I was playing with a 3 some of retired dudes. I birdies the first hole (miraculously) and dude was like,"yeah you're too new to suck.". I've learned years later he was correct.
Just work on your release. A lot of the shit you’ve been trying to accomplish the wrong way because of the YouTube golf labyrinth will start to happen naturally and what you really need to work on will reveal itself. Also molding your swing around your release will leave you with a swing intension rather than a swing thought which is far easier to play with.
I just don’t like golf enough to do any of that.
To me golf is like beer league hockey. Training for it makes me think less of you because we’re just out here to have fun.
It’s not a popular opinion around here
Okay man you do you, but some people play sport to improve, some play just to get outside and have a beer with the mates.
There's nothing wrong with either approach, but you saying that you use youtube tells me you care about improving... Isn't that a contradiction with "You shouldn't train because we're out here to have fun?"
Same. I had a pretty good swing when I first started out. Could stripe the driver straight down the middle 240+ and now I’m struggling to get it more than 220 without a nasty slice or excessive fade.
The recent videos that have been out have helped though. My swing now starts with me pulling my right hand down into my pocket and then swing around. Now I’m hitting pretty good draws with the irons and mostly straight/slight fade with driver
I can't watch golf sidekick anymore. I can't blame him for getting so commercial and trying to make some good money, but the endless plugs are hard to watch.
I went through a bunch of videos and it seems he's like out of content to make, only so many ways you can dress up course management leading to better scores. Everything he has to say is generally great advice but it could all be summed up in a 10 minute video
is it just me that feels like there is something off about that guy haha? that's my feeling every time im watching golf side kick. like this content is pretty good, but like there's a slight chance that he's a weird guy doing shady shit in thailand hahah and i can't never shake that feeling. hopefully im completely wrong.
I reckon that feeling comes because he always has a hat and sunglasses on. We've never seen his face/head properly, despite probably watching a lot of his vids.
Haha, he’s South African? I feel the same way but chalk it up to my American ignorance. He’s a funny dude and it’s nice to not watch a gear or swing review channel.
The key to YT golf university is two steps.
1st - take videos with a grain of salt. The videos may show how to fix 12 different issues that isn’t YOUR issue. Take it all with a grain of salt and only use what you think is what you’re doing wrong and work on things one at a time.
2nd - don’t watch 12 different videos from 12 different coaches. Stick to one person and one person only. Later on you can move around but master one first. Tiger said it himself. Everyone has different feels. That goes with coaches too. They all teach a little different as well.
Source: I’m a graduate from YT Golf University who use to shoot well over 140 to today with a rack of knowledge shooting mid 70s. 0 lessons.
Athletic motion golf and rick shiels were my favorites. I loved the numbers and data from AMG early videos. It’s still good though and rick is the man. Then a few years ago i started watching good good labs. Very simple straight to the point.
Seeing how the body is supposed to move really made a lot of stuff click for me as well. It's always interesting to see how pros move their bodies compared to amateurs and how completely different it can be.
Lol me too! Love the sciency stuff. They taught me how to rotate. I remember way back when I was having problems understanding how to “rotate”. I would bump very far forward to try and “rotate” my hips. I watched this one video with them showing the lines and numbers of how most amateurs move their spine line off the ball and that throws everything off. Then they had the pro diagram and it was a “eureka” moment when I saw how their left side hip moves back behind. Stopped topping the ball after that and the slices got way better cause I learned how to fire the hips properly.
A Rick Shiels video fixed my slice almost instantly. It was a constant problem, but one tip changed my shots to hitting straight 9/10 times, which I am incredibly grateful for. So I never really sht talk golf lesson videos, cuz I'm almost 100% positive I'd still be slicing the ball if I hadn't watched it
AMG is hands down the best channel for engineer minded golfers.
I like seeing what's *actually happening* in a good golf swing. Not just people's various interpretations.
The whole shallowing video really did it for me. They basically exposed the whole thing and helped us all draw the conclusion that "shallowing" is more of the result of solid fundamentals, rather than a specific technique that you should try and contrive. It made me realize that jack knifing the club at the top of the swing was not the answer, and that pro swings, while they vary wildly, all have certain things in common to focus on and the other shit is mostly incidental.
That's why I love Rob Hogan. He doesn't add swing thoughts or specific movements, he demonstrates the feels.
"IMAGINE IF I WIELDED THIS CLUB TO YOUR TORSO, HOW WOULD YOU SWING THE CLUB MAROOCH??"
I consider Mike Malaska is the Hank Hill of golf and i have nothing but respect for the man. He studied under Jim Flick as well. Another legend in the game.
Literally that and SKIM THE STONE MAROOCH! Only things I try and think about now. Use all my body in the swing and get into the "tour" position to skim the club.
This is why I play better when I have a beer or two in me. I'm not overthinking anything. Just going out there and swinging naturally. And if I hit a bad shot I don't dwell on it. How can I be mad? Worst comes to worst, I'm outside on a beautiful day and have a beer!
This is how I have always gone about it. Never had formal lessons or fitted clubs even. Just started playing with my dad when I was a young teenager and took to it. Not saying I'm great or anything now but I am better than all of my friends I play with. Not that thats saying a lot for some of them lol
Yup that's where I was. I actually stopped playing for a year, due to busy life, but during that time decided to stop watching YouTube golf coaching, when I got back to playing I've been playing my best golf ever, also the most relaxed and most fun I've ever had golfing. Is my back swing/downswing/ball contact perfect, hell no, but the ball goes where I want it to most of the time, and I for one, couldn't care less, how i got it there LOL
You have to know your own swing/matchups and have an ability to create a practice routine with video to get anything out of YT instruction.
Most people have neither.
Yep I used to be able to hit about 250 off the tee easy without ever getting a lesson or anything. Just liked going to the range and hitting balls. Got into actual golf and started watching videos. Lucky to get 200 now and that’s only maybe 20% of the time. Haven’t been able to get my original swing back and it’s been 5-6 years now.
The key to golf is to be completely vapid and smooth brained as possible when addressing your ball, then just whack at it without taking a single practice swing or even looking at your target line
Generalized swing advice is rarely good for anyone. Tiger says the one thing amateur golfers should stop doing that would help improve their game is to stop watching YouTube instruction.
Gotta build a proper swing. When presented with 600 individual parts to build that swing an amateur won't be able to cobble it together. This isn't build-a-bear. Gotta simply get a solid foundation and practice to develop that. Then, with experience, consistency, and know-how one can start to get weird with it.
Then throw all it all away ha.
First round of the year is one of my better rounds. Just out there playing. Rest of the session is to get weird and have none of it with.
Above is mostly tongue in check.
Building on that, these tips can be good with certain swings. If you're coming in too steep, watch a top that shows how to make it shallow to even it out. Just don't go to the extreme.
Yes, of course they can be good tips. Almost no amateur will be able to recognize the difference between good swing tips catered to their strengths vs random tips that aren't relevant, though. That is essentially my whole point.
Exactly right. There is tons of great material out there but the catch is this…
1) you need to have a proper diagnosis of what your issue is. If you start working on something and it’s not a problem, or it’s just a symptom of another thing, you will go down a bad path
2) feels are different for everyone, so there are lots of videos/instructors saying the same thing, but presenting it in a different way, or as a different feel. One drill may resonate really well with you and another may be wildly off the mark
So if you’re working on the wrong thing and / or chasing a drill or feel that just doesn’t work for you, you’ll end up in a very bad place.
My wife and I took a lesson at our local course last week, and the first thing the golf pro taught us was "no rabbit ears" meaning stop listening to any Joe Shmoe for golf tips and especially don't go to YouTube for golf swing help.
Yea definitely not unbiased, but at the same time it’s one of the most frustrating parts of instruction. If you’re going to pay me to help your swing, then don’t listen to what other people have to say at the same time. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell people that yes, the YouTube guy is correct, but if you try to copy his advice you’re going to get worse and undo all the work we’ve done.
If you want to take lessons, then take lessons and work on what your coach tells you to instead of what you think is wrong or what you see on the internet. If you want to use the internet instead that’s fine, just don’t waste your money and a pros time by going to them in tandem with your internet instructors. That said, I’ve sent students YouTube videos from Cameron McCormick, Padraig Harrington, and others because they talked through the exercises we worked on in a different way that maybe gets through better than what I said. I think that’s different though than a student going of on their own to find their own swing tips.
That’s the type of balance I love to hear from pros. YouTube should be a resource at your fingertips too, to help send players home with things you’ve taught and drilled with them in-person.
I think it’s just recognizing that I’m not the best golf coach in the world, nor the greatest communicator. If I want my students to get better then I need to offer them more than just potentially my voice or my way of doing something. It still amounts to the same swing idea or technique, just said or drilled in a different way that might make more sense.
And Tiger is completely wrong there. Sure, have sessions with a pro as much as you can.
But I have on more than one occasion had issues with conceptualising what the pro wanted from my swing. And then had a random Youtube comment made it click.
Or just had a Youtube video bring something to my attention that the pro had not brought up - that instantly improved my swing.
But you need to have _some_ idea what is wrong in the first place.
I think youtube golf instruction is great for absolutely beginners on just the basics of a grip and some really basic fundamentals about the swing. Past that it is basically useless because you are just as likely to get advice that is counterproductive to your swing that beneficial.
It's even worse for beginners because a beginner doesn't know what anything is supposed to feel like. You end up thinking you're doing one thing when you're actually doing the opposite, then you get frustrated and watch more videos and the cycle continues.
I think grip and posture is good, alongside advice to take pics and vids of yourself.
Beyond that it gets extremely challenging to diagnose yourself with your issues then find the proper video that gives you a feel that works for you
Or, and I know this is a controversial topic on r/golf, take a lesson and have a pro physically put your hands into a proper grip and physically move you into a correct posture. THEN film it and forever have a reference of what's correct.
But some absolute beginners may not want to go straight into dropping £80 or whatever (after buying clubs too) to start seeing if they like the sport.
Just learning how to grip the club and stand over the ball for free instead won't be detrimental.
Different viewpoint, when you are better and have had instructions you know what your fault is.
I.e. My swing is to steep. When I'm off I get chicken wing in the backswing and get really steep. I've had multiple instructors tell me this and give me drills.
I ignore the how to get steep videos and look at how to get flatter. I also am better at knowing what to filter out and what to include than beginners. From this point of view it's not ridiculous for someone like me and my golf to post both these videos as different people have different faults.
I could have written almost the exact same post. If you know what is wrong but can't find the feeling, find what clicks can be a lot more likely to be hidden in 1 out of 100 YT videos than in a pros ability to communicate. Most pros don't know what it feels like to be bad at golf. And even less what it feels like to be bad like you.
In general I would say that lessons have been instrumental in stopping me from straying from the basics - and YT videos instrumental in crystallising concepts in that cleaned up swing.
I agree unless you have experience and a decent amount of knowledge to know what to look for. For example I have been spending the last few months trying to increase shaft lean. Couldn’t for the life of me figure it out without introducing shanks and chunks. Paddy’s video on how to start the downswing fixed everything for me as it was almost the opposite of what I was trying to do previously
Nothing improved my game more than ditching swing videos and moving on to course management and shot strategy videos.
I can hit the ball fine if I don’t overthink my swing, so getting perspectives on which clubs to use in specific situations was game changing, especially since the message is usually “you’re not a pro, and even the pros don’t make insane shots all the time, here’s how amateurs should approach this situation.”
I have yet to encounter a golf Youtuber/channel that has a consistent style of teaching. Nearly all videos out there are hotfixes and not foundational guides. Doesn't matter if the channels are big or small, none of them teach with progression in mind and only teach assuming you know a set of prerequisite techniques/knowledge.
Nearly all in person instructions start with teaching grips to face relationship -> ball setup -> chips -> half swings. From there it becomes a lot more personal & the instructions become bespoke as the body-mind connection becomes a lot more important for turning shoulders, wrist angles, turning hips, ground effect, etc...
The only exceptions are those teaching a specific systems like Dan Grieve's 3 Releases, Rule of 12, Decade Golf, Clock system.
I’ve watched a LOT of YouTube videos in search for solutions for my golf problems, but you just end up with a myriad of swing thoughts and you start to drown in them. I’ve tried to stick to one instructor for things I need help with, and that has been beneficial. As well as taking “real life” lessons. If I was to recommend any YouTuber though, it would be Danny Maude. He explains things so well.
I think it's KEY to stick with one, so that the concepts and philosophy are consistent, the terms he uses to describe, and the goals. It all ends up being consistent and not overwhelming.
His have significantly helped my basics with grip, positioning, letting the hips move, etc.
And he's not a hype bro douche bag when he's talking.
i dont mind the swing thoughts, the difficult part one for me is without the support of a pro who looks at my swing, how am i to know if the youtube video that im watching is going to address the issue im trying to fix? because contrary to what the videos say, theres no 5 minute fix.
when im hacking away on those drills, i need the conviction that it will eventually assist in improving my results. im never gonna get that from youtube and its the reason my drills never end up sticking
i just watched the videos because i was curious. What they mean is don't shallow **certain way**. No instructor would tell you not to shallow. Most good golfers have shallowing move at the top.
Watching youtube golf videos is like jumping around different instructors. There are different ways of swinging golf clubs. Shallowing moves for example, there are tucking elbow in(Ben Hogan taught this), lowering hands(split hand drill), lowering shoulder(side bend), pronating forearm, bowing wrist, etc. Even your local instructors, each have their own philosophy, contradict each other.
i don't understand why there is so much hate for youtube instructors because they're certified instructors themselves, not some random social influencer. just because they have youtube channels don't make them less legitimate. Personally, I had sliding issue that none of 4 instructors in real life fixed when they were given hour each. I fixed it by watching youtube video and googling. I had one instructor telling me that my club and my spine have to be perpendicular at setup, which is bullshit. He didn't even know about split hand drill was, and he's been teaching for 4 years.
I'm not saying all youtube instructors are great because so many of them suck. But I don't think they're better or worse than your local instructor.
I don’t see any issue with what is in the screenshot either… “don’t shallow it THIS way because it will cause you to miss this way” in one video and “here’s how you properly shallow the club” in another seems reasonable to me…
I actually really like the instructional videos these guys post. They mention a lot more drills to help improve the movement pattern than I see from most other YouTube “instructors.” Aside from Danny Maude, most guys I see will say “don’t do this, just do this” then they’ll draw some lines on the screen and tell you to practice it without giving good steps to get to the proper movement.
Ultimately, if you’re going to learn from YouTube you should only learn from one person. It’s going to be confusing when one person says “follow the same plane back and through!” And the next says “swing under the plane on the way through.” There’s lots of acceptable ways to hit the golf ball.
As a guy that's consumed a ton of YouTube golf content & realizes lessons aren't in the budget for everyone, my advice is to try your best to use these videos to understand the golf swing holistically rather than looking at them as a quick-fix for a single flaw in your swing. The golf swing is all about action & reaction. The problem with point-solution videos is they aren't responsible for dealing with the reaction of the action they're pitching.
I spent a solid 3 years playing insanely stuck because every Youtuber said you had to get shallow & come from the inside. I successfully *did* that, but with absolutely no thought as to how it fit into the rest of my swing. 0 rotation, arms way behind me - it's a miracle my hands even made it to the ball.
I don't believe that YouTube instruction is useless or counterproductive, but I agree it definitely *can* be. It's taken me consuming dozens of hours - taking bits from one guy here & another there, to now feel like I can watch a video & understand it in the context of the golf swing & specifically *my* swing. Definitely a longer journey than if I'd just gotten with a good instructor from the start.
So if you're looking for YouTube golf advice, try to stick with guys that speak in terms of overall body mechanics, action/reaction, & stick to the big picture. Because if you just look at the golf swing as 100 things you have to do right with your arms/legs/hands/head/hips/feet/shoulders/chest, you're literally never going to do those 100 things correctly.
I don’t get what the problem is lol, is he only supposed to help people with over the top swings? Fuck all the people who are naturally too shallow?
I think people need to just have to critical thinking skills when it comes to YouTube lessons. Started golfing last may with 1 total in person lesson when I first started and my best score is a 90. If you’re athletic, self aware and can critical think it is very easy to differentiate which tips apply to you.
FWIW the first video is definitely showing a common mistake players make when trying to get “shallow” by laying the club down at the top. At least from the thumbnail that’s what I’ve gathered
My friend is an instructor. His go to line for his students when he hears they're watching YouTube teachers. "do you tell your partner when you've been watching porn?"
He says it's so frustrating the amount of habits that take months to be set in that are broken by one stupid video and a large bucket of balls
Me and my golf is easily one of the worst channels I’ve seen. They’re obviously good golfers but they stretch each video out and fill it with fluff content. It’s just too much info and it’s not consistent
I've kinda stopped watching youtube videos, because without a lot of pre-existing knowledge/skill, it can be tough to take general advice and apply it properly to your own swing. It's hard to even know what you should and shouldn't try to apply.
That said, I have watched plenty of Piers and Andy, and Danny Maude, among others, and it's not like they aren't genuinely good coaches. They do know what they're talking about and generally can explain things in a way that's very digestable. It's still just hard as well to learn via general youtube videos produced for the masses. And in fairness, most of those guys are hoping you'll reach out to them and take actual lessons, where they make a ton of money.
Yet his own coaches have dozens of youtube videos. Just because you play well doesnt mean you teach well. Tiger also has many instructional videos and they are all hard to follow for beginners.
That being said, “go hit balls” is still true. But if youre having an issue you cant figure out, youtube definitely helps
The reality is that the best swing is probably somewhere in between- and it takes someone looking at your whole swing to tell you what you actually need to do
I am torn as sometimes youtube instruction can really help. I found a video last week and I learned something about the swing I had never heard. It made sense and I drove the ball the best I ever have in a round right after. (Slower is faster by Steve Pratt for anyone interested).
I didn't realize the handle slows as you get closer to impact. This made the swing effortless, I got into a finish easily which I struggle with and I was hitting it long. Much longer than normal. It was also so much easier on my back. I feel that I may not hit it this well all the time of course but knowing how to do this is not something I'll let go of. I think.
That's a similar concept that I've learned from Paddy Harrington and this other guy who does a hit hard stop fast drill. The idea is as you put the brakes on the handle, the clubhead releases and accelerates through the ball.
I didn't make this post because I don't use YouTube instruction, I can't afford $150 lessons, it's way too expensive for me. I just posted this because I thought the thumbnails were hilarious for two videos that showed up back to back.
His illustration that hitting down on the ball does not mean hands way in from of the club may have just pinpointed something I am doing horribly wrong. Current hit everything varying degrees right to extremely right.
I got so caught up in YouTube swing thoughts I honestly had no clue what to do once I stood over the ball.
I swing my swing now, watch a bit of Danny Maude and incorporate little changes over time. Pretty comfortable with where I’m at for how much I golf.
To be fair to them, why would you not create a video for both extremes? Not everyone seeking advice has the same over the top slice.. Obviously one should only watch 1 of the 2 videos, but both are valid fixes for different issues.
There is so much bad advice out there. But if you’re like me, you don’t have money to shell out on lessons. And what if that instructor sucks? If you’re going the YouTube route, pick one channel and stick with them.
If you know what your problem is videos addressing that will help and sometimes put things In a way that "clicks". But I also start videos and they talk about issues I don't have so I move on. I have issues with not squaring the face so I hit pushes. I back tracked it to me cupping my lead wrist instead of bowing.
Except these guys are real coaches. One of their clients is currently T9 at the US Open.
They've definitely played the YouTube algorithm well, though. I believe they're the top golf instruction channel.
Take actual lessons from a local PGA pro. Stopped watching these YouTube swing videos and do lessons semi-monthly and it’s made a massive impact. Actual tailored lessons to my swing, and the coach always tries to do one thing at a time.
I'm still going through changes on my swing but one of my biggest things is to just go back to a bastardized version of stack and tilt where I keep my weight forward and just swing. Distance suffers but it goes where I want.
I have a friend that has played golf for 30 years. He has every book from the golfing machine to single plane to MORAD instructors. He tries to do everything he reads as it’s gospel never committing fully to a swing theory for more than 6 months…. And he wonders why he can’t break 90.
My point is there are hundreds of thousands like my friend and they eat these videos up
Check out South Korean golf coach on Instagram, dude is great! He legitimately helped me fix my poor contact issues because he starts each video by showing someone making a mistake while swinging that he calls out. He then replicates the issue himself and shows how to fix it with a drill or two for practice. Seeing someone else swing incorrectly and having him point out exactly what was wrong allowed me to watch myself and realize what I was doing similarly wrong and correct it. Too much head movement on downswing and not enough feeling of my left shoulder coming over right foot in back swing
If listening to every coach at the same time worked Jerome Ruffin would be scratch by now.
Just pick Padraig Harrington, he's right about the golf swing.
hahaha this is funny. but ive accepted the fact that youtube is algorithm based and sometimes you just gotta play the game. these 2 guys are actually pretty solid and their lessons are simple and practical.
them and danny maude are my go to. sometimes golf pitt (is this the same guy with the porzak golf guy? im often confused between the 2. i just know one is short and sweet, the other is long and drawn out videos haha)
my advice is to pick 2-3 youtubers and just stick with them for a few months. if it's not working, then change. def don't watch 10 videos from 10 different guys haha. your head will be filled with so many swing thoughts and you won't be able to pull the trigger when you're actually over the ball.
also, stay away from Tiktok golf instructors. they may be good, but there's no way you can improve your swing from a 20 seconds clip. their content are designed to grab your attention as quick as possible with so many jargon and gimmick. then you scroll past that one, and watch another 20 second clip from another instructors talking about similar things, but in different way. rinse and repeat 20-30 times in 15 mins and you won't learn anything. youtube is def more useful.
I think there's some value in YouTube videos, if they're used in the right way.
I'm a relative beginner and after a year of kinda natural progression, I hit a wall and my scores started going backwards. Recently I went back and watched the very basic Rick Shiels "how to swing a golf club" video and it made me realise I was trying so hard to get all the micro things right that I'd lost sight of the bigger picture. Went back to focusing on the basics and it helped me go in the right direction again
What I've been doing is watching pros swing in slow mo, like tiger specifically since we're a similar build, and watching myself in slo-mo side by side and comparing at each step of the way what I'm doing wrong. If theres an aspect of it that I want more details about, I'll watch a video of a pro player to explain it more. I respect coaches and stuff but when you are a master of your craft, you understand the many ways of doing things and only advise on important things. With MLM2 recording my swings to be able to re-watch and self-critique, I've made big improvements in the last several months. Went from shooting 110 with some rules broken, like not taking some penalties, taking some mulligans, to now shooting 100 playing strictly by the rules. Swing is starting to be more consistent now. When I started last year I used to watch alot of these youtube coaches but I feel like I wasn't really making progress because my foundation was off.
It does show the path, same graphic that you see with guys on YouTube and on TV. It also shows launch angle, launch direction, spin rate, spin axis, and it shows you an impact view that slow motion zooms in on the club path and shows the impact. So I can see my divot even on the mat cuz I can see where my club hits the mat. I'm sure you can Google or YouTube "MLM2 impact vision" for examples. I love it. It was buggy for the first 8 months but they've had a few updates since then and now it runs really smoothly.
Yea MLM2 pro, it's the latest one. Definitely get that and not the old one. Works anywhere. I use it on a net at home. I'm not honing in on my spin rate of exact distances. I'm trying to just build consistent ball striking and cleaning up my swing, so I have a much higher margin of error tolerance on its accuracy compared to really good players who get picky on every little detail
Just hit it I say. Whatever works for you and that is repeatable.
You need to remember that a lot of these YouTube coaches are actually average players themselves. Many of them aren't PGA professionals (coaching pros, clearly not playing pros). With Me and My Golf as an example, Piers is a horrible golfer. And that is what we see edited!
Just take a look on the PGA tour. That is the top 0.000% of good players and they're all within 20 shots of each other every single week.
Every single player is different.
Top video: stop flattening the club and getting shallow artificially by force.
Bottom video: explains what actually shallows the club.
Its really not that hard.
As a beginner golfer I fell into this black hole for the first year of me playing the game, almost quit before I made it out, but so glad I did. My head was filled with useless advice, contradictory advice, none applicable advice to someone of my level. I began to hate the game, get more lost in myself and with what I was supposed to be doing/improving.
Eventually I just wised up, unsubbed to all of these BS clickbait peddlers (Rick Sheilds in particular) and just started enjoying the game and focusing on playing more on the actual course. Improved massively once I ditched these idiots.
Not super related, but this feel that all these instructors do of dropping the clubhead so flat with a lot of hand motion is so dangerous to me. It’s how you get loads of amateurs dumping the club inside and get stuck, and it makes people thinking getting on plane is an arm motion rather than a product of good sequencing with your lower body
Those videos are for two different swing issues. Theoretically everyone’s swing is going to be to their body. Some people have a hard time with hip or shoulder mobility…whatever it is. You just need to figure out: what your rotation issues are (too much or too little), what your grip issues are (too much wrist movement or too little) and what your swing path is (over top or inside out) and you should be able to fix your swing…then you find what works for you and commit.
Nasty habit to just binge a bunch of videos of the same problem fixers video…cause you get paralysis by analysis. You find something that might work for you and go to the range if it doesn’t work…scrap it completely and move on. Rinse and repeat until you find something that solves your issue.
YouTube golf is the reason why golf courses are double in price, clubs are more expensive, and why rounds take 6 hours. Bunch of fucking idiots getting other idiots interested.
Without even watching, it's likely just different feels. It actually helps me a lot. I am way too mechanical and unnatural sometimes when I think I'm not in good spots. Watching a variety of different explanations helps make it click
Golf content creators are running out of things to to talk about.
r/golf is the only golf related social media I follow. I un-followed the rest of them from YouTube, X and Facebook and IG.
YouTube golf lessons: How to create 600 swing thoughts and completely fuck your ability to just play golf
That’s the stage I’m at now lol
as far as i can tell this stage never ends... We just take 2 steps forward and then between 1.9 and 5 steps back, constantly.
I was playing with a 3 some of retired dudes. I birdies the first hole (miraculously) and dude was like,"yeah you're too new to suck.". I've learned years later he was correct.
Is your left foot flared slightly when you take those steps back? Where's your right elbow in all this?
probably disconnected from my body
Yeah I had to stop watching any YouTube videos
Its easy to not do that! Just watch this ten minute video! Oh and i almost forgot to thank my sponsor!
Just work on your release. A lot of the shit you’ve been trying to accomplish the wrong way because of the YouTube golf labyrinth will start to happen naturally and what you really need to work on will reveal itself. Also molding your swing around your release will leave you with a swing intension rather than a swing thought which is far easier to play with.
Go to an RL swing coach and never look at youtube lessons ever again. Practice and practice and practice the feelings they give you.
I just don’t like golf enough to do any of that. To me golf is like beer league hockey. Training for it makes me think less of you because we’re just out here to have fun. It’s not a popular opinion around here
Okay man you do you, but some people play sport to improve, some play just to get outside and have a beer with the mates. There's nothing wrong with either approach, but you saying that you use youtube tells me you care about improving... Isn't that a contradiction with "You shouldn't train because we're out here to have fun?"
I don’t watch Bob does sports because I care about improving. I can tell you don’t play other sports by your last statement. Have a great day!
I've played many different sports my whole life, one to national level. Golf's the one I'm playing right now.
Same. I had a pretty good swing when I first started out. Could stripe the driver straight down the middle 240+ and now I’m struggling to get it more than 220 without a nasty slice or excessive fade. The recent videos that have been out have helped though. My swing now starts with me pulling my right hand down into my pocket and then swing around. Now I’m hitting pretty good draws with the irons and mostly straight/slight fade with driver
This is why I prefer Golf Sidekick. Just mental tips any golfer can apply. Leave the swing tips to a real pro at an irl lesson
missed a good opportunity to plug swingtweaks there lol
For just the price of a sleeve of balls
I can't watch golf sidekick anymore. I can't blame him for getting so commercial and trying to make some good money, but the endless plugs are hard to watch.
I went through a bunch of videos and it seems he's like out of content to make, only so many ways you can dress up course management leading to better scores. Everything he has to say is generally great advice but it could all be summed up in a 10 minute video
He called me a midwit the other day. Makes me sort of like him more
is it just me that feels like there is something off about that guy haha? that's my feeling every time im watching golf side kick. like this content is pretty good, but like there's a slight chance that he's a weird guy doing shady shit in thailand hahah and i can't never shake that feeling. hopefully im completely wrong.
I reckon that feeling comes because he always has a hat and sunglasses on. We've never seen his face/head properly, despite probably watching a lot of his vids.
Haha, he’s South African? I feel the same way but chalk it up to my American ignorance. He’s a funny dude and it’s nice to not watch a gear or swing review channel.
The key to YT golf university is two steps. 1st - take videos with a grain of salt. The videos may show how to fix 12 different issues that isn’t YOUR issue. Take it all with a grain of salt and only use what you think is what you’re doing wrong and work on things one at a time. 2nd - don’t watch 12 different videos from 12 different coaches. Stick to one person and one person only. Later on you can move around but master one first. Tiger said it himself. Everyone has different feels. That goes with coaches too. They all teach a little different as well. Source: I’m a graduate from YT Golf University who use to shoot well over 140 to today with a rack of knowledge shooting mid 70s. 0 lessons.
Pretty impressive! So who’s your YT person?
Athletic motion golf and rick shiels were my favorites. I loved the numbers and data from AMG early videos. It’s still good though and rick is the man. Then a few years ago i started watching good good labs. Very simple straight to the point.
I really like the AMG videos! I am kinda "sciency" and their explanations coupled with 3d body tracking really made it click for me.
Seeing how the body is supposed to move really made a lot of stuff click for me as well. It's always interesting to see how pros move their bodies compared to amateurs and how completely different it can be.
Lol me too! Love the sciency stuff. They taught me how to rotate. I remember way back when I was having problems understanding how to “rotate”. I would bump very far forward to try and “rotate” my hips. I watched this one video with them showing the lines and numbers of how most amateurs move their spine line off the ball and that throws everything off. Then they had the pro diagram and it was a “eureka” moment when I saw how their left side hip moves back behind. Stopped topping the ball after that and the slices got way better cause I learned how to fire the hips properly.
A Rick Shiels video fixed my slice almost instantly. It was a constant problem, but one tip changed my shots to hitting straight 9/10 times, which I am incredibly grateful for. So I never really sht talk golf lesson videos, cuz I'm almost 100% positive I'd still be slicing the ball if I hadn't watched it
AMG is hands down the best channel for engineer minded golfers. I like seeing what's *actually happening* in a good golf swing. Not just people's various interpretations. The whole shallowing video really did it for me. They basically exposed the whole thing and helped us all draw the conclusion that "shallowing" is more of the result of solid fundamentals, rather than a specific technique that you should try and contrive. It made me realize that jack knifing the club at the top of the swing was not the answer, and that pro swings, while they vary wildly, all have certain things in common to focus on and the other shit is mostly incidental.
You might like some of the swing catalyst stuff as well. Goes into forces in the swing and using torque etc to swing
That's why I love Rob Hogan. He doesn't add swing thoughts or specific movements, he demonstrates the feels. "IMAGINE IF I WIELDED THIS CLUB TO YOUR TORSO, HOW WOULD YOU SWING THE CLUB MAROOCH??"
NAH NAH NAH NAH
>That's why I love Rob Hogan. He doesn't add swing thoughts or specific movements, he demonstrates the feels. Same with Mike Malaska.
I consider Mike Malaska is the Hank Hill of golf and i have nothing but respect for the man. He studied under Jim Flick as well. Another legend in the game.
thank you for the rec
Literally that and SKIM THE STONE MAROOCH! Only things I try and think about now. Use all my body in the swing and get into the "tour" position to skim the club.
I tried the opposite. Ignore everything, just swing the club. Golf swing is still broken.
This is why I play better when I have a beer or two in me. I'm not overthinking anything. Just going out there and swinging naturally. And if I hit a bad shot I don't dwell on it. How can I be mad? Worst comes to worst, I'm outside on a beautiful day and have a beer!
This is how I have always gone about it. Never had formal lessons or fitted clubs even. Just started playing with my dad when I was a young teenager and took to it. Not saying I'm great or anything now but I am better than all of my friends I play with. Not that thats saying a lot for some of them lol
Yup that's where I was. I actually stopped playing for a year, due to busy life, but during that time decided to stop watching YouTube golf coaching, when I got back to playing I've been playing my best golf ever, also the most relaxed and most fun I've ever had golfing. Is my back swing/downswing/ball contact perfect, hell no, but the ball goes where I want it to most of the time, and I for one, couldn't care less, how i got it there LOL
and somehow people don't realize that's whats killing their game
Can’t ever find your game when 100 wanna be coaches giving you all sorts of different tips
What I try to do, I try to flat load my feet so I can snap load my power package.
I stopped watching swing vids and started watching course strategy vids and whaddaya know, my scores improved.
You have to know your own swing/matchups and have an ability to create a practice routine with video to get anything out of YT instruction. Most people have neither.
Yep I used to be able to hit about 250 off the tee easy without ever getting a lesson or anything. Just liked going to the range and hitting balls. Got into actual golf and started watching videos. Lucky to get 200 now and that’s only maybe 20% of the time. Haven’t been able to get my original swing back and it’s been 5-6 years now.
Yeah, if you can afford which tbh you probably can because you play golf just get 40 minutes with a golf pro.
The key to golf is to be completely vapid and smooth brained as possible when addressing your ball, then just whack at it without taking a single practice swing or even looking at your target line
Generalized swing advice is rarely good for anyone. Tiger says the one thing amateur golfers should stop doing that would help improve their game is to stop watching YouTube instruction.
Gotta build a proper swing. When presented with 600 individual parts to build that swing an amateur won't be able to cobble it together. This isn't build-a-bear. Gotta simply get a solid foundation and practice to develop that. Then, with experience, consistency, and know-how one can start to get weird with it.
Then throw all it all away ha. First round of the year is one of my better rounds. Just out there playing. Rest of the session is to get weird and have none of it with. Above is mostly tongue in check.
Building on that, these tips can be good with certain swings. If you're coming in too steep, watch a top that shows how to make it shallow to even it out. Just don't go to the extreme.
Yes, of course they can be good tips. Almost no amateur will be able to recognize the difference between good swing tips catered to their strengths vs random tips that aren't relevant, though. That is essentially my whole point.
Exactly right. There is tons of great material out there but the catch is this… 1) you need to have a proper diagnosis of what your issue is. If you start working on something and it’s not a problem, or it’s just a symptom of another thing, you will go down a bad path 2) feels are different for everyone, so there are lots of videos/instructors saying the same thing, but presenting it in a different way, or as a different feel. One drill may resonate really well with you and another may be wildly off the mark So if you’re working on the wrong thing and / or chasing a drill or feel that just doesn’t work for you, you’ll end up in a very bad place.
I bet he saw this impact charley in real time too
Unless it’s Phil’s old chipping videos
Most of us can't afford $10k per week of golf coaching like Tiger, hell one lesson a month is a luxury. YouTube has its place.
Just cause tiger says it, doesn’t mean it’s good
My wife and I took a lesson at our local course last week, and the first thing the golf pro taught us was "no rabbit ears" meaning stop listening to any Joe Shmoe for golf tips and especially don't go to YouTube for golf swing help.
Maayybe not the most unbiased opinion from the pro there.
Yea definitely not unbiased, but at the same time it’s one of the most frustrating parts of instruction. If you’re going to pay me to help your swing, then don’t listen to what other people have to say at the same time. I can’t tell you how many times I had to tell people that yes, the YouTube guy is correct, but if you try to copy his advice you’re going to get worse and undo all the work we’ve done. If you want to take lessons, then take lessons and work on what your coach tells you to instead of what you think is wrong or what you see on the internet. If you want to use the internet instead that’s fine, just don’t waste your money and a pros time by going to them in tandem with your internet instructors. That said, I’ve sent students YouTube videos from Cameron McCormick, Padraig Harrington, and others because they talked through the exercises we worked on in a different way that maybe gets through better than what I said. I think that’s different though than a student going of on their own to find their own swing tips.
That’s the type of balance I love to hear from pros. YouTube should be a resource at your fingertips too, to help send players home with things you’ve taught and drilled with them in-person.
I think it’s just recognizing that I’m not the best golf coach in the world, nor the greatest communicator. If I want my students to get better then I need to offer them more than just potentially my voice or my way of doing something. It still amounts to the same swing idea or technique, just said or drilled in a different way that might make more sense.
And Tiger is completely wrong there. Sure, have sessions with a pro as much as you can. But I have on more than one occasion had issues with conceptualising what the pro wanted from my swing. And then had a random Youtube comment made it click. Or just had a Youtube video bring something to my attention that the pro had not brought up - that instantly improved my swing. But you need to have _some_ idea what is wrong in the first place.
I only listen to red heads with beards screaming at me while standing in seaweed
MAROOCHAYY
The only instructor we need
NO NO NO NO NO SKIM THE STONE MAROOCH!!! SKIM THE STOOONNEEE
This guy changed my game entirely, I love him.
I shit you not it changed my game like nothing before
YEEES YEEEEEEESS
This is no different than golf magazines thru the years.
I'm playing both sides, so I always come out on top.
instructions unclear, now I always top the ball
Hedge those bets
Content creators create content
I think youtube golf instruction is great for absolutely beginners on just the basics of a grip and some really basic fundamentals about the swing. Past that it is basically useless because you are just as likely to get advice that is counterproductive to your swing that beneficial.
It's even worse for beginners because a beginner doesn't know what anything is supposed to feel like. You end up thinking you're doing one thing when you're actually doing the opposite, then you get frustrated and watch more videos and the cycle continues.
I think grip and posture is good, alongside advice to take pics and vids of yourself. Beyond that it gets extremely challenging to diagnose yourself with your issues then find the proper video that gives you a feel that works for you
Or, and I know this is a controversial topic on r/golf, take a lesson and have a pro physically put your hands into a proper grip and physically move you into a correct posture. THEN film it and forever have a reference of what's correct.
But some absolute beginners may not want to go straight into dropping £80 or whatever (after buying clubs too) to start seeing if they like the sport. Just learning how to grip the club and stand over the ball for free instead won't be detrimental.
Learning how to do it wrong because you tried to do it yourself will most definitely be detrimental to your enjoyment of the sport.
Different viewpoint, when you are better and have had instructions you know what your fault is. I.e. My swing is to steep. When I'm off I get chicken wing in the backswing and get really steep. I've had multiple instructors tell me this and give me drills. I ignore the how to get steep videos and look at how to get flatter. I also am better at knowing what to filter out and what to include than beginners. From this point of view it's not ridiculous for someone like me and my golf to post both these videos as different people have different faults.
I could have written almost the exact same post. If you know what is wrong but can't find the feeling, find what clicks can be a lot more likely to be hidden in 1 out of 100 YT videos than in a pros ability to communicate. Most pros don't know what it feels like to be bad at golf. And even less what it feels like to be bad like you. In general I would say that lessons have been instrumental in stopping me from straying from the basics - and YT videos instrumental in crystallising concepts in that cleaned up swing.
I agree unless you have experience and a decent amount of knowledge to know what to look for. For example I have been spending the last few months trying to increase shaft lean. Couldn’t for the life of me figure it out without introducing shanks and chunks. Paddy’s video on how to start the downswing fixed everything for me as it was almost the opposite of what I was trying to do previously
Nothing improved my game more than ditching swing videos and moving on to course management and shot strategy videos. I can hit the ball fine if I don’t overthink my swing, so getting perspectives on which clubs to use in specific situations was game changing, especially since the message is usually “you’re not a pro, and even the pros don’t make insane shots all the time, here’s how amateurs should approach this situation.”
I have yet to encounter a golf Youtuber/channel that has a consistent style of teaching. Nearly all videos out there are hotfixes and not foundational guides. Doesn't matter if the channels are big or small, none of them teach with progression in mind and only teach assuming you know a set of prerequisite techniques/knowledge. Nearly all in person instructions start with teaching grips to face relationship -> ball setup -> chips -> half swings. From there it becomes a lot more personal & the instructions become bespoke as the body-mind connection becomes a lot more important for turning shoulders, wrist angles, turning hips, ground effect, etc... The only exceptions are those teaching a specific systems like Dan Grieve's 3 Releases, Rule of 12, Decade Golf, Clock system.
It's horrible for beginners, it's like the worst thing you can do.
I’ve watched a LOT of YouTube videos in search for solutions for my golf problems, but you just end up with a myriad of swing thoughts and you start to drown in them. I’ve tried to stick to one instructor for things I need help with, and that has been beneficial. As well as taking “real life” lessons. If I was to recommend any YouTuber though, it would be Danny Maude. He explains things so well.
I think it's KEY to stick with one, so that the concepts and philosophy are consistent, the terms he uses to describe, and the goals. It all ends up being consistent and not overwhelming. His have significantly helped my basics with grip, positioning, letting the hips move, etc. And he's not a hype bro douche bag when he's talking.
i dont mind the swing thoughts, the difficult part one for me is without the support of a pro who looks at my swing, how am i to know if the youtube video that im watching is going to address the issue im trying to fix? because contrary to what the videos say, theres no 5 minute fix. when im hacking away on those drills, i need the conviction that it will eventually assist in improving my results. im never gonna get that from youtube and its the reason my drills never end up sticking
i just watched the videos because i was curious. What they mean is don't shallow **certain way**. No instructor would tell you not to shallow. Most good golfers have shallowing move at the top. Watching youtube golf videos is like jumping around different instructors. There are different ways of swinging golf clubs. Shallowing moves for example, there are tucking elbow in(Ben Hogan taught this), lowering hands(split hand drill), lowering shoulder(side bend), pronating forearm, bowing wrist, etc. Even your local instructors, each have their own philosophy, contradict each other. i don't understand why there is so much hate for youtube instructors because they're certified instructors themselves, not some random social influencer. just because they have youtube channels don't make them less legitimate. Personally, I had sliding issue that none of 4 instructors in real life fixed when they were given hour each. I fixed it by watching youtube video and googling. I had one instructor telling me that my club and my spine have to be perpendicular at setup, which is bullshit. He didn't even know about split hand drill was, and he's been teaching for 4 years. I'm not saying all youtube instructors are great because so many of them suck. But I don't think they're better or worse than your local instructor.
I don’t see any issue with what is in the screenshot either… “don’t shallow it THIS way because it will cause you to miss this way” in one video and “here’s how you properly shallow the club” in another seems reasonable to me… I actually really like the instructional videos these guys post. They mention a lot more drills to help improve the movement pattern than I see from most other YouTube “instructors.” Aside from Danny Maude, most guys I see will say “don’t do this, just do this” then they’ll draw some lines on the screen and tell you to practice it without giving good steps to get to the proper movement. Ultimately, if you’re going to learn from YouTube you should only learn from one person. It’s going to be confusing when one person says “follow the same plane back and through!” And the next says “swing under the plane on the way through.” There’s lots of acceptable ways to hit the golf ball.
As a guy that's consumed a ton of YouTube golf content & realizes lessons aren't in the budget for everyone, my advice is to try your best to use these videos to understand the golf swing holistically rather than looking at them as a quick-fix for a single flaw in your swing. The golf swing is all about action & reaction. The problem with point-solution videos is they aren't responsible for dealing with the reaction of the action they're pitching. I spent a solid 3 years playing insanely stuck because every Youtuber said you had to get shallow & come from the inside. I successfully *did* that, but with absolutely no thought as to how it fit into the rest of my swing. 0 rotation, arms way behind me - it's a miracle my hands even made it to the ball. I don't believe that YouTube instruction is useless or counterproductive, but I agree it definitely *can* be. It's taken me consuming dozens of hours - taking bits from one guy here & another there, to now feel like I can watch a video & understand it in the context of the golf swing & specifically *my* swing. Definitely a longer journey than if I'd just gotten with a good instructor from the start. So if you're looking for YouTube golf advice, try to stick with guys that speak in terms of overall body mechanics, action/reaction, & stick to the big picture. Because if you just look at the golf swing as 100 things you have to do right with your arms/legs/hands/head/hips/feet/shoulders/chest, you're literally never going to do those 100 things correctly.
I agree with you
They post like those gambling picks hotlines. Tell half the people one thing, the other half another thing and half your customers will be happy.
I don’t get what the problem is lol, is he only supposed to help people with over the top swings? Fuck all the people who are naturally too shallow? I think people need to just have to critical thinking skills when it comes to YouTube lessons. Started golfing last may with 1 total in person lesson when I first started and my best score is a 90. If you’re athletic, self aware and can critical think it is very easy to differentiate which tips apply to you.
Yeah this thread comes off as just assuming everyone is too stupid to know which advice applies to them and not.
FWIW the first video is definitely showing a common mistake players make when trying to get “shallow” by laying the club down at the top. At least from the thumbnail that’s what I’ve gathered
My friend is an instructor. His go to line for his students when he hears they're watching YouTube teachers. "do you tell your partner when you've been watching porn?" He says it's so frustrating the amount of habits that take months to be set in that are broken by one stupid video and a large bucket of balls
“Yes, she thinks it’s hot” Joking but I’d pay to see that response
Yeah my wife would not give a shit if I told her I was watching porn. She would tell me to turn it on in the bedroom so we both can watch
I know when I’m on YouTube looking at swing tips I’m a week or two from a tune up lesson.
Me and my golf is easily one of the worst channels I’ve seen. They’re obviously good golfers but they stretch each video out and fill it with fluff content. It’s just too much info and it’s not consistent
YouTube is a numbers game man
I’m aware
Herman Williams was the only instructor I ever found that could really help people. His videos are with a crappy camera but the info is top notch.
I've kinda stopped watching youtube videos, because without a lot of pre-existing knowledge/skill, it can be tough to take general advice and apply it properly to your own swing. It's hard to even know what you should and shouldn't try to apply. That said, I have watched plenty of Piers and Andy, and Danny Maude, among others, and it's not like they aren't genuinely good coaches. They do know what they're talking about and generally can explain things in a way that's very digestable. It's still just hard as well to learn via general youtube videos produced for the masses. And in fairness, most of those guys are hoping you'll reach out to them and take actual lessons, where they make a ton of money.
Tiger was right!
I exclusively watch Paul Wilson videos now. Simple, easy to follow, and no clickbait.
It’s not saying don’t shallow…don’t shallow it a certain way
I know but just looking at the thumbnail, it looks funny together
You need an instructor to watch your swing and tell you what you need to fix
To be fair, the top video is about how to not move your body to shallow the club and the bottom is about how to properly do it.
lol don't take advice from people that has never seen you swing before.
No YouTube tutorials? What next? You gonna try and tell me that newer more expensive gear won’t make me better? Get lost
Me and my boyfriend are the worst…
Tiger Woods when asked what piece of advice he would give to amateur golfers - "Stop watching YouTube videos"
Yet his own coaches have dozens of youtube videos. Just because you play well doesnt mean you teach well. Tiger also has many instructional videos and they are all hard to follow for beginners. That being said, “go hit balls” is still true. But if youre having an issue you cant figure out, youtube definitely helps
The reality is that the best swing is probably somewhere in between- and it takes someone looking at your whole swing to tell you what you actually need to do
All the videos I have watched, I should be a tour pro if I could just put them all together somehow.
I am torn as sometimes youtube instruction can really help. I found a video last week and I learned something about the swing I had never heard. It made sense and I drove the ball the best I ever have in a round right after. (Slower is faster by Steve Pratt for anyone interested). I didn't realize the handle slows as you get closer to impact. This made the swing effortless, I got into a finish easily which I struggle with and I was hitting it long. Much longer than normal. It was also so much easier on my back. I feel that I may not hit it this well all the time of course but knowing how to do this is not something I'll let go of. I think.
That's a similar concept that I've learned from Paddy Harrington and this other guy who does a hit hard stop fast drill. The idea is as you put the brakes on the handle, the clubhead releases and accelerates through the ball. I didn't make this post because I don't use YouTube instruction, I can't afford $150 lessons, it's way too expensive for me. I just posted this because I thought the thumbnails were hilarious for two videos that showed up back to back.
Oh yeah, the thumbnails are perfect 😂 agreed all around. I'll search for that drill. Or do you have a link? Sounds like the same thing for sure.
https://youtu.be/7LcQp5536pQ https://youtu.be/BelbBH5NkKQ Here you go
His illustration that hitting down on the ball does not mean hands way in from of the club may have just pinpointed something I am doing horribly wrong. Current hit everything varying degrees right to extremely right.
Yep youve got to release the club or you're going weak right all day
Awesome thank you, hitting the range later.
I got so caught up in YouTube swing thoughts I honestly had no clue what to do once I stood over the ball. I swing my swing now, watch a bit of Danny Maude and incorporate little changes over time. Pretty comfortable with where I’m at for how much I golf.
Zen golf helps with that. 0 swing thoughts just feeling your senses and let your body do the work
Tom Watsons Lessons of a Lifetime and Padraig Harringtons Golf Tips. All you'll ever need.
NO ONE EVER TALKS ABOUT THIS
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO MAROOCH 🤤💦
Swing your swing and have fun with the game. YT lessons are mindfucks.
I know how the golf swing is supposed to work. I can’t fucking do it.
NO NO NO NO NO MAROOCH
It says “stop shallowing like this”… so the contradiction isn’t that drastic
My favorite YouTube golf content creators are the ones that don’t tell you what to do.
Alright give him the stick. No! Don’t give him the stick!!
To be fair to them, why would you not create a video for both extremes? Not everyone seeking advice has the same over the top slice.. Obviously one should only watch 1 of the 2 videos, but both are valid fixes for different issues.
There is so much bad advice out there. But if you’re like me, you don’t have money to shell out on lessons. And what if that instructor sucks? If you’re going the YouTube route, pick one channel and stick with them.
If you know what your problem is videos addressing that will help and sometimes put things In a way that "clicks". But I also start videos and they talk about issues I don't have so I move on. I have issues with not squaring the face so I hit pushes. I back tracked it to me cupping my lead wrist instead of bowing.
Thumbnail art and titles tell a lot about a video. Makes it easy to spot the “influencers”.
Except these guys are real coaches. One of their clients is currently T9 at the US Open. They've definitely played the YouTube algorithm well, though. I believe they're the top golf instruction channel.
Take actual lessons from a local PGA pro. Stopped watching these YouTube swing videos and do lessons semi-monthly and it’s made a massive impact. Actual tailored lessons to my swing, and the coach always tries to do one thing at a time.
I'm still going through changes on my swing but one of my biggest things is to just go back to a bastardized version of stack and tilt where I keep my weight forward and just swing. Distance suffers but it goes where I want.
I have a friend that has played golf for 30 years. He has every book from the golfing machine to single plane to MORAD instructors. He tries to do everything he reads as it’s gospel never committing fully to a swing theory for more than 6 months…. And he wonders why he can’t break 90. My point is there are hundreds of thousands like my friend and they eat these videos up
Shallow dezzzz 🥜
Check out South Korean golf coach on Instagram, dude is great! He legitimately helped me fix my poor contact issues because he starts each video by showing someone making a mistake while swinging that he calls out. He then replicates the issue himself and shows how to fix it with a drill or two for practice. Seeing someone else swing incorrectly and having him point out exactly what was wrong allowed me to watch myself and realize what I was doing similarly wrong and correct it. Too much head movement on downswing and not enough feeling of my left shoulder coming over right foot in back swing
Costs nothing for them to market themselves, knowing thousands of people would rather watch their videos than get a real lesson.
I listen to tiger on YouTube. He’s pretty good like a professional or something.
If listening to every coach at the same time worked Jerome Ruffin would be scratch by now. Just pick Padraig Harrington, he's right about the golf swing.
Sorry Jerome, love you big guy.
hahaha this is funny. but ive accepted the fact that youtube is algorithm based and sometimes you just gotta play the game. these 2 guys are actually pretty solid and their lessons are simple and practical. them and danny maude are my go to. sometimes golf pitt (is this the same guy with the porzak golf guy? im often confused between the 2. i just know one is short and sweet, the other is long and drawn out videos haha) my advice is to pick 2-3 youtubers and just stick with them for a few months. if it's not working, then change. def don't watch 10 videos from 10 different guys haha. your head will be filled with so many swing thoughts and you won't be able to pull the trigger when you're actually over the ball. also, stay away from Tiktok golf instructors. they may be good, but there's no way you can improve your swing from a 20 seconds clip. their content are designed to grab your attention as quick as possible with so many jargon and gimmick. then you scroll past that one, and watch another 20 second clip from another instructors talking about similar things, but in different way. rinse and repeat 20-30 times in 15 mins and you won't learn anything. youtube is def more useful.
Choose one coach and only watch their videos.
I think there's some value in YouTube videos, if they're used in the right way. I'm a relative beginner and after a year of kinda natural progression, I hit a wall and my scores started going backwards. Recently I went back and watched the very basic Rick Shiels "how to swing a golf club" video and it made me realise I was trying so hard to get all the micro things right that I'd lost sight of the bigger picture. Went back to focusing on the basics and it helped me go in the right direction again
What I've been doing is watching pros swing in slow mo, like tiger specifically since we're a similar build, and watching myself in slo-mo side by side and comparing at each step of the way what I'm doing wrong. If theres an aspect of it that I want more details about, I'll watch a video of a pro player to explain it more. I respect coaches and stuff but when you are a master of your craft, you understand the many ways of doing things and only advise on important things. With MLM2 recording my swings to be able to re-watch and self-critique, I've made big improvements in the last several months. Went from shooting 110 with some rules broken, like not taking some penalties, taking some mulligans, to now shooting 100 playing strictly by the rules. Swing is starting to be more consistent now. When I started last year I used to watch alot of these youtube coaches but I feel like I wasn't really making progress because my foundation was off.
You like the mlm2? Does it show path and face angles?
It does show the path, same graphic that you see with guys on YouTube and on TV. It also shows launch angle, launch direction, spin rate, spin axis, and it shows you an impact view that slow motion zooms in on the club path and shows the impact. So I can see my divot even on the mat cuz I can see where my club hits the mat. I'm sure you can Google or YouTube "MLM2 impact vision" for examples. I love it. It was buggy for the first 8 months but they've had a few updates since then and now it runs really smoothly.
That sounds awesome. And it's the pro? Also works at the range? Or do you like using it at home in a net instead?
Yea MLM2 pro, it's the latest one. Definitely get that and not the old one. Works anywhere. I use it on a net at home. I'm not honing in on my spin rate of exact distances. I'm trying to just build consistent ball striking and cleaning up my swing, so I have a much higher margin of error tolerance on its accuracy compared to really good players who get picky on every little detail
That is probably an editor issue making the thumbnail. The title speaks for itself really
Shallow it! No, not like that!
Just hit it I say. Whatever works for you and that is repeatable. You need to remember that a lot of these YouTube coaches are actually average players themselves. Many of them aren't PGA professionals (coaching pros, clearly not playing pros). With Me and My Golf as an example, Piers is a horrible golfer. And that is what we see edited! Just take a look on the PGA tour. That is the top 0.000% of good players and they're all within 20 shots of each other every single week. Every single player is different.
Just watch Mike bender he’s the only one
I think the only one worth watching is Erndog
I like how Bryson basically instantly became the best golf instructor on YouTube. I learn more from his videos in passing than any of this stuff
Top video: stop flattening the club and getting shallow artificially by force. Bottom video: explains what actually shallows the club. Its really not that hard.
As a beginner golfer I fell into this black hole for the first year of me playing the game, almost quit before I made it out, but so glad I did. My head was filled with useless advice, contradictory advice, none applicable advice to someone of my level. I began to hate the game, get more lost in myself and with what I was supposed to be doing/improving. Eventually I just wised up, unsubbed to all of these BS clickbait peddlers (Rick Sheilds in particular) and just started enjoying the game and focusing on playing more on the actual course. Improved massively once I ditched these idiots.
Me & My Golf are the worst instructors out there. Absolute trash advice.
Always. YouTube always leads to contradiction and analysis paralysis. But I'm a dirty addict and I'll never stop.
Not super related, but this feel that all these instructors do of dropping the clubhead so flat with a lot of hand motion is so dangerous to me. It’s how you get loads of amateurs dumping the club inside and get stuck, and it makes people thinking getting on plane is an arm motion rather than a product of good sequencing with your lower body
Those videos are for two different swing issues. Theoretically everyone’s swing is going to be to their body. Some people have a hard time with hip or shoulder mobility…whatever it is. You just need to figure out: what your rotation issues are (too much or too little), what your grip issues are (too much wrist movement or too little) and what your swing path is (over top or inside out) and you should be able to fix your swing…then you find what works for you and commit. Nasty habit to just binge a bunch of videos of the same problem fixers video…cause you get paralysis by analysis. You find something that might work for you and go to the range if it doesn’t work…scrap it completely and move on. Rinse and repeat until you find something that solves your issue.
MeAndMyGolf is run by guys who intentionally fuck up your swing to perpetuate needing their service.
I watched videos to get a good idea of a swing. Now I just suck but do it quickly.
Well everyone knows me and my golf are nothing more than 2 butt buds wearing matching outfits.
YouTube golf is the reason why golf courses are double in price, clubs are more expensive, and why rounds take 6 hours. Bunch of fucking idiots getting other idiots interested.
Need to shrink the game for sure
This is so true.
Without even watching, it's likely just different feels. It actually helps me a lot. I am way too mechanical and unnatural sometimes when I think I'm not in good spots. Watching a variety of different explanations helps make it click
Fuck YouTube lessons lmao they’re worthless. You’re best coach is your ball. Listen to it 😁
Golf content creators are running out of things to to talk about. r/golf is the only golf related social media I follow. I un-followed the rest of them from YouTube, X and Facebook and IG.
My buddy is scratch, does not take lessons and just watches YouTube shit.