Horrific Pitching

[Jay845]

Hi All,
I am terrible between 50 -100 yards. I am not very good at 3/4 shots. My ball contact is inconsistent with these shots (thin and fat) resulting in poor distance control. I also struggle with accuracy as well.

For those good wedge players what are some of the keys to your wedge play?

 

[softconsult]

I will use myself as the example. Took Brian only one pitch to say, "Pop Out". I was too out and up, and thus too
steep coming down. Getting the hand path more in and around fixed the problem on the spot.

A couple other basics. If don't keep your weight on your forward foot, and instead shift your weight to your back foot, then on these short shots you really risk not getting back and thus your low point is not consistent. Result can be Fats and Thins.

Second. If you don't keep your hands in front of the ball it impact, you will have much more potential for fats and thins.

Finally, you may be doing an all arms swing. Hitting it with your pivot using minimal arms swing works much better. Brian's "Confessions of a Former Flipper" shows this with great clarity.

 

[Dan44GT]

Yes, I agree. COFF is a great video for you and overall better pitching/impact. My quick advice is to monitor your divots and make a lot of deliberate slow motion swings feeling a solid impact condition. When checking your divots, I would put down a couple tees (like a gate drill) and see where the divot starts, and how deep it is, and of course consistency.

 

[niblick1]

Two other thoughts -

1) are you aiming far enough left? getting underplane on those shots can make for inconsistent contact.

2) are you overpowering the shots? try hitting a bunch of shots with very little torque, a pure swinging backswing like Brian describes in Soft Draw video, very little shaft lean, and let the weight of the club and gravity settle the clubhead on the ball (try lightly "dropping the sugar" on the ball, to use NHA2 terminology).

I was really struggling with these shots until this summer.

The people I see struggle the most on these either flip and don't use their pivot, or use a very fast motion for a shot that doesn't need it.

 

[nwb]

Hi All,
I am terrible between 50 -100 yards. I am not very good at 3/4 shots. My ball contact is inconsistent with these shots (thin and fat) resulting in poor distance control. I also struggle with accuracy as well.

For those good wedge players what are some of the keys to your wedge play?

Can i also suggest an old Faldo drill i go back to when i am off with wedge play. In one of his old videos he was hitting pitches with a towel under both arm pits. Just 3/4 swings. When I do this for my wedge play it really helps me bring my pivot into the pitch - key for me and good wedge play.

 

[rogerdodger]

learning to swing left after impact has really helped my pitching. It is easy to go too out when pitching, which results in low shots and shanks. This is an issue I really struggled with until I learned to swing left with my arms after impact.

 

[Jay845]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think my lack o pivot is probably an issue.

I will try to work on these over the weekend and let you know how things turn out.

Cheers,
Jay