The Correct Wrist Bend For A Close In Golf Pitch Shot (Video) - by Peter Finch
The Correct Wrist Bend For A Close In Golf Pitch Shot (Video) - by Peter Finch

When hitting short pitch shots it's important to understand how much wrist bend that you need to apply. The first thing that you need to look at is what type of shot you're trying to hit. Are you trying to hit a shot which flies a short distance, lands on the greens, and then rolls out towards the pen or you look to hit a shot which flies much higher, towards the target, and stops much quicker. All these things will have an impact on the amount of wrist bend and wrist hinge that you apply during the shot. So if you were to say, I want to play a very low shot, require a lot of backspin, playing the ball towards the back of the stance, getting those hands letting quite a long way ahead of the ball, getting your stern, position ahead of the ball, and applying a swing which has quite a lot of wrist hinge and quite of a lot of wrist bend, rely to get a steep angle of attack. That will send the ball out initially lower, but because you have the amount of loft, I've got a 50, 60, but you've got a high amount of loft, it will still rise up into the air.

It's one of the classic shots that you see, when it pitches, stops, and then just grabs down by the hole. So position of the back, lots of hinge, ball starts off quite low, it's going to pitch, it's going to grab, and then it's going to stop down by towards the target. Let's say you had a bit more of a bunker to go over, a bit more of a water hazard to go over, for example, all you could do here is move the ball position slightly further forward, but adding maybe a little bit less wrist tension. Now what that's going to do is going to lessen the angle of attack. And as you come into the ball you'll still hit the ball first and then the turf, but the amount of loft that you're applying to that shot will increased. So if you have a target which is over a hazard, like we just mentioned, moving that ball position further forward, having slightly less wrist hinge going back, it's just going to allow you to lift up that ball much, much higher as you hit. So the amount of wrist spin that you put into these short pitches is fully determined by the type of shot that you want to play. There is no swing by numbers approach here. Hinging your wrist to a certain amount does not guarantee a perfect shot every time. You have to judge the situation, and then apply the amount of wrist hinge needed to hit a successful shot. So use your pre-shot routine, figure out the type of shots that you want to play, and then apply the correct amount of wrist hinge around how you see the shot. 2016-10-26

When hitting short pitch shots it's important to understand how much wrist bend that you need to apply. The first thing that you need to look at is what type of shot you're trying to hit. Are you trying to hit a shot which flies a short distance, lands on the greens, and then rolls out towards the pen or you look to hit a shot which flies much higher, towards the target, and stops much quicker. All these things will have an impact on the amount of wrist bend and wrist hinge that you apply during the shot. So if you were to say, I want to play a very low shot, require a lot of backspin, playing the ball towards the back of the stance, getting those hands letting quite a long way ahead of the ball, getting your stern, position ahead of the ball, and applying a swing which has quite a lot of wrist hinge and quite of a lot of wrist bend, rely to get a steep angle of attack. That will send the ball out initially lower, but because you have the amount of loft, I've got a 50, 60, but you've got a high amount of loft, it will still rise up into the air.

It's one of the classic shots that you see, when it pitches, stops, and then just grabs down by the hole. So position of the back, lots of hinge, ball starts off quite low, it's going to pitch, it's going to grab, and then it's going to stop down by towards the target. Let's say you had a bit more of a bunker to go over, a bit more of a water hazard to go over, for example, all you could do here is move the ball position slightly further forward, but adding maybe a little bit less wrist tension. Now what that's going to do is going to lessen the angle of attack. And as you come into the ball you'll still hit the ball first and then the turf, but the amount of loft that you're applying to that shot will increased. So if you have a target which is over a hazard, like we just mentioned, moving that ball position further forward, having slightly less wrist hinge going back, it's just going to allow you to lift up that ball much, much higher as you hit. So the amount of wrist spin that you put into these short pitches is fully determined by the type of shot that you want to play.

There is no swing by numbers approach here. Hinging your wrist to a certain amount does not guarantee a perfect shot every time. You have to judge the situation, and then apply the amount of wrist hinge needed to hit a successful shot. So use your pre-shot routine, figure out the type of shots that you want to play, and then apply the correct amount of wrist hinge around how you see the shot.