Golf Tips: Advice Before Changing Your Swing

Is your golf swing in such a mess right now

You're thinking about rebuilding it totally from the ground up. Well, before you go down that time-consuming and probably expensive path

I'm going to be joined in this video today by Golf Monthly Top 50 coach Alex Elliott

who's going to give us six top tips to get you back on track without changing your entire swing

I'm here at Kedleson Park Golf Club today. Let's get started. Right, okay, we're on the range now, Alex

I want to talk about before people go and change their whole swing and their whole identity of their golf

is to maybe two for one hit, change your practice routine up a little bit

and change that practice routine to focus more on strike than swing

Because strike can be the problem, right? Yeah, I mean, especially with driver, right? A lot of people forget this

There's something called gear effect. So you could make a good swing, but the strike could be a little bit out

And if you hit it out the heel, heel twisting, forward curve with left to right curvature for a right-handed golfer

And out the toe, right to left curvature. And a lot of people forget that because when we're looking down at the shot, we think, oh, that's curved because I've done something random

Whereas actually, we've just maybe got it two fingers, a finger off the centre, which is going to cause that curve

Yeah. So maybe people watching at home aren't actually swinging that bad and don't need the force

It's just they're a few inches out. So maybe let's think of something about strike. What sort of tips have you got for strike drills

Yeah, so this drill would be the same for irons and driver. Great. The gear effect would only count for driver

Okay. But I think this is really going to complement you with your irons too. So if you look down there closely, Dan, I've just set up like a really tight little..

This is scaring me. Yeah. It's quite narrow, isn't it? And you can start off a little bit wide if you want to start at that and make it a little bit narrower

But essentially, miss both T-pegs, you're going to find the centre. Okay

Don't worry if you hit the outer one to start with or the inner one. I'd actually say that's probably a good thing

you then got a focus of how you're going to change that. And as a club golfer, you're not going to be perfect straight away

But knowing what the feedback you've got, if you always toe or always heel

you know how you're going to fix that. Brilliant. Because I think a lot of people maybe don't actually know

They're like, why is it going that way? 100%. Where am I actually hitting it from? This is going to give you that visual audio cue as well

100%. What you're going to do is you're going to rule out that it's not strike. Right. Because then if it's still curving and you hit the middle

then that might be where you've got to go and seek further advice. Maybe we do go change your swing

Like we said, this is before you have to change your swing. If you're still messing it up, go change your swing. Okay, so I'm going to get this one to go

So I've got it. It looks very narrow as I'm looking down. That's a good look at this one. But I'm just going to trust and work on that feeling of, right, okay, I'm going to bring it through that centre

Oh, yeah. That plays. So if you're doing that, tick. What happens if I've hit this one on the right or this one on the left

So if you're hitting this out of one, we're probably going to find the heel of the golf club. Yeah. Because our club has moved a little bit further away

And we're gonna get the slice there. Yeah, I've moved on the inside one, we're gonna hit him on the toe

we'll probably get more of that hook shot. And the thing to remember here is we only want to change

our swing and we're saying don't do that first, but people rush to change their swing

because they're worried about ball flight. Exactly. So this is a really really good one So two for one here change that practice routine Think about that strike because that could be what causing you issues more than your actual golf swing Right Alex before people start thinking about changing their entire swing

should we take a look at the grip? What pieces of advice would you give for someone who's not striking it great

or they're pulling it, or they're slicing it, and how they can just alter a little bit of their grip to help with that

First things first, I'd make sure that your club is in the fingers. Oh, interesting, yeah

Just purely sometimes we have it in the palm, which if we have a little look at that closer there

Dan, you can see there's quite a big gap in between my little finger and where the club is. Yeah

Essentially, it makes it very, very hard to square the face, very, very hard to swing the club with any momentum

And essentially, overall, the leafy motion with that is that the club face is probably going to be open

Is that going to lead to a bit of inconsistency of strike as well if it's not in those fingers? Definitely. And with driver, it's just going to be... Absolutely

So the first thing just to combat that I would look at, and it's a really sort of little Ben Hogan tip here

that with all the fingers on and just take them off and leave this here, the club should stay

Interesting. If it falls, you know it's more in the palm because our meaty, our padded area isn't there to sort of create a little bit of an anchor point

That's a great little just check for yourself, actually, isn't it? Okay, good. But then you also mentioned slice and you also mentioned hook

Yeah. So really nice and simple with that. As long as we've got that club in the fingers

if you hook the goal ball, nice and simple, just from player cam here

rotate your hands more towards the left half of the golf club if you slice the golf ball just

rotate both non-glove and glove hand to the right side of the golf ball it's that easy and just have

a go at that because how you hold the club has a very very big impact on how you control the face

and i think it's probably the last thing people go to because it feels very strange and it feels

very odd because it's like i'm not used to that yeah but it's gonna have a direct impact on how

you control the face and that's essentially what the ball flight is going to do. And it is, although it feels more extreme, it is a bit easier than having a full swing

change, right? It's just, it's a few little notches here and there and it'll feel weird for the first

15, 20 shots. Get yourself on the range, just adjust that grip slightly, as Alex has told us there

depending on where you're hitting the ball and don't change your whole swing. Do you want to hit one for us now

Because on the 17th here, I would like to see you go for one. Okay, right

So I've got a little bit of the case of the pools today, so I'm going to go a little bit weaker

Perfect. and see if that helps me just keep that face a little bit open. Oh my, ball striker

Catch a piece. This is a part five, by the way, just going to mention that. Dad would be happy there, just off the back right, I think

You make it up and down from there with that pin. So yeah, just before you go and change your whole golf swing

as Alex said, tinker with that grip and see how you get on. So another thing to think about before entirely changing your swing, Alex

is just tightening up that short game and your scores can come down considerably, making a few more ups and downs, right

100% I think the most common sort of issue for golfers is

they spend so much time on driver and want to bomb it, but they only use it maybe 11, 12 times around

But this could be used on every single green. Now this tip is nothing to do with technique

It's about choosing the right loft and the right landing zone. So I got two T down it down Like I got one at 50 of the way So this would be like our 50 in the air 50 rollout I got another one here which would be our sort of 25 in the air 75 rollout

Now, right now, many golfers don't know what shot is good for them

So I want you to pick two clubs. I've got my pitching wedge here, which is my more roll one

Then I've got my 58, which is my more 50% in the air, 50% rollout

And just get into tune with what loft and what roll requires for that shot

what you might prefer as a golfer anyway you might get on more with your 58 you might actually prefer a little bit less long 100 because guarantee you'll prefer a different wedge to me yeah and

golf's very personal so practice that and find out what's good for yourself so okay i'm going to play

both here first one my more raw one so i'm going to focus on the t-peg not the hole okay let the

club do the work for me a little bit downhill hello hello that was the first take can i just say as

And then this one here was more in the air shot. Now, I'm a golfer that, I know this, I've done this drill many times

I prefer less. I'm the same. I want that shot. I want the ball rolling a bit more, a bit more control of it

Exactly. And proofs in the pudding, I guess. So these shots get me a little bit more nervous

Oh, you haven't. Both pretty handy. Well, one in and one up and down

So just tightening up that short game, visualising the shot a little bit more

Before you go and change the swing entirely, bring those scores down, we're a better wedge play

Okay, Alex, finally then, we're going to chat clubs, and maybe before that swing has to change

you have a little MOT of your bag and what's in there. We can chat a few things here. We can chat maybe gapping, loft and lie

put some new grips on it. Should we do loft and lie first, because I think some people maybe don't understand

how that affects their game. Definitely. So loft and lie will affect your clubs

even more so in the most lofted clubs. Okay. So the more loft you have

basically it's called face plane tilt and if i sort of grab a 50 degree here let's say you had a

very upright line angle that would be the toe off the ground okay this would point all off very left

as i say more loft more of a fact this has so if you have very upright clubs it can cause your ball

to start massively left okay if you have very flat golf clubs which would be the sort of heel off the

ground the ball can start significantly off to the right now sometimes when you do get fitted

if you slice it that could be a pretty good thing or you push it because it can help you iron out

out some bad shots but a general MOT if you're seeing bad characteristics of shots that are left

maybe too upright and it's something you can get adjusted you might have already been fit

and that was fine maybe your swings changed or maybe you haven't been fit before

definitely worth checking out um should we talk you've got a great example of it here actually in

your set of clubs and you've given yourself a little bit more help where you need it in the

longer irons you think maybe a split set for the perhaps more experienced golfer or even a beginner

is a bit more helpful. What I'd suggest is, let's just go beginner first

I wouldn't even want them to carry a four or five, four or five hybrid

Yeah, that's a great shout. Make it easier. That's what I'd suggest. And then for your intermediate slash more experience

you've got to think people don't want to be buying clubs all the time So if you an intermediate golfer with aspirations of practicing a lot playing a lot I would definitely say that sort of combo set Whether you go blades a little bit bigger to a little bit bigger or just go muscle back to sort of a more forgiving eye in the long one

I think so. I mean, listen, if Alex Elliott's still using these at the top of the bag, get that four iron blade out of your bag now

Let's talk gapping finally then, especially the top of the bag. I think with golfers especially, they maybe want that five and four hybrid

Getting this area of the bag right can help your scores out a little bit more. maybe help your swing out if you're swinging easier into different hybrids or fairway woods

definitely like i mean i i would always say first on that gapping i don't want people to really use

a three wood oh really i use five wood and that's what i'd recommend to most golfers and actually

they hit it a little further because that three was a bit close to the driver's you're acting well where's it actually being not necessarily that like most of these golfers are going to use

their three wood or five wood off the deck yeah three was a very hard club to get in the air so

essentially having a little bit more loft a little bit of a deeper face yeah help you get it up so i I would always suggest going driver, five wood

and then maybe another, maybe a three hybrid in there, then four, five

Brilliant. That's a great shot on the five wood, actually, because it's only a couple of degrees, isn't it? And it will be a bit easier

And then get those wedges right as well. The bounce, the gapping in there

Yeah, I mean, how I'd base that on, and most people's, I mean, it's very changeable

depending what brand, depends what your pitching wedge from your set will be. But how I'd base this

have a look at your specs online, or even ask your pro, what loft is my pitching wedge and then base it on four degree increments from that. It might be

that it's 52, it might be that it's 50, but base it on the pitching wedge on your set. Yeah, brilliant

brilliant advice. And it might seem basic stuff. And if you're watching your swings a mess, you're like, why are we talking about this? But before you go through that drastic change, make sure

everything you're using is correct first and then go from there. Okay, Alex, so we've spoken about

timing about short game, chipping before changing your swing entirely. Should we chat about the

putter now I thought you're going to maybe suggest change your actual physical grip which you could

do but you're talking about changing the material of it go for a different type of grip yeah I mean

there are so many out there I mean you could go thick yeah rounded thick with a flat front I think

it's a good way of making putter feel new rather than invest in 300 pounds and a brand new head

and brand new full putter just go to your local PJ Pro let them recommend something go oh you know

what I need a change I need to look down some differently to feel something different and that

that could just be the difference that makes your whole these must make butts. Yeah, I think that goes to the whole bag as well

Maybe re-grip the irons, re-grip the driver, something different to look down on, a different feel

maybe a swing will tighten up because of it. Right, so there you have it, some brilliant bits of advice

that I think all golfers should be following before they go through that massive swing change

that I think we all really want to avoid. Big thanks to Alex Elliott for joining us in that video

Some brilliant tips he's given you there to head out onto the range or head out onto the course

to better your game. If there's something we've maybe missed or something you've tried that's worked before you've totally rebuilt your swing

let me know down in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. But for now, from Kettleson Park Golf Club, I'll see you next time