Usually you want to splash your ball and the sand out of a bunker, but when the ball is buried this will cause a skull, so in this situation you need to use your sand wedge to dig below the ball
Most great putters have their head and eyes set up slightly inside the ball, never on the outside, this allows more of an arc stroke
When practicing your short game play specific shots around the green that you would normally face, keeping score as if you were actually on the course