball consistently well and that's exactly what this video is all about. We've got
00:09five of the best ball striking drills for you. Now the advice in this video comes courtesy of
00:14Jed Walters. Jed is one of Golf Monthly's top 50 coaches. He's got some really simple and
00:19effective advice on ensuring that you'd strike the ball before the ground. Now it's also important
00:24to say this video is coming to you in partnership with KBS Shafts. They have a whole shaft range
00:29from driver all the way through the bag. All designed to help you get the most from your
00:34equipment. Right we're here at the London Club. Let's get started.
00:48This drill is all about ensuring that you catch the ball before the ground. It doesn't matter whether
00:53you're hitting a wedge or hitting a long iron. That's the same principle all the way through.
00:57So it's something we all need to work on. Jed what's the drill and how does it work?
01:02Okay instant feedback is what it really is all about. So if I take a tee and I just scratch
01:06a line in the ground here. So from that point of view there I've now got a focal point from
01:15which I can work around. So here with a long iron that ball position is going to be a little
01:21bit further towards my lead side. And from there it's about making swings and trying to get
01:28the club to hit the ball and the turf. So I want to be really brushing the line and left
01:34of it for me away.
01:36Yes and crucially you're not hitting the ground behind the line. That's the number one thing
01:40that you're trying to avoid. And the great thing about this drill Jed is you're taking practice
01:44swing after practice swing after practice swing and you get that instant feedback. Is your
01:48body working in the right way to deliver the club at the right angle of attack?
01:51Definitely. Now obviously that will change. So if I took wedge in there, ball position then
01:56is going to go more central. So that can be even more, can be deeper this side here. But
02:01the one thing I'm going to find is if I was to make a practice swing here and hit the wrong
02:04side of this line then I know that our body's back here. Right okay well I've hit the ground
02:09there. Well there's the line. Hit the ground back there. So what I'm looking for is to keep
02:13the pressure moving forwards so that I can hit the ground more to the left. You can see
02:16there I've hit the ground sort of way in front of the line there by just keeping the body
02:20moving in the right direction. Okay so then you make a series of practice swings and then
02:24eventually you get to a point you put the ball on the line, hit a shot and then you get the
02:28feedback of what you're doing actually in the swing itself. Exactly. Go on then. Okay.
02:33So in the setup I've got a 50 degree wedge here so centered ball position and then just
02:42making sure that I get my body working in the right order.
02:47Perfect. Hopefully you could hear through the mics the quality of the strike there. Absolutely
02:52perfect. And you can see this divot is starting I'd say not quite almost an inch after the line.
02:59Yeah after the line which is exactly what you're looking for. So use this really simple drill
03:03it will really help your ball striking.
03:10Okay so this drill is all about controlling the low point in the arc of your swing. Something
03:14that's so important for good quality ball striking. Jen you've got a ball on the tee here. Yes. What
03:19are we doing? We're getting used to with this one just the difference in the line that we can get.
03:24We practice most of our golf on a mat. On driving range it's flat it's the same level as your feet.
03:29You get on a golf course and it's above your feet below your feet it's different slopes. So the first
03:33thing we need to do is just make sure that we're adaptable and we can adjust. So we've got this
03:36one teed up here and I'm literally just going to clip it off the tee. Yeah it's plain as simple as that.
03:43Yeah so my ball position and everything's going to be the same but now you can see now this is what
03:47you know good three three and a half inches above my feet so I just want to get used to being able to
03:52be slightly more adaptable. So if this was a ball above my feet situation where I've got my normal ball
03:58position but I'm now just adapting to the lie and just want to clip it away.
04:06Beautiful. Good strike. So what's next? So what's next now is we now need to look at it from a point
04:12of view of improving the ball striking itself. So the ball goes back on the same tee and now what you're
04:20going to do is about four inches behind it and so you know it's not a million miles away from the length
04:25of your club head is I'm going to put another tee. Okay. Same height. Same height. Now the key with
04:33this is anybody who struggles sort of so fat shots, thin shots, top shots, all those kind of things
04:40generally it happens because the weight of the body is too far back so we start to scoot, we start to
04:46flip. Well first thing you're going to do then is you're going to hit that tee. Hit that tee. So we've just
04:49got to miss it. So the simple drill here is hit the ball, don't hit the tee. Yeah. So that's going to now
04:55encourage a little bit more of a downward angle and to have that I've got to make sure that I'm
04:59moving my body in the right direction. Okay. Simple task here then. Dead simple. So just don't hit the tee.
05:11Very good. Okay. And there it is. Good contact. Right. But there's a third part. There's a third
05:16element to this drill. So if I take a third tee and I now put it here so it's on the opposite side
05:23around the same distance from the one that's at the back. Okay. So now what we're looking at doing
05:32is not just missing this tee but now I want to hit this one. Yes. Because that now is giving me the
05:38feeling of that downward angle of attack controlling the low points more target side. Again we're back
05:44to being ball turf which is everything that good ball striking is. Is okay. Okay. So now I just want to miss
05:51the back tee. Hit the shot and try and clip this tee that's in front here.
06:01Yeah. It's a really solid contact and it's a really simple drill that one to just help you establish
06:06that right angle of attack so the club bottoms out in exactly the right place because that is where
06:11really good quality contacts come from.
06:12Here's a great ball striking drill for those golfers that don't want to get caught thinking too
06:22technically about the golf swing. It can really help Jed. What is it? So it's about trying to make a
06:28comfortable speed swing and stopping as fast as you can beyond impact. Okay. What it does is it gets the
06:33body to organize itself a little bit more naturally. We play our best golf when we're in the subconscious,
06:38when it doesn't, you know, thinking about anything. So that's what we want to try and encourage. So from
06:42this drill here, it's simply just taking a, you know, a lofted club at 99 here. We're just going to make
06:48some swings, which only go maybe halfway back, but the key to it is feeling like the downswing, the focus
06:55is just stop. What you'll find is when you look at it from face on at this point here, I'm not really
07:02doing anything other than stopping yet. You can see how my weight's moving forward. My pelvis is tucking
07:09underneath the torso. So I'm extending, extending to the legs, to the pelvis, to the spine. And I've
07:14got a little rotation in there as well. And you're nicely connected between your arms and your body as
07:19well. What I'm looking at when I see this is just how good the impact position is just by doing such a
07:25small and simple golf swing. It trains everything to just happen in the order that it really wants to
07:30happen. It's almost the brain, which confuses it and makes it happen in different ways. Yeah. So you
07:35can start off at slower speeds and then just build up your speed and you can go flat out speed if you
07:40wanted to there. So when you're accustomed to the drill, you could be a little bit more
07:45and get some real crispness to what's happening there. You can see where those divots are always
07:50I can see that left of where I'm where the golf ball would be. Yeah, it's just it's developing that speed
07:55into it, but just focusing on the stop as quickly as you can. Yeah. So from a setup point of view,
08:00you're only thinking about putting a little bit more pressure into your lead foot.
08:05Just almost like there, just pushing down into the ground a little bit more,
08:08keeping that pressure there and then just making a nice controlled swing, stopping as quickly as
08:13you can beyond impact. Yeah. And you can see that divot. It's perfect. It's just after where the ball
08:21would have been. Definitely. Just this shot of Jed here just shows you so many good things about the golf
08:26swing. If you can focus on finding that position, the chances are the quality of your ball striking
08:32will greatly improve.
08:37This drill is all about swing direction. It's something that's going to really help you with
08:41your iron ball striking. Jed, what's the thinking here? What's the drill all about?
08:45So all great ball strikers have a fairly neutral swing direction. So that's not to say that it is
08:52always say a bit to the right. Some are a little bit to the left, but it's minute. We're talking
08:58a couple of degrees left of target, a couple of degrees right of target, not excessive, which you
09:03would see from people who would slice and hook it. They would maybe be 10 degrees to the right, 10 degrees
09:07to the left. So getting your swing direction more neutral will help you control your sensedness of
09:13strike and also help you control how your body then wants to move towards the target so you can control
09:19the ground contacts and get those lovely crisp ball tear strikes.
09:22Yeah. And it sounds complicated, but it doesn't have to be if you have a really good drill that
09:26can help you sort of visualise what you're trying to achieve. And that's what we're doing here. So
09:30talk us through it.
09:31Okay. So we're looking at it from sort of both perspectives. Obviously, I've got this little
09:35station set up here. This is just as a quick visual, really, to what would represent a fairly neutral
09:43swing plane of being sort of up and down. But the swing direction is literally what the club
09:48is sort of doing as it comes here through the impact. So if I was like sort of this there,
09:54that would be a swing direction quite a lot to the right. That would be quite a lot to the left.
09:59So this is tailored relative to you as the individual. If you were somebody who slices the golf
10:06ball. Pulls it or slices it. So you're coming across the ball.
10:08Yeah. So you'd have a swing direction, which would be, if I put it into sort of a 2D visual
10:14on the floor, would be a bit like that. So right. Okay. Well, what you need to do is practice the
10:18opposite. So we would turn the sticks out to the right. I mean, that's probably somewhere in the
10:28regions of 40 degrees, maybe to the right. So right. Okay. Your visual then, if you were somebody
10:33who's coming here, your visual is to swing the club in the downswing between the sticks.
10:38Yeah. And then suddenly your angle of attack improves. The amount of the face you're getting
10:43on the ball improves. The quality of the strike goes up. It can, it can do so many good things
10:48for you, can't it? Yeah. Yeah. And then vice versa. If you hook the golf ball, then you would just turn
10:52them the opposite way and feel like you were coming across a little bit more. Now bear in mind, these are
10:56feels, what you're feeling and what really happens are completely different. You know, a slicer would feel
11:02like they're swinging way off to the right. And when you look at the swing direction, it's probably still a little bit left.
11:06Yes. It's just that, you know, if what feels hugely one way might move at eight degrees, but if you were
11:13already 10 left, then you're still a little bit left. But the important point is it's more neutral.
11:18So you're going to make your striking better. You're going to make your start lines better.
11:22You're going to make your overall ball striking better. Yes. So this is one for those players who have
11:26big shapes in their game. So either big draws or big fades. If you want to just reign those in slightly,
11:32you'll improve the quality of your ball striking. And this is a great way to do it.
11:40Okay. So this is a ball striking drill aimed specifically at those golfers who have a tendency
11:45to hang back through impact, hit the fat shots and the thin shots that we all hate so much.
11:50And it's a, it's a great one for the range. Talk us through it, Jed.
11:54Okay. So on the driving range, you could use the basket of the balls coming. It's simply just
11:59propping your trail side up. So all your pressure, all the weight goes to the lead side, you're
12:05probably going to be talking 90 to 95% of your pressure is going to be lead side. So that's
12:11going to mean, well, I can't go back because I'm up on an angle. That's going to keep me there.
12:16So I'm going to get used to feeling what it's like to have the pressure forward through impact.
12:20And it's going to give you the ability then to have a nice downward angle attack and give
12:23you those lovely ball turf, crisp strikes. Yeah. And that feeling of what the correct
12:28contact should feel like. So just go for it then. Talk, talk us through the drill.
12:32I've just put my bag on the ground there. And all this is going to do is this is going to help me
12:37elevate my trail foot. So from here and bear in mind, you only need to sort of hit lofted clubs out.
12:43We're not talking about doing this with drivers, just getting used to doing it with like a wedge or a
12:4799 or something. So just taking, you know, if that was my normal set up there,
12:52then what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to take my trail foot. I'm just going to lift it
12:56and I'm just going to rest it on the back of my bag. So now all my pressure is into my lead side.
13:01So from here, I'm going to keep the pressure into my lead leg. I'm going to flex it a little bit more
13:06than normal, just because it's taken all the weight pretty much. You'll notice then on my right leg,
13:12I'll sort of really straighten out a little bit. As you see from this angle, there's very little flex left in
13:15there. Keeping the pressure, then pushing down into the left leg. I'm just going to make little
13:20swings now. So it's going to be a little half swing back and then just down. So you can see the angle
13:24attack is going to come down. It's going to help me find a low point more to the left. So I just need
13:30to keep my arms nice and extended. You know, I'm going to swing to there. I'm not making a full follow
13:34through. I'm just making a nice back and through swing. So if I was to click this one now, I'm set
13:42and ready and I'm just going to make a nice smooth swing.
13:48Yeah. And you've got that little ball to strike. You will really, really struggle to hit the ground
13:52before the ball if you try this drill. And as I say, it's a great one for getting your body in the
13:56right position, get the weight moving towards the target so the club hits the ball before it hits the
14:02ground. Give it a go. So there you have it. That's Jed's five best ball striking drills. If you are having
14:07issues with the quality of your iron strikes, then give some of those drills a go. If you can find a
14:12feel that helps you hit the ball before the turf, then you should start hitting your irons much better.
14:18But that's it for now from The London Club. Thanks very much for watching. We'll see you next time.
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