Reasons Why: You're Not Improving Your Handicap

Hello everyone and welcome to the London Club. In this video we're going to take a look at the top

10 reasons that golfers do not get better. Looking at everything from the mental challenges

out on the golf course to some of the tough shots that are costing you. Right, let's head out and get

started. Right, so number 10 on our list and the first one we're going to look at Alex is making

swing changes mid-round. Yeah, I think this can work both ways. Like you can make a swing change

actually hit a decent shot if you've been struggling throughout that round but then you sort of question

yourself well what did I do differently you try it again and then the ball goes off in a different

direction. So question for you then Alex how many swing thoughts do you think is the right number

of swing thoughts for a player? I like to have two just in the sense of like having a back swing

thought and then a trigger thought. Okay. Like okay for example like mine would be take it wide

and then belt buckle to target just to make sure I get through the ball but the two feelings that

are something that are easy to do right okay it's not like move this do this no not a really

technical complicated move exactly that and just actually if you're gonna make a swing change either

maybe get it from a youtube video or get some advice from a pj pro yeah so as Alex said two

swing thoughts stick with them while you're on the golf course if it hasn't worked then make a change

don't make that change while you're on the course. So number nine on our list is about distance. Alex what is it? Yeah I mean this might be a bit

of a contradiction to what you probably heard online before and if you don't drive it far

enough it's actually hard to lower your scots. Right okay so let's say you've got somebody out

there who hits it 200 yards but pretty straight what sort of handicap would you say they could get

to before they start to struggle to get any lower from that point? I would say trying to access

single figures potentially. Right. Because you're going to drive it to a point where you're always

going to have a medium to long iron into a majority of par fours. Whereas we know long

irons are hard to hit greens and it's hard to hit close. So your proximity to the hole

it's just generally harder to lower your scores that way. Yeah. Now, Alex has got some advice on

his YouTube channel about how to hit the ball further off the tee. We have plenty of videos

about the same topic on our YouTube channel. If you are struggling on that front, take a look at some advice

to help you hit the ball a bit further. It could be the thing that is stopping you from shooting lower scores

OK, so this one is about being too hard on yourself, putting too much pressure on your shoulders to perform

Alex, what do you think is the mistake here that sort of causes players to play poorly

I think, obviously, we all want to play our best golf. We all invest a lot of money, a lot of time

and we put the pressure on ourselves to perform. And if it doesn't happen

we get a little bit wound up sometimes potentially and it's a downward spiral. I agree with you, right

And I've definitely fallen foul of this in the past, but we're all human beings. It's kind of natural to want to play your best

every time you go out, especially if you've been investing in clubs and lessons

So how do you take pressure away from yourself? I think it's basically managing your expectations

So it's going out there going, actually, well, I'm going to just enjoy today and to Athens

Right, you think about this, I bet you've done this exact scenario. You've not played for two or three weeks, you've come out and played your best golf. It's been raining

you've gone out with waterproofs on, wet gloves on, expectations, no one will shoot a good

score today. Probably shot a good score. Expectation levels are lower, you can relax and actually

let your creative juices flow. Yeah so don be too hard on yourself Golf is a difficult sport Maybe sort of try and feel your way into the round and then see how things are going before you start building any expectations because trying to go out there every single round from the first shot trying to shoot your lowest score is very difficult

Number seven is not tracking your stats. A lot of really valuable information that you might just be giving up on by not tracking your stats. What should people be looking out for, Alex

I just think something simple like how many fairways are we hitting, how many greens regulation

and then on that are we missing more left or more right. Okay so it gives you an idea about how to

work on your game but then also an idea about how to strategize while you're on the golf course

Yeah like take this flag here, it's a right hand side flag, if you miss more to the right it's

probably not a good idea to short side yourself. Yes. So you can build in knowledge about your game

as well as working on the correct areas and not just the areas you like to work on. Yeah and so

So you might have a theory about where you miss. You might have a theory about how many fairways you hit

how many greens you hit, but actually backing it up with the data gives you that framework, doesn't it

Exactly that, and then you actually start to see improvements because you're actually working

on the areas that need work. Yeah, okay, Alex, you're gonna have to hit this one for me

So we've got 191. Alex has got a very, very skinny Cobra 4 iron in his hands

This is really gonna test you out, isn't it? And it's cold. And it's cold. You've taken it on Alex. You've actually committed exactly the crime that you were

guarding, helping people guard against. But Alex has got a good shot at short games, I'm

sure he'll be fine. This one is about not having exactly the right equipment for your

game. Alex, what's the big mistake here? Yeah, I think there's two. One with driver

which most people probably think about when they go for a driver fitting, but also with irons is having the correct length and lie angle to help you play better golf. Okay, so if you get

it wrong, what will players see? So if a club is too long and therefore the lie angle is too upright

we'll start to see that golf ball launch a little bit left for the majority of your shots and even

more so with lofted irons. If it was the opposite, if that lie angle was too flat, we're going to see

that shot start to the right. Now, where do most people swing this golf club? A little bit over

stand up, create it a little bit flatter. Yeah, so having the right equipment for you

crucial in terms of your accuracy with your eyes. What about with the driver? With the driver

I think we all have this thing about we have to have the stiffest shaft, we have to have the club with the most or the least loft to act like we can hit it a long way. We're actually

optimising the correct shaft and possibly more loft for most golfers is going to make you hit

it a little bit further. Yeah, so that low loft, low spin performance might be good for your best

swing and your best strike and your best shot. But how often is that going to actually cost you

when you've not got your best swing and strike on the ball? And that's where we want to play our

better golf, right? We want to be able to get around the golf course, round our handicap when

we're not playing our best golf. Yeah, some really handy advice there for getting the right equipment for your game. So number five on our list is about putting. And Alex, everyone could do with

holding a few more putts, it doesn't matter what handicap you are. But what's the sort of advice

here? What's the mistake that people make? I think we always try and get a little bit complicated

because we think now our golf game is based on such fine margins, it's now a hole, not a fairway

and not a green, we've got to be really perfect. Okay yeah, but so you're telling me we don't have

to be perfect Well not really no I think a lot of us try and be too perfect and then we don have any flow to our stroke Okay so if flow to your putting stroke is so important then give us a quick tip How do you get it So I like to think of it like this I think a lot of it comes from grip pressure

I always picture Tiger. That's sort of the ogy that I have. His hands look comfortable on the club

Yeah. So we're in there, hands looking comfortable, maybe give the shoulders a bit of a waggle

And I have the practice swings looking at the hole, just tuning myself into my senses

about what I've got to actually do. Yeah, and if you can do that

then you don't have to think too much about how hard you're hitting the ball. It should happen naturally

Come on then, Alex. I'm going to put you under pressure. Make it for us. You've given me a left to right here. I've given you a slight left to right

Although greens are perfect. I'm giving you no excuses. Oh dear, not enough flow

Not enough flow, but a lovely putt. okay so number four on our list is about strategy and Alex it's about the eight out of ten rule

explain yeah I think no matter what level you are it's using a strategy where if I have a shot that

I'm about to hit if I can't pull it off eight times out of ten then possibly it's rethinking

either the club or our aiming okay good so how does it apply in this scenario well this is a

tough hole here at the London club right water all down the left one place you can't go is left now

most club golfers we hit it with a bit of a slice so you might think you know what if me

tip this fairway I've got to aim at the trouble yes let it come in whereas actually we know if

I aim down the middle maybe hopefully we hit the bullet straight but worst case scenario I'm in the

right rough I'm in play yeah and you can always recover you can always make a sort of four or

five the further up you get up the hole but if you're in the water off the tee because you've

hit that brilliant tee shot that's gone dead straight, then you're not going to be able

to recover that. No, exactly. Think about the 8 out of 10 rule while you're out on the golf course

Use it to your advantage. It could really help. Number three is not warming up

How many of us are guilty of not doing anything before we go and play golf to warm our bodies up

It's really important. Also, the other point here is that not everyone is going to have a facility like there is

here at London Club where you can go and hit balls. If you do have a facility like this, what's the best way of doing it quickly

Because most people out there don't have hours to spend before they tee off. I would, if I got a facility like this, I'd do five minutes putting, five minutes chipping

finish off a little bit on the range, head straight to the first tee. Whereas most people actually do it in the reverse, but I want to do the last thing on

the range, the first thing I'm going to do on the first tee. Right, so you're imagining that first tee shot that you're going to be hitting. Exactly

Okay, and then if you don't have a facility like this, let's say you don't have any practice

facilities whatsoever how should you do it stretching just use your locker room like you

can actually mobilize your body quite easily just by going in the locker room doing a few dynamic

stretches and if you're wondering where to get that advice my tpi has got loads of different

exercises and i use them quite regularly if i know if i'm going playing a tournament with a golf

course that's got no range i'll go and spend 10 minutes in the locker room yeah it's really simple

stuff and again it's the sort of preparation that we all know we should do but we often fail to do

it. If you do commit to doing it, chances are those first few holes, you might just score them

a bit better. So number two on our list, and it's something that stops a lot of golfers from

lowering their handicaps, lowering their scores, is that they don't have a shot for a scenario like

this They don work on those scoring shots Alex Yeah and I think even for a higher handicap right in a scenario like this on a long path ball we going to be in a situation where we going to have this 30 yard chip for our third shot more often than not yes and even for higher handicappers you want to be getting it up and down every now and again you certainly

never want to be getting down in four which means executing this shot a little bit better so Alex

give us a tip so I always think most people would resort most lofty club to probably get a shot like

this I use the rule if I can chip it run it last resort get it in the air okay so nice and simple

go slightly towards the back of your stance, narrow stance pull width apart and weight on your left

Okay. This makes it more of a long chip rather than like a pitch. Okay so which club have you got

So I've got a pitching match. Okay go on then, let's see it. There we go, I'm looking for around about

two to three feet on running it up there as much as possible. Yeah lovely and just notice how simple that action is, it's something that

Every golfer can try and replicate themselves. Keep it simple. Hit it a bit closer

You might get it up and down a bit more often. OK, so number one

The number one fault that is holding golfers back and stopping them from scoring their best is, Alex

Practice. Right, yeah. So not using the range in the best way possible

Like, I call it like machine gun fire. People get their 100 ball that's gone in 30 minutes

Yeah, and I think most people watching this will have heard this sort of tip before

and they go to the range, myself included, with the best intentions. Yeah. But before you know it, suddenly you've hit 30 shots very quickly

and you've stopped thinking about anything that you're working on. So what's a good way of kind of thinking about it and committing to doing it properly

I think playing your hardest hole at your golf club in your head is a great way to actually, well, get over that hole

but also tune yourself into actually playing some shots rather than out there just trying to make a perfect swing and oh that wasn't good right

I just do this, actually get out there and do something that reflects what you're going to do

What you're trying to do on the golf course. So let me ask you then Alex, so you've got driver in your hand here, you're imagining the fifth hole or whatever it is at your course

Are you actually picturing the fairway? What do you see? Definitely, I'm quite a person, a visual person so for me it helps me picture the fairway, I picture the shot

and I'll set a boundary between let's say the two red flags in front of us

Right, let's test you out then. So what is the boundary? What's the shot that you're hitting? What can you see

So we'll use the fifth at my golf club. It is as narrow, or it looks as narrow as these two red flags

So I hit a fade, so I'm thinking, right, can I fade it off the left flag into the middle of that fairway

Okay. That's what I'm picturing. So I would do this as well, going through my full routine, because that's really important

You reflect and you mirror what you want to do in a medal round on a Saturday. Yeah, so you're more comfortable in all of those scenarios out of the course

Beautiful. Beautiful, and it's simple processes like that. If you are serious

about shooting low scores a bit more often than preparing yourself for the pressure of these

scenarios, getting you the most out of your practice time, it's absolutely essential

So there you have it. That's our look at the top 10 reasons golfers do not get better at

the game. Hopefully you found some of Alex's tips in there, helpful, some useful things

to take out with you on the golf course going forward. If there is anything that you think

we've missed, please do leave some comments below. We'd love to hear what you think. But

that's it for now from the London Club. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time