Chipping is one of the most problematic areas for beginners in golf – for several reasons.

1. The swing is much shorter, much more compact – allowing for little time to square the hands at impact.
2. Different LIES – each lie is different, hence each chip is a little different. This is unlike a tee shot – where, for the most part, you are guaranteed a near level lie.

The ONE Fundamental of Chipping

The ball has to be struck with a crisp, downward blow. That is all there is to the chip. If you can accomplish this, you can chip with any club – from any lie whatsoever. I have even successfully chipped out of sand bunkers.

The ONE Technique

While there are many ways to foil a chip, there is only ONE way to hit it correctly (and that is with a crisp, downward blow). Here is a simple technique for accomplishing this:

The idea is to keep the grip ahead – waaay ahead of the clubface – at all times.

To get a feel for this, simply grip down on an iron (say your PW).

Now swing back and through WITHOUT letting the grip touch your body (see image below).  This should result in a sharp, downward strike !

The Analogy with common CHIPPING Instruction

Most commonly, instructors will ask you to maintain a straight LEFT WRIST while chipping. This is good advice – but guess what?  If you just follow the drill above, you will automatically attain a straight left wrist at impact (see image above).

Also, golf coaches almost FORCE you to keep you weight on your FRONT foot. I found this very difficult to do.   However, the drill above takes care of this aspect too.

You see – the whole idea behind keeping the weight on your front foot is to provide a DOWNWARD blow to the ball. Simply keeping your grip ahead of the ball will accomplish exactly this. 

Summary

This SINGLE chipping drill is all you need to chip like the pros. It teaches you to keep your hands ahead of the club at all times.  Which leads to the one fundamental of the chip – a crisp, downward strike!

Once you get used to this feeling of the hands being ahead of the club at all times, you will be able to chip with ANY club – including a 3 iron.  Moreover, no lie will prove to be difficult – uphill lies, downhill lies…even bunker lies (provided the ball isn’t buried too deep).

In fact, I routinely chip it out of bunkers – as do several other golfers.

Choking down on the grip provides you with far more control – whereas keeping the grip away from the body results in a downward strike.

Try this for a couple of days and see if it infuses a certain ‘crispiness’ to your chip shots.

Questions? Comments?

The post ONE step to better chipping appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.

Chipping is, for some reason,  the single most challenging part of golf – for most amateurs. Dealing with different lies, different clubs – and a shorter backswing  – all add to the complexity of the stroke. However, the fundamentals of the chipping stroke are no different than those of the full swing.

1. You sill need a (slight) weight shift
2. You still need a wrist hinge that can be released on your downswing.

Chipping and the idea of SOFTNESS

Chipping is, of all the strokes in golf, the SOFTEST. It mandates SOFT shoulders, SOFT forearms and SOFT wrists. Try and IGNORE any of those SOFT components, and you are headed for trouble. The best chippers also understand this SOFTNESS concept. Why is this important? Because these SOFT shoulders and SOFT forearms – need to be part of your full swing as well ! That’s correct. All too often, our upper body TENSION (forearms, chest, shoulders) is far too high – for the full swing. Somehow, our mind is convinced that we need our upper body to perform a radically different movement for the full swing – compared to the chip. This is erroneous. The movement is identical – hence the starting tension needs to be identical. The chipping stroke is a miniature version of the full golf swing – as any (good) pro will tell you.  There are a few SETUP related tweaks – but no tweaks when it comes to the swinging of the arms – or the tension in the arms.

   It took me about half a dozen coaches (two of whom were short game masters) to discover this. Most coaches DO NOT seem to emphasize this enough. In fact, they focus solely on the ‘weight on the forward foot’ for chipping. Other than that, they have very little to add to their chipping lesson. Soft hands, soft forearms, soft shoulders –  and keeping your wrists CLOSE on the chip (both back and through), is key to getting the FEEL of the chipping stroke. In fact, everything else is fairly secondary to this. The weight on the forward foot is kind of a no-brainer – everyone figures that out. However, HOW to get the weight on the forward foot can be a bit confusing. Do you rotate your hips? Do you lean your upper body towards the target? These are all VALID ways to get your weight forward.

It is actually a gentle hip rotation of the RIGHT hip (towards the target) – so that your right knee kicks in the same direction (towards the target). If this happens, all your weight will automagically appear on your left foot. This is the simplest way I have found of accomplishing the ‘weight on the forward foot’.

Before your round of golf

Again, because of the SOFT shoulders and forearms that are central to the chipping stroke, if you can practice just a few chips prior to your next round, chances are your full swing will also perform better. The worst thing you can do with 10 minutes before a round, is to hit your driver (unless you are working solely on TEMPO –by trying to swing the driver SLOOOOOWWLY).

Summary

Chipping turned me from a 20 handicapper to a 12 – in a matter of weeks. It is the quickest and most important way to lower your handicap. More importantly, it acts as a precursor to the full-swing – and can make a dramatic difference to your rhythm and tempo during your next round of golf.

The post Why Chipping is the most important thing to practice appeared first on Anuj Varma, Hands-On Technology Architect, Clean Air Activist.