Use Your Shoulders to Pitch
USE YOUR SHOULDERS TO PITCH
by Dr. T. J. Tomasi
Keiser University College of Golf Senior Faculty and Director of Research
If you’re pulling your pitch shots, you may be swinging the club too much around your body and not enough up and down. To improve your direction, make sure to aim your clubface first and then align your body perpendicular to the face of your club, just as you would for all your full-swing shots.
Next, open your stance a bit and concentrate on the up-and-down nature of the pitch shot. Since the ball is below you, you must first swing the club up and then allow it to come down to the ball so that your clubface strikes the back of the ball before it takes any grass. This downward “falling” action activates the loft on your clubface, sending your ball into the air.
The key concept here is that the up-and-down part of the pitching motion is controlled by your front shoulder. As your upper body, directed by your chest, turns softly during the backswing, your front shoulder travels in a semicircle, backward and downward. But be careful not to simply dip your shoulder; it will travel on the correct path on its own if you keep your spine angle as you bend from your hip joints. You should start your swing back to the ball with what feels like an upward/forward movement of your lead shoulder that pulls your clubhead down to the ball.
Caution: Allowing your front shoulder to move upward during your downswing is not the same as raising or lifting your whole body as you swing back to the ball. Don’t change your spine angle to play a pitch; simply let your shoulders move on their natural arc — downward/upward rather than around and outward.
My back shoulder is lower than my front shoulder by the same amount that my left hand is higher than my right. The goal is to keep my shoulders perpendicular to my spine as they rotate. So, my left shoulder will move down while my right shoulder moves up, and then reverse on the downswing.
My left shoulder continues to move upward after the ball is gone. It is this shoulder action that takes the hands out of the pitch shot.
If you’d like to study with Dr. Tomasi and other PGA Master Professionals, contact The College of Golf today.
