Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are looking at improving your connection during pit shots, so we are moving away from either hitting fat shots or thin shots, one of the most important things we need to look at initially is your setup position. So as you set up to hit the shot, make sure you've the ball placed in the center of the feet, if you are not sure how to achieve that, if you place your feet together so they are pointing at the ball and then step an equal distance left and right. Keep the feet narrower than usual because this will help to maintain the balance. Place 70% of your weight on your left side if you are a right handed golfer and now this is absolutely key, we want to make sure that you set up with the golf club pointing at your left shoulder so you create a really straight line down the left arm and the golf club.
Now a really good tip for you to be able to do that is, if you take an alignment pole and hold the pole behind the back of your golf club, the pole will sit on your left side so make sure that you keep the left arm and the club in an absolutely straight line rather than setting up with your hands here and you can see that the angle difference and we are no longer in a straight line. And this happens if the club's pointing more at your belly button. So make sure you get the club pointing at your left side. That will allow you to create this lovely straight line between the left arm and the club. As you swing the club back, the pole is going to move away on your left side and then one of the most common issues now for how to hit sort of heavy shots and thin shots would be; as you swing back in you release your wrist early and this pole will start to hit the left side too early before you've got to the ball. If the pole is not there, that will now mean that you flick your wrist towards the ball. So if I just take the pole out, we'd start to see this position so from a nice straight line, we'd swing back and then you have gone back to the straight line too early before you hit the ball. As you now approach the ball you'll either ground the club and hit a very fat shot or your will skirt just the top of the grass and catch the ball on your upswing meaning that you are hitting the top of ball and a thin shot.
So to crisp those shots up, we work on ball in the middle feet weight on the left side, keep the club pointing up at the left shoulder and that straight line shouldn’t happen again until you hit the shot. So you will move away and rather than creating a straight line with the left arm the club before you hit the ball, create it as you hit the ball for much crisper shots. Create the line after you've hit the ball and then you will hit a lovely high crisp shot.
2013-06-06 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you are looking at improving your connection during pit shots, so we are moving away from either hitting fat shots or thin shots, one of the most important things we need to look at initially is your setup position. So as you set up to hit the shot, make sure you've the ball placed in the center of the feet, if you are not sure how to achieve that, if you place your feet together so they are pointing at the ball and then step an equal distance left and right. Keep the feet narrower than usual because this will help to maintain the balance. Place 70% of your weight on your left side if you are a right handed golfer and now this is absolutely key, we want to make sure that you set up with the golf club pointing at your left shoulder so you create a really straight line down the left arm and the golf club.
Now a really good tip for you to be able to do that is, if you take an alignment pole and hold the pole behind the back of your golf club, the pole will sit on your left side so make sure that you keep the left arm and the club in an absolutely straight line rather than setting up with your hands here and you can see that the angle difference and we are no longer in a straight line. And this happens if the club's pointing more at your belly button. So make sure you get the club pointing at your left side. That will allow you to create this lovely straight line between the left arm and the club. As you swing the club back, the pole is going to move away on your left side and then one of the most common issues now for how to hit sort of heavy shots and thin shots would be; as you swing back in you release your wrist early and this pole will start to hit the left side too early before you've got to the ball. If the pole is not there, that will now mean that you flick your wrist towards the ball. So if I just take the pole out, we'd start to see this position so from a nice straight line, we'd swing back and then you have gone back to the straight line too early before you hit the ball. As you now approach the ball you'll either ground the club and hit a very fat shot or your will skirt just the top of the grass and catch the ball on your upswing meaning that you are hitting the top of ball and a thin shot.
So to crisp those shots up, we work on ball in the middle feet weight on the left side, keep the club pointing up at the left shoulder and that straight line shouldn’t happen again until you hit the shot. So you will move away and rather than creating a straight line with the left arm the club before you hit the ball, create it as you hit the ball for much crisper shots. Create the line after you've hit the ball and then you will hit a lovely high crisp shot.
