#99 Web TV: Hitting Over The Bunker Shots

Hitting Over the Bunker Shots.

What we are actually going to be working on today is practicing hitting over the bunker shots.

What I see people do when they play golf is that they freak out, they not only freak out when the ball is in the bunker, they freak out if they have to hit a ball over a bunker.  It’s like, "Oh, my God, our whole life has ended."

It doesn’t have to be that way. The thing that you need to make sure that you do is that you actually go and practice it. Don’t leave it to a match, when you go and play your comp game, and then you say "far out, I’ve got to hit over a bunker", if you haven’t done any work on it.  Don’t expect yourself to be able to do it because you haven’t worked at it.

We need to make sure that your head is in gear... that you know that you can hit it over the bunker no matter what and you need to make sure that you have actually practiced it in practice.

By the way, do you remember last week’s video, I would have talked to you about having soft hands.

If you haven’t seen that video make sure you see that as well because this is will help the actual activity of what you are going to do today to build your confidence in hitting over bunkers. Click here to see #98 Web TV: Improve Your Pitch Shot With This Simple Technique

We are going to do a practice swing and we are going to have that grip pressure of about five or six, nice and relaxed. Not firm so that you are going to break the club in half, just nice and relaxed.  All I want you to do, because it’s great to do this out on the golf course, choose somewhere private that is not busy and then just put heaps and heaps of ball down and just keep practicing and building your confidence.

Now what we are going to do is to have nice, soft hands not loose hands, and all I want you to work on is just swing back and through with soft hands and you just let the ball pop up.

It doesn’t matter that there is a bunker in the way, the thing is that you need to be very relaxed when you play the shot.

Now, if your technique is not great then there could be a few little issues with it... but I want you to build the confidence... have soft hands and trust.  You have to learn to trust you, and again we are just going to swing back and through, nice and easy again.

So they just pop over nice and easy.  I know you are going to say “yes, Tiff, it’s easy for you”.  It took me a long time of many, many hours of practice to be able to do this when I first started. I couldn’t do it when I first started.

So again back and through and just let them pop up.  Now, do not be too concerned where the ball ends up, don’t worry about the flag or anything like that. All we are focusing on right now is getting the ball over the bunker.

That’s all I want you to do so that when you get out on the golf course, you know that you can do this because you say to yourself " I have done so many before. Because I have practiced it before I know I can do that."

I want you to do it in a nice relaxed manner because when you go and play I know there is tension and you expect performance and you expect to be able to achieve instantly because you only have one shot.  The thing is when you stand over the ball when you are playing comp I want you to take a nice deep breath and then say trust yourself. Then you just do it, just nice and easy, very relaxed.

That’s what you have to go and work on.  Once you have done that leave a comment, I would love to hear your success from that.  If you are having issues with it, it will be because of technique and also not relaxed yet, too much tension in the hands.

That is a secret to playing good golf. I don’t give away too many secrets but that’s one of them.

That is your tip from Tiff for today.