I gave a lesson to my chiropractor Dr. Chris, and the main concern he wanted to work on was his problem of hitting short pitch shots chunky. With every pitch shot less than full, especially real short ones in the 30 to 40 yard range, there was a high probability of laying the sod over the ball, or the other extreme, skulling it. Doc has been working with me on my spine and swing for over 6 years. He knows the PPGS program and does it quite well, but like all of us, he needs tweaking and reinforcing now and then.
Doc was already hitting balls when I got to the tee. As soon as I arrived he grabbed his sand wedge and said that we needed to get his chunky monkey pitches cured for good. I had been giving him tips in his office for around a month when I got my adjustment and they were helping, but he still wasn't cured. He hit a few pitches, but even the good ones were slightly heavy and then there was the occasional bullet that said good bye to the green as it was still rising to a cruising height of 10 feet.
Doc's setup was a big part of the problem. He was using his full wedge shot stance width. This allowed too much backswing and he swung up way too high to a T ' finish as well. First thing we corrected was to get him into a much narrower stance. I stated that many players in the real short 30 to 40 yard range have the feet almost touching. The narrow stance is critical in controlling and keeping the length of the backswing short to guarantee acceleration through impact and to finish short. With a narrow stance, if you swing too long in the backswing or finish you will loose your balance. He easily got the short backswing, but it took a few swings to get the finish short and compact to match the length of the shot.
The narrow setup got the swing more compact and tight, but every now and then Doc stuck the club in the ground and hit a terrible chunky monkey. Every time he did, I saw the right knee sort of collapse downward, dipping the shoulders and head downward and sticking the club head into the turf. I asked him what his impact thought was. He said the right thing, 'I am trying to swing up.' I replied that for trying to swing up his head and shoulders were still down well after impact and had the look of staying down and behind the ball after impact. He had the look of his right side driving downward and getting stuck at impact.
With that observation I went into a talk on swinging up and standing up. Since Doc was trying to stand up, but failing miserably at it in these short chip shots, I decided to discuss how the right side, the right knee, hip and shoulder have to move to correctly swing up, especially in these abbreviated pitch shot swings. On full swings, the club accelerating through impact up to a full finish makes it easier for the torso to swing through and stand up.
First and foremost, the impact on a good pitch shot is a nip or a pinch ball type of divot, with the club bouncing or ricocheting off the turf. He agreed and said that is his intent. The key problem, as I saw it, was that he wanted a nip and pinch divot, but his right side body motion was not moving properly. If you want to nip and pinch the ball off the turf, your right side, the right knee, hip and shoulders and your head riding your shoulders, have to swing in a nip and pinch downward and up motion. The key is they, like the club, have to sort of bottom out bouncing or ricocheting up at the low point of their downward arc and they have to do it in perfect unison. I related it to skipping a rock on a lake.
I added one more thought and image for hitting these short pitch shots to enhance this sense of nipping and pinching divot, created by the bouncing and ricocheting right side at and through impact up to the finish. I teach that in the long swing, in swinging up and standing up ('like a Pop Tart out of to toaster'), the right side, arms, and hands chase the club to the finish. My mantra for swinging up and standing up AFAP (as fast as possible) after impact is, 'You can't stand up fast enough after impact.' I stressed that, like the long shots, the short pitch shot has to have the right side 'pop-tarting' up. The right knee, hip, arms, hands, shoulder and head all have to be chasing the club at and through impact up to the abbreviated finish.
Head and shoulders down after impact on a pitch shot is certain to produce a chunky monkey. Since they are down, you can just stay down a little longer to hide your disgust and tears. Keep the right side 'chasing and facing' the club and ball and you will hit good pitch shots standing up with a smile on your face.
The Surge!