herr_ryan
New member
So I was at the range yesterday working on my short game. I started off hitting the ball very well, hitting nice, easy pitches to the pin about 35 yards away on the short-game range. To make a long story short, I went from there to not being able to get the ball airborne over the course of about two buckets. I had some interim success with a few different ideas (one of which was Phil's "hinge and hold" technique), but I got to thinking about a combination of things which led me to come up with a solution that worked quite well.
One teacher I've worked with a lot was always getting on my about an over-active right hand (insert joke here). Strangely, though, he didn't really have much in the way of a solution for it, save for trying to get me to coordinate my arm swing and body rotation. Another teacher I worked with briefly earlier this summer made a suggestion that did wonders for my driving: practice hitting drives with your right pointer finger and thumb off the shaft (for right-handers; anyone who has read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons knows about this). It straightened out my big stick in a hurry, and what he said was, it essentially keeps your right hand from taking over.
That's where the bell kinda went off yesterday, or the light bulb if you will. So I did the same thing, but with my sand wedge. Lo and behold, it straightened me out rather quickly. I'm totally a feel player, and this did wonders for me. The other things I tried were rotating the face open more consciously on the way back (which worked for a bit), trying to have the grip beat the clubhead to the ball (which worked for a bit), trying to really bow my wrist at impact, I mean really bow it (which also worked briefly, but caused wicked pulls), keeping the bend in my right wrist through impact (also worked briefly).
You'll notice I said all those things worked briefly, and they did, but apparently none of them got to the underlying problem, which was my right hand being overactive and basically ruining my rhythm. This one is going into the books as a great SOS drill if I really get off kilter. And actually now that I think about it, this is going into my regular practice routine to ingrain the proper feeling of the hands working together.
If anyone else has a lot of trouble with pitching (or chipping) the ball, I'd recommend giving it a try, and I'd love to see if it helps anybody.
Just thought I'd share.
One teacher I've worked with a lot was always getting on my about an over-active right hand (insert joke here). Strangely, though, he didn't really have much in the way of a solution for it, save for trying to get me to coordinate my arm swing and body rotation. Another teacher I worked with briefly earlier this summer made a suggestion that did wonders for my driving: practice hitting drives with your right pointer finger and thumb off the shaft (for right-handers; anyone who has read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons knows about this). It straightened out my big stick in a hurry, and what he said was, it essentially keeps your right hand from taking over.
That's where the bell kinda went off yesterday, or the light bulb if you will. So I did the same thing, but with my sand wedge. Lo and behold, it straightened me out rather quickly. I'm totally a feel player, and this did wonders for me. The other things I tried were rotating the face open more consciously on the way back (which worked for a bit), trying to have the grip beat the clubhead to the ball (which worked for a bit), trying to really bow my wrist at impact, I mean really bow it (which also worked briefly, but caused wicked pulls), keeping the bend in my right wrist through impact (also worked briefly).
You'll notice I said all those things worked briefly, and they did, but apparently none of them got to the underlying problem, which was my right hand being overactive and basically ruining my rhythm. This one is going into the books as a great SOS drill if I really get off kilter. And actually now that I think about it, this is going into my regular practice routine to ingrain the proper feeling of the hands working together.
If anyone else has a lot of trouble with pitching (or chipping) the ball, I'd recommend giving it a try, and I'd love to see if it helps anybody.
Just thought I'd share.
:act-up: