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Who would have thought that there were similarities between mountain biking and golf? Golf has long been revered as a sport of the upper class with expensive green fees and country club memberships while mountain biking is considered an extreme sport and is enjoyed by those who love the rock and roll lifestyle. Throwing these stereotypes aside there is something that golfers and mountain bikers can learn from each other. Anyone who has ever been on a mountain bike knows that the bike goes where your eyes go. This simple statement can help golfers with their pitching game tremendously. What mountain bikers know is if they stare at tree or rock as they are approaching the obstacle in their path, their bike will be led in that direction. The secret to successful mountain biking is to use your eyes to follow the path that you want to take and your bike will automatically follow. The same is true for golfers. When you are in a pitching situation, it is important to look where you want the ball to go rather than the obstacles that you want to avoid.
There are many golfers who have a difficulty pitching over traps that they just cannot explain. These same golfers seem to handle pitching with ease in other situations but when there is a trap in front of them, their pitching seems to falter. Carefully examination may reveal that they are not following the same technique when they are pitching in a clear situation and when they are pitching over a trap. This discrepancy may explain why some golfers have trouble pitching over traps.
First let’s consider pitching technique in a situation devoid of traps. In most cases the golfer looks ahead to where they want the ball to land, and then they address the ball. While addressing the ball, the golfer takes a few more subtle glances at the location where he would like the ball to land. Then he swings and in most cases, the ball lands in the general vicinity of where he intended the ball to land. This all sounds simple enough. The problem arises when the pitch is required over a trap. This is where many golfers seem to have difficulty. They find that their pitches seem to land in the trap when this clearly wasn’t the intention.
Putting a trap into the equation tends to make golfers very nervous and can affect their technique. Many golfers who have trouble pitching over traps make the mistake of looking at the edge of the trap instead of a spot beyond the trap. A golfer may make this mistake because he is looking to the edge of the trap as a reminder to himself that he needs to clear the trap but in doing so he is sabotaging his efforts to clear the trap. By glancing towards the far end of the trap, the golfer is putting, himself in a position where that is where his pitch will end up instead of beyond the trap. The simple fix this problem is to train the golfer to not look at the trap at all. When the golfer is able to divert his eye to the intended location of the ball, he will find more success in pitching over traps.
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