Navigation

Gary Alliss

Monday, 7 July 2008
Neil Tappin
0 Comments

Top 25 UK Coach, Gary Alliss

Gary Alliss is the lead coach at The Belfry

Age: 53

Turned pro: December 1973.

Years coaching: 34

Coaching philosophy: Keep it simple. My method is anti-method - I teach people not systems and it works because I use words golfers actually understand.

Notable achievement: Gaining PGA Master Professional status for 17,000 word thesis in conjunction with Warwick University on awkward lies and how to cope with them. Due to be made available by PGA in 2008. First PGA member to be awarded Master Professional via this route.

In addition a lifetime of alleviating suffering to golfers of all standards.

Best Tip: Never forget the lump on the end of the stick hits, the hands hang on and your arms must swing. Not sure if it is the best tip, but we often get too bogged down with shoulders, hips, swing plane and all.

Fault fixer

Slice: Work on an earlier, freer release in the downswing. What you are releasing are the angles in your wrists and right elbow through impact. Make sure you are holding the club about five out of ten pressure-wise on a scale of 1 - 10. As soon as you sense your hands have returned from the top of the backswing to a point level with your right shoulder start rolling your right forearm over your left. Your goal is to make the toe of your club rotate past the heel of your club before you hit the ball. If you achieve this you will never slice again.

Hook: If you can get out of a greenside bunker you can stop hooking. Simply try to imagine you are making the same followthrough with your long clubs as you do in the spash shot. Try it, you'll like it!

Lack of Power: Widen your stance by one ball's width on both feet. At the top of your backswing make sure both left and right thumb are underneath the club shaft.
Now swing your arms down fast and freely. Imagine you are going to throw the club away. If your golf target is twelve o'clock you are imagining throwing the club as far as you can towards half past ten. Don't actually let go of the club just let the golf ball get in the way. Long and straight results!

Fat & Thin Strikes: If you are plagued by too much or too little divot try this drill. Take a lofted club maybe 9 iron, widen your stance by one ball width on both feet. Swing back until your left arm is parallel with the ground. Your wrists must be hinged so the club shaft forms a right angle with your left arm. Now swing the club down and through to a full finish. Your goal is to make the clubhead shave the grass down to a severe crew cut where it touches the ground on the forward swing. Once you have this mastered place the ball where you are shaving.

Three Putting: Firstly you must decide if the problem is caused by not getting the first putt consistently inside 30 inches or 75 cms or if you miss too many from inside this short distance. If it is the former, the problem is often a lack of followthrough and ridiculously too much backswing. Never hit the same putt twice, but practice in a semi circle from say10 yards trying to make a smoothly accelerating stroke where the followthrough is twice as long as the backswing. Work on this for a time every week to gain feel and adjust for the varying speed of greens through the year.

Best tip for course management: Plot your way round the course, don't get too far ahead of yourself, but make a plan. Golf is similar to snooker you have to think of the best outcome for the next shot. For example if you see the pin tucked on the right edge of the green, try to lay your tee shot on the left side of the fairway, unless perhaps you are a natural controlled fader of the ball, in which case, lay the ball to leave your favourite shot.

When near the green never forget the ball is round and it will roll, you don't always have to try to get the ball up in the air. Running along the ground may not look spectacular but boy is it effective!

Keep it simple. The lump on the end of the stick hits, your hands hang on and your arms swing. You'll wait a long time to see a wonderful leg action or a great body rotation or a steady head hit the ball anywhere.

Tips for buying new clubs: Rely on your teacher. Get a static fitting, your height, hand size, wrist to floor length etc.
It is in yours and your teachers interest that your clubs suit you.
Now set to work on those swing alterations, once your teacher is satisfied that your swing is generally consistent go with your teacher to a dynamic fitting centre such as The Belfry Golf centre.
This doesn't mean that you will have to buy two sets in a year. The static fit will be extremely close to what you need the dynamics may lead to a little lie tweaking, easily done.

Who to follow on Tour: I'm struggling a bit here, most male tour players are too athletic for your regular golfer. My advice go and watch the Champions' Tour.
There you will see how to get the job done in many different ways by different bodies with different techniques. Learn how to play to your strengths. There is no single model
This sits better with my philosophyMY METHOD IS ANTI-METHOD, I TEACH PEOPLE NOT SYSTEMS
IT WORKS BECAUSE I USE WORDS GOLFERS ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND