PGA Top 50 Coach's Seesaw Drill Cures Heavy Chip Strikes

Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Ben Emerson traced a student's chunked and thinned short-game shots to a weight shift in the backswing, then fixed it with a stability drill built around a seesaw board.

What Was Going Wrong

Mid-handicapper Neville Christian came to Emerson's Game Changer Clinic struggling for consistent contact around the green. Emerson, a PGA Fellow Professional with more than two decades of coaching experience, found that Christian's weight was shifting away from the target during the backswing. On a shot this short, moving off the ball leaves almost no time to get back to it before impact, producing the chunks and thin strikes that plague amateur golfers around the green.

The Fix

Emerson had Christian set up with his weight already favoring his lead side and keep it there through the swing. Opening the feet slightly left of target gave the arms room to swing through and the club a stable base at impact. With almost no weight on the trail foot, it could lift off the ground entirely during the stroke.

The Drill

To make the fault impossible to hide, Emerson put Christian on a seesaw board and had him keep the target-side end down for the whole swing. Any shift toward the trail foot tips the board, giving instant feedback that a vague swing thought cannot. A version that works without equipment: stand flat on the lead foot but up on the toes of the trail foot, a position that only holds if the weight stays forward throughout the backswing.

On a shot this short, moving off the ball in the backswing leaves almost no time to get back to it before impact.