Finesse Wedge - Chipping and Pitching
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Trail Arm Internal Rotation - Finesse Wedge
Golfers who struggle with finesse wedge shots around the green are often defaulting to their full-swing setup by mistake. This pattern, which I typically see in lower handicap players, occurs when players setup for a position of "lag" instead of "cast". While shaft lean and "lag" are important for full shots, they can be detrimental to good wedge play. A quick remedy for this issue is to simply check the amount of internal rotation of the trail arm and ensure that the trail elbow is pointing roughly "down-the-line" at setup. This will promote a stroke that mitigates contact issues, allows proper use of the club's "bounce", and produces higher & softer wedge shots.
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This FNS Wedge drill is trail arm internal rotation.
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So many golfers who struggle with their finesse shots around the green do so because they
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approach it more like a full swing.
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One of the common places where especially good players get in problems is they set up for
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a position of the leg with the trail shoulder instead of a position of cast for the trail
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shoulder.
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And what that does is that causes you to create too much shaffling which takes away bounce
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and gives you leading edge contact.
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So at best case you hit these really hot running chip shots or pitch shots.
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Worst case you struggle with chunk shots or bladed shots because you pull up knowing that
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you're about to chunk it.
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So one way that you can work around getting a little bit more neutral shaft is by focusing
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on the trail arm.
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So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to monitor if my elbow is ahead of a line between
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my shoulder and my wrist.
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So if I had this line right here you can see from the face on camera that my elbow is
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well in front of the line.
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If I go into more internal rotation of the shoulder then it would be more back behind
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this line.
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If this stays closer to back behind this line then it will be much easier for me to get
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a club to pass and use the bottom of the swing or use the back of the club for bounce.
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Basically it's easier for me to get the club leaning more vertical.
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If I bring that elbow well in front it's more challenging.
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I was able to pull off good contact on that one but you could see based on the ground
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contact that it was a little bit more tough.
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If I was to have any steepness like that you would see the ground contact would be not
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quite as good.
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So if you struggle with getting this arm a little bit more tucked in and you get the contact
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behind the ball more with the leading edge then focus on that trail arm staying a little
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bit more out.
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That will help you slide the club along the ground for a longer period of time.
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That back edge and just let the club slide a great way to give yourself a little bit
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more margin of air.
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This is a trend typically for better players.
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I'd say that poor wedge players don't necessarily hire handicapped golfers who are naturally
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good wedge players tend to do this setup with their shoulder a little bit more naturally
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but I have found a number of very good ball strikers you tend to set up in this pattern
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here and if you have any amount of lunge you can hear that it's not quite as crisp, not
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quite as good ground contact.
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So if you're struggling or if you look at your video and you just see that you have a
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really hard time using bounce focus on pointing the elbow more behind you or from the face
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on trying to get the elbow shoulder and wrist to kind of stay in line a little bit longer
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instead of having that elbow lead because that elbow leading can do a number on how you control
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the leading edge and how you control low point.