Toe Golf Shot Drill 4: Face tape (Video) - by Pete Styles
Toe Golf Shot Drill 4: Face tape (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the most important thing that you can ever do when you're practicing particularly if you're not striking the ball very well is understand where you are hitting the golf ball from and this is where face tape can come into the equation. Now, face tape is something that I use nearly every single lesson I ever teach and certainly people who are club fitting will always use face tape to work out where the ball is impacting. And that’s probably why you're going to get your face tape from. Some people sell it over the internet but most golf shops have a lot of roll of face tape just lying around. Then if you're friendly with the guys there, they might just lend you a couple of pieces that you can stick on the club face. Alternatively, you can just use parcel tape or masking tape, something that sticks on the face will show where you hit the ball from and doesn't leave too much residue when you peel the tape off again. And the face tape will mark where you strike it from.

No with the face tape I've got two words here. I've got strike and pattern. And I actually like to use the letters on the words there to work out where people are hitting it from. So, I'll have the customer go ahead and hit quite a few shots and see where that average shot comes from. Now if you are toeing the ball, you're setting up to the ball nicely, you're making your swing. You're hitting it too much from the toe side of the golf club. And I can see a mark here. It has actually gone in behind the ass each right on the very toe of the club there as I intended it to be. I appreciate you probably cannot see that, it’s a white tape but it’s right in the toe edge there. I can see the mark.

Now, once I have identified that that’s my problem, I can now go ahead and embark on trying to move it more to the center, so around the middle of the golf club, pretty much between the E and the P of strike and pattern. The E and the P is the center that I want to hit. So I could set up in my normal way and just try and move that golf club across a little bit with my down swing. So it’s not that I'm moving nearer to it and setting up right in the heel of the golf club. That would be a compensation for your faults rather than a correction for your faults. But I'm going to make my normal swing again. But just try and left the club drift out a little bit more and extend away a little bit more. Rather than getting tense and pulling back unto my heels. And if I can get this one a bit more nicely, it certainly sounds and feels like a better strike of the shot. So when I look down at the face tape, there's a mark here much more towards the center of the golf club , just above the P and the A and the T. So slightly more towards the heel than the center but definitely different from the toe end.

And I can use that. I can use the feeling, the sound but also the feedback the face tape has given me to make sure my strike is as close to the center as possible. So if you're toeing the golf ball, first thing is identify the toe shot, work out how it’s happening, why it’s happening, implement some drills to correct it. Then use the face tape to see how the ball is moving more towards the center and how that sounds and feels better and ultimately the ball will fly better when you're hitting the sweet spots of the gold club.

 2012-11-28

One of the most important thing that you can ever do when you're practicing particularly if you're not striking the ball very well is understand where you are hitting the golf ball from and this is where face tape can come into the equation. Now, face tape is something that I use nearly every single lesson I ever teach and certainly people who are club fitting will always use face tape to work out where the ball is impacting. And that’s probably why you're going to get your face tape from. Some people sell it over the internet but most golf shops have a lot of roll of face tape just lying around. Then if you're friendly with the guys there, they might just lend you a couple of pieces that you can stick on the club face. Alternatively, you can just use parcel tape or masking tape, something that sticks on the face will show where you hit the ball from and doesn't leave too much residue when you peel the tape off again. And the face tape will mark where you strike it from.

No with the face tape I've got two words here. I've got strike and pattern. And I actually like to use the letters on the words there to work out where people are hitting it from. So, I'll have the customer go ahead and hit quite a few shots and see where that average shot comes from. Now if you are toeing the ball, you're setting up to the ball nicely, you're making your swing. You're hitting it too much from the toe side of the golf club. And I can see a mark here. It has actually gone in behind the ass each right on the very toe of the club there as I intended it to be. I appreciate you probably cannot see that, it’s a white tape but it’s right in the toe edge there. I can see the mark.

Now, once I have identified that that’s my problem, I can now go ahead and embark on trying to move it more to the center, so around the middle of the golf club, pretty much between the E and the P of strike and pattern. The E and the P is the center that I want to hit. So I could set up in my normal way and just try and move that golf club across a little bit with my down swing. So it’s not that I'm moving nearer to it and setting up right in the heel of the golf club. That would be a compensation for your faults rather than a correction for your faults. But I'm going to make my normal swing again. But just try and left the club drift out a little bit more and extend away a little bit more. Rather than getting tense and pulling back unto my heels. And if I can get this one a bit more nicely, it certainly sounds and feels like a better strike of the shot. So when I look down at the face tape, there's a mark here much more towards the center of the golf club , just above the P and the A and the T. So slightly more towards the heel than the center but definitely different from the toe end.

And I can use that. I can use the feeling, the sound but also the feedback the face tape has given me to make sure my strike is as close to the center as possible. So if you're toeing the golf ball, first thing is identify the toe shot, work out how it’s happening, why it’s happening, implement some drills to correct it. Then use the face tape to see how the ball is moving more towards the center and how that sounds and feels better and ultimately the ball will fly better when you're hitting the sweet spots of the gold club.