problems pitching!!

hi all, im seriously struggling with my pitching, any thing from 70 yds and below unless its a full shot with a wedge of some degree. My constant miss hit problem is a shank or push to the right and i cant get in to my mind why this is happening. im going to have some short game lessons with my tutor in the next few weeks but any advise to help me practice before hand would be gratefully excepted. My pitching wedge 110 -115 yd full shot is spot on and same with my 56 degree 60-70 yd shot but as soon as i have to half swing or shorten a full swing this dreaded shot to the right pops up?????? HELP PLEASE!!!!!!!!!

one thing you could try is a shorter backswing depending on how far you intend to pitch it with a longer fuller follow through, that'll help you to still accelerate through the ball.

most shanks when pitching are caused by deceleration.

Shane, I have had many problems over the years with this kind of shot and I feel that the reason we find this shot difficult to judge for weight is because we do not commit to the shot in the same way that we do with a full shot. This non commitment makes for lazy hands and the release is half hearted causing all these kinds of problems you are describing.

More thought has to go into what kind of shot you wish to play taking into consideration all the things that will help you make this decision. Once made then only commitment will execute the shot the way you intended.

Jay, the thread is about pitching, not chipping,

This is one of the problem areas with my game.

I have tried for the last six weeks to get a lesson in with my club pro but to no avail!

One night I went onto the practice ground and marked out three distances, one was at twenty yards, then thirty yards and then forty yards.

I put thirty five golf balls at each distance.

I'd looked at the stance for pitching, slightly open but with the shoulders square, and I gripped right down to the bottom of the grip.  Swinging the club back until the shaft was parallel to the floor and then swinging through until the club was pointing up to the sky.  This game me a carry of about seventeen yards with a roll of three yards.

The thirty yards pitch was the same stance but with a slightly longer backswing.  The follow through was the same, with the shaft pointing up at the sky.

Forty yards required me to grip up the grip a bit, with my bottom hand being just above the makers name.  Swinging back until the shaft was pointing up at the sky and through to the same position game me a carry of thirty five yards with a roll of five yards.

I must have been there two hours but my pitching has improved so much.  I still get it wrong every now and again, thinning some throught the back of the green and leaving some short.  But I'm much more confident with my pitching now.

As my confidence gets better I've even started to open the clubface on some of my ptich shots to enable the ball to land softer.

There really is nothing better than to get on the practice ground and hit balls.  Normally I would identify a problem with my game and get a lesson booked, that way I know I'm practicing the correct technique rather than the wrong way!

Hope this helps.

Russ