How do you play wedge shots of different distances? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How do you play wedge shots of different distances? (Video) - by Pete Styles

I often ask golfers if they are hitting their wedges and they are trying to hit different distances, what is it that you are changing, what is it that you are doing to vary the distance? And most people would say to me, “Oh I hit it harder, or I hit it softer.” And I have to cringe a little bit because I think; well that is not the right technique. Yes, you will have faster club head speed and slower club head speed to hit longer and shorter shots, but hitting the ball harder and softer isn’t really the right way to go about controlling your distance. So, what they are implying is they would set up to every chip shots whether its 20 yards or 100 yards in the same position. They would then make the same length of swing and on one of them they would slow down and they would go 20 yards, and on the next one they would wallop it and it would go 100 yards. And it’s very difficult to control that because you are simply guessing on your downswing about how hard you are going to hit it.

A much better technique and much better way of changing this is change the length of your swing, not necessarily the force of your swing. So by changing the length of our swing we can still actually accelerate and hit the ball with nice commitment and less or more speed. So for a shorter shot I would have a short backswing and then I would accelerate through. So I am still hitting the ball quite hard just from a short swing that would go a short distance. A middle length pitch shot, longer and still accelerate through, and a big pitch shot longer and still accelerate through. So it’s about changing the length of your swing not necessarily the force of your swing. So the next time you are chipping and pitching, consider that you are going to change the length of your backswing, but you are always going to accelerate through with a nice little zip through the ball. And that’s the best way to change your pitching distances. 2015-03-31

I often ask golfers if they are hitting their wedges and they are trying to hit different distances, what is it that you are changing, what is it that you are doing to vary the distance? And most people would say to me, “Oh I hit it harder, or I hit it softer.” And I have to cringe a little bit because I think; well that is not the right technique. Yes, you will have faster club head speed and slower club head speed to hit longer and shorter shots, but hitting the ball harder and softer isn’t really the right way to go about controlling your distance. So, what they are implying is they would set up to every chip shots whether its 20 yards or 100 yards in the same position. They would then make the same length of swing and on one of them they would slow down and they would go 20 yards, and on the next one they would wallop it and it would go 100 yards. And it’s very difficult to control that because you are simply guessing on your downswing about how hard you are going to hit it.

A much better technique and much better way of changing this is change the length of your swing, not necessarily the force of your swing. So by changing the length of our swing we can still actually accelerate and hit the ball with nice commitment and less or more speed. So for a shorter shot I would have a short backswing and then I would accelerate through. So I am still hitting the ball quite hard just from a short swing that would go a short distance. A middle length pitch shot, longer and still accelerate through, and a big pitch shot longer and still accelerate through. So it’s about changing the length of your swing not necessarily the force of your swing. So the next time you are chipping and pitching, consider that you are going to change the length of your backswing, but you are always going to accelerate through with a nice little zip through the ball. And that’s the best way to change your pitching distances.