Now the most common mis-hit with chipping is the 'thin' or 'fat' shot. Often times I will see people even with a fairly good set-up and ball position still have a tendency to 'thin' the shot. One of the big causes of doing this shot is too much tilting at the point of impact. Tilting is when the right shoulder starts to lower causing the club to come up too high through the ball causing 'thinning'.
There are several causes of this but one of the big ones is when someone tries to drive the handle too much through the ball without releasing the club. When you drive the handle which makes the hands stay a long way ahead of the clubface, the angle tends to substantially de-loft which causes the body to want to hit 'up' on the ball as a compensation.
If you notice you are someone who tilts, the first thing you should do is ensure your shoulders are quite level at set-up. Also ensure the ball position is centre with around 60% of weight on the front foot. Now the first step is just to feel a natural turn of your body back and through the shot. Turning through the shot is key as this is the first step to prevent titling.
The next step is understanding how to release the club. Dan Grieve, one of the short game gurus explains it really well. Just ensure the club returns back to neutral first and then just after impact, have the handle point at the left hip. This will start to prevent a driving of the handle and will allow the club to release through impact,
Now once you've started to turn and release the club through impact, the last step is to ensure you continue to go forward through the shot. This will ensure you're not staying back and instead still hitting down and through the shot like any other full swing. The thought process for a while then will be to turn, release and go forward. What will help is to ensure the weight stays around 60% on the left foot all the way through the shot.
What you might experience is that when you try this when at the range, you may start chipping really well. The next step then will be to take it out to the course under pressure situations. Under pressure you may feel like your hands want to drive and you hang back. You just have to really force yourself and dare I say be 'brave' that releasing and turning through the ball will give you that quality shot. Once you have proven it in competition multiple times, you will then form a belief that you can chip well in all conditions and solidify the improved technique.
If you need any further help with your Chipping please don't hesitate to book in a lesson with myself at David Waters Golf.
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