Introduction to a 3 Part Series on Chipping: Self–Observations to Help You Improve the Little Shot That Wrecks Your Round
I like to keep things as simple as possible for my students. If I can communicate a very easy to remember key for a particular swing or paint a picture for them in their mind, then under pressure I know they will perform better. I find it isn’t at all necessary to have technical thoughts. In fact, quite the contrary, over-thinking kills performance.
From my decades of teaching all over the world I find chipping is the part of the game that seems to scare people the most. There is nothing worse than being only a few steps off the green and standing there shaking with fear knowing one of three things are going to happen, and two of them are bad. What will it be this time? Are you going to chunk the ball, skull it over the green or hit a decent shot? Having this thought process doesn’t give you any level of confidence. Chipping shouldn’t feel like a game of chance. It should be simple, repeatable, reliable and FUN!
I will introduce you to 3 simple ways to practice your chipping that will have a dramatic affect on the quality of your chip shots. These are very simple images that will allow you to perform under pressure. So easy in fact that you won’t have your mind cluttered up with many thoughts. You will be able to be more relaxed over the shot which will lead to better, more consistent results. Lets throw away the technical! Lets keep it very simple.
Grab some practice balls and go to the short game area of your course or you can do this in your yard or even in the house.
If you are practicing inside your house: Its such a short shot that you can just poke balls into the side of the couch or something. Note: We are not working on outcomes, we are only working on process so we don’t need an finish target. We will only be concerned with observing the finish position of your club. If you have a full length mirror put it in the face on view. Meaning it is positioned so you can see your face. This will reinforce your work and give you nice visual feedback.
Let’s get to work.
Fred Fruisen, Auckland Golf Coach 