Pitch Shot Starting Line Drill
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How's your clubface control? Not sure? This drill will let you know where your game is really at. A scratch player can make 4/5. 80s shooter 3 out of 5, 90s shooter 1-2 out of 5.
How consistent of a golfer do you think you can become?
Today's drill, all you're going to need is a 60 degree wedge, a target about 10 yards away, and two clubs.
I'm going to explain how to set this up in just a moment.
But what I want you to learn from today's drill is how to control that club face with absolute precision, as much precision as you can get.
As I explain this drill in just a moment, you're going to see that at first it seems really simple.
But there's a hole that you can see in between those two club shafts I've got laid out about 30 feet away, and I'm trying to actually fly the ball into that tiny little cup.
That is the level of accuracy and precision that I'm aiming for with this drill.
Now, of course, I don't hit the hole every time.
But what you're going to find from this drill is that you're going to learn how to control that club face, and it's going to carry over to every shot in the bag.
Controlling the starting line is everything in golf.
It's showing when you have control with your trail hand, of that club face and that sweet spot that is so important.
Before you move on to full swings, you've got to learn it in a slower stroke, because if you can't do it at five miles an hour, no chance of doing it 105 miles an hour.
So what I want to show you is a very, very simple drill, but incredibly impactful.
It's going to help you start to understand how to control this club face.
So what I have here is something very simple.
I just got two golf clubs, or in this case, just two shafts, but you don't have to have shafts with it.
You can just have a couple of clubs, lay them on the ground next to a target.
So I'm using a hole in this case, and I've got the hole right in the middle of the shafts, and I've got the shafts about a foot apart.
So I've got basically a three foot by one foot landing area to help me start to visualize how to get that ball to start on the same line every single time.
And what I'm going to show you in this video is the tendencies that you're going to have.
That are going to help you understand.
How to use this goat arm position to control the club face.
So let's take a look.
Now, you're likely to find this drill very challenging at first, but I've got a very specific reason for you to do it, because as we start adding speed to our swings, We have to learn this position of the arm and the club face and the wrist to understand how to get that ball.
To start on the same line every time.
So the way I want you to practice this drill is set up a target about 10 yards away.
So that's 30 feet away from where I'm chipping here right now.
Again, I've got the hole in the center of it.
That's really my aiming point because I'm trying to land the ball right in the middle of those two shafts, which are about three feet long or so.
So again, I've got this three foot by one foot landing area, but the main thing that I want you to get at first is starting line.
Not terribly worried about distance.
I'm going to talk about that in another video, But getting that ball to start on the same spot every time is paramount to being able to be a good golfer.
And so what I'm going to show you right now is the tendencies that you're going to run into and how to fix them.
So the most important thing that you're starting to learn as you chip is a pitch is how to hinge your wrist while keeping this arm in that goat delivery position.
What's going to happen when you start struggling with starting line control on these little 10-yard shots is that this is going to start to do this.
And as soon as this happens in your golf stroke, It's going to be really difficult to time getting that ball, to start on the same spot or start on the same line every time.
So the first thing that I do when I'm getting myself into this drill, getting myself ready for it, is I make sure that that elbow pit's facing out away from me.
And I want to make sure that I've got a strong enough trail hand grip so that when I de-loft the club, that club face is still square.
If I've got a really weak grip and I try and de -loft it, that club face is going to be open.
So getting your arm in that GDP position is hugely important, but keeping it there is even more important.
So understanding that as you go back, you don't want this arm folding much at all.
Your core is going to really be more of your arms, and you're going to be focusing on setting your wrist.
And as you set the wrist, it's more of a hinge.
Of course, there's some wrist cock involved as well, but we don't want that face opening a lot in the backswing on such a short shot because, again, If we start opening it, Going back and we start rolling that wrist open and the club face open and then trying to come through, we then have to time where that club face is pointing at the moment of truth.
And so what we want as we hinge back is we keep that club face going up on plane, should be right about through our hands halfway back.
Make sure you're trying to keep the club outside your hands and that club face.
More or less matching our spine angle, because then as we come down, we don't have to do any rotation with our hands to try and square it on such a short shot.
Where I see most people make a mistake at first is going to be, obviously, you're going to tend to miss left or right, right?
So it's really only two options.
But the left one, the first one you hit, you're probably going to struggle with it and you're not going to show where to go.
So don't worry about how to do this drill.
I'm going to talk about the sequence of it in a moment, but just get a feel for it.
Hit a few and see what you tend to do the most often.
Get yourself to set up the same way, the same way that we talked about in the pitching video, and then start paying attention to what your tendency is to miss.
If you're missing left, the tendency is going to be for this hand to start to do this.
And that's when you're starting to pronate.
And you can see as my elbow pit starts to come in this way, my wrist is going to comply with it.
I'm going to also hit the ball higher because I'm going to start to lose the wrist hinge, lose that leverage in my wrist.
And so if you're starting to miss the ball left, your shoulders are probably turning or your arm is pronating.
Now, if you start missing the ball right, That's a little bit of a better miss because it probably means you're still in this Goat delivery position, but you either open the face a little bit coming back.
And so even though I'm in this good position, I've got the face a little bit open as I come through and that's going to hit it a little bit high, right?
I'll show that in a second.
So there, and then I didn't quite get the club face released enough.
And there's a balance to this.
And that's what you're trying to feel in this drill is how do I get the club to unhinge and release, but not open and close?
That's the point of this drill.
You're learning how to balance out that club face, being very quiet throughout the whole stroke.
So the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to hit one left.
So I'm going to try to still set up squares if I was going to hit it where I wanted to, but I'm going to let my arm start to pronate as I go back.
And this is normal.
Most golfers want to do this where their arm kind of elbow pit starts pointing in.
And then as I, even if I keep the club going back properly, I'm playing as I come down, it's going to be very hard for me not to hit it left.
So I'm going to have a little bit of a sloppy setup.
My elbow's not going to be pointing out.
It's going to be pointing this way.
And then you'll see that it's going to be very hard.
Well, actually didn't hit it too bad actually at all.
Let me try another one.
Pronation.
There we go.
So that's a big pull left.
You can see I took my arm back like this, shut the club face down and released it.
Now, if I go the other way, if I have a good elbow position at setup, my shoulders are nice and square, but I open the face a little going back.
Now I've got the ball that's wanting to come out a little bit to the right.
So, your aim is to start to get to the point where you have a sense of what that club face is doing.
And where it's pointing.
The entire time throughout the stroke.
Now, of course, I don't want you to think about this.
You've got to feel it.
And so I want you to hit some shots and start correcting yourself.
Know what you did wrong.
So I'm going to hit some here and I'm going to try and hit them on my target, but I'll probably miss some because I'm not focused here.
And this is a concentration drill.
Because what I want you to do is take five balls at a time and try to get at least four out of five to land in that zone.
If you get four out of five, that's probably about where most scratch players will get.
I'm not saying you have to work so hard to get to become a scratch player, but if you want to be a better player, You've got to learn to control that club face, and you've got to learn how to do that with these shorter shots.
You know, maybe if you're going to be an 80 shooter, you might hit two or three out of five and a 90 shooter might hit zero or one out of five.
So that's kind of a good baseline.
And using our AI tracking stuff, we'll start being able to allow you to put those scores in there.
So you're setting in groups of 10.
So just, you know, you hit three out of five on one and four out of five on the next, you got seven out of 10 and that's what you enter in your score.
But I'm going to show you how to start self-diagnosing and how to correct.
I'm going to show you tendencies so you understand what's going to happen when you do this drill.
So I'm going to try and hit this one properly.
I'm going to take a couple of backstrokes.
In my own personal setup, I try to make sure that I keep this elbow pit out as a big thing for me.
I also have a tendency to want my shoulders to get like this.
So I make sure I get that shoulder back a little bit more, so my arm is nice and more connected to my core.
Because then as I move my core, only thing I have to worry about is setting my wrist.
You know, if I get the club going away inside, that's no bueno.
So I have to feel that I'm hinging that club up while I'm rotating a little bit with my core.
And then the club face should be nice and quiet through the stroke.
So let me hit a couple here and I'll miss some, I'm sure.
And then I'll talk about why I missed them.
Oh, well, if you hit it in the hole, that should be worth two points, right?
That's our target.
That one was actually a good stroke.
So I can't really correct that one.
Let me try another one.
All right.
So that one, I just hit a little bit, a little thin, a little bit in the teeth and you see that come up short.
So there, all I did, I have a tendency to not get enough pressure on my lead foot at setup.
You want about 70, 80% of your pressure there.
Because if you don't, you're a little bit too far back on the back foot and you start to naturally drive off of it, you'll kind of create a really long, shallow bottom of your swing arc.
And that can cause you to hit a little bit thin.
So all I got to do to correct that is just get a little bit more pressure on my lead foot.
And I have a bad left hip from numerous spontaneous gravity checks over the years, from two wheeled endeavors.
And so it's a little bit uncomfortable for me to sit there.
So I know that I have a tendency to hang back on my backside.
Perfectly okay.
I didn't hit a horrible shot.
It just came up a little bit short on my target, but now I'm going to correct it.
So I know, and this is again, why I want you to do this drill to start correcting your tendencies, learn what your tendencies are and then let us help you if you're not sure what's causing them.
So now I'm going to get a little more pressure on my lead side and make the same stroke.
Okay.
A little short again, just didn't hit it hard enough, but my line was good.
Again, we're going to talk about distance control in another video, but here I'm just wanting to make sure I go through that gutter, go through that valley there.
That's my aims.
I just want to control this club face.
All right.
Well, I hit all those.
Okay.
Just a little bit short because I wasn't really focused, But you're going to find again that you're going to have tendencies to miss left or right quite a bit, even from just 10 yards.
But as you go through this, you're going to start to be able to control that club face.
And just like with the putting, at first, it's a little hard to hit with that trail hand, but three to 500 reps and you're going to start to be able to control that line.
And then you add the left hand on there or lead hand on there, you start getting more control.
Same thing is going to happen here.
So this drill is going to be pretty challenging at first, but give it time, get a few hundred reps in.
And if you're not sure why you're missing, post a video of yourself hitting this chip shot in the, in the comments and we'll help you out.
J
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Tony
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
bob
Chuck
John
Chuck
John
Chuck