Decelerating through the ball could be an issue with the pitch shots, as it is the number one fault on my chip shots. I have to constantly tell myself to accelerate through chip shots. But the tell tales aren't there with the pitch shots, or at least to me. When I decelerate during a chip shot the end result can be anywhere between a shot that only goes a couple of feet to a dead shank to the right. My pitch shots on the other hand generally get up in the air and go, they just release too much. I will admit though that I am probably way off the basics on how I hit my pitch shots. I stand with my feet extremely close together, with a very open stance and open face. I use only my arms and play the ball right of the inside of my back foot. I keep all the weight on my front foot for these shots.

To the playing forward, I didn't even think of it until you mentioned it, but yes. Off the tee with a 7i or lower lofted iron I play the ball slightly forward and tee'd up about a quarter of an inch. My pw-8i I play the ball on a tee, but at ground level and in the middle of my stance. All fairway full swing shots are played in the middle of my stance, even the fairway woods.