"3 Releases: The Short Game System" by Daniel Grieve

[iacas]

Discuss "3 Releases: The Short Game System" by Daniel Grieve here.

[Ty_Webb]

I bought this after watching Rick Shiels's video with Dan Grieve. I started reading it, but I was not invested in it at the time and wasn't really focused on it, so haven't given it a chance. I'm going to read it over the winter and see if it might help me. My chipping is comfortably the weakest part of my game (22 years of chip yips will do that to you), so there is a little bit of anything that might help I'll try. Curious if anyone else has read this or found it helpful. 

[dennyjones]

I just bought the Kindle version.   

[Clemsonfan]

It is a great book and, like you, bought it after watching the YouTube video with Rick Shiel.

This book has been the most helpful instruction I have received all year. Using Release 3 out of the bunkers has helped me convert more sand saves this year than I can ever recall. If I didn’t have the yips I could have easily made a few more! I highly recommend!

[Ty_Webb]

I finished reading this last night. I like a lot the idea of having 3 releases for different types of shot. There is a discussion on another site about whether steep with low bounce is better or shallow with lots of bounce (I mention it because I know Erik is involved in that discussion). So why not both? I've been practising the different releases daily in my backyard off a mat and so far so good. Both releases feel natural to me and I can see the different flights. I'm not sure that I have them quite right. I'd love to go see Dan in person, but he's on the other side of the Atlantic and busy so not really feasible. He does have online lessons available, so I may bite the bullet and send him some videos and see how that goes. 

Anyway - the thing that I really like is his pitching ideology. It's sort of like the clockface idea, where you have a 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 swing with each club and see how far they all go. I've always struggled with that, because 9:00 swing can have lots of different "intentions" about speed so my 9:00 with 54 say can go a whole heap of different distances. Dan's idea is a different set up for each swing, which naturally limits how far you swing. Three set ups, but then make a pitch shot swing from each one and see how far they all go. Not going to get into too much detail, but that's the gist of it. I thoroughly recommend the book if you're not already elite short game anyway.

As to my chipping - if you're brave, feel free to read on:

I think it was in 2001 - somewhere around then anyway - I walked onto the chipping green at Hunstanton in Norfolk in England and put a few balls down. I took the club back and I couldn't release it. Literally couldn't do it. The ball would go 30* to the right and half the distance I was trying to hit it. Such a weird feeling. I remember thinking it was funny at the time. I was pretty hungover and coffee'd up, which I think was related at least in part. That over time got worse. At its peak, what it feels like is I have a bomb in my hands. The fuse is in my right elbow. The fuse gets lit at the top of my backswing and it explodes at impact. I basically have no concept of where the clubface is on my downswing. It feels way open, but I feel like if I release it, it's going 30* left and twice as far as I want it to. And that is what happens if I force myself to release it. So when this shows up, I'll putt from virtually anywhere. I wound up with long putts having the same issue. I started using the claw and that has shut down the yip for my putting completely, but the claw is no use for chipping. I can't get any speed into the shot. 

The annoying thing is that I come out some days and it's just not there. I can chip fine. People said that it's a technique issue and not mental, but I can do virtually anything with it and it works reasonably. So I can take it vertically upwards, flip it around behind my right knee and then go 20* in to out and produce a functional chip if I don't yip it. If I do yip it then I can be making my most standard chipping stroke and I can double hit it, move it a yard, or drill it over the green. 

I was lucky enough to win a lesson with Mark Roe - he's the guy who didn't swap cards with Jesper Parnevik at the 2003 Open Championship at RSG and wound up DQ'd when he was at or around the lead on Saturday night. He's done a lot of work with some very good players (Ryder Cup players for example). He heard my story - I told him most of what's above. He said it's definitely a technique thing at its base. He took one look at me flub a chip and said "try that again". I didn't realize it, but he had put a club against my left hip. I slid my hip forward and he stopped it, and the club just released naturally. Quite eye opening. He told me that I had been sliding my hips forwards in the downstroke, which was creating too much speed and too much shaft lean. Consequently, if I released the club normally, it was going to go way too far and subconsciously I knew that, so I had been fearful of releasing it. He gave me a few other things to work with and lots of them help to at least limit the impact of it when I yip. So now my yippy chips go about 10* right and about 20% too short. Not good, but way more playable than how it used to be.

So anyway, now I believe that a yip starts with a technical issue that manifests itself in your subconscious messing with your execution. Then over time, that feeling becomes ingrained and it becomes a mental issue too. At that point, fixing the technical issue is still going to leave behind some of that fear and yippiness. If you find yourself yipping it (really yipping it and not just catching a few chips heavy or thin) I would recommend getting a lesson from a short game instructor asap.

And to bring this back to the point, I can pull off all three released in my backyard from a mat, without hardly any yipping. I'm excited to bring it onto the course once the weather improves and I can play again.

[dennyjones]

1 hour ago, Ty_Webb said:

I finished reading this last night. I like a lot the idea of having 3 releases for different types of shot. There is a discussion on another site about whether steep with low bounce is better or shallow with lots of bounce (I mention it because I know Erik is involved in that discussion). So why not both? I've been practising the different releases daily in my backyard off a mat and so far so good. Both releases feel natural to me and I can see the different flights. I'm not sure that I have them quite right. I'd love to go see Dan in person, but he's on the other side of the Atlantic and busy so not really feasible. He does have online lessons available, so I may bite the bullet and send him some videos and see how that goes. 

Anyway - the thing that I really like is his pitching ideology. It's sort of like the clockface idea, where you have a 7:30, 9:00 and 10:30 swing with each club and see how far they all go. I've always struggled with that, because 9:00 swing can have lots of different "intentions" about speed so my 9:00 with 54 say can go a whole heap of different distances. Dan's idea is a different set up for each swing, which naturally limits how far you swing. Three set ups, but then make a pitch shot swing from each one and see how far they all go. Not going to get into too much detail, but that's the gist of it. I thoroughly recommend the book if you're not already elite short game anyway.

As to my chipping - if you're brave, feel free to read on:

I think it was in 2001 - somewhere around then anyway - I walked onto the chipping green at Hunstanton in Norfolk in England and put a few balls down. I took the club back and I couldn't release it. Literally couldn't do it. The ball would go 30* to the right and half the distance I was trying to hit it. Such a weird feeling. I remember thinking it was funny at the time. I was pretty hungover and coffee'd up, which I think was related at least in part. That over time got worse. At its peak, what it feels like is I have a bomb in my hands. The fuse is in my right elbow. The fuse gets lit at the top of my backswing and it explodes at impact. I basically have no concept of where the clubface is on my downswing. It feels way open, but I feel like if I release it, it's going 30* left and twice as far as I want it to. And that is what happens if I force myself to release it. So when this shows up, I'll putt from virtually anywhere. I wound up with long putts having the same issue. I started using the claw and that has shut down the yip for my putting completely, but the claw is no use for chipping. I can't get any speed into the shot. 

The annoying thing is that I come out some days and it's just not there. I can chip fine. People said that it's a technique issue and not mental, but I can do virtually anything with it and it works reasonably. So I can take it vertically upwards, flip it around behind my right knee and then go 20* in to out and produce a functional chip if I don't yip it. If I do yip it then I can be making my most standard chipping stroke and I can double hit it, move it a yard, or drill it over the green. 

I was lucky enough to win a lesson with Mark Roe - he's the guy who didn't swap cards with Jesper Parnevik at the 2003 Open Championship at RSG and wound up DQ'd when he was at or around the lead on Saturday night. He's done a lot of work with some very good players (Ryder Cup players for example). He heard my story - I told him most of what's above. He said it's definitely a technique thing at its base. He took one look at me flub a chip and said "try that again". I didn't realize it, but he had put a club against my left hip. I slid my hip forward and he stopped it, and the club just released naturally. Quite eye opening. He told me that I had been sliding my hips forwards in the downstroke, which was creating too much speed and too much shaft lean. Consequently, if I released the club normally, it was going to go way too far and subconsciously I knew that, so I had been fearful of releasing it. He gave me a few other things to work with and lots of them help to at least limit the impact of it when I yip. So now my yippy chips go about 10* right and about 20% too short. Not good, but way more playable than how it used to be.

So anyway, now I believe that a yip starts with a technical issue that manifests itself in your subconscious messing with your execution. Then over time, that feeling becomes ingrained and it becomes a mental issue too. At that point, fixing the technical issue is still going to leave behind some of that fear and yippiness. If you find yourself yipping it (really yipping it and not just catching a few chips heavy or thin) I would recommend getting a lesson from a short game instructor asap.

And to bring this back to the point, I can pull off all three released in my backyard from a mat, without hardly any yipping. I'm excited to bring it onto the course once the weather improves and I can play again.

Chipping yips are real.  You aren't alone in this situation.   I've fought chip yips for a couple of years and have worked pretty hard on my short game.   My bad chips were/are either short or bladed because of poor technique.   If I did block practice I could overcome the problem until it was time to take it to the course.   I had/have a tendency to lean my upper body away from the ball although my lower body is stable.   It by far is my glaring weakness in my game.

I've spent the last winter indoors with my sand wedge hitting it to different locations, short, medium length and high shots.   The real test will be to take it to the course.  I'm kinda confident the work I've put into the short game will pay dividends   

Good luck

[Ty_Webb]

10 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Chipping yips are real.  You aren't alone in this situation.   I've fought chip yips for a couple of years and have worked pretty hard on my short game.   My bad chips were/are either short or bladed because of poor technique.   If I did block practice I could overcome the problem until it was time to take it to the course.   I had/have a tendency to lean my upper body away from the ball although my lower body is stable.   It by far is my glaring weakness in my game.

I've spent the last winter indoors with my sand wedge hitting it to different locations, short, medium length and high shots.   The real test will be to take it to the course.  I'm kinda confident the work I've put into the short game will pay dividends   

Good luck

Thanks! I know I'm not alone - it's interesting seeing what other people do to fix it. I played with a guy about 18 months ago who chipped with one hand. Yip in his other hand. I can't do that. My yip is in my right hand and my left hand isn't strong enough to do anything reliable on its own.

[iacas]

2 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

There is a discussion on another site about whether steep with low bounce is better or shallow with lots of bounce (I mention it because I know Erik is involved in that discussion). So why not both?

As you likely know, my take is similar to yours: these two methods may be at the ends of a spectrum (or the points on a triangle, or whatever), and a good player will be familiar with both ends (all three points), and hit most of their shots not at the ends/points, but by blending somewhere in the middle area/region.