The Flamingo Drill for Chip & Pitch Shots with Brandon Stooksbury

Improve Your Short Game

Hey GoGolf365 members, it's Brandon Stooksbury with my favorite tip in the world for you here for short game called the Flamingo Drill.

Follow along with the video or read the transcript beneath to get started.

Overview

One of the biggest problems I see with folks trying to hit shots, particularly high, but around the green, is they end up falling backward as they try to hit it. Now I think it's because they’re trying to put loft on the golf club, and they think as their body goes backwards, the club works under it more, and you can hit it higher.

I'm here to tell you that's a terrible idea.

That's the worst way in the world to try and put loft on the golf club because what happens is when your chest and head move backwards, the bottom of the swing also moves backwards.

So what ends up happening is you either hit the ground first, and you hit it fat, or worse than that, you hit the ground and it bounces off the ground and into the middle of the ball and goes 40 yards over the hole or over the green into the water.

So my favorite drill in the world I call the Flamingo Drill. If you've ever been to the zoo with your kids, you’ll notice flamingos love to stand on one leg - this is exactly how we're going to do the drill.

The Drill

So you're going to put the ball off your left toe if you’re right handed, your front toe, just think about it that way. The back foot goes behind you and you're just going to put enough weight on it to be able to keep yourself balanced, so up on your toe.

Then I want you to make a couple of practice swings where the arms fold up, swing down, and the arms re-fold, and the chest is not moving backwards. If you move backwards, you're going to fall and lose your balance. So you want up on one foot, the front foot, ball’s right off that toe. That's way more forward into your stance than you'd normally play into this shot, but for this drill you need to put it up there.

Up off your lead toe, trail foot back, balanced on your toe, and you're just going to make a couple of practice swings up, down, and back up. Your chest stays right where it's at and can actually go forward a little if you want, to where it finishes a little in front of your toe, that's okay. 

One more time your practice swing. Then you're gonna set up, you're gonna hit that shot. You see my head didn’t move at all? Arms folded, down, back up, my chest stayed very stable, if it did anything it went a little forward.

Backward is the kiss of death around the short game green. Don't do that, I promise your life’s going to be a lot better. Try the Flamingo Drill, get your balance, and get your head and chest stable when you hit that shot. The quality and the crispness of contact is a lot better. 

Leave me any questions you have about this drill, it's my favorite short game drill, I'll help you in any way I can.