Check out www.mygolfperformance.com  RC should have soemthing on his site regarding wedge play and bounce.  I remember seeing something recently about that. 

RC works with me on just what you are talking about.  Stand a little closer to it, get the shaft vertical and try and keep the angle in your left wrist.  As you go through impact try and increse that angle or work the face to the sky. 

I know what it was now, it's on the Contact Show on www.mytpi.com  check it out or send RC a note.

GOOD LUCK...JOSH

Shameless plug, but have you seen the first episode of our The Contact Show?

Another big key is like you said, the ball is forward and the shaft leans backward or at the very least, neutral.  This position creates a "cup" in your lead wrist. 

This cupping position, the very thing you want to avoid in a full swing, is the very thing you want in a chipping swing!  Try keeping the cup in your lead wrist (left for a righty golfer) throughout the chipping motion .  CH3 has a great bunker drill you can extend to chipping.

Ryan Crysler
Head Instructor
My Golf Performance Center
512.850.5721
mygolfperformance.com

First, just because the pros setup with the ball forward/ shaft not leaning forward, doesn't mean the shaft isn't leaning forward at impact, it is.

If your normal shot is off the back foot, then you should be using a high bounce wedge, if you want to start playing the ball forward(especially if want to start hitting the ground first) you want a low bounce wedge.

Playing the ball back in your stance does not lead to inconsistent contact, you doing something inconsistently leads to inconsistent contact.

Is your contact really inconsistent? or is it consistently bad? If it is consistenly bad, then what is the most common mistake?(fat, topping, thin, face pointed the wrong way........)

One of the most common things I see in short game problems, is hitting fat(hitting the ground first), which is commonly caused by not getting the weight a little forward. Then they try the most common "logical" fix, move the ball back in their stance, and then the problem gets worse. Is this what has happened?

John

spot on ...fat is the common complaint! I'm looking for a consistent strike and therefore more spin/control of distance.I generally play such chips with a vokey 52 with 8 degrees bounce.I will work on standing closer taking back straight and having club vertical etc

Hey John

I didn't say anything about standing closer or going vertical.

One thing I implied is to stop moving the ball back thinking it will stop the fats.

Ever hear one of them old timers say something similar to "golf is a game of opposites", then give a couple of examples like hit down on the ball to make it go up, swing right to make it go left. Usually they say this around somebody having problems, and doing exactly the WRONG thing to fix it.

You would think that if hitting fat then moving the ball back would fix it, nope, it will only make it worse.

Start the ball where you would like to make your standard shot, its rare that I play the ball all the way back.

This is a drill to use over and over at the range/practice green to ingrain a feeling.

Lets say you want the ball in the middle of your stance, setup, then move the ball 3-4 inches in front of the clubface.

So now you have to get the clubface 3-4 inches more forward than normal, your brain understands this and will begin learning to get the club to the ball. Once you start making contact learn everything about how this swing feels.

Now for play and practice, setup for practice swings with the ball 3-4 inches forward, take your practice swings, get the feeling, then move up to the ball with the club up to the ball, then swing.

You will start making crisp, accelerating, impact. Now practice to control it.

You hit on a couple of key points.  First off having the ball back in your stance leads to a steep angle of attack on the ball.  This makes you "trap" the ball between the clubface and the ground.  Coming down steep on the ball will not allow you to use the bounce of the club.  The pros use the bounce by coming in shallow to the ball and not having a lot of shaft lean toward the target.  Check you ball position as well as having too much weight on your front leg.  Second, shaft lean is increased by the amount of wrists you use.  Take the hinging out of your shots and use your body rotation.  Setup with the shaft vertical and try to return it like that at impact.