Improve Posture For Better Chips

If you're duffing chips it could be down to posture at address. GM Top 25 Coach, Peter Dawson, offers some tips to get you hitting crisp greenside chips

Improve Posture For Better Chips

Have you been duffing chips quite a bit of late? You're not alone as a lot of golfers have great trouble striking the ball correctly on those little chip shots around the green. They’ll hit it fat, they’ll hit it thin, and it often all comes about because of wrong posture.

They’ll sit down too much in the legs and bury their head down into their chest, prompting everything – body, shoulders and arms – to wander about all over the place and move too much during the stroke. Bad posture is a recipe for disaster as crisp contact is all but impossible then.

Hone your chipping touch with Peter Finch's 'gong drill'

With good posture, I guarantee your chipping will improve significantly. Keeping your feet fairly close together, stand tall with your head up, then bend forward from the waist. Flex your knees a bit and grip a little way down the club.

From this position, the chest becomes free to simply turn as you play your chip. There’s virtually no leg movement – we’re not dancing! You just turn back and turn through with no lateral leg movement as though your torso is in a cylinder. Improving your posture is one the quickest ways to stop duffing chips

Watch our beginners' guide to chipping

Key pointers

1 No slouching Good posture is critical when chipping. Stand tall; don’t let your chin drop down into your chest; flex your knees a little and bend forward from the waist.

2 Legs stay still You don’t need power when chipping, so the legs should remain very passive throughout. Make sure they don’t move laterally either, as your striking will instantly suffer then.

Watch Amy Boulden's chipping tips...

3 In a cylinder With bad posture, your body, shoulders and arms will move about all over the place as you swing the club. With good posture you simply turn back and through as if in a cylinder.