The ONLY Way To Strike Your Pitch Shots Every Time - Live Golf Lesson

chipping pitching Jul 14, 2025

Transcript Summary- 

So I was planning out a video this morning to help you improve your pitching from 30 to 80 yards — you know, that really awkward distance. It’s not quite a full swing, and it’s definitely not a chip shot either. A lot of people really struggle with it. In fact, Leo, who’s just starting out in golf, said to me, “That’s my nemesis!” So I thought, instead of me just telling you how to do it, why don’t we just show you live by helping Leo right now?

 

We started with a 52-yard shot — very typical of that tricky range. Leo was struggling with inconsistent strikes — sometimes thinning it, sometimes catching it heavy. And that’s the key to this area: it all starts with strike. You must control the bottom of your swing arc and make solid contact.

 

So how do we do that? First, we focus on getting the pelvis slightly ahead of the golf ball. We even used a simple trick — setting the right foot back and pointing it outwards to help preset that pelvis forward. That alone can help you strike the ball cleanly, every time. Then it’s all about pivoting back and through without swaying around or falling backwards.

 

We also talked about something most people get wrong — trying to help the ball up in the air. You don’t need to do that. I gave Leo a 60-degree wedge and showed him how by de-lofting the club and keeping the hands forward, you’ll still get height and spin — but only if you strike it well.

 

To help keep Leo’s arms more connected to his body and improve consistency, we added a classic drill — just popped a jumper under his arms. That kept everything nice and connected so he could use his big muscles to control the motion, while still letting the club swing freely.

 

As Leo improved, we worked on distance control. The key here isn’t swinging harder — it’s swinging longer. Longer swings give you more distance, but without sacrificing control. Once he got the hang of that, we looked at the lie — in this case, the ball was a bit above his feet. So we simply adjusted by aiming a little right, knowing that ball’s going to want to go left.

 

And honestly? Leo nailed it. He’s a beginner, but by following these few key principles — strike, connection, and length of swing — he was hitting some brilliant shots.

 

So if pitching has ever been a challenge for you, give these tips a go. I hope you found that useful. And if you did, give it a thumbs up, share it with a friend, and if you’re new to the channel, consider subscribing. And if you’re looking to improve your chipping around the green, check out the video right here. Until next week — have a great golfing week.

Full Transcript- So, I was planning out the video this morning on how to help you improve your pitching from 30 to 80 yards. That really awkward distance. It's not really a full golf swing. It's not really chipping. How do you strike it every time? And how do you control your distance? Well, Leo says, "That is my nemesis. I'm really, really struggling." So, I thought, well, rather than me actually do the lesson, why don't we just live right now show Leo how to pitch a golf ball from this distance? Because Leo's a beginner golfer. if this pitching technique I'm about to share with you works for Leo. I just know it'll work for you. So, let's find out. Yeah. Um, like before I get into the golf lesson, look, if you're new to channel, your first lessons of mine, please consider subscribing. I release golf videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game. Plus, you never have to remember a thing. Everything we do here, I'll put into a free download or practice guide in the description box below. Let's get started. Cool. Right, Le, let's find out what what yardage we've got. So, okay, let's have a quick look. So, we got 52 yards to go to the actual flag. Yeah, it's awkward yardage. It is. Tell me tell me what you struggle with here. I mean, most of the time if I'm lucky to have gotten here, um it's then my mind going to precision and trying to guide it on and it can be quite toppy or thin at times. Just really inconsistent. Okay. And not not really like a fluid golf swing. I feel like I'm sort of jolty and trying to add like especially with this distance 50 yards. They'd be like, "Right, it's sort of a weird half full swing in my mind." And then, yeah, it might just top every A lot of people struggle. They don't know whether it's a is it a like a chipping action? Is it a full swing action? So, I think when you get to this yardage, Yeah. it's much more down to full You're much closer to a full golf swing. And that's what we want to be focusing on, right? So, let's see you hit a few shots. Sure. Um, see what you've got. So, this is definitely more more towards full swing uh mechanics. And then we'll see if we can make some progress. Okay.

Okay. I mean, distance wise, it got there. He's gone. He's got to be got there. Okay. Okay. That's f first shot of the day. First shot of the day.

A little bit heavy. Yeah. So, it's a good example, isn't it? So, so first one being a bit thin. Yeah. And then second one actually going up in the air, but it's caught a bit heavy, comes off top of the club and and comes up short. So, so to control distance, the very first thing we need to work on is making sure you've got some solid contact, right? And we've been doing some good work with your swing, right? And it's very, very similar here. So, the first thing, Leah, I think would probably really kind of build your confidence is if you can make solid contact. Yep. Every single time. Right. Now, to do that, it's easier than most people realize. You've just got to make sure that the bottom of your swing arc is always ahead of that golf ball. Right. Okay. Now, on that previous shot, for instance, it was behind the golf ball. Yeah. And on the previous one, it was also behind the golf ball, but now too much. And you've thinned it. Right. Right. So, we want to get the bottom of your golf swing ahead of the golf ball. Now, I want you to just look at my body here and tell me what you notice. Yeah. That way behind then forward. What have I done? Yeah. Shifted your legs and pelvis by the looks of it. Exactly. Yeah. Right. So you can see here, this pelvis is now ahead of the golf ball. So the further this is ahead of the golf ball, the more chance of you you've got of bottoming out your swing after the golf ball and as a byproduct making solid contact. Okay. Okay. So a simple drill to start with, right? And then we'll work into a proper exercise. So all I'm going to get you to do is get yourself set up here. Ball middle of stance. Important here. shaft lean forming almost like a straight line between your lead arm and club. Okay. Right. Then what I'm going to get you to do is this. I want you to put widen your stance a little bit with your right foot and point it outwards. And the idea here is I'm going to I'm using that right foot. Look to do what? Push. Okay. The pelvis forward and leave it there. So you see how my right leg is almost locking out a little bit. Yeah. Now that's going to keep my pelvis forward. If my pelvis is forward, you've seen the advantage look of doing what? Yeah. It's going to keep that bottom of the swing after the golf ball. Sure. From here, I don't want you to just stand still. I'm still going to move and and and rotate a little bit. Yeah. Okay. But I'm now look almost guaranteeing strike. So, that's the first thing we're going to work on is helping you guarantee strike. Keeping that pelvis fixed. Yeah. Pivoting over the golf ball so it's not moving around or falling backwards. Okay. Sure. Super super simple. Right. So, you'd say with the pelvis, it's not I'm moving towards that bit mid through swing. It's like you're presetting it. You're presetting it. Right now, in a in a in a normal golf swing, right, in a power swing where you're really after power, great question, by the way. You would naturally want to see that, right? That's going to add power. We don't want that. This is about controlled um speed and controlled distance. So, we we're almost presetting it. Sure. So, that you just need to just be do a beautiful pivot back and through. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So, right foot bit out as if I'm locking. Well, yes. Just like you're locking the knee and what you feel like you're pushing that pelvis. It's like pu it's almost like pushing that pelvis slightly further forward. Angle that shaft forward as well. There you go. There you go. Beautiful. And then just from there, you see you're just pivoting around there. That's it. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Nice. Pause. Now you can see here you're just starting those hands are start to drift back bit behind. Yeah. You see that? Yeah. Okay. There we go. Keep that lead arm and club forming a lovely straight line. There you go. Okay, that's it.

Listen to that sound. Yeah. Wow. Way more solid. Hit contact. Completely different sound, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Now, distance control is going to cover. That was a completely different sound, right? You you know, so do the same thing again. Make sure there's no enough no enough flute. Now, the key thing here is this. Make sure as you're doing this, that handle, that shaft lean. Yeah. Stays forward. Now, tell me what makes this feel a bit awkward. you want to do here. What's Why are you doing this, do you think? I think it's hoping to get it up more, right? You know, I I always have the vision of really high shot onto the green and trying to make contact under the ball. Exactly. Right. And and this is what I I see this a lot with a lot of players and what you'll see with any great player when that you I'm I've given you a 60 degree 60°ree wedge here. Right. Great players will launch that incredibly low. Okay? Right. Now, the advantage of using a 60° here, a lofty club from 55 yards is this. It allows us to come beautifully down on the golf ball. So, I'm delofting the 60. Yeah. Right. Which gives me solid contact. Okay. If you're trying to If you start the more you start to kind of add loft and leave those hands back, what are you doing now? Yeah. Going behind. You're going behind again. Sure. So, angling it forward. That's why we choose 60 so that it enables us to angle everything forward. lean everything forward so we can still get enough height to stop it on the green. But the secret here, when you come down on the golf ball, you get backspin, right? All right. As well as strike. Okay, cool.

Okay. So, feel that push. That's it. Pushing that pelvis. Now, you're going to pivot around. Lovely, lovely rhythm, by the way. Lovely rhythm. Let's get that handle forward.

Nice. Yeah, that felt really good. And like I hit head of the ball, I think. Yeah, exactly. So, so and that's the point you the first thing all the time is is making sure you've got a motion that guarantees strike each and every single time. Right. Sure. So, Calvin more time. Now, what I would say with this one here is when you're when you're doing this, just be aware that when this foot comes back here, which we're going to bring it back, right? Okay. We keep that next to almost like an imaginary wall here. We're not swaying off. We're pivoting on that that stays on the wall there. And then you come back in. We're not moving into the wall like we're doing a normal swing. We're pivoting back and pivoting through. We'll start there. Y and then there's uh one more thing I want you to work on in terms of your arms are just disconnecting a little bit from the body, which is going to affect your consistency. Okay, we'll work on that in a second. Cool. Again, all this is about doing things that are going to control the bottom of your golf swing. Okay. So, imagine that's sort of Yeah. Just imagine that's against the wall. There you go. And you pivot. Yeah. You're holding that against the wall. You're going to pivot. You're not going to You're not in a sense, it's not rigid like you're not moving. It's pivoting. Sure. Yeah. Around. There you go. Beautiful. It's going to help guarantee that strike.

Love it. Yeah. Nice. Great effort. Now, what I like what you're doing here, Leah, there's a couple of things we need to improve. It's the strike's not as perfect as I like at the moment. We're going to go to that second. But what I do like what you're doing, just come in. I just want to show you. Okay. Just for those watching because this is obviously not just for yourself. It's for those as well. So what I like about what you jump in for a second. What I do like what you're doing, swing back. Have you pivot what Leah's doing very well as you come through? Keep coming through. Keep coming through. Keep coming through. Can you see here? He's continuing to move this. The shoulders are continuing to move. This is Look at the left arm and club. We're almost forming a straight line on the way through here. Why that's important is because what I love about that is because it enables you then just to let the club flow and you're completely in control. I'll see a lot of amateurs, they get here, they get a bit anxious and they stop. Right. Okay. Yeah. And that's when this gets flicky. Sure. Right. What you're doing really nicely is is you're getting the low point here. Brilliant. And you're continuing to move. But there's one thing that I think will just tidy this up and help the viewers watching. All you need is a sweater. Right. Okay. Preferably a Johnny O sweater. Just put this just put this under your arms for a second. Right. Yeah. Now, all I'm going to do here is this. I don't want your elbows connected to your body here. This is a really oldfashioned drill, but I love it, right? Because it's just great in a sense. Now, the aim here is is that when you do a pivot here, we don't want those arms just slung off the body, right? So, ultimately, there's a lot of weight there in that head that you want to swing beautifully free, don't you? Right. We don't want to be controlling it. So, the club's swinging free. Now, what that's There you go. Yeah. It feels really good, actually. Can you feel that? Yeah. What What do you feel? Feel like my biceps are sort of connected still, but then as a result, my whole body is helping everything move through quite fluidly and I can let the arms sort of I I can let the arms go a bit, but this is still feels like I'm in control. Fantastic. Now, this is Leo's feels, but this is what I love about this. We fix the pivot by just in a sense putting a talander at your arms. Your body fig works out the problem. How do I swing the golf club still? Yeah, sure. And you've just worked it out. I'm having to use my bigger muscles here and coordinate my arms while still letting this club flow freely, not guide. Right. All right. Cool. Great. Well done. God, this you're like a natural a natural on camera. It's the jumper.

That's it. Now again, distance control might not be absolutely spot on to start with, right? It's all about initially the acid just getting that sensation. Yeah.

Lovely. Felt good. Yeah. So, we got to get more power. Yeah. A tiny bit. A little more power. But this is 60°, right? So, temptation when you hit a ball short is just to hit it harder. Yeah. Try and swing faster. Yeah. And that's when the arms start to kind of fly off all the body. Right. So, what we're going to do now is this is we're just going to swing longer. Okay. But, so you're not going to try and hit it any harder. Just imagine the swing going a little bit longer, but doing the same thing. Yeah. And the good thing about this kind of jumper under the arms, it's going to keep you nice and connected as you do that. Yeah. Yeah.

Lovely.

Oh, it's gone longer. Longer. There you go. Right. We lost. We closed the face a little bit on that one, but did we get more distance? Definitely. Perfect. Right. So, we've now got strike. We've now got a bit more distance control by swinging longer, but not harder. Yeah. Right. Cool. Keep going. Just clean that face off. Making sure that we haven't got any grass because that too much grass on the face by the way would just it reduces the backspin. Right. Okay. Gets the ball popping up a little bit too high.

Just imagine a longer swing here, Leah. There you go. That's it. Two seconds. Clean that. Clean that first. There you go.

Yeah, that was really nice. Look at that. Yeah. Beautiful. Take that. And stop him. Right. So, you've now hit two shots. Now, there's one final thing before we finish. Right. Because I think you're doing brilliantly well. What do you notice about the ground? Is it Where's the ball relative to your feet? Above. Above. Y. When the ball, by the way, when the ball, you take into consideration when you're playing, when the ball is above your feet, the ball wants to go where? Left to target. Right. Right. So, the ball is going to want to go left. So, you're playing some great swings on there, but with a ball above your feet, you're going to find that that ball is going to go left. Right. Sure. So, what do you do? Aim a bit more right. A bit more right. I do the same thing. Simple as that. That's it. So, you know, we've we've got stripe. We've got a bit of distance control and connection here. Now, what we're doing, we're out on the golf course and we're taking into consideration the wise. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Try and hold it. Try and hold it down. Yeah. Try and hold this one though. And I swear Leo really is a beginner golfer. This is impressive. I know. So, keep that length up. Pause that. Clean the f. That's it. Yeah.

Oh, that was so good. Go in the hole. Oh, we like it. We like it. Right. So, Leah, you're a superstar. We We've got to give him a round of applause coming on camera last minute. That's really good. Well done. That's all right. Thank you. Really, really good. So, I hope you enjoyed this video. As you can see, look, pitching doesn't need to be something that you fear. Understand what creates solid contact. Pretty straightforward. Once you've done that, you know, create making sure you've got some connection so that bit the the the motion is basically controlled with the bigger muscles and then control the length of the um the distance control with the length of your golf swing. And hopefully we'll have some pretty decent results like that. Okay, I hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, give it a thumbs up, maybe share it with a friend, and of course, look, if you're new to the channel, press that subscribe button somewhere around here. If you want to know how to chip and improve your shot game just around the edges of the green instead, click this video right here. But until next week, have a wonderful golfing week.