Guru
Part of my practise regime is to spend an hour or so at a primary school at the end of the lane behind our house. I take my 20 balls (in 2 litre milk carton) and either the spin milled Vokey 56deg or PW. Today i took PW.
I normally practise a half shot (club parralell to ground on back swing) which is about a 25-30m shot to my target. Then move up to 3/4 shot which is about 40-45m. My set up is slightly open stance, hands a little in front (Y set up) with leading edge of club facing target. Lies are whatever the ball sits on. My question is

As this is not a full swing should my arms be doing a straight back (as in long putt & bumpnrun) with little/no wrist? or a proper body takeaway shoulders and hips turn?

I have tried both, results are
straight back = dead straight with medium ball flight.
Shoulder turn = higher ball flight, softer landing but with tiny draw shape.
I then practised 45m out with only 4 balls and was getting them to land from a direct hit of milk carton to max 4 metres away, usually 2 balls were within 2 metres of milk carton. The shoulder turn did feet better off the face.
Thanks in advance
Kiwi

Leading question….how far can you hit a chip with the club NOT reaching parallel to the ground.

You will have read in here how the TGMers talk of Power Accumulators. Read your post above and see if you can work out how many you might be using for each stroke you mention above.
Do not worry about it if you haven’t a clue as this is a great little thread for us to kick on with and you will all get a glimpse of how they can be used or discarded to limit or extend the range of a shot.

I love this question.
For me there seems to be a “break point” where continuing on with the backswing with no wrist, body, turn seems to incuce the dreaded s…k.
Don’t know why this is but it happens regularly if I continue too far back with straight arms.

Baz: Hint, the right arm always bends to some extent.

Baz: Hint, the right arm always bends to some extent.

Yep, got that but something else is going on.
Practice with the 4×2 sends it away for a while.
Interesting to watch how early/late different players get the body involved. Annika seems very late, Tiger seems very early.

Like any swing motion you have a choice of swinging or hitting the ball. A chip which is technically a small distance effort and be pulled through or pushed with a piston motion of the straightening right arm. In both cases the pivot motion follows the arms but when that starts in the downswing is up to a players sense of touch and rhythm.

Guru
Full swing PW distance is about 75-90m.
I haven’t used the normal takeaway (for the want of a better term) for short (club parallel to ground) shots before.

Baz
My right arm is bent ever so slightly when club gets to horizontal.
Kiwi

Sounds about right.

Takes a while for things to sink in. Have been experimenting with two chipping methods, one relatively standard, the other a “chip-putt”, as explaind by Leadbetter. I don’t like the feel of the chip-putt, all arms, heel of club up etc.
Anyway, back to the point. While practicing with no pivot at all,just concentrating on FLW I noticed that a lot of chip shots were going right and I could not correct this with alignment. But, when I introduced a small pivot into the stroke the ball went straight.
So, to make a long story short, I practiced the stroke without a club and my hands definately followed a different path, staying inside the line, when using the small pivot.
I’m sure this is going to translate somehow to the full shot and the reason for the occasional block right, but how. Am I getting the pivot wrong with the full shot ??

A chip really is a short distance effort with zero wrist cock. Your hands ‘lead’ a pivot motion in the downswing but there is zero need for a pivot in the backswing – the club simply does not need to go far enough to get the right hip out of the way of a passing right elbow.

You have the choice of pushing the shaft or pulling the shaft for a chip. Right arm thrust, even just a little for a dinky chip, is a mini hitters action. A pulled shaft with a little more pivot coordination is a mini swingers action. Both look different and feel very different.

Hands go in a slightly different direction, straight line (hit) vs arc (swing).

Block rights are likely a lack of pivot keeping up with the hands as the swingers pivot will help close the clubface.

“the club simply does not need to go far enough to get the right hip out of the way of a passing right elbow”

Guru, I’m trying to work on this technique as my short game is shocking, I feel like I’m almost in a postion where I have the yips as all my confidence has gone and I’m just too scrambled to make a good action at the ball. It has built up over time but I’m pretty sure it must have started with a flaw in my technique.

I see the piston motion as a good solution – not too many moving parts. With your comment above, could this be a drill to use when practising chipping – keeping the right elbow connected to the body and just bend and straighted the arm from there??

It is worth tinkering with as long as the chip is short and the club head does not get more than 45-60 degrees to the ground. What it will do is let you really get a sense for what hitting is, a piston push.

You must piston down, allowing the clubheads loft to do the work. Any right hand flick will see you either skull it, or eat dirt before the ball.

“Piston Push” is a good description. I find it easier to feel this via the heel of the right hand pushing while maintaining the angle of the right wrist. Can’t flip.

Exackery.

baz…that would be pressure point 1 at its finest