Controlling your pitching presents a challenge for most of us. I find this is normally because people pitch without a method of controlling their yardage. Most players just try to make a shorter swing somewhere around 3/4 and guess how hard to hit it. This generally results in inconsistent strikes and a lack of confidence and higher scores.
The trick is to aim for a specific length or lengths of swings for different yardage. Start by imagining your swing on a clock face, your left arm is hour hand and on your clock you have two or maybe three stops, 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock & 11 o’clock (12 o’clock being and ideal full swing). Not all of us will have all of these stops as it will depend on flexibility to whether you can reach the longer positions (some players full swing maybe only 11 o’clock).
At 9 o’clock your left arm will parallel to the ground with your wrist set at 90 degree’s, 10/11/12 o’clock are longer versions of this same ‘L’ position.
Now the key is to go onto the range with your ‘pitching’ clubs (Sw, Pw, Gap Wedge ect) and hit each club at the different lengths of swing to see how far the shots go. From there you can start to develop some distance control! To make it a little simpler for some of the less experienced players, you will find that one stop e.g. 10 o’clock feels the most natural, this will now become your ‘pitching swing’. You will find it far easier to gauge distance as you have a length of swing to aim for instead of just guessing a 3/4 feeling golf swing!
Have a go I’d love to hear some results!
