YouTube Golf

[Richard Cartwright PGA]

Who’s your favourite YouTube Golf coach?

Or do you completely avoid YouTube coaching like the plague?

 

[Triple_Putt]

I avoid coaching like the plague, I have enough swing issues without trying the latest and greatest off YouTube. I do however watch some of the funny golfing challenges and such by BobDoesSports and similar. Just got a good laugh while I eat my breakfast 

Edited June 30 by Triple_Putt

[cnosil]

Dan Grieve,  Parker MacLaughlin, and James Ridyard.

Edited July 2 by cnosil

[RickyBobby_PR]

Chris Ryan does a great job of breaking the swing down and teaching it properly.

Porzak has good content 

[cksurfdude]

Generally avoid it *unless* I get a specific recommendation for a specific issue from someone I know and consider to be a reliable source (such as the people who've responded above).

[Hosel_Rockets]

I really like Mark Crossfield and Danny Maude, I think they both break things down and give simple, realistic advice.

Edited July 1 by Hosel_Rockets

[russtopherb]

For me, YouTube golf is 98% entertainment vs instruction. I like Danny Maude, Monte Scheinblum doesn't do much YT anymore but he's been one of my preferred instructors for ages.

If I'm watching golf stuff on YT, it's usually Not A Scratch Golfer or something like that. 

[Nickygolf]

I'm loving how popular youtube golf has become. I have some non-golf friends that watch bob does sports. As for golf coaching, I feel like there's come excellent information on youtube. We didn't have this kind of access growing up, but now, Rick Shiels fixed my slice with a simple grip change. Danny Maude taught me how to get out of the bunker. Even Tiger has videos about his different shot shapes, including how to keep the ball low when its windy. I love it.

[cnosil]

1 hour ago, Nickygolf said:

Even Tiger has videos about his different shot shapes, including how to keep the ball low when it’s windy. I love it.

People have filmed videos that have Tiger in them.  Tiger’s advice is don’t watch f’in YouTube.   
 

 

[MNUte]

The hard part with YouTube golf is that it's not tailored for you and so even the most general pieces of advice may help in one way but then cause an entire chain reaction of bad. And there's so many conflicting opinions and channels that it can be maddening.

 

That being said, I really enjoy Danny Maude and have actually been surprised by how good Peter Finch's Swing Quest channel is. But rather than for a particular technique or tip, it's been more about how they're brilliant at rephrasing concepts or helping me look at my swing from a different perspective which in turn has helped me work through some stuff. 

 

E.g., with a lot of newer golfers, Danny will ask them their background and then hand them a soccer ball, tennis racket, medicine ball, etc. That really helped me take aspects from my baseball background (e.g., firing my hip) and apply them to golf. Or for Peter, his breakdowns of why you overemphasize motions or items in practice because your mind is probably tricking you into thinking you're doing more than you are was really helpful to show me some areas where I really wasn't pushing myself (me thinking my wrists were more forward than they were). 

[RickyBobby_PR]

4 hours ago, cnosil said:

People have filmed videos that have Tiger in them.  Tiger’s advice is don’t watch f’in YouTube.   
 

 

Agree. So many looking for the quick fix tip to fix their slice, shaft lean at impact, whatever other “flaw” they think they have while having no idea what the cause of these are.

There are some very good actual instruction channels that teach the basics of the swing from setup, takeaway, backswing and transition. If someone was looking to learn the swing to go the swing change route these type of channels can work.

 

[Mitchandy]

On 7/2/2024 at 10:10 AM, MNUte said:

That being said, I really enjoy Danny Maude and have actually been surprised by how good Peter Finch's Swing Quest channel is. But rather than for a particular technique or tip, it's been more about how they're brilliant at rephrasing concepts or helping me look at my swing from a different perspective which in turn has helped me work through some stuff.  

I'm all about understanding the concept of a technique to better understand the success behind it. Everyone's swings are different but the concept of a good strike on a ball is universal. Face hits ball, ball flies! How you deliver it, well that's on you. How you get from A to B depends on how you play, but sometimes understanding what the end looks like and working backwards for your own tendencies and understanding what they are trying to show, is so much better than "learn this technique to stop slicing". Sure, you catch a nugget every now and then (towel drill comes to mind for that back elbow staying tight) but again, it's a concept and reinforcement. 

I'll watch a few YouTuber's, but not for the instructional content usually. I prefer the course vlogs. Watching the mental approach and how some of these golfers get around the course, that's half the game. None of them are perfect golfers. They make mistakes (I know, editing is editing) and show how they recover from those mistakes. Matt Fryer has put out a few videos of just mental approach before shots, where should the focus be, etc. He's also done a few conceptual basic (ball in front of stance, chips go higher vs ball in back of stance, chips stay lower and run out) things that if you actually think about it from a logical standpoint, it makes sense. Sometimes, all we need is someone to say it for that little light bulb to turn on!

[dpback89]

I like the thought process of Golf Sidekick.  I am getting back into the game and have used some suggestions approaching a round.  I couldn't pull off those oufits...

[pma531]

If I’m looking for educational purposes, I’ll watch Dan Grieves. Grant Horvat also has an instructional channel on YouTube. If I’m watching YouTube, it’s mostly for entertainment purposes and I’ll learn a lot just listening to the dialogue between players.

There is an insane amount of information out there and I think you can really to some damage to your swing if you listen and implement all of it. I did this over this last winter and it set me back cause I changed my swing 100 times.

If we are talking my favorite YouTube golfer, Grant Horvat without a doubt. Great golfer, loves the game, seems genuine, and I’m a TaylorMade fan. 

[MNUte]

And on a different note still within the YouTube Golf sector, there's plenty of times where you see bias or agendas in the videos and it makes it hard to trust or fully believe what's being said. 

There's the times like with Grant Horvat being signed by TaylorMade, you know he's going to gush over the mini driver. Especially since he's one of the people skilled enough to use it off the deck. But it's still informational and fun because you know upfront that there's going to be a lot of positive spin. 

 

Then there's times like Club Champion's videos of Ian and Mike reviewing the Kirkland irons and balls:

With the ball, they were very open to the idea of "well, you're going to have some fall off, but that's what you'd expect and for the money, it's an amazing value" (which is still probably a bit biased because the KSig performed nearly identically as the ProV1). 

With the irons, they came across as dismissive and already set against it. They acknowledged throughout the video that a lot of the issues with the Kirkland irons were common issues with hollow bodied irons, then still seemed to hold them specifically against the Kirkland irons. And there were a lot of snippy side comments, like Ian saying the engineering that went into the design "if you want to call it that," saying the wedge comparison to his SM10 is a top end Mercedes vs. a low end....(trails off). And worst of all was Mike's comment where "someone playing these irons are obviously not going to get fit, which is wrong." I get that you're in the fitting business, but coming in with that mentality is absolutely doing a disservice to a lot of golfers out there who are not try-hards and are just trying to get a decent quality brand new set for a fraction of the price being charged by the brands you fit for. 

So there are videos like that that make it hard to trust a lot of what's being said about a technique, club, ball, etc. And of course, the answer is to try stuff out for ourselves to the extent we're able to and try to form as good of an opinion on our own as we can.