Big Muscles Matter In Your Golf Short Game (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Big Muscles Matter In Your Golf Short Game (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

If we've discussed how important the big muscles are in the long game, it's now important we discuss how important the big muscles are in the short game. And it seems funny to some people that the shortest shots are actually hit with the biggest muscle groups. But the point here is that we want the big muscle groups to work nice and slowly for nice, consistent results. So particularly when we look at something like putting, sometimes in putting we are only trying to tap the ball three feet. But we don't want to just tap it three feet with the hands. Yes that will give us the correct distance sometimes, but it's not going to give us the control of that distance or the control of the direction.

So actually in putting, it's all about the big muscles just the shoulders rocking backwards and forwards. The hands and arms are completely passive. So it's this action, rocking, rocking and again activating all the big muscles. The little muscles in the feet, they are switched off. The little muscles in the hands, they're switched off. So putting is all about the big muscles. Using the big muscles in your long game will definitely help you use the big muscles in your short game too. The next hit we could look for is playing a bunker shot. And when we're playing a bunker shot, again we’re activating the big muscles particularly the big muscles in the legs. We want to get a nice setup with an open stance when we’re playing a bunker shot aiming to the left for a right handed golfer, nice little squat down in the stance, again turning the big muscles on, turning the glutes on as well. And then swinging nicely back hands and arms that’s the small muscles working here but through the ball a really big downwards turn of the big muscles. The glutes, squat down, the legs turn through and we really drive through the ball. It isn't just a case of standing and flicking at it with the hands. We are really turning through the ball nicely. And one last tip with the big muscles in the short game is going to be using your torso to chip the ball and pitch the ball. So when we’re chipping and pitching again similar to putting in a way, we can hit the ball a short distance. We can do that just with the hands and arms, we can just flick at it this way. But again that's not really beneficial for the control and the technique that we want when we're hitting the correct chip shot. So when we’re chipping the ball we’re in a good position here. The hands and arms are fairly quiet and the upper body does all the work, so rocking backwards and forwards with the upper body using the torso, the big muscles to chip and to pitch the ball. That's how important using your big muscles are in your short game.

2016-08-17

If we've discussed how important the big muscles are in the long game, it's now important we discuss how important the big muscles are in the short game. And it seems funny to some people that the shortest shots are actually hit with the biggest muscle groups. But the point here is that we want the big muscle groups to work nice and slowly for nice, consistent results. So particularly when we look at something like putting, sometimes in putting we are only trying to tap the ball three feet. But we don't want to just tap it three feet with the hands. Yes that will give us the correct distance sometimes, but it's not going to give us the control of that distance or the control of the direction.

So actually in putting, it's all about the big muscles just the shoulders rocking backwards and forwards. The hands and arms are completely passive. So it's this action, rocking, rocking and again activating all the big muscles. The little muscles in the feet, they are switched off. The little muscles in the hands, they're switched off. So putting is all about the big muscles. Using the big muscles in your long game will definitely help you use the big muscles in your short game too. The next hit we could look for is playing a bunker shot. And when we're playing a bunker shot, again we’re activating the big muscles particularly the big muscles in the legs.

We want to get a nice setup with an open stance when we’re playing a bunker shot aiming to the left for a right handed golfer, nice little squat down in the stance, again turning the big muscles on, turning the glutes on as well. And then swinging nicely back hands and arms that’s the small muscles working here but through the ball a really big downwards turn of the big muscles. The glutes, squat down, the legs turn through and we really drive through the ball. It isn't just a case of standing and flicking at it with the hands. We are really turning through the ball nicely. And one last tip with the big muscles in the short game is going to be using your torso to chip the ball and pitch the ball.

So when we’re chipping and pitching again similar to putting in a way, we can hit the ball a short distance. We can do that just with the hands and arms, we can just flick at it this way. But again that's not really beneficial for the control and the technique that we want when we're hitting the correct chip shot. So when we’re chipping the ball we’re in a good position here. The hands and arms are fairly quiet and the upper body does all the work, so rocking backwards and forwards with the upper body using the torso, the big muscles to chip and to pitch the ball. That's how important using your big muscles are in your short game.