Chipping/Short pitching revisited

Bradley Hughes Cuts Loose Ask Bradley Hughes!
1

Hi all and a virtual beer to Bradley :stuck_out_tongue:

I have been working on my chipping after the winter break and rather than tagging onto the end of the other thread I have started a new one :unamused:

Here is moi with the new improved chipping action mrk I

I would really appreciate critique from one and all but obviously Bradley and Lag especially

My set up here is as follows

Set up square, rotate open with body, open club back to target but keep forward lean out of the equation, lean spine forwards to put weight left and swing back, through and let ball pop up

Simples (sort of)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbMtd6Uu2Rc[/youtube]

Pardon the dark

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That looks very excellent welshdā€¦nice job
a real marked improvement from the original one we saw a few months back

The dark is actually a great backdrop for people to take notice of something:
The feet/hips/shoulders are all aligned leftā€¦ the path of the swing is in line with the feet/hips/shoulders in a slicing action-- BUT- where does the ball go?

The only thing I would revisit is probably getting that ball back in the stance a little moreā€¦ that will make that sternum lean forward even better for you and really get a good pinch on the ball

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Muchos appreciated Mr H!!!

As I rotate around, the ball goes forward in the stance relative to target :question: Lightbulb :bulb:

How is your game doing btw?

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I agree with Hugo about ball position.

Experiment twith the ball moving forward and back in your stance and youā€™ll find you can get low checkers and soft lobbers.

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welshdentist

Looks good like how upper body is in front less chance of skull or chunk. :slight_smile:

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What kind of primordial evil creeps at the edge of that Stygian darkness? Clearly it fears a crisply struck Titleist pitch and the cold steel grasped by a warrior poet. All of Wales should feel indebted that you alone keep it at bay each night! Fight on my modern day CuChulainn! :wink:

Captain Chaos

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LOL Captn,

Shame iā€™m in deepest darkest Surrey :blush:

I remember my roots though :wink:

And ABS rules the night !!!

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Hi guys,

Thanks for putting up with my previously unending quest to sort out my chipping and short pitching.

A light bulb for me tonight in terms of set up. I have been working very hard trying to get my set up right when something happened this evening that screamed ligth bulb :bulb: :bulb: :bulb:

I was working on my "twomaster"s set up whilst thinking about whether I swing or hit with chips. I have always liked the idea of a simple bending and straightening of the right arm to get my chipping motion as simple as possible. Now from what I have learnt from here about true hitting I realised that this is swinging not hitting for my chipping motion. I then got to thinking about how when I used to do a lot of the Lynn Blake chipping drills, and when my troubles all began I felt I was taking a real nice shallow divot, but behind the ball which snowballed into my chipping ā€œissuesā€

I then realised I had low point issues, not the yips. Once I got Bradleys idea into my head I realised as long as I do not move up down left or right all I really need to do on a short shot is set myself in place and allow my right arm to bend and straighten. I noticed however that I set up originally with my right arm straight and blade square. Not only did I have low point set for behind the ball, it was with a square leading edge :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

After looking through the images TM had posted I stumbled upon the following.

When I set up open I set the club a few inches ahead of the ball with my arms comfortably straight, stance narrow and an imaginary ball opposite my left instep. I then move the club back to the ā€œrealā€ ball and set the blade at the target. Regrip and the right arm is just a touch bent as I have moved it back of low point. Swing back with as much right elbow bend and wrist cock and simply straighten through the ball along my stance line.

Instant ball ā€œpopā€ up

I seem to process things slowly sometimes, and real fast other times. This has been a slow one, but has helped with see what the difference between a hit and swing is in TGM terms.

Video below hopefully explains this.

It is a feeling for me to set up at what I perceive to be ā€œlow pointā€ when both arms are straight, along my open plane line.

Thanks for all the help, especially to lag and tmā€¦

I has taken me almost two years to get to this point where the ball pops up high, and goes this distance with a grossly shortened swing. It is as if I cannot strighten the right arm before the ball and hit it fat :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

I am having a beer to celebrate and sorry if the vid is dark, but the pop up of ball and crisp contact is just golf porn for me this eveningā€¦

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee7v5rpoTfw[/youtube]

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Glad to hear you persisted and didnā€™t give in to the saucer pass:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhJ6ZB8koIo[/youtube]

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That saucer pass is hilarious, also Eyes closed in a bunker - ā€œHi this is Jamesā€¦ AH WHAT THE, GET OFF MY FACEā€ Hahaha

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Saucer pass!?! :unamused: Cripes almightyā€¦this guy has never played my course. If I tried that from even the fringe the club would be bouncing so much that the gods only know where the club would strike the ball! Saucer pass indeedā€¦more like ā€œpass the sauceā€ at the bar on the 19th hole to wash away bad memories. :wink:

CĆŗChulainn - some time back I was questioning Lag about opposing pressuresā€¦specifically the hands. He stated that he putts using a clockwise twisting pressure in the left hand and a counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise for non-North Americans) twisting pressure with the right hand. (as viewed from above the grip)

Each pressure negates the other, but what I found it does wonderfully is lock the hands and allow the wrists to hinge properly and freely! Try this with your chipping/pitching or even full shots if you wish. I consider myself to have a solid short game (minus sand playā€¦Iā€™m never in the sand to practice), however, with the opposing pressures in my hands I feel like I cannot miss. Try it if you wish.

Good luck and keep fighting the good fight.

Captain Chaos

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Quote from Bradley on the Ask Bradley Hughes thread

It is amazing how much you have to lean left to fall over left. I tried it and it is LOADS. I am surprised how much weight can sneak centrally.

This and Lags short/tight/lagpressure chip and run technique have saved me from quitting golf due to my short game.

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Next time you have the camera out Bradley, is it possible to grab some footage of yourself chipping various shots, noting the approx. distance the ball carries and rolls? Iā€™d love to get an idea of the sort of tempo and travel involved, if indeed all pros are pretty similar. What you would say is the biggest visual difference in chipping is between pros and say those above 3 or 4 handicap?

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Iā€™ll see what I can come up withā€¦in the meantime, hereā€™s a great way to visualize chipping

  1. How much fringe is there? / How much green is there? 50/50ā€”60/40ā€¦70/30?
  2. Stick a ball in the palm of your hand and crouch down near ground level looking along the target line
  3. Underhand throw the ball onto the green and let it roll the correct distance to the hole.

Doing this will tell you all you need to know about trajectory and club selection needed for these shots around the green.

The longer the shot the lower the trajectory with more run. The shorter the shot becomes the more lob and less roll. It gives you a real good feel of what is going on with a chip/pitch.
Remember we pretty much try to land the ball in the same spot (6-10 feet or so onto the putting surface)ā€¦so trajectory (club selection) then dictates the roll and the end result. The shorter the swing the less can go wrong and the setup I encourage promotes down-thru and accelerate

1 Like
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Hello Bradley,

i have a question, when you set up open like you do in the first video and have a cutting motion across the ball, i assume the ball will go slightly right once it starts rolling on the green. How do you compensate your aiming for this drift to the right? When i practice chipping around the green i always feel that the ones without any kind of sidespin have the highest success rate going in, and that i have a hard time holing them when they do have noticable side spin.

Might be a silly question, but what are the advantages for having an open stance when hitting a normal chip shot over a pretty square set up position?

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I donā€™t think or feel there is enough speed or swing motion to impart very much side spin with these type of shots, so I never worry about it as I donā€™t feel like I get that action on the ball.
The open stance/setup is more for setting the body weight / c.o.g /sternum ahead of the ball to produce the crisp little downward strike required for most of these shots AND allows the club to be a hair open in relation to our aim so we can use the bounce and not get caught into the trap of digging/fatting our chips/pitches
I feel the slight open/across swing allows me to get the consistent strike each time, the similar trajectory I am after each time, and a consistent carry to roll ratio each time.
If you feel side spin is becoming a little too evident for your liking- just donā€™t open up so much at address and keep the swing a little less cutting and reassess how the ball behaves and then adjust accordingly

The key to good chipping is [size=150]consistent strike[/size]- [size=150]consistent trajectory[/size] (so we can hit our intended landing spot) and [size=150]consistent roll[/size] (so we always know where to land the ball to allow for that similar distance roll that each club gives us)

People get in trouble chipping/pitching when the ball reacts differently on each chip or pitch they make- If we can find our one good stock standard shot- we are then on the way to better results

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Hello Bradley,

iĀ“ve been working on a more open stance the last couple of days, since as i said before i always was pretty square to the ball. Now i pretty much tried to emulate welshdentists position for setup. What i realised is, when my shoulders are a bit too closed in relation to my stance/hips iĀ“m in inconsistency land, but once i opened up my shoulders to match my stance/hips its just so much better. I didnt really had any big problems chipping with a square setup before but once i got all the components together my consistency increased imo. Where it became very clear that this is way better than setting up square was when i was pitching.

Would it be okay if i post a video of a few chip shots in this thread to get some feedback?

Anyways, thanks very much, this thread already was really helpful!

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kafka01,

Only if that demonstration includes a scantily clad femaleā€¦otherwise - no, it is NOT okay to post video. :wink:

Captain Chaos

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Absolutelyā€¦and if there is a scantily clad female (for Capt Caos) all the better for a longer response :smiley:

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Captain,

Just watching your back as an ABS brother. Hope your comments on this forum donā€™t affect your prenupt.