Tag Archives: Golf Doctor

The Simple Concept Of A Pitch Shot

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The Simple Concept Of A Pitch Shot

Hello, I’m Brian Fitzgerald “The Golf Doctor”.

And today we are going to have a look at pitching, and just the simple concept for pitching.

Pitching is actually one of the simplest shots in golf. All we need to do when hitting a pitch shot is to start with the club down near the golf ball and then we try and return the club underneath the golf ball.

If we can do that we are going to hit a good pitch.

I’m going to show you a funny way to do it.

So here’s a strange way of teaching people how to hit a pitch shot. I quite often say to kids when I teach them “What makes the ball go in the air”?

It’s actually quite a simple thing. What makes the ball go in the air is the loft of the golf club. Provided there is loft on my club. And provide the club comes down underneath the golf ball. The ball will go in the air.

I’m going to show you how it’s done.

As you can see there, there is definitely loft on my golf club. I’ve got the ball in the middle of my stance. All I need to do is let the club get under the ball and the ball goes in the air. It’s pretty simple really isn’t it. Try that one at home.

Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

The Secret To Hitting A High Soft Pitch Shot

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Hello, I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.

Today we are going to be doing the high soft pitch.

I did try and do this video several months ago. But my video camera was pretty poor and I’m going to have a go at re-filming it today. I hope you enjoy it.

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So here we have a shot of about 20 to 25 meters. It’s going to be over the bunker and not many people like this shot.

It’s bad enough when your ball is in the bunker, but when you have to hit it over the bunker people really don’t like that one.

So the way to play it is to keep your club low to the ground.I have my 60 degree sand wedge here. A sixty degree sand wedge has a lot of loft. I want to use that loft as much as I can.

I don’t want to try and manipulate the club to make something special happen.

If I just swing the club back keeping the club low to the ground. keeping a shallow angle of attack, the loft of the club should get the ball in the air and that will stop the ball.

When I do that, I’m going to be inclined to stop on it. We don’t want to do that. Stop on it and you might hit a good shot but in all probability you won’t.

As much as you possibly can you really want to try and make sure that you keep that club head moving and I try and get my follow through to about shoulder height.

So I swing it slowly, that stops the ball from traveling too far and I’m gripping the club very light. It took me a long time to actually get the confidence to grip the club light when I play this shot. I kept wanting to grip it tight, the ball went a bit lower and when it landed the ball ran on a bit too much.

So I really want to keep it light. I want to keep my swing slow and I just want to get the club sliding underneath the ball.

I’ll see how I go.

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So you can see the ball went up nice and high, it landed quite softly and it ran just a little bit past the flag stick.

For the lack of practice that I do lately I’m pretty happy with that shot.

But the ball did go high, I didn’t take a massive divot and the ball did land soft. So first and foremost you want to make sure you get it over the bunker. You don’t want to leave it short.

I’m pretty happy with that, I can get a putter out with my next shot.

So give that one a try at home. Grip it light, have a full swing but a slow swing and keep your angle of attack shallow.

I’m Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor. Thanks for letting me help you with your golf.

If you like my videos, you can get further information from my website which is www.thegolfdoctor.com.au that can be found here.

We also have my Facebook page which you can click on just there.

Or there is my Twitter page which you can click on there.

If you want to leave a comment ah at the end of the video. Just go down to the bottom of the video on the YouTube and you can add comments. I am happy to answer any of them.

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Lengthening The Golf Doctors Swing

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I recently experienced a first. I went to see Golf Physiotherapist.

This came about as I have noticed (and you will have too no doubt) that my golf swing is very much on the short side these days.

I first noticed this when I started filming some of my golf videos. I felt I was using my normal swing (normal to me in my playing day was hands above my shoulders and the club to parallel). I couldn’t believe how short it was. I went out and hit balls every day for a week working on lengthening my swing. At the end of the week there was no change in length of swing. I felt as if I was over swinging and it was no longer than before.

I figured the answer is in one or a bit of all of the following reasons:

  1. I have just turned 50 and my body can’t do what it used to do in my 20’s and 30’s.
  2. I have averaged 8 to 12 games a year for the past 4 years. If you don’t use it you lose it.
  3. There are physical reasons why I can’t swing the club to my desired length.

I didn’t know the answer so I thought I would seek some professional.

While I was thinking of doing this I got a phone call from Physiotherapist  Jeremy Cross at Physio Health.

Jeremy had just had a visit from a client of mine and wanted to talk about what we could both do to help out this client.

In 30 years of coaching I have referred many people to physiotherapists and this is the only time I have ever received a phone call  back from them wanting to talk about a client.

I subsequently met Jeremey and was very impressed with his background. He went to college in the US on a golf scholarship and then went on to become a physio after deciding not to pursue a career in Professional Golf.

Jeremy is the first to point out he is not a golf coach but works hand in hand with golf coaches to get the best  performance for golfers of all standards, allowing them to achieve their potential both in terms of improved performance and in reduced pain and injury prevention.

I underwent a screening session with Jeremy at PhysioHealth Kew a few weeks ago. This took about an hour. I performed a series of movements and tests. Nothing too physical but just too see what my ranges of movement was.

A week later I went back to see Jeremy and he gave me a laminated report detailing my issues and the exercises I needed to perform daily to improve.

I must admit I have not been as studious (daily) with my exercises but I have been pretty regular with them. They take about 20 minutes a day to do and I am already seeing results. My swing has already lengthened noticeably and I know I am hitting the ball further.

I used FlightScope to gather data (Driver & 7 iron) before I underwent the screening. I will also do it on several occasions over the next few months.

Stay tuned for an upcoming video series of my experience.

The first can be found here Lengthening The Golf Doctors Golf Swing Part 1

Jeremy works at PhysioHealth Kew (03) 9853 2224 and Williamstown (03) 9397 4977