Instruction
Keys to successful pitching
The pitch shot — the short, high shot played near the green — is a fairly easy shot. But many struggle with it.
The biggest reason for this is that most people do not trust the loft on the golf club. In an attempt to add loft, a lot of players hit the shot fat. So let’s talk about it.
First off, the “pitching wedge” is the most mis-named club in the bag. Many years ago, it was a club golfers used to pitch with because it had sufficient loft. But the modern pitching wedge has only about 44-to-47 degrees of loft, which is simply not enough to get the golf ball in the air and have it stop on the green. So hit this shot with your sand or lob wedges, which have about 55-to-60 degrees of loft to ensure sufficient height.
Next, as I demonstrate in the video, you play the shot with a very active lower body. A common myth, one that has hurt many golfers, is that the lower body should remain “quiet” on this shot. Do that and you will almost definitely stick the club in the ground.
[youtube id=”0qclm_h2q2c” width=”620″ height=”360″]
The shot itself is nothing more than a minature version of a full swing played with a smaller, slower motion and a lofted tool. The work of the body, arms and club is very similar to the full swing. When the green is elevated, or you are faced with a shot over water or sand, the chip shot is simply not an option because you must put the ball in the air to stop it near the hole. Here’s what I suggest based on what I see many students doing:
- Use your regular grip, a narrow stance and play the golf ball in the middle or forward in your stance.
- The distance the ball flies is a function of the length and pace of the swing. But here’s where it gets tricky: Because the ball may only have to travel 30 to 40 yards, many players attempt to execute the shot with their arms only.
- Although you are hitting a short shot, I suggest you KEEP THE BODY MOVING through the ball. The biggest cause of hitting this shot fat is staying back on your right side (for a right-handed golfer), which bottoms the swing out well behind the golf ball.
- If you’d prefer, start with a little more weight on your left side, or at the very least keep your weight centered in the takeaway. This is unlike the full swing, which generally has more movement behind the ball. And be sure to turn and face the target as you come through.
And do not allow what you see the tour players doing to be your guide with this shot. Often you might see Phil or Tiger playing a shot where they keep their weight on their back foot. This is a specialty shot that they play to give the ball even more loft and stop it on a dime. It’s not a good idea, especially for those of you hitting the ball FAT. The top players have a release point that is generally much later than many amateurs, and their body motion is often a function of this.
Do not worry about the atatck angle of a pitch shot. The fact that you are swinging the shortest club in the bag and standing closer to the ball will provide enough up-and-down motion to have a sufficiently steep angle to play the shot. That said, if you play golf with a flatter swing, you may have to remind yourself to swing the arms and club more UP on the backswing. You’ll know if a flat swing is the problem if you hit an unusually high number of “skulls,” which happen when a golfer is not able to get the club all the way to the bottom of the ball.
So, realx, grip the club lightly and TRUST THE LOFT ON THE CLUB TO DO THE JOB. And remember to turn through.
As always, feel free to send a swing video to my Facebook page and I will do my best to give you my feedback.
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Instruction
How a towel can fix your golf swing
This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.
For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.
Setup
You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.
While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.
Get a Better Shoulder Turn
Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.
In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.
Stay Better Connected in the Backswing
When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.
Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.
Conclusion
I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.
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sam
Apr 7, 2014 at 8:49 pm
i am a right handed player,chipping feeling pressure with the right hand or left hand.which one is better.
Dennis Clark
Apr 12, 2014 at 1:21 pm
Light pressure in both hands! left wrist stays flat right wrist stays extended.
billy
Apr 7, 2014 at 3:09 pm
Agree…Free advise and trying to nick pick spelling
Not Cool
Adam Lee
Jun 2, 2013 at 8:07 am
Great tips. just wanted to add While finishing the backswing, your hands must be slightly higher than the height of the backswing.
Dennis Clark
Jun 4, 2013 at 8:20 pm
“While finishing the backswing, your hands must be slightly higher than the height of the backswing”? Can you explain?
Roger
May 28, 2013 at 1:54 pm
Dennis, Great Article,easy to understand, and Well Written.
I strugggled to find any spelling errors.
Why are negative comments becoming more common here?
Such a waste/lack of respect for a Great Website.
To the Critic Enjoy your Golf and your Life and find a Smile!
Dennis Clark
May 29, 2013 at 10:09 pm
Thx Roger, glad you enjoyed it. Agreed, you can’t please all the people all the time. Or something like that…
Joe Duffer
May 23, 2013 at 7:11 pm
Thanks very much for the article…
Could you also give us your thoughts on the rhythm and tempo needed for short wedge shots? Also, how does acceleration play into these shots?
Dennis Clark
May 23, 2013 at 7:56 pm
To me, rhythm and tempo are personal preferences. Some great players have quick tempos, some have slow, but they ALL have great TIMING. Big difference. As for acceleration, it is a function of the length of your backswing. Fred Couples actually plays some of these shots with deceleration. Again preference. For most, yes I agree that acceleration is important; but if you are on plane and on time, the speed through the ball is a matter of choice.
BBGolfer
May 23, 2013 at 4:47 pm
The article provides quality information despite numerous spelling and grammar issues.
Elevate your game … not just in golf.
Dennis Clark
May 23, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Im sure my editor will get right on that, thx for the observation. We hope you learned something from the content.
Lee
May 24, 2013 at 11:29 am
Is that really a necessary comment?
Good video Dennis, very simple explanation of a commonly misunderstood shot.
Tony Lynam
May 27, 2013 at 2:42 pm
Really? Can’t even go to a GOLF site without finding a jerk. Anyway, thanks for the instruction Dennis!