Chipping Yips Fixed! Dan Grieve Coaches a 4 Handicap Golfer
Do you suffer from anxiety over short shots around the green? In this one-on-one lesson, renowned short game coach Dan Grieve breaks down the common causes of poor chipping and shows a low-handicapper how to use the bounce of the club for a greater margin for error.
Video Transcript
Hi, I'm Dan Grieve, and I've teamed with adidas Golf to help three lucky Golf Monthly readers improve their short game.
Let's get started.
All right, Ben.
Good.
It's great to have you along.
Hi, yeah.
Hi, big fan.
Welcome to Weybourne.
Thank you.
Now, tell me about your short game then.
We've got a really kind of basic- Yeah chip here off a fairly tight line.
Just, just tell me about your short game generally, about how you feel for this shot in particular.
Yeah, so, four handicapper.
Around the green's always been the worst part of my game consistently.
Yeah.
I'd say throughout the time I've had the yips, or feel like- Okay I've had the yips.
Particularly in competition play.
Mm-hmm.
Get very frozen over the ball.
Mm-hmm.
Obviously poor technique at some point over the time.
Yeah.
And I've got a fear of- Yeah hitting the ground.
There's a lot of baggage there.
Duffing.
Yeah.
Knifing.
It's tough, isn't it?
yeah.
Because you want, short game should be to enjoy it, and you've got- Yeah sounds like you've got some anxiety around it.
My scores depend on how many greens I hit.
Yeah, sure.
If I hit 15 greens, I'll shoot a good score.
Yeah.
If I hit 10 greens- Yeah.
Okay it goes all right.
All right.
Well, I'm just gonna watch you hit two shots.
Yeah.
See what's going on, and then, and then we'll have a chat about it, okay?
But, yeah, let's go for this left-hand pin here, okay?
Okay.
There we go.
A classic.
That sort of thing, yeah?
Yeah.
Okay.
One more.
That was a bit better.
You got your club on the ball there, but actually- Lacked it, miscued it that actually wasn't that dissimilar to the first one.
Yeah.
Okay.
You're a good player.
You've got good hands, but you're having, they're having to work very hard for you, okay?
Mm-hmm.
Just down this side.
So, yeah, this topic of the yips, this anx- anxiety side of things, it's, it's an issue for a lot of golfers, and I think you said it there yourself, you've got a bit of a fear of the ground.
And when you have a fear of the ground, that manifests as you're coming down.
The anxiety kicks in probably about here.
Yeah.
You can kind of feel it.
Yeah.
And it becomes a bit involuntary at times a- and, and it's just, there's so much fear about how you're gonna strike it that you kind of pull out the shot, and the hands get a little bit involuntary in how they're gonna move.
And like you say, all, all comes down to you not trusting the ground, and essentially, just looking at your technique there, it's because as you come down, you Well, firstly you set the wrist quite a lot at address there, okay?
So you, you get an awful lot of wrist hinge early, and then you kind of drive the handle this way, and you can chip that way, but my word, you've got to be perfect.
You've got zero margin for error the way you're chipping.
That second one, you were good, right?
You managed to, despite no margin for error, you still managed to hit a good shot.
Yeah.
Albeit it came off a little bit hot.
Yeah.
So, so you're kind of going this.
You're a little bit on your right side, by the way.
We're gonna work on that a little bit.
You're sort of here, and then you set, and then you kind of pull.
So again, I hit that pure, but again, see how hot it comes off the club face?
Mm-hmm.
If you're short sided, I guess it's a bit more of an issue as well.
If you want to get a little bit more- Yeah spin on the ball.
So what I'd like to do with you, just try and make things a little bit friendlier, because that's what it's all about.
Can we get your club working friendlier through the turf so you start to trust the ground?
And then there's a rewiring process that will go on, and you'll start to then get a lot more comfortable and relaxed over it.
Because you'll know you don't need to be perfect.
See, the best players in the world, when they chip So I've hit that one three inches before just to show you, right?
Now, I've hit it three inches before, and I've hit it stiff, and it came off soft.
Because I've got my angle of attack nice and shallow for this fringe lie, and I've got the loft and bounce on the club, so I've got this big margin for error.
If I was chipping the way you are, and I hit three inches before the ball, I think we know what's gonna happen.
You'd be chipping again, right?
Yeah.
So it's not gonna go very far.
So I want you to get your arms a little bit softer, because I can tell they're a bit tight.
I want to put the ball a little bit further forward, and I want to get your weight a little bit more on your left side so you're not tipping back too much.
But the big thing for you is I want, we're gonna work on a much wider, shallower takeaway so the club can land on the ground and come through.
Okay.
Does that make sense technically?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you set up to the ball.
Okay.
The ball not too far back.
I know it's a bit of a comfort blanket, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah.
The stick it back and get, but we don't want that.
Okay.
No, that's good.
That's much better.
There we go.
Bit more on the left.
Try and relax these arms, the grip pressure.
Just relax the grip pressure a bit more.
Yeah, that's more like it.
Yeah.
That's kind of about a 4 out of 10.
You're about a 9 or a 10 before.
That's, does that feel softer?
Yeah.
You see how the club's wanting to swing a little bit on its own now- Yeah just from grip pressure?
Yeah.
Okay.
That's it.
Put the club down.
So your big thing here, I want you to imagine there's a g- a low coffee table like this.
Yeah.
And you've got to keep your club head under the table.
Now, you should feel You tell me, what, which muscles do you think are working a little bit harder to achieve that?
My lower back.
Or which maybe you're using less?
My lower back, I can feel.
Lower back, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Do you feel your wrist are working more or less?
Less.
Yes.
Yeah.
Perfect, and you feel like it's probably more from- Left shoulder, yeah yeah, exactly, yeah.
And that's what we want there.
So take it away.
Stop.
That's good, and then from there I want a little bit of rotation.
I want you to actually feel like you're gonna hit the ground first- Mm-hmm to r- try to retrain the brain that you can hit the ground.
And then from there, you add a little bit of rotation with your chest through the ball.
Okay.
Have a practice swing first.
Now, do you hear that noise?
Yeah.
If you can just get that noise when you chip, you'll change your short game.
I do take divots.
Yeah.
As you can imagine.
Yeah, and when you get a divot, and that's that leading edge you're getting really dig in there.
So if you have a practice swing, and you can hear that noise, and, you know, you talk about tr- taking it to the course.
Yeah.
Like, a good way for people who kind of like shu- suffer with the yips, if you can use the sense of sound, it's a really powerful sense.
Uh-huh.
And that noise you're getting there, just do, do a few more because that's a great noise.
You can't get enough of that noise there.
You hear that noise?
Yeah.
If you can get that noise with the strike of the ball, your short game will be great.
So focus on the noise more than anything, but give me a little bit of width at the same time.
Okay.
Okay?
Great.
And you join me, it gave me the noise.
Now, it wasn't fantastic.
You didn't really rotate through.
That's, we'll get on to that, but did that feel a little bit friendlier?
Yeah.
I felt my knees go then.
Yeah, well, there's a bit, man, listen, you're gonna have to rewire yourself, okay?
But every shot you hit like that will be a shot getting closer to rewiring because you start to trust the ground.
Yeah.
Okay?
Right, take it back so it's gonna go wide with left shoulder, and then from there, open.
This time, as you hit it, keep moving.
Okay.
Have a little bit of rotation with the chest through it.
Try soften your arms.
They've gone a bit tight again there.
Wide, slide.
Very good again.
Now we're hitting the ground, I want you to get a little bit more length to me.
So just going back, okay.
Just feel like you're gonna get it a little wider.
Right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help move you this time.
Okay.
Nice and relaxed.
Here we go.
I'm gonna do this with you.
Okay.
When you're ready, off we go.
Right, how did that feel?
Yeah.
Unfortunately, I can't move you every time.
'Cause if I did, you'd hit it a couple of inches.
But what did you, what did you feel sort of different there?
Just, just yeah, more rotation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just taking his hands and arms and prodding it.
I'm sort of, my grip gets stronger as I go through the ball.
Yeah.
I can feel myself getting tighter- Yeah.
I feel that on the grip.
You gotta accept that for a while, you know.
We're, we're trying to re- totally rewire how you see this.
Yeah.
But shots like that are gonna build your confidence.
What, every shot you hit like that, you're a shot closer to getting it all, your confidence back.
Okay, here we go.
Right, without me now, okay.
Go wide and let the club slide, and let the chest move.
Very good.
Well done.
Trusting the ground.
Mm-hmm.
It wasn't quite as free when I moved you- Yeah but it was all right.
I want you to rotate through to the target more.
Soften these arms, Rags.
Very, very good.
That's a great shot.
See the bit, the spin?
Yeah.
Just flowing now.
It's not just prodding the arms and being edgy.
Good.
Just think width, slide, turn.
Very good.
Very, very good.
One more.
You gotta keep breathing.
You are quite, quite anxious, haven't you?
Just try and, just try and relax.
Just try and breathe a bit, okay?
Yeah.
Okay.
Very, very good.
Now if you can get that backswing longer, okay, we're in business.
Felt like I had to lag that to get more- Because, well, that's what happens distance It's all, because you, you're a good, good player.
You're four handicap, right?
You've, you've, you're, you've got a lot of, s- sort of golf in feels in you.
If you get a little bit short, you're gonna wanna go that way.
Yeah.
That make sense?
Yeah.
If you can get longer, you can start letting the club release more, like you say, 'cause your instinct from a short backswing is gonna be tend to wanna lag it and drag it.
Good.
A little bit more flow.
Let's get a little bit more flow in it.
Wide.
Oh, it's got tight again.
I can't move the club.
Sorry.
Right, there we go.
Wide, and then we slide and we open up.
Okay?
Yeah.
Beautiful.
Absolutely top class.
That is fantastic.
Actually relaxed it on the way back.
You did relax a little bit.
Felt like it.
So that's what you've gotta practice.
You've gotta just really work on getting the club working better through the turf, which is a lot to do with angle of attack, keeping it shallower, a lot to do with relaxing, and a lot to do with that practice swing.
Get that noise first.
I was gonna say, is there anything pre-shot routine in terms of walking up?
'Cause I walk up to the ball thinking, "God, I'm not gonna enjoy this."
Yeah.
How, what could- Yeah what should I be thinking about?
Well, you don't wanna master the art of negative thinking, do you?
No.
No, that's the thing.
So, but equally, it's no good just thinking positive thoughts.
You know, it's your technique that's actually ultimately gonna do this.
I'm a big believer if you're technically good, you're mentally good.
So just understand that.
Yeah.
The more, if you just work on your technique, you'll, you'll get it.
But in terms of the, of the, you know, in the meantime, I would be standing up to it and then try and get as externally focused as I possibly can.
So I wanna get as much into where I want to land the ball, what the first bounce is going to look like, and s- where's it breaking to go in the hole.
Because you've got internal focus, right?
Which is, you've gotta work on that on the practice area.
Yeah.
But when you play, you've gotta really see the shot, and the more you can vividly paint the picture of what you're trying to do this side, the less you should be wrapped up in it this side.
Mm-hmm.
Does that make sense?
Mm-hmm.
And that takes as much practice, the focus side of it takes as much practice as any of this stuff.
Yeah.
But yeah, don't live in technical mode.
You've gotta try and see the shot, and if you can combine, you know, better technique but actually a bit more about what the ball needs to do, I think you'll start to calm down a bit.
Okay.
'Cause no reason you can't fix yourself this, by the way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Pretty quickly- Yeah if you can just work on this stuff.
Okay.
All right?
Yeah, yeah.
Good stuff.
Good.
Cheers, Dan.
Well done.
Cheers.
Appreciate it.
Okay.
Pleasure.
Nice one.
Thank you.
Yeah, short game was in a bad place.
Most of the, the people that know me know it's the worst part of my game.
I struggle a lot with confidence.
I feel like I've had the yips for quite a while now.
So working with Dan has shored up my technique massively.
He's widened my margin of error hugely.
You know, I went from zero margin for error to now a technique where I can mis-hit a shot and it'll still be a lot better than how I used to hit it before.
Got the confidence now to use more of a lofted shot, and that's given me the confidence now to take that onto the course, and hopefully be able to use it in a competition and not feel like, I'm getting, gonna get into some bad spots.
And if I do get into some bad spots, I've got the technique to get me out of it.
