Over the 25+ years of teaching as a golf professional, when it comes to short game the vast majority of high handicap golfers really don’t have a very good idea of what needs to happen with a club in a ball.
The shot needs to be hit with intention and the first order of business is to examine where the ball is and how it lies with the grass. Second order is to have a visual picture of how the ball will travel to the target and the target is not necessarily the hole. If you think about these two simple observations it means there are so many different ways to play a shot from around the green.
Here is one simple drill to get you started:
One of the first things you want to remember is you want to hit the little ball before you hit the big ball so ball placement becomes super important and so does the pressure underneath your feet of where you will place or shift the weight of your body. One of the most disastrous things I see with high handicap players is poor ball placement followed by and inside Takeaway backswing and then some type of a lunge flip at the ball probably due to disaster shots of hit in the past. For this I first set up my student in a better place. I call it the three lefts. I have them moved to the left, turn to the left and lean their entire body to the left along with the grip end of the club. Then I have them take the club back so the shaft is parallel to the ground and freeze for three seconds after three seconds they are allowed to drop the clubhead down towards the Golf Ball with the intention of moving whatever weight or pressure that is still on their trail foot into their forward side as the clubhead drops to watch the ball