Short Game In Golf

Practicing the short game in golf is the most neglected aspect in golf. Players don't seem to realize that 50% of their shots, or more, are of the shorter variety, namely chipping, pitching, and putting. These shots in golf are known as "the scoring shots".
In chipping, the ball will roll farther on the ground than it travels in the air. Pitching, the ball will fly in the air farther than it rolls. Of course in putting, the ball should never be off the ground.
One of best instructors ever, in golf, once told me "there is not a green that you can't reach in regulation, but, you might not hit it. So you need to practice your short game". Most players, when it comes to practice, are more concerned how far they can hit the golf ball, not how straight. As a consequence, the clubs they choose to practice with are of the longer variety, which are the most difficult to hit accurately. The result would be a lot of short game shots to complete the hole.
There are two aspects of ball striking that must be achieved any time the ball is on the ground.

• You must have most of your weight on the forward leg, and 
• your hands must be ahead of the club.

To really learn these two principles it is easier to use short swings as opposed to a longer swing. Understanding these two principles is a must, not only in the short game, but the full swing as well.

There is a misconception that you must hit down on the golf ball. This concept will generally cause players to force their arms, hands, shoulders and the club toward the ground. In reality the golf swing is a circle, or arc around a fixed point (the breast bone or a point equal distance between your shoulders). The lowest point of the circle is directly below that fixed center point. So if the ball is placed just before that center point the golf club head will make a contact with the ball, in a descending path before reaching the ground. Thus, no conscious effort is needed on your part to "hit down" on it. So maintain that center point, and then utilize the two principles in the previous paragraph.

In the short game, chipping requires very little wrist cock  (just enough to keep your hands ahead of the club head), and hardly any weight transfer (start the chip with more weight on the forward leg and leave it there). The pitch shot in golf will require more of both of these functions. Progressively, as the swing gets longer, it will require even more utilization of them, along with rotation of the shoulders and the hips.

So why is the short game in golf so important? It is the basis for performing the elements of the longer, full swing. Learn the basics of the short game and apply them to your full swing. Click the links below to find more information of putting, chipping, and pitching techniques to help you score better.

Short Game In Golf/Chipping

Some of the least practiced aspects of the golf game are the scoring shots utilized in the short game. These shots namely: putting, chipping, and pitching consist of more than half the strokes taken in and average 18 hole round of golf. In this post we will review proper techniques for chipping.

A chip is a golf shot where the ball rolls considerably farther than it travels in the air. It is generally used when the players ball is relatively close to the green and needs to clear undesirable ground conditions before landing on the green and rolling. To perform the chip shot, two variables must me achieved to be consistent. They are the golf club face must be descending toward the ball and striking it before it makes contact with the ground. To this adequately, your weight must be toward the forward leg, and the hands must be ahead of the club head. The hand position is preset ahead of the ball and the club head at address. To execute the chip shot, very seldom will the hands need to go past the back leg on the back swing, and no wrist-cock other than the preset at address.

In the video below, Paul Wilson of Revolution Golf will illustrate, very efficiently, how a proper chip is performed.

 "Consistent Chipping Strategy" Paul Wilson of Revolution Golf

We will discuss putting, and pitching in later posts. As for now, you have the tools to chip correctly. All that is left is practice.

How Golf Swings Between Men And Women Differ

The differences in golf swings between men and women stems from their body structure. Physical differences should be the main concern for golf instructors. This article will attempt to make more people aware of the body movements of both men and women. On average a man tends to have more upper body strength than the woman counterpart. But, it is also evident that women have a lower center of gravity than males. Later we will examine both traits for their relevancy in the golf swing.
First, let's have some fun. When people mention hula dancers what do you picture in your mind? Does the picture show a man? Probably not because hula dancers shift their hips and that is just not masculine. Now if person mentions "the twist," what picture pops into your mind? Is it a woman or is it Chubby Checker the innovator of the twist dance. Hopefully it's the latter. Men just can't move their hips like women. Lateral motion in the female's hips makes it easier to hula dance and rotation of the hips used in the twist is easier for a male. That is probably the reason why the hula hoops are more popular with girls than boys.
Why was the previous paragraph important in reference to the golf swing? The physical structure of the hips differ between men and women. A woman (generally) has wider hips than her shoulders as opposed to the man whose shoulders are wider than their hips. As a result in women, the transfer of weight from the right foot to the left foot takes a little longer, which slightly slows down the body rotation on the downswing in golf. Which could make for straighter shots but generating less club head speed for distance.
Men golfers on the other hand, because of having more upper body strength than women, feel a need to utilize it. Thus, as a consequence their natural tendency is to swing the golf club down (from the top of the back swing), with their arms and shoulders putting the club on the wrong path to the target. No matter how much strength a man thinks he has in his shoulders and arms, that strength is not utilized as much as the strength in the legs and back muscles.
Here are some of the differences between female and male body structures:
· Females have a wider hip displacement than males. Stance width for a man would be shoulder width, for a woman it should be hip width.
· The average height of women golfers is less than average male.
· Women generally have smaller hands than men.
· Female center of gravity is lower than males.
· Because of the lower center of gravity and hip width, a woman has more stability and would have a tendency to move laterally. A mans tendency would be to spin and straighten his legs coming up and out of the golf swing.
Taking into consideration the difference in body structure it makes sense that the golf swings of men and women would differ. As you may have noticed, most of the differences between men and women and their golf swings lie in the lower body below the waistline.
There are other factors in the golf swing that differ from men to women that will be discussed in detail in later articles such as: x-factor, size of the swing circle, differences in golf clubs, as well as other factors.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6131702

The Importance of The Hips In The Golf Swing

The hip movement in the golf downswing is one of the most important moves in the swing. The lower body action needs to initiate the downswing. This is where the term "swinging from the ground up" originated.

When starting the downswing, there is a slight push from the inside of the back foot causing the right knee to move toward the target. When the knee moves the hips start to rotate which causes the shoulders to rotate and the arms to move. If you allow the arms to just drop at this point the hands and club will drop also, and the rotation of the body will bring the club into the ball with a natural release of the wrists.

One thing that needs to be mentioned and it refers to the hip rotation. Because women have wider hip girth than men it is harder for women to rotate as quickly as men to generate club head speed. That difference in rotation speed could only be judged if they were the same stature and conditioned physically the same.

The swing sequencing is still the same for both genders.

Fortunately there is a golf swing aid that will help get the thrust needed to move the body properly toward the target, it is called "Pivot Pro" and is available online.

CLICK HERE TO SEE IT IS ACTION!

PIVOT PRO RATED #1 SWING AID

• Stop lateral hip sway.
• Encourages proper leg action.
• Improves weight transfer.

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One of the few swing training devices I would recommend. Try it. It will improve your game.

An Ultimate Golf Product

Being an instructor in golf, we are always attempting to further our education about the golf swing. Trying to keep up with the technology and improvements of the club, the shaft, and the balls can amount to a lot of time reading and studying, going to merchandise shows and seminars by other instructors. The computer has added to the education with the use of simulators that can measure club head speed, ball speed, club face angles, sweet spot hits and many other variables that occur in the golf swing.

One of the first computerized golf instruction CD's introduced is one I have used since 1996 and one of the most valuable resources I own. It is a CD disc that was developed by a company called Parsons Technology, named Fundamentals Of A Model Swing  and is a culmination of golf swings of over 50 golf professionals triangulated and overlayed to create the ultimate golf swing. I really don't know if the disc is still available because its creator, (we'll call him "Bob"), sold Parsons Technology to a company called Intuit, which doesn't have much to do with golf. Anyway, Bob went on to other bigger and better things and founded a company called GoDaddy.Com. He might have a disc in his desk drawer.

If anyone knows where copies this CD are available, please leave your name and email, and a message in my comment box below. If you ever get a chance to view it you will appreciate how valuable of an instructional tool it is.

See you next time, Dale