Lesson 7 - Chipping & Pitching -- (Changed -02/07/2008)

The longest and straightest golf shots in the world are totally ineffective unless you can get the ball into the hole in regulation figures or better so it is important that you acquire the skills to finish off the perfect fairway shots.

Therefore it is time to look at the part of the game of golf which requires the golfer to be able to strike the ball correctly, but importantly land it with accuracy on the green.

If you can master the art of chipping and pitching the ball, you will see your scores drop by a few shots per round.

The pitching shot is simply a shorter version of the full golf swing.

However a chip shot is required is performed when the golfer needs to make shots from around the green and to perform the chip shot it requires a technique that is simply a longer version of the putting stroke, but instead of using the putter to make the stroke, the golfer uses a selection of clubs, depending on the length of the shot required to drop the ball onto the green and run the remainder of the distance to the hole.

Chipping

To correctly perform a chip shot, the shoulders, the arms and the golf club must be held together as a solid unit so that the rotational movement of the shoulders control the power of the shot.

Therefore the chip shot is performed whilst holding the arms and the golf club in a very firm condition so that the angle of the golf club relative to the arms does not vary at all throughout the complete chipping action, whilst a combination of the hip movement and the rotational movement of the shoulders swing the arms and the clubhead, which are held together as a solid unit, into and through the contact area.

Therefore to perform the perfect chipping action it only requires a slow half back swing movement and your absolute focus on a the golf ball to achieve the desired result, but you must focus on the golf ball and literally use the club head to separate the grass and the golf ball as if you are driving a wedge between the grass and the ball with a descending blow.

When carrying out the very delicate chip shots, it often only requires a very slow quarter back swing movement, nevertheless chipping the ball is a simple task as long as you follow a few standard rules, which includes:-

1) Holding the shoulder, the arms and the golf club firmly together as a very compact and solid unit, holding the arms so that the elbows remain as close together as it is physically possible, and only consciously using a combination of the movement of the hips and the shoulders to swing the arms/club head into and through the contact area.

2) Focus intensely on ball whilst literally using the club head to separate the grass and the golf ball with a descending blow, as if you are driving a wedge between the grass and the ball.
( Most golfers take their eyes of the ball a fraction of a second before the club head makes contact.)

3) Keeping the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball and in the Fixed Frontal condition until well after the ball has been struck.

4) Striking the ball with a descending blow, but keeping the wrists in a rigid condition whilst ensuring that the clubhead continues to move forward and downwards to the bottom of the swing arc -- simply allow the loft of the club head to automatically move the ball upwards and forward.

It is vital that you learn to focus your eyes on the ball and hold this focus until after the ball has been struck, but importantly, your head must remain fixed the original address position.

The main differences between the Pitch shot and the Chip shot is:-

1) The action of the lower body.
(During the chipping process the stance is set slightly open at the address position, which means that the hips will already be partially facing the target area, however it is important to remember that the shoulders must remain Parallel to the Target Line.)

2) The condition of the whole body as you perform the movement.
(The whole upper body unit is formed into a very compact unit so that any movement of the shoulders will swing the arms and the club head back and forth.)

Analysis of the Chip Shot.

Back Swing Movement.

The back swing movement is a rotation of the upper body unit whilst the club head and the arms are firmly held together, but focusing on the left shoulder to push the arms into the back swing movement.

The elbows must be held as close together as it is physically possible throughout the complete movement and the arms and the golf club must be held as if the whole lot had been welded together as a solid unit.

The Down Swing.

During the process of chipping the ball, everything moves at a slow pace and all of the components of the golf swing move together.

It is very important and vital to the success of the movement that as the hips lead the movement:-

1) The shoulders, the arms and the golf club move as a single item , but focusing on the shoulders in being in total control whilst the arms and the club head remain passive.

2) The elbows must be held as close together as possible so that the arms work together.

3) The head must remain firmly positioned slightly behind the ball and in the Fixed Frontal condition throughout the movement.

4) The upper body angle must be retained.

5) Focus intensely on the golf ball whilst literally using the club head to separate the grass and the golf ball with a descending blow, as if you are driving a wedge between the grass and the ball.

6) The club head must swing to the bottom of the swing arc.

The overriding factors that will enable you to successfully chip the ball, is to watch the golf ball until the club head actually makes contact with the ball - but continue to swing the club head with a descending blow to the bottom of the swing arc.

Mental Exercise.

All of the movements of the body must be carried out in a very controlled and deliberate manner in order to achieve the best results whilst chipping the ball,

But importantly, the conscious mind is a very good at accurately predicting how fast the club head must be moving in order to hit the ball a given distance -- in fact very similar to how you can judge the distance when you throw a paper ball into a waste bin.

Therefore when you carry out a practice swing, although you may not realise it, your mind very accurately calculates the speed and effort of the swing movement to hit the ball the required distance.

However, most of us do not play the actual shot as we have practised, because at the last second we have doubts about the power of the stroke the conscious mind calculated and subsequently we decelerate the club head at the precise moment that the club head makes contact with the ball ---and we have all suffered the same results.

So it is absolutely vital that you rely on your original judgement and play the actual shot as per your practice swing -- you must have trust in the original assessment that your mind calculated during the practice swing - So when you are next on the golf course give this some thought and trust your judgement.

Play a few practice swings immediately before playing the actual shot, but ensure that these practice swing imitate the actual chip that you wish to perform in relation to the speed of the club head, however as soon as you make the last practice movement you must play the actual shot without any undue delay with the same speed that you used during the practice swing and you will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

Notes

1) It is essential that whilst performing the down swing movement that you focus intensely on the golf ball but importantly you must keep the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball.

2) The lower body should be set with a open stance to offset the reduced activity of the hips, whilst the shoulders remain square to the target line.

3) The best position for the golf ball when playing a conventional chip shot, is to align the ball slightly right of the centre of your stance.

4) You must ensure that the club head swing along the parallel to the target line as it swings through the contact area.

Very important:-

During the process of chipping, the shoulders and the arms and the golf club must be held very firmly as a compact unit throughout the whole movement so that as the hips and the shoulders rotate as back and forth, the shoulders automatically control the movement of the arms.

Throughout the practice swings you must keep the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball and in the Fixed Frontal condition and with both eyes intensely focused on the golf ball so that you literally see the club head make contact with the ball and make sure that you swing the club head to the bottom of the swing arc.

Tip.

Failure to watch the club head make contact with the ball is one of the main reason why golfers miss-hit the golf ball whilst playing a chip shot, another reason is that the golfer positions the club head too far behind the ball at the address position..

Therefore you must focus your eyes on the back edge of the golf ball and hold this focus until you literally see the club head make contact with the ball, but importantly, keep the head in the original address position until well after the ball has been struck.

As a point of interest, most golfers do not actually define the focus of the eyes exactly on the ball but generally tend to stare at the ball which incorporates the general area around ball, therefore if you wish to become a good chipper of the ball, you must define the focus only on the golf ball.

This is easy to do during the back swing and most of the down swing movement, but it takes a lot of practice to maintain this intense focus on the ball so that you actually see the ball move away from the resting position..
I can assure you that the majority of golfers do not actually watch the ball until it is actually struck - the mind anticipates the movement of the ball and therefore the eyes begin to track the movement of the ball before it has been struck.

The other reason why golfers stub the ground when attempting to chip the ball, is that they allow the weight of the body to move back onto the right foot as the clubhead approaches the ball.

So remember, once you have set yourself up to carry out a chip shot, you must keep the weight of your body over the left foot until the completion of the movement, but importantly, keep the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball and do not allow the head to move away from the original address position until well after the ball has been struck.

The theory of the chipping action is quite simple.

In order to move the ball forward and upwards by any given distance all you have to do is calculate the loft of the club face and how fast the clubhead needs to be moving at the precise moment it forces the golf ball and the turf to separate.

By using a simple pendulum action, use the muscles of the lower back to rotate the upper body unit as far back as you have calculated, thus using the rotational movement of the shoulders to push the arms/golf club, pause at the end of the back swing before commencing the down swing.

The speed of the swing is relatively unimportant, a steadily accelerating movement is far more important.

But remember when chipping, you must set the hips in an open position with the shoulders square to the target line and the weight of the body predominantly over the left leg ( and importantly, it must remain over the left leg throughout the back swing and the down swing movement,) but the head must remain slightly behind the ball until after the ball has been struck.

To hit the ball further, it simply requires a club face with less loft and a longer back swing movement, which is done by increasing the rotational movement of the shoulders -- this is why it is so important to have a few practice swings, prior to attempting to strike the ball.

In order to hit the ball higher so that it stops more quickly, you have to:-

1) Use a pitching wedge with a higher degree of loft.

Alternatively,

2) Open your stance a bit further so that the hips are facing more towards the target area, move the ball a bit further forward in the stance and open the clubface a bit more in order to set the clubface square with the target line.

Practice Swings.

The practice swings gives you the opportunity to estimate how far you have to rotate the shoulders in the back swing in order to create sufficient momentum of the club head to move the ball the distance that you desire.

The practice swings are also important for you to build up a mentally image in your mind, of the clubhead sweeping down under the ball without any resistance from the golf ball.

But remember, at the precise moment that the clubhead makes contact with the ball, the shoulders, the arms and the golf club must remain fully bonded as a very compact unit.

Make sure that every practice swing that you make has a useful input to your memory cells.

All the tuition in the world cannot teach you the delicate touch that is required during the chipping process, only by practising the chipping technique on the practice ground will you be able to develop these skills.

Pitching.

A Pitch shot is simply a shortened version of the full golf swing.

Therefore to pitch the ball it simply requires you to carry out exactly the same swing movements that you would use for the full swing, the only difference is that you only make a maximum of a three quarter swing action and in addition the swing action is slower than the full swing, therefore the emphasis is on precision rather than distance.

Although the pitch shot is a shorter version of the full shot, in order to dramatically increase your chances of pitching the ball in an accurate manner it is absolutely vital that you :-

1) Learn to focus on the golf ball and literally watch the ball until the club head strikes the ball.

2) Keep the head firmly positioned slightly behind the ball with "pin point accuracy" at all times and in the Fixed Frontal condition.

3) Use the hip movement to rotate the shoulder/arms-unit back to the original address position and into the follow through movement - but concentrating on swinging the club head to the bottom of the swing arc.

(The downward movement of the club head as it strikes the ball automatically moves the ball upwards and forward for a distance that is dependent on the loft of the club face and the speed of the club head.)

However the same principle applies, you must watch the ball carefully so that you strike the ball cleanly with a descending blow, but importantly you must watch the spot that the ball was resting on as the clubhead swings to the bottom of the swing arc.

When you are fully focused on the ball and you maintain this focus until the ball has been struck, you will notice after the ball has been struck, the retina retains the image of the ball that for a milli-second, but this image has been converted to a black image therefore if you can detect this dark image directly after you have struck the ball, this will indicate to you that you have correctly continued to look at the position the ball was resting until after the ball was struck.

The other important aspects of the golf swing also apply when pitching the ball, such as:-

1) Not allowing the hands to return to original address position until the precise moment that club head makes contact with the ball.

2) The shoulders must be the dominant element so that the shoulders have total control over the movement of the arms/club head.

3) Importantly, the head must remain positioned slightly behind the ball and in the Frontal Facing condition and the upper body angle must be retained until well after the ball has been struck.

Please Note.

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