Fix Your Most Common Chipping Mistakes

The two most common mistakes I see golfers battle with when chipping are poor pace; the club head travels in a jerky fashion or at speeds that are often too fast for the requirements of the shot and they struggle to get the club to bottom out in the correct location relative to the ball. Pace and low point! Watch the video below and then let’s check in on some of the key points…

Here are a few points to take away:

Pace

• Feel an even, ‘tick, tock” type pace as you swing the club back and forth

• A good practice is to hit a few simple chip shots with a 7 iron. This will give you an excellent sense of what the pace should feel like

• Try to feel the transition be as passive or gentle as you can. That change of direction needs to be silky smooth

Low Point

• The practice rehearsals I demonstrated in the video are very important. Practice those both, away from the course and when playing

• Feel your weight staying forward in the backswing as this will aid you in being able to shift the low point forward

As with anything, practice is integral to improvement. Try a few of those 7 iron shots in practice and don’t allow yourself to make a practice motion without having the intent of getting the club to bottom out of the target side of the ball.

I hope these ideas prove to be helpful to you and your enjoyment out on the golf course. Thanks, as always, for your support and readership.

Brett Rumford

Top Tier Tempo!

In this article I’m going to share three helpful exercises to help you smooth out the tempo of your golf swing. Let’s get the oil of the golf swing flowing through your engine! Watch….

I work with golfers on an almost everyday basis to help them complete the backswing and ultimately improve the rhythm and flow in their golf swings. These three drills will help:

Three Ball Drill

• Tee up three golf balls and do this drill with a 9 or 8 iron

• Keep in mind that the rhythm does not have to be slow here

• Make full, completed backswings where you flow from one strike straight into the next

Towel/Rope Drill

• Use a bath towel or heavier, marine gauge rope to do this drill

• This will encourage patience as the downswing cannot start before the towel completes the backswing

• Feel how the energy flows down into the end of the towel (clubhead)

Hideki Pause

• In this drill you’ll feel an almost invisible pause at the top of your backswing

• Try to pause for as long as you comfortably can

• This does a tremendous job to give any golfer the sense of a full and completed backswing

Now, I know that mechanics play a big role in any golf game, but sometimes all we need is a better feel and sense of rhythm in our golf swings to get things headed in the appropriate direction. Give a few of these drills a try and see what it can do for your game. Especially when you get a little anxious and tight out there!

Thanks for your readership and support throughout 2020! I know we have all learned so much together this year and I look forward to learning and sharing together in 2021.

Cheers!

The Golf Swing and Time

A common complaint I hear from golfers is that their swings are too fast or aggressive.  They just have a sense that they are quick either in the transition or the downswing. Rhythm and pace are very important elements in the golf swing. When a golfer feels quick the first thing they do is try to 'slow down'...and in an attempt to get some rhythm in the swing they often go overboard and end up slowing everything down a little too much. This can lead to an overly slow start to the swing, which in turn leads to a rapid change in pace during the transition and on into impact.  It is this drastic change in speed that conveys the sense of quickness and aggression in the swing.

The PGATour average time for the backswing is right around 0.75 seconds, with an additional 0.25 seconds for the downswing. Notice that ideally there should be something close to a 3:1 ratio of backswing time vs. downswing time. That means that on average a Tour golfer will strike the ball in about a second from when the swing starts.  Ernie Els, one of the smoothest swings out there, takes just over a second to strike the ball while Nick Price, who has one of the faster swings, takes  around 0.8 seconds.  Far too many of golfers I teach take well over a second to complete just the backswing.  In watching Els or even Price, most golfers believe they swing a whole lot faster than either of those two top players - that is not the case.

Each of the above golfers are able to maintain a good rhythm in their swing because they maintain something close to a 3:1 ratio in their swings.  When a backswing takes over a second to complete the golfer is now faced with a 4:1 or even 5:1 ratio which feels way out of rhythm.

Here are a few pointers when trying to get better rhythm and pace back into your swing:

• Don't try to speed up your backswing up too quickly - take one pill a day and not the whole bottle...
• The body should not feel hurried; the wrists and arms will create much of the necessary increase in speed.
• Try a few shots with the clubhead starting 2-3 feet ahead of the ball and then flow into the backswing in one motion. This gives the club a moving start and gradually increases the pace.
• Remember that rhythm does not have to be slow...
• Stay patient and gradually build up to it; try to build the speed in your downswing from the transition.

There are not many ways to track your timing ratio, but SwingCatalyst software does it for you.

Another factor to consider is that the less time your swing takes the less opportunity you have to get your body out of position. This is a very important factor and cannot be overlooked - keep the motion concise and it is more likely to be consistent. Give it a try....