It seems I was mistaken and that there might be more than three readers out there! Jay, pseudo-son, requested more golf related posts. I'm happy to oblige and I happen to have a story to relate.
At the local range, there are range rats, who are there most days. I've got to put myself in that category, though since retirement I've dropped well away from my bucket a day habit.
To service the rats, we have instructors. They have varied backgrounds and the lengths of their tenure is highly variable. They last from months to decades.
We have Stan, who has been there since the place opened, I think. We are talking at least 20 years. He has a office in the back and comes out to teach kids and adults and the odd birthday group. He and I have known each other for most of those 20 years. We have developed a friendship over the years. He puts up with my over the top technical questions and we enjoy the same threads of humor and politics.
Which leads us to "Bill." Bill has worked with Stan for probably those same 20 years. He has had a lesson with Stan every Sunday afternoon -- you can check your calendar with this. Sunday, a prime day to practice, for me has caused Bill and I to become friends too.
Bill is a nice guy, but kind of tough to teach. Stan has missed a couple of days and Steve has been picking my brains on how to chip. I chip a lot and Stan has mentioned that that is unusual. Everyone hits the long ball, but few hit the many chips.
Jay and Bill can't chip. Jay can hit it miles past me, but when we get to the green he needs to on it or the "favor" nod moves in my direction.
Bill's chipping is currently dominated with a nervous flip. Flipping is the result of a panic reaction to the fear that the club will not hit the ball. The hands get active and release the wrists.
Sadly, when this happens, the club either hits the dirt or blades the ball. The contact is not consistent and the wrist stuff is pretty scary. You can call it chipping yips and probably be accurate.
I've realized that I have this kind of wrist movement in my full swing. When I revamped the swing to fix that, I applied it to the short game as well. I always look for the "GUP" or Great Unifying Principle.
I think this is properly applied to chipping and pitching. To be consistent, you have to present the club face to the ball with as little variation as possible. And that means no flipping. I'm simplifying this a bit as there are shots where this is not true. But for the basic chip, pitch, iron, or wood, this is accurate.
The question is how to pass this on to Bill. Stan will tell you, if you ask, that he really ought to charge extra for lesson if the student is an engineer. You can't just tell them what to do, you have to explain all the whys and hows too. Much, too much work, and then they might not believe you!
Bill is not an engineer, but he has a high order of anxiety in his golf game. He is currently worried about the short game and like many of us, got on YouTube to look for answers.
"OK, fine. You're flipping. Just rotate your shoulders back and then through and keep your wrists firm. Like this." I said and demonstrated - chip, chip, chip.
"I see. I think I got it," said Bill and then proceeded to flip, flip, flip.
"You're still flipping. Hold the wrist angle past your left thigh."
Flip, flip, flip. "There is this guy on YouTube who says that you can watch the club head going back and then, I forget what it was, but it was something important," says Bill.
"Don't worry about the club head, it will get there. Trust in gravity and basic physics -- the club head will be there in due time."
Flip, flip, flip.
I grab the club. "Ok, rock back and forth," I said. He does and I force the grip and his hands past his thigh. "Just like that!"
"Now I see. Ok." Flip, flip, flip.
"I have to go, but work on that!" I beat a retreat. Perhaps he can't be helped. But this is not an unusual problem, but maybe Bill won't get it. I might mention that Bill is a very good golfer. Approaching 70 years old, and still shooting in the 70s. Except when things go wrong and then the nightmares start.
I thought about this over the next couple of days. One of the drills that I did to trust that the club would move the ball efficiently was to practice putting with a wedge. Because the wedge weighs more than the ball, a putt with the wedge will create a ball speed faster than the speed of the wedge. This is true of all of the clubs and is known as smash factor. The wedge has the least smash factor due to its club face angle, but the ball will still be accelerated to a faster speed. So you can make a slow putting motion and watch the ball leap onto the green. Enough of those and you begin to believe that the club will do its work without any help required.
Like all shots, chipping comes down to trust. Whip the shoulders around and trust the legs to get into position, the wrists will hinge and unhinge and by God, the club will whip around and launch the ball. If you trust this, you will not try to help and helping screws up everything!
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