 Right welcome back to the channel and series three of testing the tips where I as an average golfer try out some of the most popular golf tips that are out there in the world of Golf YouTube. I'm going to kick things off with episode one from Alex Elliot-Golf. Now this tip from Alex is hugely popular, it's a master load of views and what I'm going to do today is see if it actually works for me. It involves a driver and it involves how to hit your irons as well and it adopts a technique that lets you understand what part the right arm is going to play within your golf swing. Now this tip from Alex he calls it it's like cheating if you get this bit right and I've used it over the last few rounds of golf and I must admit there is a part of it that has proven to be hugely successful and a part that's not been quite so successful and I'll explain as we go through this video. But we'll start off with driver and if you're like me one of the issues you may have and a lot of golfers have is that certainly when we get to the top of the backswing we have this sort of outward movement. I think it's called casting is a common term that is used and I'll do it quite a lot. My arm and my right arm in particular will separate from the body, I'll move out a little bit and I'll often come across the ball which is where I hit my fade, that club head can be hooded a little bit and I'm sending it closed out to the left as well as being a bad shot within my repertoire and a lot of that is that movement over the top when a lot of coaches will tell you once you get into this position that arm and that elbow in particular sort of drops in and drives through the ball on a much different plane than what I do when I get to the top and move out slightly and hit that fade or pull. Now then how do we change that? Well Alex talks about this position of the right arm like I said within that backswing and with a very simple method what we make sure is that we get it in the right position at the top of the backswing and it pretty much stays there through the full swing and he does that in one very very simple movement. You place your hand out pointing to the sky if you like and also the inner forearm will be pointing in that same direction as well. You address the club with left hand in your normal grip position, lay that palm alongside and what he then asks you to do is turn the palm of your hand inwards but not rotate the arm inwards. So palm of the hand, rotate the hand but leave the forearm pointing upwards if you like towards the sky. Let me explain what that does. So if I've got my hand out turn it inwards keeping my sort of everything else exactly the same but ensuring that my forearm is pointing still upwards. What it then does is this when I swing back I'm in that sort of that position that we want to be on the downswing so it's automatically I'm in that position. That forearm, that bicep rather is not changing. Biceps tucked in forearm is pointing up to the sky and I automatically start to come in at that sort of inside path rather than moving back outside. I've got to point out with these videos. This is my interpretation of what Alex is saying and I will always include the link of Alex's video so you can go and watch his description in case I get that wrong. But for me that's pretty much exactly how he explains it. So I'm going to try and hit one ball and see how we get on on this par 5 so address the ball as normal with my left hand on the club. I've got my alignments in place, palm facing the sky and then I'm going to turn that from my wrist but keep this bit pointing forward, this bit being my forearm and then I get that address position. Now what it also does is it gives me a little bit of a tilt on the shoulders quite automatically and I feel as though I'm in the right position to hit driver. Do you know what that's got and what I would like about it more than anything to be honest with you is the control element that it gives me and I really do feel more compact if you like. I don't know whether that was necessarily a full swing it's the first shot we've hit here this morning it felt a little bit sort of three quarter if you like but I love that control element that it gives me. It concentrates on my arm being tucked in and like I said a major issue for me is casting at the top of the backswing and it really does eradicate that. That's it with driver. I'm going to move down the fairway to where that ball is landed and I'm going to try exactly the same situation with an explanation as to how you play the same shot or the same situation with an iron in hand. So first point to notice we found the fairway and more than happy with that drive and like I said I've played that now for a couple of rounds and really liking off the tee and I've also tried it with fairway wood and hybrids and that adopting that same principle has been really good. With the irons I've found it slightly different and first of all let me explain what Alex talks about as how you put this into the iron swing but with a slight difference. So same principles all the same I won't go through that and prolong this palm up to the sky forearm up to the sky we're in position and we're tucked in. Now one thing you'll notice again with the position I'm in right now is I'm in almost a driver position in terms of the angle of my shoulders so at least that's how I feel I'm sure it looks that way my shoulders are an upward point to that area now that's okay for driver it's okay for the fairway woods but with the irons it's a slightly different blow as you know we're going to put a more descending blow on and what you therefore need to do is sort of stand up a little bit taller when you adopt that position it's not a challenge but you have to make a conscious effort to keep those shoulders a little bit more upright and don't let that right arm dip when you adopt that position. So for me that's something that I mean again I get in a good position I like it when I get there but it's something that I've just got to notice and make sure I stand tall keep them shoulders a little bit more parallel and not look to adopt that thing where we start to sort of dip down that's going to have a real negative impact on an iron shot so we'll see if we can hit I've got seven iron in hand I just want to hit a nice easy seven iron down there adopting this same principle right stand up tall and now what you'll see from that shot is it's just leaked out a little bit to the right in fact quite a bit out to the right and I was a bit behind the ball in terms of strikes we're going to try that whole thing again and see if we can get through the ball a little bit better because I certainly felt as I was held off there but you can see the problems that you have this isn't something you can just pick up straight away and I found it a lot more difficult to adapt into my iron plate as I have into my driver right let's try that again but a little bit more of a positive swing through the impact position that's much better but still got that slight cut to it but much happier with that what's interesting it's a really good strike I feel compact within the swing but definitely if I was going to put that idea and principle into my irons I would without doubt need to practice a little bit more and let's not forget these are tips that you might find a little nugget of information in that helps you go the driving range and solve a problem that you've been struggling with for quite some time and at no point what I have ever suggest that you adopt these principles instead of having a lesson from a full PGA professional because ultimately your swing is very unique but I can't deny the fact that I probably like you look at these tips and gain some nuggets of information I'm able to take in my game when I'm perhaps struggling a little bit and he helps solve a bit of a problem and without doubt for me from the T at least and maybe from the fairway with the fairway woods and hybrids this is a real viable option that could help me play some better golf I'll certainly be sticking with it anyway thanks as ever for watching this is episode one we've got plenty more of these coming this one like I said was from Alex Elliot golf the link to his channel will be in the description below make sure you go and check him out and subscribe to his channel and if you want to see more from me then make sure you do exactly the same subscribe hit that notification bell and I will see you very soon for episode two and let me know you got on with this one right see you tomorrow night