Chipping 101

   This week is all about chipping! In my last post I shared how I want to improve my overall golf game. I talked about how my first area that I want to improve is my chipping, and I am pleased to report that with the help of my videos I have improved a lot. It’s crazy to think that when you actually have a plan of attack and think about technique for once, how much better your shots can get, who would’ve thought. Looking back on how I was playing golf before, I think that I was always just going into the game with the idea that I was just going to hit the ball and magically be good, jokes on me because that is not at all how it works or how anything works for that matter. You need to be prepared to actually take the time to learn the skills in order to be good and consistent.

  For this post I am going to talk more about chipping but focus on chipping on a slop, specifically a downhill slope. This is a super hard skill to learn as hitting the golf ball with any club on a slope is a very hard skill to master. I found a good video on facebook that hjelps explain what you should do when chipping on a slope downhill. The first tip I learned was about your spine. He mentioned that while setting up your stance you should focus on your spine angle should be perpendicular to the slope. This will feel most likely very uncomfortable for a beginner. I know it did for me at least. The second tip he gave us in the video was a your weight. This is the same tip we learned in the last post about basic chipping. It should feel as though all your weight is on your lead leg, or your front foot. The third tip I learned was about your front foot. You should turn out your front foot. This again felt super strange and that is one thing that I am catching onto while learning the basic skills of golf. My advice for anyone following along is to lean into the uncomfortable feeling, it will make you grow. The last tip that I learned from the video is that you can also move your back foot a step back so that it is not the way of your club. I learn best and retain the most information when I can simplify it to a few essay words to remember, so my key words from this lesson are spine, weight, front foot, back foot. 

I tried this out for the first time yesterday and I will not lie, I was struggling a lot at the start. I felt like I was doing all of the tips correctly but it was still not changing my outcome at all. I was trying it over and over again and running the tips I learned through my head but my ball would either go flying over the putting green or barely move. My boyfriend started watching me very closely because I was getting very frustrated and noticed that I was standing a bit too far away from the ball. He told me to try feeling like I am closer to the ball. I even choked up a bit on the club to feel like I had more control over it. Choking up on the clubs means moving your hands down the shaft of the club. When I say that I could all of a sudden hit the ball perfectly, I am not kidding. Feeling as though I am closer to the ball along with the other four tips I learned changed the game for me. Just as a reminder, these tips might differ from person to person and these are just the ones that are working very well for me. 

Thanks again for following along on my golfing journey!