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I recently read that there are ‘Three Chips Around The Green’! Suppose you might define that ‘Procedure’ to that degree? A golfer who can ‘Putt’ can also ‘Chip’! Some of my students disagree but not for long! You can use the same ‘8 Step Pre-Shot Routine’. Good place to start!

Let’s try this simplicity?

“A Chip Is A Putt With A Hop” (more ‘Ground Time than Air Time’) … just one pretty simple ‘Stroke Procedure’ from the first cut or ‘Fringe’. It is sometimes referred to as the ‘Light Rough’. For me I prefer to think of the ‘Second Cut’ as the ‘Light Rough’.

A STRESS CONDITIONING DRILL

We all need to practise and make the ‘Little Dance Floor Knee-Knockers’? Here is one method!

Standing the a cup on a good uniform portion of the green, find ‘The Fall or Zero Break Line’ to start … dead straight down-hill … and stick three tees in the ground at about 36 inches each from the bottom of the cup. Easy way? Stick the toe of your Putter in the hole with the handle pointing straight down-hill. If it is a 32” Putter, stick the tee in the grass 4” past the butt of the grip. Lay the Putter on the grass again along the same line with the sole of the Clubhead touching the tee. Stick another tee in the ground 4” past the butt of the grip. Repeat one more time!

‘Up & Down’ is different than ‘Side-Hill … Ball Above and Below Your Feet’ circumstances. These two options demand a specific ‘Set-Up’ so as to adjust your ‘Spinal Axis and Swing Plane’ to satisfy the stage that has been set by your previous strike! (see Flatter more Shallow Plane with the Ball Above Your Feet … Draw tendency and more Vertical and Steeper Plane with the Ball Below Your Feet … Fade Tendency. Pay close attention to your Clubface Aim!)

I owe some thanks to Gary Player for the following inspiration. He showed me how he walked through his ‘Down-Hill Lies’ as ‘Mother Nature (Newtonian Gravity) powerfully invited this ‘Take A Step’ response. If you fight the natural ‘Step-Release’ response, you are surely going to invite ‘Lower Body Machine or Lumbar Soft Tissue Injury’ (STI). Gary had a delicate ‘Lower Back’ so he ‘Walked Through Most Full Swing Strikes’! We shall be enhanced by a slightly ‘Wider Stance’ in this ‘Walk Down-The-Hill Delivery’. Make sure that your Target Foot Stance is Flared so it can invite ‘Hip Release’. (see ‘Steer So You Can Clear’ – Accumulate, Load, Store, Deliver & Release … ALSDR)

What do we mean by those few words? It is not complicated!

Of course, you use our 2 Point Drill (one ball into the hole from various distances and breaks), The Zero Break Line Drill (Dead Straight Roll … also known as The Fall Line Drill), The 4 Corner Drill, The Circle Drill, The Spiral Drill, The Zone Drill, The Safety Ladder Drill and you shall have more of your own. They all have their place on ‘Mother Nature’s Menu’!

Every ‘Putting & Chipping procedure has it dedicated ‘8 Step Putting & Chipping Pre-Shot Routine’. We use various aspects of this very important learned skill with all or each of the above, even the short dead straight up the slope Putt! The full routine is simply more thorough.

Hap-hazard, willey-nilley golf sadly gets appropriate and earned results!

If I were to have the ability to get you to accomplish just two disciplines, what would they be?

1. Define and accomplish a ‘Trusted Pre-Shot Routine’ that is based on our ‘5 Set-Ups’ … Posture, Grip, Stance, Ball Location and Alignment. No golf strike worldwide does not have all 5 of these components. Your ‘PSR’ should include a mechanically-correct ‘Pivot Waggle’ or ‘Practice Swing’. The goal is to generate the feel of your upcoming shot. If you are on the tee-box, your previous shot was a ‘Putt or Chip’. (holed out shot) Task is to feel or rehearse the forthcoming and different strike!

The right place at the right time with four of the right golfers after a productive round! Idle chatter regularly morphs into a meaningful discussion. That is good for us!

One of the key topics was ‘The Lower Body Machine’s (LBM) leading the Upper Body Machine (UBM) in the ‘Front or Down & Out Swing’. The LBM is the ‘Axial Core’. The UBM is the Radial Lever Assemblies … Shoulder Sockets, Upper Arms, Elbows, Forearms, Wrists, Hands and the actual golf club, known as ‘The Secondary Lever’. Now that we have definitions out of the way, let’s get to functionality … meat and potatoes? Lead & Lag are key terms … some component ahead and something behind! (see ‘Turn & Lift’ – useful term pertaining to your ‘Take-Away’!)

In the Down & Out Swing, Front Swing, the Hips (LBM) Lead the Hands (UBM). By the time your ‘Hands Reach The Top Of Back & Up Swing, (TOB – Swing Sequence #5) your Hips have already departed the train station! While your ‘Lever Assemblies’ are going ‘Back & Up, your ‘LBM’ is already going ‘Down & Out’ heading for the ‘Bottom Half Of The Swing Circle’ … ‘Impact & Separation Zone’.

This is an expansive topic, so let us see how simple we can make it for both of us? Let us firstly consider the simple process of ‘Ambulation … just walking along’. Ponder walking Up-hill, Level and Down-hill. If you have a sloped lawn, actually test these variables!

The ‘Two Patterns’ are simply ‘PUSH and PULL Basic’. We can ‘Push Forward’ with our ‘Brace or Back Foot’. We could arguably, ‘Pull Forward’ via the ‘Flex or Contraction Bending of our Front or Target Foot and Leg’. That is not very efficient. How could we walk or run by this ‘Target Leg and Hip Pull Basic Mechanical Pattern’? We also rightfully refer to these two methods of ambulatory propulsion as utilizing the ‘Lower Body Machine Push & Drag Links’.

A useful analogy is the ‘Two Wheel Drive Pick-Up Truck’. The front axle and wheels ‘Steer or Direct’ while the drive shaft and rear differential, axle and wheels ‘Push or Propel’. The Front Bumper can provide tow-truck drag. The Rear Bumper provides push source. (see ‘Lead & Lag’)

IF YOU WANT TO LOWER YOUR TRAJECTORY
make your ball fly closer to the ground

… how might you accomplish this feat?

Pretty simple and mechanical!

1. Select a ‘Less Lofted Golf Tool’ (a Deloft Action)
2. ‘Strengthen Your Grip’ (see more Target Knuckles - a Deloft Action)
3. Move your ‘Ball Location Slightly Aft’ (a Deloft Action)
4. Add some ‘Forward Press to your Grip and Lever Assemblies’ (a Deloft Action)
5. ‘Utilize The Wind’ when properly available

When is the last time you carefully considered Clubface Aim, Clubhead Path, Clubhead Speed, Ball Speed, Sweet Spot (Impact Point), Smash Factor, Angle Of Attack (AoA), Launch Angle or Approach, X and Y Axis Spin Rate, Carry Distance, Trajectory, Parabolic Behaviour (Apex) and more. Are each of these items ringing a clarion bell for you … a clean and pure sound?

Swing speeds below 85 mph will benefit from a high launch angle and a high spin rate. The reason is simple physics. (see ‘Bournoulli’s Theorm’ and ‘The Venturi Effect’) More spin generates more lift, which can help the ball stay in the air longer and accomplish increased carry distance. At lower speeds, the drag and energy lost in creating spin are offset by the improvement in distance caused by the increased time in the air.

With ‘Clubhead Speeds’ in excess of 85 to 100 miles per hour, science and physics is different! How about 140 MPH on the screws? It is a demanding challenge to make a golf ball travel out there in excess of 300 yards! Fewer athletes accomplish that feat than one might think!

You now that there are ‘5 Alignment Axes’ … 1) Ankles, 2) Knees, 3) Hips, 4) Shoulders and 5) Eyes & Ears. Four of these are importantly ‘Primary Articulating Joints (PAJs). Near the ears you will locate your ‘Neck’ (The Capital Vertebra). That is a very important golf component! The Head is NOT rigid … it floats smoothly atop your shoulders! (see ‘Ocular Acuity - Tether Ball Pole Concept’) This type of simplicity will cause you to love ‘555 Golf’ practicality!

You need really strong information! The most important overall Alignment is the ‘Shoulders’. They are more important than your ‘Hips’, which are often presented as ‘THE MOST IMPORTANT’. The ‘Shoulders’ are closest to the Hands and Sweet Spot’. They closely govern the ‘Lever Assemblies’. The ‘Shoulders’ ‘Load Coil Range’ far more than the Hips. The Brace Shoulder windes up your core far more than the Brace Hip. This writer feels like his ‘Brace Middle Finger and thus Brace Hand windes up the ‘Shoulders’ and then the ‘Abdominal, Chest, Lats Core’ and finally the ‘Hips’. (see ‘From The Top Down & From The Outside-In’) (see ‘The Balsa Airplane Concept’)