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One of the most important concepts for consistent wedge play is to build a "margin of error". Luckily, one of the easiest ways to do this is through proper use of the "bounce". For players who are unfamiliar with this pattern, this is one of my favorite drill progressions; it should not only eliminate any contact isuses (such as digging with the leading edge), but it should also help engrain the "coasting" pattern that is required to create an even, sliding of the club along the ground during the release.
Tags: Fundamentals, Poor Contact, Pitch, Chip, Drill, Intermediate
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The Stural Video is brushing the bounce.
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So one of the important concepts for getting consistent with your wedge play is building
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a margin of error and part of that is using the bounce properly.
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So the coasting on the way through is part of what helps you get the club to just slide
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along the ground.
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You basically want the back edge of the club to slide along the ground for as long as possible.
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I would say minimum couple inches, maximum six inches.
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The goal I give my students is usually about four to six inches of just getting the club
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to slide along the ground.
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And there are a couple different ways that I'll get students to feel the club sliding along
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the ground for the first time.
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If they're used to having more of a leading edge or kind of really hitting down on the ball,
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we'll do what I call brushing through bounce in order to get the club to slide along
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the ground.
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So there's a couple different ways that I'll do it.
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First version will grab one golf ball and we'll just start similar to like we would
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do with the three wood or flat spot drill in the full swing.
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We're going to start a couple inches behind the golf ball and then we're just going to slide
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through feeling the body or the chest rotation bring the club through.
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Once I have that feeling, then I'm going to try and duplicate that feeling with the ball
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there.
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So just sliding the club along the ground.
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Then the second option is I'm going to do it in more of a rhythm drill and there's
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two common ways that I'll use that.
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One would be I get the club brushing back and forth and then while the club is brushing,
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I just walk myself in so I can get a sense of what it would be like to brush and make
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contact with the golf ball.
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And then similar to what we do in the full swing when we're working on these rhythm drills
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is we'll line up a few golf balls and we'll just try to get the club to brush along
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the ground on each swing.
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One of the things about hitting multiple golf balls is it's really hard to do that with
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just the hands.
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So here I'm getting it brush, getting it brush, getting it brush, just like that.
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And ideally they'll come off with somewhat similar trajectories, they'll come off with
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somewhat similar contact.
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Then the last step would be just trying to do the brush a few times.
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And when I'm brushing back and forth I'm feeling it swing back as well as through.
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What I'll end up doing is then I'll set up to the golf ball and I'll imagine that I brushed
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it through and then I'll start it when I would feel it swing back and then I'll just
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kind of ride it and bring it through to get it to brush again.
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So these are a couple different ways to really focus on the club brushing the ground
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or hitting the bounce side of the club on the ground.
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If I was to do this with the leading edge it would tend to literally bounce up or come
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up off the ground very quickly.
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So if you find that you hit a lot of chunk shots where you just kind of lay side over it
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or if you hit a lot of thin shots you may be uncomfortable with how the club is hitting
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the ground and doing this little rhythm drill getting more acquainted with bounce and
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getting more consistent with your ground contact can ultimately elevate your level of
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consistency.
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So quick demonstration regardless of whatever technique I decide to use as long as I get
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the club to slide along the ground for that period of time before the golf ball and a
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little bit after it I'm probably going to hit an okay shot.