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Pitching/Chipping
- Lesson 1
Effective
Practice
Develop and Execute a Pitching/Chipping
Training Program
This lesson will:
| 1. |
Show
you how to define your own practice
pitching/chipping routine to make
sure you’re getting the most
out of your time. |
| 2. |
Give
you a simple practice routine that
will almost certainly improve your
short game. |
| 3. |
Show
you how to create journal entries
for every practice session so you
never forget what you’ve learned. |
Developing
Your Program
Developing Your Program
Your short game, your ability
to the ball up and down from off the green,
is a very important factor in eliminating
those last few strokes from your handicap.
An incredible ability to hit 12 greens
in regulation but still shoot under par
is what usually separates great players
from good players. Of course, putting
plays an important role in this ability,
but not the major role. Even the best
putters in the world don’t make
a very high percentage of putts over about
8 feet. They are so good at getting up
and down because they frequently find
a way to position themselves within a
few feet of the hole for their par putts
when they miss the green in regulation.
They play high soft shots with a lot of
spin, low running shots with little spin,
and everything in between with confidence
and usually with success.
So, if really want
to be a great player, you’ll need
to develop your short game. In order to
do this, you need to practice your chipping
and pitching. You need to develop a pitching/chipping
training routine and stick to it. You’ll
do that using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Program box, select Pitching/Chipping
Practice from the first drop down
and select Edit Program from the second
drop down. Click Go>. |
| Step 3: |
Define the objective
to your full swing practice. You can
simply put “to increase confidence
standing over a shot” or “to
increase the percentage of scrambles
I achieve” or whatever else
you’d like to be the primary
focus of your practice program for
now. You can always change this as
your needs/desires change. |
| Step 4: |
Define a schedule that
you will be able to keep for your
pitching/chipping practice. We recommend
spending at least 120 minutes a week
(three sessions of 40 minutes) working
on your pitching/chipping. Ultimately
this is up to you, provided you spend
enough time to adequately complete
the routine we recommend or routines
you develop on your own (or with an
instructor) that produce positive
results. The more time you spend,
the more you will likely improve though. |
| Step 5: |
Define routines for
your practice schedule. We have a
few routines that we recommend, which
can be completed in roughly 30 to
45 minutes. These routines are to
be done as often as possible. They
will develop a feeling of comfort
and confidence in making the right
shot selection and successful execution.
If you would like to try our routines,
please see the section below (Sample
Pitching/Chipping Practice Routines
and Drills.) |
| Step
6: |
Define
your favorite drills. If you have
drills you like to do with your pitching/chipping
practice, go ahead and put them here.
Or, you can try some of the drills
we recommend that are included in
our practice routine. If you would
like to try our routines, please see
the section below (Sample Pitching/Chipping
Practice Routines and Drills.) |
| Step 7: |
Define your keys for
improvement. These are for you to
determine based on your lessons learned.
You might also want to add some obvious,
but easily forgotten ones such as
complete focus during practice session
and commitment to training schedule. |
Executing Your Program
Now that you’ve
defined your training program, you need
to execute it. You need to hold yourself
accountable for spending the amount of
time you committed to in your schedule.
You also need to learn from your training
sessions so that you can maximize your
pitching/chipping improvement.
You’ll do these things
using the Aspiring Golfer My Training
system as well.
**Before
every practice session, print out your
Pitching/Chipping training program (or
keep a copy in your golf bag) and take
it with you to your practice session.
After every practice
session you have, you’ll take the
following steps to create a training journal
entry. You’ll use these training
journal entries and lessons learned in
the future to ensure you learn from your
experiences, both good and bad. You can
print them out and bring them with you
when necessary.
| Step
1: |
Login in
to the site and go to My Training. |
| Step 2: |
In the My Training
Journal box, select Add New Entry. |
| Step 3: |
Complete the form by
entering the date of the practice
session and the duration of the session,
selecting Pitching/Chipping Practice
for session type, entering an overview
of the lesson, and finally entering
lessons learned. For each lesson learned,
you should give it a descriptive title
so you can reference it easily in
the future. You will assign a priority
ranking to it (1 – 999) that
will allow you to quickly see the
lessons you feel are most important.
You’ll also choose whether or
not to share the lesson with other
members. This is encouraged if you
feel it might be able to help others
with their pitching/chipping as well. |
Sample Chipping/Pitching
Practice Routines and Drills
Routine A: Learning from
the Past
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Stretch
properly for at least 5 minutes. |
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Take some time to analyze
your statistics from the last few
rounds you’ve played and notes
from previous practice sessions (lessons
learned). Select one lesson learned
and one area of your pitching/chipping
game that you feel you need to work
on the most. |
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Spend 15 minutes working
on the lesson learned you have selected
and 15 minutes on the area of your
pitching/chipping most needing work.
For example this might mean you spend
15 minutes working on making sure
your hands stay ahead of the clubhead
through impact and 15 minutes working
on hitting your 60 degree wedge from
30 to 40 yards. |
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Spend 5 or 10 minutes
hitting various shots to different
targets. |
Routine B: Fundamental Drills
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Stretch
properly for at least 5 minutes. |
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Perform the “towel”
drill (see below, Sample Drills.) |
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Perform the “ladder”
drill (see below, Sample Drills.) |
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Spend 5 or 10 minutes
hitting various shots to different
targets. |
Routine C: Practice Like
You Play
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Stretch properly for
at least 5 minutes. |
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Warm up
by hitting a handful of shots with
different clubs. Play some bump and
runs with a 9 iron and some high soft
shots with a sand or lob wedge. |
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Now play a short game
round in your mind. Visualize and
play 18 holes. Hold yourself accountable
for shots and keep score in your mind.
You should pick a hole and a starting
point and then play out by pitching/chipping
and putting. Try to pick a variety
of shots that give you options. Give
yourself some awkward lies or stances.
Make up your own rules (even if a
shot might be easiest with a 60 degree
wedge, tell yourself you must play
it with a 9 iron.) It’s more
of an art than a science, but this
type of visualization and creative
thinking can do wonders for your mental
game on the course. If possible, keep
note of the holes you played and score
you shot. Continue to play the same
course periodically and compare your
scores. |
Drill 1: Towel Drill
Purpose: The purpose of
this drill is to teach you distance control
with your short shots. Most good players
don’t aim at the hole when hitting
short shots. They pick a point where they
want to land the ball (given the shot
they intend to play) and concentrate on
that. The towel drill helps you to do
this effectively.
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Lay a golf
towel on the green. Forgetting about
the hole, simply practice landing
your ball on the towel. Move the towel
and move your position every few shots.
Take note of where the ball rolls
to from different spots. |
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Chose another club
and repeat this process. If you were
using your sand wedge, use your 9
iron this time. |
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Keeping your position
the same and the towel’s position
the same, hit a couple of shots with
every club from your 7 iron to your
lob wedge. |
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Get rid of the towel
and practice a variety of shots, picking
a hole and deciding where you want
to land the ball. Adjust your target
if necessary until you have hit a
couple of good shots from that position.
Move to another spot and switch clubs. |
Drill 2: Ladder Drill
Purpose: As an advanced
golfer, it is important that we learn
to play a variety of shots, controlling
distance, trajectory and spin. The ladder
drill is designed to help with this.
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Using one
club, such as your 9 iron, hit to
targets of 4 or 5 different distances.
Pick another club and do the same
thing. Repeat this with several clubs.
Experiment with trajectory and take
note of the distance the ball travels
after landing. Hit some shots up hill,
down hill, and across slopes if possible.
|
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Using every club in
your bag from 7 iron to lob wedge,
hit shots to the same target. Repeat
this with several targets. Experiment
with trajectory and take note of the
distance the ball travels after landing.
Hit some shots up hill, down hill,
and across slopes if possible. As
with the towel drill, concentrate
on picking a landing spot for each
club, not simply the hole. |
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