 Welcome back to series 2 of testing the tips, where I as an average golfer test out some of the best golf tuition videos that I found from my fellow YouTubers and first of all, I'll see if they work for me. I'm kicking things off in series 2 with a lesson from Chris Ryan Golf, link will be in the description below. I'm going to be studying this thing. I'm going to find three very simple and effective ways of getting that ball onto that green. Right, so like I said, three different ways in which to get out of this bunker, but very different shot types. And the first one is if you're struggling to get out of a bunker, then this is a very simple technique just to make sure you get from the bunker and onto that green, which is all important. The next step moves up a gear and it's then about trying to get some height onto your bunker shot. So really getting some loft, flying it up in the air. That's the second shot. And the third and perhaps the most interesting for me is when you're looking to fly that ball just a little bit further for it to get out the bunker and run on. So when you've got a bit of distance to travel and I've got to say these methods are really, really effective as you've just seen. So what I will do is I'll provide my interpretation of Chris Ryan's instruction and I'll tell you how they work for me. Right, so shot type number one and the first thing is the club selection. And when I say club selection, we're going to put plenty of loft on this. So I'm playing a 58 degree wedge. Chris suggests we look at a club with a lot of bounce on it. It's going to help us in terms of that bunker shot. Once we've got the club selection right, it's then about our technique. And the first thing to do is the widening of the stance. And I've got to admit it was probably a little bit wider than I would normally play. It's then about flaring out those feet. That's the second thing. Ball position is slightly forward of centre. So we've got our setup right. The next thing is our weight distribution. And our weight moves forward off our back foot or off our central position right now. And it moves forward onto our left knee in a right hander's perspective. And I've got sort of 60% of my weight now over onto that left knee. A dress position is very much square up to the flag. We're not opening the stance. We're not getting clever right now. The club head is square. My body and alignment is square to the flag. And that's all we do at this point. We're in our normal position. The next thing is the takeaway. And the takeaway is to, as we go into the backswing, you want to be forming an L shape when you're into that first part of the backswing. So into that L shape. Then it's that downswing and what we're looking to do from there, the impacts on how this ball gets out. And what Chris explains is we're looking to enter at the sand behind the ball. So we're looking to hit sand, not ball. And the feeling or the understanding is that you're trying to lift sand and put sand onto the green. So we're not doing anything special right now. The important thing is again, do not decelerate. You're in your position. You've got your weight slightly forward. You've got the L shape. Enter that ball with a normal swing. And feel like we're going to put some sand onto the green. So let's give that one a go. Well, to be fair to Chris, it doesn't get much better than that Chris. That's an absolutely perfect start. And as you can see, the ball fight was quite good. We're going to look at the second phase of this about getting the ball high. But I've got to say that also popped the ball quite high. And I would take that any day of the week. But the important thing is we've got to get, like I said, a position right now where you're struggling to get out of the bunker. That's the first thing because what you don't want to do is take two or three swipes in here before you get on the green. Get it out the bunker, onto the short stuff, and at least we've got that putter in hand. That's step or technique rather, number one. Let's step it up to the next level. Right, so next technique is all about getting some air on the ball. And in a situation like this where we've got a fairly steep bunker face in front of us, and it's certainly a big help. In terms of the video Chris has done, in the first shot he had a 54 degree wedge, and then he suggested adding some loft to the club. I'm playing a 58 degree wedge again here. Now, first of all, with that club face, he's suggesting open it a little, but stay very much square at a dress, which is interesting. Stance again, slightly wider stance than we've just done on the first technique. Feet flared out, weight positioning is the same with sort of 60% onto that left-hand side. He's really changed at this stage, but the interesting one for me is he then suggests we're sort of slightly further away from the ball, and what that's then going to allow us to do is we're going to drop the handle lower. So we're going to require a bit of knee flex. We're going to be lower in our positioning, and then we're going to drop our hands down to a much lower position than normal. And again, Chris' explanation of that, it allows us to get a lot more sort of rounded in our swing and our rotation, and it certainly makes sense, keeps loft on the ball as well, on the club rather, which again, very much makes sense in his explanation. So the next thing we're looking to do and where the key difference is from what we tried in the first phase to this, the takeaway is the same. So we've got our L-shaped, but then when we come to the ball, when it's coming towards impact, first of all, the butt of the club is going to drive down towards the ball, but then through impact, you're going to have the bottom hand, you're releasing under the ball and passing your hands very quickly. So the hands almost stop in this position, and the club head then quickly follows through at some speed. And the idea of that is we'll maintain that sort of loft on the ball, on the club head rather, and generate that speed, on that ball up in the air in theory. I think I've covered every element of this instruction. Like I said, this is my interpretation, and the best thing to do is follow the link below and look at Chris's explanation, which will be far greater than mine. But anyway, we're going to give that theory a test. So I'm in position, club face slightly open, I'm going to lower the hands and my body down in a much different position than I'd normally play this from. It's into that L-shape, and the thing is to release that trail hand and feel as though it's really surpassing the butt of the club rather. Right, let's give it a go. Now again, I've got to admit, I'm really impressed so far, Chris, with your instruction, and I'm pleased with my execution to be honest because yet again, that's a really good shot and did exactly what we had hoped it would do and that your instruction led to. So it's a real different feeling. There are a few practice goals at this one. It's a technique that was different for me personally, but certainly that feeling of the club head passing the hands and the butt of the club through that impact position is alien to me, but it certainly did what you suggested and that's popped that ball up in the air. That's two techniques down. The third and final one is a real interesting one that is very much of interest to me on a personal level. Right, third and final technique and the first thing we need is a change of club because what we're looking to do here is we're looking to get the ball out and we're looking for it to release. We're looking for it to travel a greater distance. So when we play the lofted club, the idea is lofted club is very much going to come up, come down and pretty much stop. For this kind of shot, we want to get it out onto the green and for it to release and run out. So, change of club, first of all, Chris went to a 9-9 and going to a pigeon wedge. Basically, we're taking loft off. Then what he suggests is that we open the club face up just a tad and then we're going to grip down on the club as well. So that's the first thing in terms of relation to grip and the club face. We then adopt that same wide stance which has been pretty much prevalent throughout, but we're very much square to target on this one. Again, it's nothing to do with opening the stance or anything like that. Square to target. Club head, a lot will feel slightly open because we just opened it with square at a dress still. The next key difference with this one is about the weight in which, well, it's about the follow-through, about the impact position, I suppose. So in all three of these techniques, we'll grip down a little bit on this one, but in all three, we've sort of got to this L position in the backswing. That's been the same with every technique. The difference has been through the three of them is how we've released that club head and it changes again. So you're into the L position, 60% weight still forward, all those things still apply. But there's a difference here in the way we're going to rotate round the body, rotate through the ball rather, and feel like the club head is as far away from us as possible through impact. I mean, I'll be honest with you. This one, like I said, I'm always scared of this shot. I don't like playing a bunker shot with loft to make sure I get out. So when I'm faced with this kind of shot, it does worry me because I know in theory I should be playing the likes of a pitching wedge, but it always worries me. But anyway, that's it. I mean, technique done, like I said, into that L shape, and when we swing through the club head this time, we're going to feel like it's as far away from us as possible. Talking's done and can we make it three out of three? So grip down the club, position is the same. That's again, absolutely, it's, well, it's carried again pin high. The interesting bit for me was not only did it travel. We faced quite a steep lip there as well, so even with the pitching wedge in hand, when I'm assuming we've lost loft, so therefore we're going to not get that height, it still managed to do that if we're taking sand before ball. I've got two ball behind me waiting for me to get out of the bunker, so we'll do an evaluation somewhere else, I think. The evaluation is quite a simple one. It was a great way to start off series two of testing the tips, and I'm going to reiterate the point is my interpretation of again, I'm not a PGA professional, I'm very much the average golfer, but the idea is that I tried these tips very much like you would do. And try and decipher which are the good and which are the bad, and in this case I thought Chris Ryan's video's explanations were really, really good, probably better than mine, so like I said go and see his original video. There are no magic potions in terms of helping you get out of bunker play, ultimately it's about practice, but you need to understand the technique first and foremost of how to get it out, so at least you've then got something to practice with. So whichever one of those that you like the look of or think might help your game, then getting a bunker and get practicing and hopefully you haven't got a two ball chasing you up and cleaning you off out the way. Give me your feedback and comments down below. One last thing, if you've not watched series one, then again we'll put some kind of link on the screen right now for you and go and check out some of them. Thanks for watching and I'll see you all soon.