On am committed to hitting 5000 chips this winter. (NY) I had originally imagined that I would see steady progress throughout my practice sessions. But, appearing at irregular intervals are chips leaving the ball signifcantly to the right. Amazingly after hitting 20 successful chips in a row, hitting one bad chip is usually followed by another 3 or 4 bad ones, before I am able to begin another run of more accurate chips. To solve this problem I continue to study The Gallery for ideas on how to refine my chipping stroke. I have to be selective, because alot of the material is meant for swingers, not hitters. Through my first 4,000 chips, improvements come in fits and starts, and inaccurate chips always seem just around the corner. I had expected that by now I would be able to hit most chips consistently close to my target, (a bucket) situated 50 to 60 feet away. But it hasn't happened.
The original ideas that I started with was Ted Fort's backswing and zero pivot chip swing. I practiced his backswing by imitating his holding his left wrist with my right hand. I also tried to get the feel of his piston like forward swing. Further, I tried to incorporate his other suggestions such as concentrating on hitting out to right field (his occassional waggle) and watching my hands, and watching the club hitting through the ball. But unfortunately my consistency did not seem to improve as much as I had hoped. I even added Yoda's suggestion of hitting the balls with my pressure points. During this time period, my record of what I considered satisfactory chips (maybe 12 feet from the bucket) was somewhere around from 25 in row.
I then figured out that I was wasn't consistently hitting the turf, (mat) past the ball. Based on Ben's video of the student in the sand trap, found a mat with a straight line across it. I placed the ball behind that line and concentrated on hitting down through the ball onto that line. Progress seemed to improve after I adopted this practice. I also discovered a Yoda video in which he talked about students not focusing on hitting the ball with the clubhead, but rather focusing on hitting the ball with the presure points in the hands. Finally I tried adopting the idea that I should hit the ball with the whole forearm. The result of combining practice on these ideas was a new record of 40 satisfactory chips in a row. But even this progress didn't avoid my occassionally hitting balls off line to the right.
In another of Ben's tapes, I saw him teach a student to insure the elbow moves foward down below the belly and close to left leg. I remembered watching in slow motion the swings in the long drive contest between Yoda and Ted Fort and noticing how after their elbows dropped down, the elbows began to steadily move forward. That wasn't happening in my swing. In general when my ball path was off line, I found my arms extending inside of where I thought they should be. Even though I knew Ben was teaching a "swinging" student, I thought that this idea had promise and I was running out of time. The immediate result this morning was a string of 100 satisfactory chips in a row. Also the quality of the chips was alot higher than previously as a much higher precentage were relatively easy one putts. I then tried hitting 1 handed swings employing the same principles of moving the right elbow further forward and actually had much greater success than usual in this endeavor. The quality of my full swing with my sand wedge, the only club I allow myself to bring to the range, was also better than before. Hopefully I am finally on to something.... Any further suggestions from skilled chippers?
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