Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
If you’re hitting the ball fat or you’re hitting the ball thin when golf pitching, you need to understand why this may be happening. Now this is all to do with arc, and it’s all to do with where the club is bottoming out in relation to the golf ball. So if you’re moving into impact and say you’re hitting the ball fat first. So we have the ball which is resting on the surface here. If your club is moving into impact what you want to be seeing is the ball to be hit first, then the club moving down through the turf, if you’re trying to play a standard putt shot with wrist hinge. If you’re hitting it fat, what is happening is the club is moving down, and it is contacting the ground before the ball. Then it is starting to move upwards in its angle of attack but it’s happening too light, and that’s where you get that heavy contact from.
If you’re hitting a thin shot that angle of attack is moving down either too shallow, you’re bottoming out before the club – before the ground – missing the ground, sorry. So you’re bottoming out before the ball, missing the ground. The club is rising up and is catching the ball in the equator. Or, rarely, you’re coming down so steep that you’re just hitting the ball on the top. But it’s more likely that the ball is just too far forward in the stance possibly, the swing arc is bottoming out over V2 too early, and then is rising up either hitting it thin or hitting it fat. So how do you know, first of all, that you’re doing that, and what are the fixes that you can apply? Well, if you’re hitting the ball fat or thin and that swing arc is bottoming out before the ball then you know you have a problem about that ball either being too far forward in the stance, so it’s too far forwards and your natural swing arc around here is struggling to catch up. Or if it’s more of a pitching technical problem there’s something breaking down within the swing. Generally speaking, players who fat or thin the shot will move through impact, their wrists will lose their hinge too early, the club head will try and overtake the hands too early, and they try and scoop the ball up into the air. That causes that angle of attack to really become very shallow too quickly, and the arc to bottom out before the ball. So to fix that all you need to do is focus your attention on making sure that your chest is over the ball; that your weight is on the left side. And as you take the club, by all means, please apply that little bit of wrist bend, but as you come through try and ensure that you have a little bit of shaft playing, that the left arm and shaft are nice and straight, and that you hold your finish position. If you’ve hit your shot and your wrists have broken down you will know that you have had one of these issues. If you can swing through and keep those wrists nice and firm then that will show you that might bottom out your angle of attack correctly, and hopefully you’ve not hit one of those fat or thin shots. 2016-10-26If you’re hitting the ball fat or you’re hitting the ball thin when golf pitching, you need to understand why this may be happening. Now this is all to do with arc, and it’s all to do with where the club is bottoming out in relation to the golf ball. So if you’re moving into impact and say you’re hitting the ball fat first. So we have the ball which is resting on the surface here. If your club is moving into impact what you want to be seeing is the ball to be hit first, then the club moving down through the turf, if you’re trying to play a standard putt shot with wrist hinge. If you’re hitting it fat, what is happening is the club is moving down, and it is contacting the ground before the ball. Then it is starting to move upwards in its angle of attack but it’s happening too light, and that’s where you get that heavy contact from.
If you’re hitting a thin shot that angle of attack is moving down either too shallow, you’re bottoming out before the club – before the ground – missing the ground, sorry. So you’re bottoming out before the ball, missing the ground. The club is rising up and is catching the ball in the equator. Or, rarely, you’re coming down so steep that you’re just hitting the ball on the top. But it’s more likely that the ball is just too far forward in the stance possibly, the swing arc is bottoming out over V2 too early, and then is rising up either hitting it thin or hitting it fat. So how do you know, first of all, that you’re doing that, and what are the fixes that you can apply?
Well, if you’re hitting the ball fat or thin and that swing arc is bottoming out before the ball then you know you have a problem about that ball either being too far forward in the stance, so it’s too far forwards and your natural swing arc around here is struggling to catch up. Or if it’s more of a pitching technical problem there’s something breaking down within the swing. Generally speaking, players who fat or thin the shot will move through impact, their wrists will lose their hinge too early, the club head will try and overtake the hands too early, and they try and scoop the ball up into the air. That causes that angle of attack to really become very shallow too quickly, and the arc to bottom out before the ball. So to fix that all you need to do is focus your attention on making sure that your chest is over the ball; that your weight is on the left side. And as you take the club, by all means, please apply that little bit of wrist bend, but as you come through try and ensure that you have a little bit of shaft playing, that the left arm and shaft are nice and straight, and that you hold your finish position.
If you’ve hit your shot and your wrists have broken down you will know that you have had one of these issues. If you can swing through and keep those wrists nice and firm then that will show you that might bottom out your angle of attack correctly, and hopefully you’ve not hit one of those fat or thin shots.
