By Sven Nielsen, Head PGA professional at the Trump International Golf Club, Dubai
When performed correctly, the chipping action looks very simple and uncomplicated, but when someone gets it wrong, it can be difficult to watch. The question I get asked a lot when discussing the chipping action with my students is, ‘’do I use my wrists in the chipping action, or not at all?’’ The answer is that you use them for part of the swing but not all of it. Lets have a look at the three steps that will help you become a better chipper of the ball.
1. Backswing
During the backswing of the chip shot, we are going to talk about the bottom hand (my right hand, seeing I’m a right-handed player) Here we are looking for the right hand to hinge, like the photo shows. This will help create a slightly steeper angle of attack with the club head, which will help give you that desired good strike on the ball at impact.
2. Impact
At impact we are going to look at the shaft angle, or shaft lean, of the club. What we don’t want is the shaft angle to lean backwards or lean forwards at impact, this will have a massive affect on the bounce of the club, we need to achieve a ‘neutral’ shaft angle, or the feeling of your hands being directly over the ball at impact. This will give us the desired angle of attack during the impact stages.
3. Follow through
This is where the feeling of less wrist action becomes the main feeling. From the moment you make contact with the ball, you want to feel your wrists as ‘quiet’ as possible and your arms to stay close to your body, while your body rotates with the shot.
When learning these three steps to becoming a better chipper of the ball, its key to learn these individually, never try and learn all these steps at the same time, changing one step at a time will make sure that you don’t overthink the shot, but also gradually improve.
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