Factors of Low Point

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This video is factors of low point so I had a question about controlling low

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point and hitting behind the ball and talking about the left shoulder and so I

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thought it'd be a good video to help clarify what are the factors that

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actually control where low point is going to occur and what are some more

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kind of visual things that people have used that may or may not have a direct

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correlation. So one of the common ones that a lot of people tend to use is

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the left shoulder and it's largely based on this double pendulum model of left

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arm is straight and the wrist acts as pretty much a pendulum joint shoulder

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axis pendulum joint so you have these two pendulum joints and essentially when

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it's straight in line with that left shoulder that's going to be when it's

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the furthest away which is therefore going to be the low point. So based on

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that theory as long as the left shoulder is ahead of the golf ball like so then

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it should be very difficult for me to bottom out behind the golf ball. In

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practical we know that the left arm does not act as a pendulum the elbow bends

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a

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significant amount there's some linear movement happening at the shoulder so

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conceptually it doesn't quite make total sense to me and the other thing is I

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've

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seen lots of golfers who struggle with low point control who still have the

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left shoulder ahead of the golf ball so I can see where trying to kind of keep

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that left shoulder ahead of the golf ball can help maintain weight on the

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front foot or pressure on the front foot which could potentially affect low

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point

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but I think there are easier ways to look at it. So the two major pieces that I

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look for when I'm looking at how you're controlling low point is what is the

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sternum doing and what are the arms doing. So the sternum I want to look at

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the whole orientation so not just from this 2D camera like where is it in space

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but at what kind of side tilt at what kind of rotational tilt the distance

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away so how much it is backed up all those are going to have factors or

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influence the factors that control low point. The arms are a little bit trick

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ier

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and probably more relevant and more important because basically when this

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thing gets swinging at a really fast speed my arms are just going to want to

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extend out in front of kind of my sternum roughly at about a level as if I was

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playing tug-of-war so not completely out in front of the shoulder girdle but

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more just below kind of the bottom of your ribcage or zyphoid process. So when

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those arms want to extend out that's why if the sternum is pointed kind of in

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this rotational angle 30 degrees or so out in front of the golf ball then my

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arms are going to want to extend out that way as well. If my sternum is

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pointing more at the golf ball kind of like this then my arms will want to

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reach their maximum in front of sternum and then they won't want to bend as

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they

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pass my body. Part of the reason why tour pros tend to have really good low

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point control and they tend to have this really good kind of wide point where

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those hands are passing the chest is because the body has had enough rotation

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inside bend that the arms are slightly behind so then they don't catch up until

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somewhere out here in the follow-through and that's why the arms bend later in

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the swing where a lot of amateurs will tend to face the golf ball or pretty

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close to it at impact so there's no real room for the arms to stay straight

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they're going to have to start absorbing that force much sooner and

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therefore that lead arm is going to bend. But overall the sternum location is

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going to have a pretty big impact on the low point control and then the other

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factor is going to be the wrist so the arms are going to include the wrist

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which have a huge impact the elbows which have a pretty big impact and the

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shoulders both the shoulder sockets as well as the shoulder blades so I like to

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kind of group them into one general category of kind of the timing of that

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arm extension and it could be a wrist timing that gets it moving sooner it

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could be an elbow timing that gets it moving sooner and it could be a

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shoulder movement that gets it activating sooner but there's a big

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relationship between where the sternum is at impact or during the downswing and

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the timing of those arms extending so that's why usually when you're getting

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out of a pattern where you look more like this at impact and then that

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afterward to try to get more like this you will have to work on a combo of

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things being the location of the body as well as the timing of the arms and it

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could be the wrist it could be the elbows it could be the shoulders so I just

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kind of categorize it as the timing of the arms the earlier that the arms tend

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to fire the more the low point is going to move back and the later that the

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arms tend to fire the more that the low point is going to move forward so if I

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got to the top even if I do a good job of spinning my body like so if I really

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extend that trail arm you could see that the bottom of that swing is going to

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be

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back behind the golf ball even though my left shoulder was out in front you'd

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also see if you're paying attention that my sternum isn't quite far enough

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forward because it's very hard to have the sternum far forward and release it

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is possible or sorry and release early it is possible but it's harder to do so

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paying attention to both the timing of the arm extension and the location of

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sternum will help you control your low point a little little tip if you

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struggle

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with the timing of the arm extension so if you're you tend to delay this and

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you

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have trouble making contact there's a very good chance that you're using that

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trail arm straightening and moving the low point back to help get the club face

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pointed in the general direction of the target and so you need to work on some

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shaft rotation or the motorcycle movement before the timing of that trail arm

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is

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really going to factor in also if you start working on the motorcycle movement

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getting some shaft rotation and you still have early timing in the arm so it

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the

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shaft is more vertical and impact you're almost always going to struggle with

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big

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hooks because of the shaft being more vertical and impact not because of the

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amount of motorcycle that you're doing. Guys like Dustin Johnson do a ton of

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motorcycle but because of the delayed timing of their arms it works out I

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find that it's very hard to overdo the motorcycle if you have a good control of

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where your body is in good control or more importantly good control of the

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timing of your arm extension so if you're struggling with your low point

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control check the sternum check the timing of the arm straightening if one of

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those two seems more out than the other take a look at some of the details so

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you

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can figure out exactly what you need to do to help your correct your low point

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control