Re: Quickie Pitching Video
Originally Posted by
mvmac 
Awesome video Erik!
What does the back stroke feel like to you? When I worked with Dave, he told me to feel the knuckles on my right hand facing downward. It gave me a good idea of what it's like to expose the bounce and to get the club head moving without the hands going back too far. Just curious to hear what your "feel" is.
That's a good feeling, and I use that feeling when I want to really drag the clubhead in low and inside for an even higher shot. But I don't want to feel that on a normal pitch shot because what feels natural to me is already very much where I want to be, so adding that feeling over-does it for a stock pitch (in my motion).
In other words, that feeling doesn't have the clubhead riding up the plane - it has the clubface opening a little and the clubhead, if the golfer gets to P2 on a pitch, being behind the hands a little bit more than on a full-swing. Since that's something I constantly watch for on the full-swing, "natural" to me is a bit behind the hands anyway. That's why I could probably hinge the wrists a little more quickly as well - because I could also hinge them a little more quickly in the full swing too.
Originally Posted by
Zeph Where I struggle is with the shorter chips where you have to be very cute. I often end up being afraid of hitting it too far, and end up blading the ball or something like that.
I understand. In those cases I feel as if my pivot through is very, very small and very, very slow, and that the ONLY thing getting the club to the ground is gravity. No added wrist or anything else. And the transition can't be jerky, of course.
Additionally, low hands will add loft and thus let you make a slightly more aggressive motion. A short pitch from really thick rough becomes so, so, so much easier when you can use loft and bounce to swing rather briskly with some confidence.
Towards the end of the day I practiced hitting some shots which missed the roof of the area seen in the videos by a foot or two. Dave and I tried to hit the ball as high as we could using a launch monitor once - he got to 75° and I got to 73, which is pretty high considering that the friction of the ball on the face (path) still accounts for SOME of the ball's initial direction.
Originally Posted by
Zeph Most of the time when chipping, I'm just of the green and may not want to carry the ball all that far. Perhaps I'm chipping onto a downhill green, where I have to be very careful with the speed.
And if the ball's sitting up in the rough a bit, a chipping (leading edge) motion is fine, because there's some margin for error, right.
P.S. More generally, practice hitting a pitch shot that goes one yard. You can even do it in your house. Feel all the same components - wrist hinge, lag, pivot, soft arms and elbows - and try to hit the ball almost nowhere.
