RotaryConnect Chipping
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Fix your bad chipping habits and ingrain perfect technique with the RotaryConnect.
- Many training aids offer a "Band-Aid" solution that frequently solves one problem only to create another
- The RotaryConnect teaches you what correct movement feels like - it can't be overused or create new problems
- Many golfers use their arms too much in the chipping stroke, pulling back or flipping the club
- The RotaryConnect helps preserve proper arm position through the swing so you learn how the movement should feel
- The RotaryConnect is adjustable - be sure to fit it to your body size so your back is not rounded
Hey guys, Chuck Quinton here, founder of Rotary Swing. You guys have been asking how do I use the Rotary Connect with chipping stuff, can I use it with my short game stuff? The answer is, absolutely. The area that it applies the most to is one of the areas that most golfers struggle the most with, which is just this basic little bump and run kind of chip shot. So, I have here, my seven iron and I want to show you how you can use the Connect to teach you how to synchronize the movement of your arms and the club with your body. Because, in the short game stuff, we're not trying to build a lot of power and accuracy, which is when we want our arms to start moving independently of our torso because we needed them to create leverage and create a big arch. Chipping is all about accuracy and precision and control and consistency. So, we're not trying to hit this seven iron 180 yards, we're trying to hit it seven yards. The requirements for this shot are very different.
What I want to show you first is what so many amateur golfers struggle with and what they do wrong when they chip is they try to do it all with just their arms and hands. What we see all the time is stuff like this where the right arm bends a lot, the left arm bends a lot. Even in a chip shot it's easy to start seeing a lot of pushing motion because so often we'll see this left arm breaking down into a chicken wing like you see in the full swing. The cause is exactly the same. That's the beauty of the Rotary Swing stuff, you can start looking at cause and effect relationships and understanding where movement is coming from, which part of your body and it creates the same look from the other side. If I bend my right arm a lot and try to push through really hard, my left arm is going to be bent. You'll notice that my chest is still pointing at you.
So now, I'm really relying on my coordination and my hand/eye coordination with my right hand to hit the ball. What happens more often than not is that people, because this right arm allows you to push down, makes the club continue to travel on a tangent down and allows you to do this, which is the most embarrassing thing in the world. You've just hit two shots 400 yards and now this next shot to hit it seven yards, it takes you three more attempts because you keep laying the sod over it. There is no reason to do that.
If you understand what you're really trying to do with a chip shot, what the requirements are, then this is going to make this shot really easy. So, what are the requirements really that we are trying to do? Number one, we actually want a really shallow angle of attack. I want you to think of the bottom of your chipping stroke like this, not like this. Think of an airplane coming in to land. We want to come in nice and shallow like that. You don't want to be dropping straight to the ground and have to pull up really quick. That's what you're doing when you chip with your right hand instead of learning how to chip the way I'm going to show you in just a moment.
The first thing, understanding requirements. We want that club to come through really shallow and to be relatively upright with the shaft and address. This is another major mistake that people make all the time and a lot of instructors teach this, to actually set the ball way back in your stance and get a ton of shaft lean and turn this seven iron into a three iron. Now, think about what's happening here, what you're forcing yourself to do is bring that airplane down really steep and you're going to risk yourself laying the sod over it. You don't want a lot of shaft lean at address or at impact in a chipping shot. That's a fallacy. I'm not saying you can't do that but you're going to tend to chunk it all the time.
What we want is a shaft that's pretty upright. Now, what this does is it builds in margin of error. Nobody's perfect, especially in golf, we're all going to make mistakes all the time. What we want to do is mitigate the results of that mistake by building in a big margin of error. If I come down really steep, I have to hit that ball just perfect or I'm going to hit the ground first. Or, hit the ball and not the ground and come down too steep and blade it, which is another embarrassing shot, to blade one across the green. What we want is to come in really shallow so that even if I do get a little bit of grass between the club face and the ball, I'm still not going to lay the sod over it.
I'm going to use the bounce of the club effectively so that it's going to keep the leading edge from digging into the turf. If the leading edge digs into the turf that's when bad stuff happens. The leading edge digs into the turf when your angle of attack toward the ground is too steep and the leading edge hits the ground before the trailing edge. We actually want that trailing edge to do it's job. It's designed to hang below the leading edge for a reason. It's to protect you from the club digging too deeply.
So, how do we do that? First off, we've got to make some setup adjustments. When you're chipping, what I want you to do is get comfortable with the ball being more up in your stance. What is that going to do to my setup? I'm still going to have some shaft lean but I don't need 30 degrees, 20 degrees of shaft lean, that's way too severe. So now, as I have a little bit of shaft lean and I rock my shoulders back and forth, you'll notice that I'm going to come through the grass really clean and really shallow. I'm not going to be taking any dirt. I have no risk of ever chunking this shot. That's where the Connect starts to really come in handy, is that as I put this in I can start to feel the mechanics of the shot, not just the setups.
Now, as I put the Connect in I want you to move it up to your chest, where the bar is touching your chest so it's going to be very high on your arms and what I want you to practice, at first without a club and even with your arms across your chest, is moving the Connect back and forth like this. Again, the opposite of what you're doing in a full swing because again, the requirements are different. We don't need power. We actually want our chest to rock back and forth because that's really the primary mover of the golf club in the chipping stroke only. Different set of requirements so it's going to be a little different than what you do in a full swing. Rotate my chest back, think about rotating the bar back, rotate the bar back to impact, bend in the release.
Now, with the club, the club makes it not any different, right? I've gone back, impact, release. All done by just focusing on the core movement of moving the Connect back and forth so that my arms and chest stay in sync. If I start moving my arms all over the place independent of my chest, the bar is going to start sliding against my chest. I don't want the bar moving its relationship to my chest. I'm just moving the bar back and forth and everything else is staying the same. Now, when I come out to hit a chip shot, ball a little bit more up on my stance versus having an open stance like this and really slamming the club shot, or delofting it. Now all I have to do is rock my shoulders back and through and hit a perfect, simple little chip shot.
My hands didn't do anything, my arms didn't do anything. I just focused on moving this Connect back and forth. It makes it so much easier because now I don't have to worry about whether or not I'm gonna blade it or worry about whether or not I'm gonna chunk it because I'm not adding any angles. If I, all of a sudden set my wrist really hard, move my arm, bend my arm, now I've got all these angles that I've got to get rid of in a short period of time. It's too difficult to time that and get consistent contact. We want to take all those variables out, rock our shoulders back and forth. Simple little chip shot every time. So, practice with the Connect. You can do this indoors. You don't need to be out here hitting balls. Practice with just the Connect and get the feeling of your chest rotating back and rotating through and watch your chipping improve dramatically.
Jesse
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Jesse
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Devon
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Bernd
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Mohnishkumar
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Tom
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Mohnishkumar
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
richard
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
richard
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
richard
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
David
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
timothy
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
timothy
timothy
Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
dennis
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Dan
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
John
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Loran
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Thomas
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Robert James
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)