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One of the shortest shots in golf is one that requires the most authority. Golf instruction chipping without authority can be thin, fat or even shanked shots. Whatever can go wrong usually will. However hitting your chip shots like you mean it, you are more likely to be tapping your next shot in for birdie.

What leads to reduced authority? a lack of strength, indecision, fear, all these things can contribute to poor chipping. Think about your golfclub like a horse.(i know but stay with me here) confidence plays a big part, it has a knack of ‘knowing’ what’s going on and plays up. When you are in charge, and show who’s the boss, the results are far more satisfactory.

Repetition is the best way to ensure authority. Adding the two strength drills will bring more authority to your short game.                                           
Drill 1; Hold the club horizontally in front of your body and cock the wrists. It’s a simple exercise but, like Drill 2, repeat for 10 repetitions, build up gradually and get some strength and flexibility into those wrists.

Second Drill; Hold your arms outstretched with a weight, anything weighing about a pound or so, hand weights are good, and lift up and down with your wrists.

Strength of your Wrist
If the golfclub feels heavy in your hands, it’s difficult to hit a shot with any authority. A good chip is a firm wristed action, the wrist has to secure the golfclub to ensure that you are in control of the swing. It does’nt hurt any golfer to spend some time on these drills, especially beginners who may have weak wrists which can be a problem.

Be Decisive
There are countless articles covering club selection and type of chip shot for a particular situation. Whatever the decision you make, eliminate doubt and convince yourself that it’s the right shot.
Spend time repeating the same shot over and over on the practice green.
When you have some time at home, practice chipping the golfball into a bucket in the backyard, it’s fun. You will be well on your way to getting chip shots close, when your decisive and have strong wrists and can hit the target regularly.

Learn the proper chipping set-up; weight on lead side, ball slightly back of centre in your stance, eyes and hands closer to the target than the ball is at address.
Use your dominant hand during the backswing, hinge the golfclub slightly.
Hold this position post impact, in the follow through. That is, don’t let the clubhead pass under your lead hand before impact. The back of that hand should be closer to the target than the ball is at impact. After reaching impact, you may release the club a little.
Don’t tense up. Scooping a chip shot into the air, getting to wristy is an amateures number 1 difficulty.

Golf Instruction Chipping Tip- Bet on the percentages

Fancy high loft greenside chip shots, might look fancy in the air, but there is a higher risk of error. Extra loft decreases the margin for error at impact and decreases the size of the landing  zone on the green.
The second bounce check-up is one of the hardest shots to play in golf, so it’s best left to the pros.
For amateur golfers I suggest going for more roll and less air time, always remembering to land on the green.. When faced with a chip around the greens, relying on a simple formula means using less lofted golfclubs. Of course, primary to this for any golf shot is some on course management. As is a brush up on the finer points of golf instruction for a balanced posture

Golf Instruction Chipping, the method
When chipping, your target is not the flag, your focus is on your landing spot. This will change because of the state of the green, and what lofted club you are using. Use the following ratios, start with a five iron and increase the loft depending on the amount of the green available.

• 5 IRON

20 percent flight, 80 percent bounce and roll. ?

• 8 IRON

33 percent flight, 67 percent bounce and roll

• WEDGE

50 percent bounce and 50 percent roll.

First practice chipping with an 8 iron then once you’ve mastered that learn to use your wedges.

Here is a great golf instruction chipping tip I learned a while ago, try this. Use a golfball, take a normal stance for a chip shot, and throw the ball ‘under arm’(softball throw) at the target to get a feel for how hard to swing your club.
Use this method to imagine how much strength is needed to fly the ball onto the green and roll up to the hole, throw the ball two thirds of the way onto the green back to the cup. To gain a feel for the shot this is a good technique.

I hope these few golf instruction tips will help you to improve your short game and reduce the number of shots in your round the next time you go out on the course.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at 3:21 am and is filed under Golf Tips and Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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