What Nobody Tells You About Chipping Onto The Green - So Important!

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Transcript Summary-

When you’re faced with a chip shot around the green, it should be fun—an exciting opportunity to show off your creativity. But for many golfers I coach, it’s the complete opposite. It’s a source of stress and anxiety. That was certainly the case for a recent student of mine, Tim. The moment he stood over the ball, you could see how tense and stiff he was—and what followed were those dreaded fat or thin shots. So I shared a couple of key concepts with him that made a huge difference, and I want to walk you through those in this video because I think they’ll help you too.

The first thing we tackled was tension. We needed to get him consistently making clean contact. Now, he wasn’t hitting it close at first, but he was making solid strikes—and that alone helped him relax. Once we got that down, we moved on to controlling distance and even playing a variety of shots around the green. And before we go any further, if you’re new to the channel, do consider subscribing. I post videos like this every week, and I always include a free downloadable guide so you can take what we cover straight to the course.

Now, the shot we’re working on today is one that pops up, lands softly, and even has a touch of backspin. But before you can pull that off, you’ve got to control your contact—and with Tim, that started with something called depth control. Basically, the club moves on an arc, and if you don’t control that arc, you either hit behind the ball or blade it across the green. A lot of golfers shift their depth unintentionally, which causes inconsistency. So with Tim, I started by getting his setup right: feet about club-width apart, toes slightly flared, arms hanging naturally, triceps resting gently on the chest. This posture helps keep the arc consistent.

Then we worked on brushing the ground—just letting the club bruise the turf. Not digging in, not missing it—just a gentle, consistent contact. Tim quickly said, “Danny, I feel like I’m just keeping my height and letting the club swing,” and that was a breakthrough. This increased his margin for error. Even if he hit a couple of inches behind the ball, he could still get it up and onto the green because the depth was controlled.

Once that clicked, we focused on low point control—where the club bottoms out. I asked Tim to imagine a box running from his lead foot up through his shoulder. The goal was to keep that lead side within the box throughout the swing. No moving backwards, no collapsing. Just pivoting around that lead side. And that was it! Keep the box intact, control the depth, and just rotate. It really is that simple.

Next, we worked on distance control by tweaking ball position. Moving the ball back in the stance made the shot come out lower and faster—great when the pin’s further back. Moving it forward made the ball float up softer and land more gently. Same swing, same technique—just a change in ball position. I gave Tim a 5-second routine to make this repeatable: let the triceps rest on the chest, drop the club straight down so it’s resting just on the surface, and make a couple of practice swings to feel the depth. Then just pivot through.

Lastly, we tackled shots from the rough. The ball was nestled down, so I kept things simple again. Same club—his 56-degree wedge—but now with a longer swing and more energy through the shot. Because you’re catching a bit of grass behind the ball, it takes a bit more feel and bravery, but if you control your depth and keep that pivot consistent, you can still get great results.

So if you’re struggling with chipping, I hope this helps build your confidence and gets you enjoying your short game again. There’s more to come in the short game series, but this is a great place to start. If you found it helpful, give it a thumbs up, maybe share it with a mate, and if you want help with bunker shots next, check out the video right here. Until next week—have a wonderful golfing!

Full Transcript-  So when you're faced with a chip shot around the green it should be fun It should be exciting an opportunity to to bring out your creativeness But for many of my students that come and see me this is a source of anxiety nervousness and tension And a recent student of mine Tim that was certainly the case He stood over a chip shot like this and you could visibly see the level of stiffness and tension in and and what followed was the obvious fat shot or thin shot So what I did with him is is I shared with him a couple of concepts I'm going to share with you in this video The first concept really basically got him out of tension It got him in a sense making consistent contact time and time again That helped him relax He didn't get near the flag initially but he was making solid contact Once we got that nailed down it it opened up the door basically for us to then work on distance control as well and and also different shots around the green In this video I want to share with you what we did because I think it could help anybody particularly yourself If you're struggling with your chip shots around the green Before I do though look if you're new to the channel it's one of your first lessons of mine Please consider subscribing I release videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game Plus you never have to remember a thing Whatever we do in this video I'll put into a free downloadable practice guide in that description box

below So that is the shot we're going to learn today Okay the ball pops up lands softly with a little bit of backspin To do that you need to understand how to consistently make contact first Now with Tim this was a non-starter With the level of tension that he had there was no chance he was going to be able to play that shot So we need to get consistent contact I'm going to show you how we do that The second thing I'm going to do is to show you then how we helped him control his distance And then the routine I gave just a 5-second routine that you could take to the golf course that was going to work from different lies all around the green So the first concept I taught Tim and I want you to be aware of this is depth control Depth control is ultimately this here when I'm swinging the club is taking an arc You see it's coming up back down to the uh to to a low point and then coming up again The problem is with so many people are struggling they are in a sense changing the depth Sometimes they stand up and they thin it Other times which is a lot they then start to fat it They lower the act down to the ground The club strikes the ground way too early and they fat it And then it's just a yo-yo They start hitting a few dodgy fats They get scared of the ground And now they start standing up in fear of fatting it So with Tim we got rid of the anxiety by ultimately controlling his depth first We did this first of all in setup I got his set set up here club width apart of the heels toe pointing out towards the target Here I got his arm just triceps resting on his chest but just beautifully hanging downwards like this I got him to place the club the the flat part of the club just on the ground and let the arm just hang Now when he did this he was naturally holding it roughly at the middle of the grip I like the arms hanging because let's say for instance they were like this and they had a little bit of bend in If there's a lot of bend in the arms what's going to happen We could extend and push the depth right under the ground again The arc under the ground So letting the arms hang is a really great way of in a sense helping control that depth Then unbelievably simple All I did was get him to make some movements getting him here to feel the base of the club bruising the ground Now occasionally he went and he hit the ground too hard Occasionally he missed it But ultimately what he started to feel he said "Danny I really feel like I'm almost keeping my height and my chest almost away from the ground and I'm just letting the club swing." That is how simple it was Now why is depth control super important Well it increases your margin of error Look watch this here If I push that ball way forward I could strike the ground an inch or two inches behind the golf ball But if I'm in a sense controlling my depth here I could still make some form of effort and actually advance that ball I hit the ground almost 2 in behind there and I've still popped it up onto the green That is because I've controlled my depth So your margin of ether really really increases when you do that So we got him hitting a few shots just doing that initially Now that saw a lot of his tension start to disappear but he was very very inconsistent in terms of the ball flight So he was controlling his depth but he wasn't controlling his low point His body was moving around a lot of the time Now the problem when you do that you can control your depth The problem is if I start to move backwards here I'm going to add a lot of loft onto that club That's going to send the ball off a little bit too high And then if I'm if I'm doing that one minute but then moving over here the next minute now I'm taking loft away the ball's going to shoot off like a rocket no control over distance So what I want you to imagine now is super simple I said to him look imagine a box coming out of your left foot your lead foot here running up through your shoulder going through your knee And I want you to imagine looking after that box keeping it completely intact This would be not moving back here or doing stuff like this where you're kind of in a sense this bit stays in the box this bit comes out of the box I want you just imagine a simple box You control your depth And now what we're going to do is we're going to keep that lead side inside that box all the time Yeah Now what this does is it manages where that club lands every single time So it means that when the club lands here it's going to have the same loft on the golf club time and time again It's also going to give you a great deal of consistency Now we didn't just stop there right So because this is important I've got a lot of weight I've got about 60 70% of my weight over on this lead side Now what I said to Tim was this Once that you've got that there you don't need to move any more there All you do from here is you look after that lead side And look all I'm going to do watch this here I am simply going to pivot around that lead side So here I am pivoting around Notice how my knee isn't moving downwards It's working Look everything's working on an arc around that lead side I can do that because I don't need to move forward anymore All I have to do here is look pivot around How simple is

that How simple is that All I'm doing here is controlling depth and simply turning towards my target Now clearly Tim didn't get this straight away It took a bit of time but the confidence was increasing As it did it allowed us then to adapt So when you're around the short game sometimes you want the ball to stop up quickly sometimes you want it to release a little bit quickly Now you can choose different golf clubs or what you can do is keep it simple You I've got a 56 degree that I'm using here Now what I'd said to Tim is "Right so we're going to move the ball now Tim right back in your stance." And we're going to show you this ball's now going to come off a little bit faster This is great if the pins a bit further on the green So we said "Look do a practice." This is routine I gave the 5-second routine keeping it simple Put the club out in front of you Let the club fall so both triceps rest here This will make sure that you're not too tilted this way until this way You're nice and level Drop the club down here Really feel like you're kind of just on the surface of that uh the grass here You're not right in deep in there You're going to lower the arc You're just resting on that surface Now from here all we're going to do is make some swings where you're just brushing the ground You get a sense of depth control Then all you're going to do from here is just pivot through the shot Now I've put move the ball back in my stance Watch what happens This ball this is ball is going to come out a little bit lower and it's going to release a little bit more A lot more power It looks more speed going into that shot All I do I don't change anything in my technique necessarily All I'm going to do now if I want to hit that ball to come out softer is simply move that now Swap the feet around I'm going to move that right off the front foot of my lead foot here Now my action has is not going to change whatsoever All I've done is since move my ball forward So what I'm going to do is I'm going to catch the ball slightly later in the arc I might even catch the ground behind the golf ball a little bit on this one That's going to get the ball coming off softer I don't have to worry about fatting it because I'm controlling the depth And I will control where that lead side is here And hey Presto Nice little pivot through the shot And away we

go Look at the height on that one Ball pops up lands softly No difference in in the technique whatsoever All I've done is simply changed where the ball position is and it creates two different shots I don't think it can be any excuse me simpler than that So I'm just going to show you really quickly what we gave him in rough lines because you can get some awkward lies just on the edge of the green Just show you the change you need to make there but I promise you it's very little So you can see here the ball's really nestled down I still don't have a lot of green to work with here And I'm still going to use my 56 I want to get used to one club And that's what I said to Tim Get used to one club before you start messing about with lots of other ones cuz I think it's just an easier way to learn the the short game So all I'm going to do here is what do we want We want this ball to come off slowly So if we want a ball to come off slowly where do we put the ball position That's right forward in a stance So we we've set up forward What I did with Tim I gave him the 5-second routine I said "Look what we're going to do is we're going to rest our triceps on our chest so our shoulders are nice and level We're going to drop the club straight down We're going to do the same principle balls forward But now we're going to do a few practice swings where we're focusing on are you controlling the depth of the arc Yeah Is it not going too deep Not missing the ground Control the depth Now on this one when the ball's in the rough I asked him to be a little bit braver I say braver because for such a small shot it requires a slightly longer swing because we're going to be catching the ground a little bit behind the golf ball It's going to require a lot more energy in the golf club to come through This does take a little bit of feel and practice okay So it's not like a one one thing You do it try it once and it works straight away You can get great contact but you might struggle with distance control to start with right So we get ourselves set We've controlled the depth And then all we do from here look up we don't need to move our weight forward We're simply just going to pivot from this left box here We are simply going to pivot through Notice again look how my knees everything's working beautifully through to the target Let's have a look at this in action Get myself set over the golf ball Nice and

simple Hey Presto Simple as that Now you'll notice on that one there how much longer my swing was swing was to create that motion there That is ultimately the where the confidence and the kind of um the assurity of this strike starts to come in So it does require a bit of practice but it's no different really to what we've just done So I hope this gives you a great starting point if you're struggling with chipping you're getting anxious I hope this builds that confidence up so you can start to really enjoy shots around the green I've got lots more in the short game to cover I know but I thought this would be a wonderful starting point for you If you enjoy the video give it a thumbs up maybe share it with one of your friends and if you maybe want to look at bunker play next check this video out right here But until next week have a wonderful golfing.