5 SIMPLE PITCHING TIPS TO PITCH LIKE A TOUR PRO

So if you really want to shoot lower scores and get the most out of each and every round of golf that you play, you really need to be able to pitch your golf ball close. So in this video we're going to show you five very simple pitching tips that can get you pitching just like a tour pro. So these shots often look really quite straightforward. There's often not much between you and the flag. It's sometimes only ever 30, 40, 50 yards but they give golfers so many difficulties and you might be one of those golfers watching this thinking yes that's me. It looks like a fairly straightforward shot but I just don't hit the ball as close as I would like. Well this video is going to help because we're going to run through five quite simple things that you can do when you pitch to make sure that we add some consistency to those shots. Now long term you would really like to have the ability to vary the trajectory of the shots and control the land angle but what we're talking about in this video is kind of what you would need to do in order to hit let's call it a basic pitch. That's a mid-flight, mid-spin, nothing really special with the golf ball. So before we get into this video just let me know in the comments box what is this part of the game like for you? Is it a strength? Is it weakness? Do you feel it holds you back from shooting those low scores? And what do you find is the biggest difficulty? Is it the direction? Is it the distance? Or is it just getting the strike on the golf ball? I'd love to hear your thoughts but let's get straight into this with tip number one. So tip number one really has to be around the setup. It has to be how we address the golf ball because if we do this incorrectly we're going to get contact issues, we're going to get flight issues and we're going to get inconsistency. So for that mid-flight, that basic pitch I'd love you to try and set up with three things in a line. Your sternum, so the buttons or the zip on your top, the golf ball and then the grip or the top of the handle. If we can get those three things in a line that really helps us create this nice neutral setup. Now from there it really doesn't make huge amounts of difference how wide or how narrow I have my stance because it's not changing that relationship. But I would actually like you to stand with your feet relatively close together. But the key thing here would be to create that setup where all of those three things are in the line. What that is going to do is it's going to set our circle so the lowest part of that circle is exactly where the ball is, maybe slightly target side of the golf ball. So once we're in that starting position that is really going to help us when we are looking to control the shape of our circle. So tip number two is all about the the shape of your circle. Now what you can see on the screen there is effectively I've got two circles but one is much narrower and one is much wider and they will have very different low points. The one has got a sharper low point if you like and one has got a much flatter low point. The one with a flatter low point is one which is going to be the easiest to use on the golf course and the way that we can create that is by using less wrists in this motion. So imagine if I took a starting position and used a lot of wrist action going back and a lot of wrist action going through, I have that circle but the low point is quite narrow. If I take the same setup but use far less wrist action going back and far less wrist action going through, again I create that circle but it's a squashed circle and the low point becomes flatter and that really helps me with my interaction with the ground. It allows me to be confident in making contact with the ground but not having the fear that I'm going to stick the club in the ground and the ball is going to go two or three feet. So the second point really is to not use excessive wrist set in this pitching motion. Like we said back at the start you know ultimately you would like to be able to vary these shots in terms of trajectory and some of the shots that you hit would require a lot more wrist set but for this basic shot I would love you to feel as if when the golf club reaches level with the ground the grip is significantly outside of your thighs and on the way through again the grip is significantly outside your thighs when that club is at horizontal. The opposite to that would be something like this so you can see it's much narrower and much narrower. So point number two is all about squashing that circle and giving your swing a flatter bottom to the circle to help you with your consistency. So point number three is really quite closely linked to number two and the two can be used together to really almost guarantee the strike on your shots and the third tip is really to make sure that we're using a good rotational pivot of the body both backswing and down and through swing. What a good pivot allows me to do is maintain the radius of my swing and if I can maintain the radius of my swing it really enhances my ability to strike the ball well. If I don't rotate my body my arms are going to be working independently my lead arm is often going to break down my elbows will often separate and those things will bring the golf closer to me so that brings in the thin shots but if I overreact and I start to drop myself down I can easily hit some heavy shots. So if we're looking to create this nice wide arc we have to support that with a nice rotation of the body and you'll notice that this shot here is only probably some 40 yards but I'm still going to try and finish with my trail heel in the air and my body facing that target with my arms still nicely resting on my chest. So the third point is to really make sure that we're committing to a body rotation both backswing and downswing. Point number four is to make sure that you have some extension through impact. This one is absolutely huge and by far the one I think is the most misunderstood when we're looking at pitching. What is extension and why do we need it? To set up the golf ball I have to tip myself forward and when I finish the golf swing I really want to feel like I take that tip forward out. When we take that tip forward out this is me moving towards extension. I want to finish in this extended position as I just said we start bent over the golf ball. So why is it important that we take that out? Well what you'll notice is that when I rotate the golf club doesn't really move away from the ground. So I can rotate and I can face the target but for me to get the golf club upwards I have to have this extension. So extension is what allows that club to move up and away from the ground. It takes away those really heavy shots those really deep divots that you might be taking and if you don't have extension the only other way that you're going to get the golf club to move away from the ground is to start to flex those elbows and this may look quite familiar to some of you. So the my belt is further forward than my chest and I certainly don't look as if I'm tilted forward over the golf ball. So we need to have a good amount of extension through impact into your follow through. It's a great way to really encourage the golf club to work correctly as it strikes the ground. And finally we come on to tip number five which is to make sure that you do whatever you need to do to make sure that the shot you hit after this one is with your putter. So so important something that not all golfers do but I would advise because it's certainly going to help you. Look at the situation I'm in here it is only sort of 40 yards or so but I have got to come over the corner of this bunker. The flag from where I'm situated is tucked on the right hand side and you know even for a single figure golfer that's not the easiest flag to get to from this distance and trying to go for that flag trying to get up and down could well mean I hit it the bunker I missed the green or I just don't get it as close as I intend to. So it might be an idea to sort of say well let's go 10 to 12 to 15 feet left of the flag give myself a little bit more of an area to aim at and as I said make sure that the next shot you hit is with a putter. You'll be faced with pitch shots which are far more difficult than this and those are really the ones we have to play to the safe part of the green. The statistics show that if you're on the green there's a high chance you'll two putt. So if you're from here putting on the it's going to take you three shots at worst and that's really not too bad. So let's not always go for the flag let's look at maybe playing into the safe part of the green and making sure that we use the putter as the next shot. So like I said right back at the start of the video if you're looking to get the most out of your round and shoot lower scores you have to be able to pitch the ball well and consistently. You're always going to be faced with situations from that 30, 40, 50 maybe even 60 yard range and being able to guarantee the strike and be confident of the flight and confident of the direction the distance the ball goes is a really important skill to have and hopefully those five tips we've given you in this video are going to help you do that better next time you play. Thanks for watching. Use your tough E's down below. Comments box down there. Like button and also if you're not subscribed to the channel I would love you to do that. It's a fantastic community we've got here and I really believe these videos can help you play some better golf. Thanks for watching.