Should I Hinge My Wrists More When Chipping At Golf? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Should I Hinge My Wrists More When Chipping At Golf? (Video) - by Pete Styles

So a really simple answer to this question if – should I hinge my wrist more when I’m chipping, the answer is no, you definitely shouldn’t. A lot of people when they get around the green think because it’s only a short shot well they can just flick it on, they don’t need to move their legs, they don’t need to move their body, just flick the wrist and the ball will go onto the green. And it may do but it goes out with a very inconsistent very difficult to control strike as well. So it’s much better if we can hit these chip shots with less wrist hinge or more importantly less wrist cock. So as we’re setting out to the golf ball in a normal chipping stance the club moves away from the ball, this is pretty much dominated by the shoulders. So the shoulders and the arms draw the club back, the shoulders and the arms draw the club through and you’ll notice in the follow through very little wrist cock still.

Now if I needed to pitch the ball out there and hit the ball a little bit further, the pitch we would describe as going further than a chip. If I was to pitch the ball, I might find that without wrist hinge or wrist cock I’m a bit limited. So we would suggest well let’s let the wrist hinge up and let’s let the wrist hinge and cock through. But for these chip shots, very specific little low shots that don’t go very far, the answer should you cock or hinge your wrists is no. Place the ball in middle of your feet of a narrow stance with your hands down at the bottom, put your body weight onto your left side for the right-handed golfer but then drill the club back with the left shoulder. The left shoulder pushes away and you can see here I haven’t really hinged or cocked my wrists, and as I push through I get to the same position on the follow through. And a really great little exercise just to see whether you’re doing this correctly, is to slide your hands down to the base of the club, hold just above the club head. That would position the shaft against your front hip. Make a little backswing with your shoulders, and the shaft would stay close to your hip. If I’ve hinged my wrists, the shaft moved well away from my hip. So keep the shaft quite close to your hip on the way back, push through and feel how the shaft now separates from the body. If I do this correctly, it stays close to my hip here and separates my body here. Importantly, it doesn’t separate early and then hit me. The hitting bit hurts, you’ll soon learn that you don’t want to flick your wrist and hit yourself on the side of the body if you’re hinging and flicking, you’re going to be hitting yourself; there’s the problem. When we do that in a proper chipping technique, back the shaft runs just past my body and through the shaft again runs past my body. If I flick my wrist and hinge, I’ll just slice myself in half with this club and here. So hitting through, keeping some width and not flicking the wrists. So an answer to the question, ‘Should you hinge your wrist when you’re chipping?’ The answer should be no. Try and keep your wrists not locked out but fairly firm push it through fairly to more of a putting motion rather than a flicking motion. 2014-08-13

So a really simple answer to this question if – should I hinge my wrist more when I’m chipping, the answer is no, you definitely shouldn’t. A lot of people when they get around the green think because it’s only a short shot well they can just flick it on, they don’t need to move their legs, they don’t need to move their body, just flick the wrist and the ball will go onto the green. And it may do but it goes out with a very inconsistent very difficult to control strike as well. So it’s much better if we can hit these chip shots with less wrist hinge or more importantly less wrist cock. So as we’re setting out to the golf ball in a normal chipping stance the club moves away from the ball, this is pretty much dominated by the shoulders. So the shoulders and the arms draw the club back, the shoulders and the arms draw the club through and you’ll notice in the follow through very little wrist cock still.

Now if I needed to pitch the ball out there and hit the ball a little bit further, the pitch we would describe as going further than a chip. If I was to pitch the ball, I might find that without wrist hinge or wrist cock I’m a bit limited. So we would suggest well let’s let the wrist hinge up and let’s let the wrist hinge and cock through. But for these chip shots, very specific little low shots that don’t go very far, the answer should you cock or hinge your wrists is no. Place the ball in middle of your feet of a narrow stance with your hands down at the bottom, put your body weight onto your left side for the right-handed golfer but then drill the club back with the left shoulder. The left shoulder pushes away and you can see here I haven’t really hinged or cocked my wrists, and as I push through I get to the same position on the follow through.

And a really great little exercise just to see whether you’re doing this correctly, is to slide your hands down to the base of the club, hold just above the club head. That would position the shaft against your front hip. Make a little backswing with your shoulders, and the shaft would stay close to your hip. If I’ve hinged my wrists, the shaft moved well away from my hip. So keep the shaft quite close to your hip on the way back, push through and feel how the shaft now separates from the body. If I do this correctly, it stays close to my hip here and separates my body here. Importantly, it doesn’t separate early and then hit me. The hitting bit hurts, you’ll soon learn that you don’t want to flick your wrist and hit yourself on the side of the body if you’re hinging and flicking, you’re going to be hitting yourself; there’s the problem.

When we do that in a proper chipping technique, back the shaft runs just past my body and through the shaft again runs past my body. If I flick my wrist and hinge, I’ll just slice myself in half with this club and here. So hitting through, keeping some width and not flicking the wrists. So an answer to the question, ‘Should you hinge your wrist when you’re chipping?’ The answer should be no. Try and keep your wrists not locked out but fairly firm push it through fairly to more of a putting motion rather than a flicking motion.