#150 Web TV: How YOU Can Improve Your Chip Shot

How YOU Can Improve Your Chip Shot

How do you know if you have actually hit the ball correctly?

What do you need to look for when you are actually doing a chip shot?

That’s what I’m going to show you today, one of the most important things you need to be looking for when you have played your chip shot.

When I see people out playing golf, whether they are having lessons with me or whether they are out on the golf course and I’m watching them play, or they are playing in general and I happen to be passing by... I see somebody playing a shot, I have a look. I actually have a look at their set-up, the way they hit the ball and also what they have done afterwards. I really love looking at players golf technique.

The thing you want to look for when doing a chip shot is what you are actually doing after the ball has left the club face. That is the most important thing, what you are doing not where the ball is going. A lot of people I see out playing, people that I teach as well, they get quite obsessed about where the ball is going and I know you are thinking that’s what it’s all about but, exactly... we want the ball to go into the hole... or towards the hole but we also want to make sure we are playing the best shot we can technically.

If you are playing the best shot you can technically, that means you are going to be consistent and the balls are going to go to where you want them to go. You don’t need to actually spend the time watching where the ball is going.

So, when I see people do chip shots, what I actually see is a lot of very poor technique. You may be laughing and thinking that I watched you this morning. I see this poor technique quite frequently.

The thing I want to make sure you are doing is to not be obsessed about where the ball has gone, I want you to be obsessed about getting your positions right and what to actually look for after you have played your shot.

What I want you to look for when you play this particular kind of chip shot is how have you finished?

(Refer to video above -I’ll do a demonstration of the shot, set-up, push the hands forward, swing back and through and then I have held my position.)

The thing you want to make sure you are looking for is when you have come through and you have held your position;

• Are your thumbs pointing down?
• Is your wrist straight?
• Is your left arm straight?
• Is the club face nice and straight and facing to where the ball has gone?

What happens, is when golfers play their shot, they want to see where it has gone but they actually haven’t focused on getting the technique right. They don’t know if they have done it right anyway and the ball has ended up somewhere.

Like I said, if you work on making sure you are going back and through and then hold, and you hold that position in place and you can feel it and you have gone past your left side then the indication to you is yes, I’m doing it right.

If you play a shot with a poor technique, have a look down, what has actually happened, what have you done. You need actual feed-back, you need to know what’s going on so that you can improve it. There is no point going out and practicing the same stuff if you keep making mistakes with it.

You have to get it right. Your technique!

Have an absolutely awesome day, take care, and remember; Tee it high and Let it fly.