Hands on little pitches...

[Bigvivec]

Hand position for short pitches…
I was fooling around on the practice green this morning before I played and stumbled onto something new…hand positioning for short pitches that made them much easier…previously I set up to every shot with my hands just left of my zipper…I tried putting my hands closer to the inside of my thigh with good results, the middle of my left thigh with great results, and the outside of my left thigh with a revelation…middle of the thigh with the ball positioned middle of an open short pitching stance was very accurate and repeatable, taking a solid divot and contacting the ball first squarely…on the outside of the thigh I got good divots, square contact and by opening and closing the face was able to control spin pretty consistenly with a simple swing and body rotation without depending on flippy hands or big hinging of the wrists which introduces a degree of timing, skipping it in fairly low with a hard check, but able to dig it out of pretty deep rough as well as slap it off hardpan fairly consistently…it was a shot that I had seen watching the Open used quite a bit with lofted wedges, but kept fairly low and still running, no circus flops here…the beauty of the shot was that I was able to take a fairly aggressive short pitching swing ensuring good momentum through impact, keep the ball low, and still only send it about 20 paces with a solid pass thru the ball…this made tricky lies that you need a little more power thru impact to ensure keeping the club on line and digging the ball out much easier to execute, and less apt to be the victim of the dreaded short pitch deceleration through impact…
Just fooling around…

[Bulls9999]

Well, I've been 'fooling around' too....that is, with my pitches

I've been using my back hand index finger...comes in handy at times . That is, it is curled and leaning against the shaft, not completely wrapped around it, so that the shaft settles in the bend of the main nuckle. I use it to push the shaft forward as the club head is hitting the ground/ball (these are little 20-30 foot pitches with my 52-degree) where it is sometimes easy to try and 'hit to easy' and chunk or blade the ball. For me, it has the effect of not throwing the face down and under....by helping to push the shaft forward, imo, it keeps the face angle the same as long as possible. I don't know how to describe my index finger action, except I remind myself to use it to give a little push by forcing it against the shaft as the club is approaching the ground/ball. I'm also concious of not standing the blade up as to hit with the leading edge of the wedge...trying to use the bounce flange. Again, these are short 20-30 ft chips, I barely take any divot on short/tight bermuda fairways, just disturb some of the grass/roots a little.

Even my high school golfer son looks at me like "where did you pull that pitch from?" when I land it within 3 feet of the hole....helps with the 1 putts :-) I keep reminding him that you often do best with the shot you use the most, lol. Had quite a few of those this weekend....but he matched me with some wizardry of his own by holing out for birdie from off the green...twice.

Originally Posted by Bigvivec

Hand position for short pitches…
I was fooling around on the practice green this morning before I played and stumbled onto something new…hand positioning for short pitches that made them much easier…previously I set up to every shot with my hands just left of my zipper…I tried putting my hands closer to the inside of my thigh with good results, the middle of my left thigh with great results, and the outside of my left thigh with a revelation…middle of the thigh with the ball positioned middle of an open short pitching stance was very accurate and repeatable, taking a solid divot and contacting the ball first squarely…on the outside of the thigh I got good divots, square contact and by opening and closing the face was able to control spin pretty consistenly with a simple swing and body rotation without depending on flippy hands or big hinging of the wrists which introduces a degree of timing, skipping it in fairly low with a hard check, but able to dig it out of pretty deep rough as well as slap it off hardpan fairly consistently…it was a shot that I had seen watching the Open used quite a bit with lofted wedges, but kept fairly low and still running, no circus flops here…the beauty of the shot was that I was able to take a fairly aggressive short pitching swing ensuring good momentum through impact, keep the ball low, and still only send it about 20 paces with a solid pass thru the ball…this made tricky lies that you need a little more power thru impact to ensure keeping the club on line and digging the ball out much easier to execute, and less apt to be the victim of the dreaded short pitch deceleration through impact…
Just fooling around…

[Bigvivec]

Solid technique! Tried it and felt more control...only I do throw the face down and under, and open and close the face through impact on a standard chip or little pitch...keeping the face pointed up all the way through is a good one too, but more of a speciality shot as it spins the ball too much and shoots it up too high for my bread and butter shot...

[larryrsf]

Our top pro uses nearly all wrist for those shots--gripping the club almost down on the shaft. But he has inhuman hand-eye coordination and 40+ years experience.

BUT, I think mere mortals should do it more like Hogan's little half swing drill (in "5 Lessons). Keep the upper arms "glued" tightly to your chest and make an extremely connected turn back and through, the legs and hips actually powering the swing. Play the ball VERY far back so that the clubhead is descending at impact--and continues to take a deep divot--even for a short pitch. Open stance, even feet together is ok. ALL weight must be on the front foot.

That is safe, works every time, and avoids the disastrous skull that happens when we are too tense.

Lee Trevino was on TGC "Playing Lessons" and said he teaches the short pitch by placing a rubber band holding the top of the grip against the lead forearm-- so that NO wrist action is possible. Play the ball back in the stance, open stance, weight on front leg. That nearly always works, no matter how tense you are.

Larry

[alangbaker]

Originally Posted by larryrsf

Our top pro uses nearly all wrist for those shots--gripping the club almost down on the shaft. But he has inhuman hand-eye coordination and 40+ years experience.

BUT, I think mere mortals should do it more like Hogan's little half swing drill (in "5 Lessons). Keep the upper arms "glued" tightly to your chest and make an extremely connected turn back and through, the legs and hips actually powering the swing. Play the ball VERY far back so that the clubhead is descending at impact--and continues to take a deep divot--even for a short pitch. Open stance, even feet together is ok. ALL weight must be on the front foot.

That is safe, works every time, and avoids the disastrous skull that happens when we are too tense.

Lee Trevino was on TGC "Playing Lessons" and said he teaches the short pitch by placing a rubber band holding the top of the grip against the lead forearm-- so that NO wrist action is possible. Play the ball back in the stance, open stance, weight on front leg. That nearly always works, no matter how tense you are.

I'm glad that works for you, Larry. Really.

I find that I need to have a variety of trajectories in order to get the ball close from every situation in which I might find it. In general, I think that the idea of "back with the hands and arms and then through with the torso" lets you make solid contact all the time. And for me, it works whether I put the ball back for a low checker, or up for a high flop shot.

[Wazmankg]

I've been working on this part of my game this year. It's getting much better, but I still "scoop" them too often. I'm going to give both Bigv's & Bull's techniques a try.

[alangbaker]

Originally Posted by Wazmankg

I've been working on this part of my game this year. It's getting much better, but I still "scoop" them too often. I'm going to give both Bigv's & Bull's techniques a try.

Take the backswing with the hands and arms, but then make the downswing by turning the torso through without losing the arm tension or the wrist cock (at least not until the very last).

Arms back, torso through.