From fear to finesse! How to regain confidence in your short game

If you experience anxiety around the greens, it’s often rooted in a fear of the ground. In this video, I explain why that happens and share the best drills to help you improve.

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hi everyone welcome back to the channel hope you’re doing well now today’s video is about really getting to grips with those of you who struggle with anxiety around the greens nervous whisper it we can call it the yips i know howard behind the camera struggles with it so uh howard was listening very carefully to this one but um we’re really going to focus on what causes it and i’ve taught thousands of golfers over the years and i’ve been quite successful in in helping people get over over this um this mental disorder because it is mental um and i’ll go through some of the some of the tips i can i can go through which hopefully will help you because i know how serious it is you know it’s not a laughing matter at all you know you can play great golf ter green if you struggle with with with anxiety i’ll call it anxiety rather than the if you struggle with anxiety it um it really it really makes makes your enjoyment of game really difficult and and it’s sad because golf the game of golf is such a great game you should be able to enjoy it and go out there and not fear certain shots around the green and use your putter from 50 yards whatever you might be doing at the moment so um let’s just explain what it is first i mean for me it’s just a total mistrust of the ground whether you know it or not you are fearful of what might happen when your club gets near the ball and there is an involuntary movement you can’t control that subconscious you don’t know it’s happening and it usually involves the right hand for a right-handed golfer firing and the knees working too much so something like this the golfer can be set up usually poorly which i’ll come to in a minute and then they’re coming into the ball quite nicely often with the body moving down and then what happens is last minute the the hands go like that and suddenly the ball can just go anywhere and i’ve seen people miss the ball i’ve seen people skull it over the other side of the green and hit it just a foot in front of you i’m sure some of you have have done that as well now the first thing to do if you are struggling with it is like i’ve got here in my hand a 60 do not go near a 60° wedge if you’ve got a little bit of a problem much better using a bit less loft to begin with something like a 52 or a pitching wedge and obviously for for the right shot with the right pin position seven or eight time but less loft i’ve got a got a pitching wedge here now i do believe although i’ve said it is me it’s a mental disorder it is neurological without doubt usually people who have had the yips have been okay at some point in time and what’s happened is their technique has slipped and slipped and slipped until it’s got sort of outside the corridor where you can get away with it and then the club starts having a problem with the turf then the brain starts fearing the turf and it just gets worse and worse and worse so i am a big believer if you if you’re technically good you can be mentally good so it is important you give yourself that 10 out of 10 worldass setup and i don’t think i’ve ever taught somebody who’s come to me with the yips who has a 10 out of 10 setup so just to go through a couple of bits for this is a basic chip and run and by the way if you have if you have got this anxiety i wouldn’t try too much about trying to hit different releases just focus on getting a good contact with what i call a release one basic chip and run shot so just to go through some basics here one golf ball between the heels one club head between the middle of the feet two club heads there between your toes open that left foot out and really make sure that your left shoulder is over your left foot so you got that nearly really strong pivot line most yippers i see tend to get way too much on the right hand side with too much shoulder tilt and then the club’s just going to hit the ground really early and then we start to worry about it too much so it does begin by just getting this nice setup here at the dress and i would advise the handle to get a little bit higher than you normally would have it so a lot of players with anxiety tend to get their hands pretty low down here look how easy my wrist can work i would come in nice and close if i wanted to quite my wrist down and get this angle pretty much as flat as you can and really work on getting connection between the triceps this muscle here the elbows and the rib cage because essentially what we’ve got to try and do here is calm the knees down and make sure the big slower muscles are hitting the shot instead of the quick fiery ones the knees and the and the the hands which are happening at the moment so we get the stance right we get the weight and we push the feet down in the ground we stand a bit closer and we make sure the elbows are really touching the rib cage they’re resting you want almost feel like they are totally connected great drill to sort of just feel that initially actually is no club in your hand at all put your thumbs together get your hands back as far as they go like this get your elbows up here so your hands are sort of in the middle of your chest there get into that setup i just showed you and just make sure they the connection is there the whole time and just move back and through and you’ll see how my hands are doing absolutely nothing it is just my big muscles my rotation and the hand path just takes care of itself so that’s the feeling you want to get back into if you’re struggling with the with this issue so we get set up there we feel a connection and very important how you ignite the swing so ignite means how do you start the swing most players who get anxious start the swing very quickly and usually with the hands you want to start it with the back of the left shoulder this is a slow part of our body so let’s use slow muscles with this connection here with the elbows we just move that shoulder away and then we open the chest up so we make sure we just move it away and we open up a rough guide on the swing plane the club head wants to stay outside the hands a lot of anxiety comes from the club getting way inside which then makes you hit really early so you want to feel like there’s a slight turn or like rotation but the club head is outside your hands that’s important so make sure you check that and a good drill for that by the way if you’re holding your left hand only and just push the club away you’ll feel like the weight of the club is supported under the arm and that’s that’s a nice exercise if you are a bit of a roller to feel the correct back swing so assuming you’re on plane assuming your weight is staying forward through that left foot you’ve now got a great chance to hit the shot now you are still going to be plagued with this anxiety and this fear because you might have had this this problem for years and coming into the ball there’s still that nervousness but you’ve got to work super hard and say super disciplined on keeping this connection point and really make some practice swings where you’re just keeping that back swing as i just showed you but just absolutely making sure the chest is the governor the chest is the engine and these arms and these elbows are staying into me the whole time you want to feel like you maintain this slight flex of this right arm rather than it driving okay and just make some little shots and to begin with people who are anxious by the way are really obsessed about tend to get more obsessed about the outcome and worry about what might happen like how close it might go or you know do you feel like it’s got pressure and people are watching and all this sort of thing and you initially just find a quiet spot to practice on your own with no pins like a pin isn’t useful for you here because again it gets you into outcome basis you got to be processed so just play to the green like just land it on the green don’t put a target there so you’re setting up there all connected and just go back and just open up and you can see how my elbows are just totally glued on literally feel like you put glue down here glue down here and stick them on with that weight left left shoulder goes back chest moves through back and open and we just brush the turf and you can see how when the big muscles work the shot it’s very difficult to get quick but you’ve really got to work hard on that on that connection you could get your sleeves and tuck your sleeves in a bit this is a nice drill you could do even put a towel under and just work on little shots if i can keep my sleeves tucked in i’m not losing these knees i’m not throwing it too hard this way so yeah that’s that’s important as well and and the sense of sound is really really important it’s something i’ve had a lot of success with coaching players the sense of sound and then trying to use that sound when you play the shot now generally a person with anxiety when they hit it they tend to either dump the club in the ground or get the ball first and it goes off like a missile so if you can practice the brushing of the club on the ground and hear that noise so if i just get my setup and i get that noise and get the brush you hear that lovely noise so you get three really good noises you then step in and all you’re trying to do this is part of your practice all you’re trying to do now is get that noise again that is your only goal your only goal now is to get that noise and if you get that noise you’ll get the shot and i think that’s a really nice way of once you’ve done a better technical work on the plane and the rotation just moving it a little bit more to an external focus like the sense of sound and just trying to replicate a sound to then give you a better strike and lose that anxiety a little bit so that’s that’s a really nice way of training that in so once you start getting some basics in there about the big muscles and and and the noise and the setup it’s then obviously you know you’re going to go on the golf course and then suddenly you got that one shot and then you know it can come back can’t it now you have the internal focus about all the things you’ve got to try and do and you’ve got the external focus about what you want your ball to do and i also think the more you can paint the picture of the shot you want to hit where you want to land it at what ball flight how the ball is breaking into the hole and maybe even try and see the ball go into the hole the more you can get yourself into that mindset and less ball bound the better you’re going to get as well because and i’ve played with golfers who have this problem and when i play with them generally they’re sort of down like this they’re at the ball by the way as well i see this you see this sort of quick quick sort of waggle that would that would be terrible as well because there you’re just training fast muscles training fast muscles just let the club settle be calm okay if you’re going to have a waggle use your shoulder to have it okay but when you’re over the ball just make sure you are not down forever because i see players down really ball bound like this and the longer you’re down like this almost like the club can’t get away so i think training the routine and training how you use your eyes is really important and a really nice saying i want you to remember is i want you to glare at your landing spot glance at the pin glance back at the ball and then place that picture of the landing spot you got in your mind okay so you’re really trying to hold the landing spot picture in your mind so we settle into the ball glare at the landing spot glance at the pin glare at the landing spot again back to the ball settle breathe and play the shot and i think just not allowing yourself to dwell too long over the ball is also really going to help you mentally you’ve had your practice swings you’ve really got a clear picture of your landing spot which you’ve sucked from the landing spot into your mind that’s in your mind over the ball it’s important to settle for one second breathe and then really work on that connection you know and that will really start helping you there the other thing as well when you’re practicing don’t be afraid of using a teg because when you put a teg in in the ground obviously we take the ground out of play and this can be a really nice exercise just to go and get some confidence in the technique and it might be a nice place to start for some of you where you’re just working on that shoulder and that chest and you’re just clipping off the teg try just to clip the peg not to disturb it too much just clip it that was lovely that one just clipped it beautifully just nudged it forward you see so i’d maybe do 10 like that and then rake a ball over pretend it’s still on the peg and get that nice strike again there so there are some bits you can improve it’s um it is a rewiring process it is it’s not going to be it never is is if anyone’s got who’s got the yips anxiety it’s never going to be one magic tip and suddenly you’re cured i’m afraid because it is in here but what happens is you’ll start hitting some better shots from some of those thoughts i’ve given you in terms of the setup and using the bigger muscles and you’ll still hit some bad ones and lots of bad ones because you it’s just where you’ve got the scar tissue you know you’ve got that involuntary movement in there but where every time you hit a good shot and start to get those better strikes you are a shot closer to getting your short game back and really starting to enjoy the game again because your brain starts to say maybe just maybe i can actually do this and you start repeating and then when you’re on the golf course make sure you follow that routine don’t get ball bound think about your landing spot settle back on the ball and then go and even when you’re playing if you can think of a a saying over if you can maybe say one two or tick tock this is also really good as well like so don’t go one two so if you’ve got the hips you tend to go one two all right now what you’ve got to feel like when you play this shot particularly on the golf course it’s like one two it’s that middle beat you need all right it’s tick tock so it’s tick tock not tick tock and just saying that on the golf course as well in terms of trying to take it to the actual shot that matters that might be easier for you as well if you put your mind into a one two and all these things are worth trying to try and uh improve your mind and improve your technique because it’s you know it’s a killer when you’ve got got this uh got this issue so listen hopefully that makes sense to you you can go and work on something and honestly i’ve i’ve killed so many people out of it who are now got free flowing short games and it’s become a strength of their game so you put some of these concepts in place i’m sure it’ll make a difference um there’s much more we can do perhaps a skill lesson i do skill lessons where uh you can send your videos in i’ll put a link below on that um and i can really see what you’re doing so maybe follow the steps in this video but follow up with a skillless lesson that might be a good idea so i can really bespoke it to you but i think a lot of the lot of the points there really will help and um help you get your short game back to exactly where you want to be so you can enjoy your golf all right so speak to you soon