Low Point - Solid Contact Overview

WEBVTT

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In this concept video, we're going to take a look at the first skill in the

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program, which

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is the low point skill.

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So the ability to strike the ball solid.

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One of the phrases that I use with a lot of students is there's three goals.

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We want solid contact, we want to control the shape, and we want to hit it far.

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In my teaching, I tend to go for solid contact first, followed by straight,

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followed by far.

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And that's what we're going to do in this program.

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So this first series, we're going to go through solid contact.

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We're going to talk about how the low point of the swing relates to solid

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contact, and

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how looking at where you're contacting the ground, or where your club is bott

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oming out,

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and help you decode what's going on with your overall ball striking.

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And we'll also talk about shaft lean, and why that's important for iron play,

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iron consistency,

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solid contact, whatever the ball's sitting on the ground.

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We're going to go through a bunch of drills that will help you explore this

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idea.

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But in this video, we're going to go through mostly the general concepts.

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Okay, so when we're talking about low point, the thing that I like to use first

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is the

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low point line.

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So there's another video off to the right, where you can watch for a little bit

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more detail

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about it.

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But basically, this low point line, or the MAC line, as it's sometimes called,

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is looking

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at the overall shape of your impact position.

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So if you're getting into an impact position, where basically left shoulder,

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left hip, left

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foot, left hand, left arm, and the club ultimately line up in a pretty vertical

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fashion after

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impact, then we probably had shaft lean.

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We had a good chance of hitting the ball first.

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That's part of how we're going to get this solid contact.

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We can use this as a diagnostic.

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When you're looking at your video, this is a great place to start when you're

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looking

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at solid contact, or the hands back, or the hips back, is the chest back, or

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are things

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too far forward.

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Any of that can give you a good starting point for analyzing why you're not

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making a solid

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contact as you would like.

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Now one other thing that you can focus in on is the depth and the 3D location

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of the

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ground contact.

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Okay, when it comes to looking at solid contact, we want to look at the swing

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shape and the

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low point line first.

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So over here is a picture of impact, and the low point line is basically that

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yellow line,

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which is a few inches in front of impact, maybe up to four to six inches in

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front of

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the golf ball, and basically we're looking at how well you're able to get the

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left leg,

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the left arm, the club shaft, and the left shoulder kind of all in line with

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that vertical

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line just after impact.

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If you get into a relationship, something like that, it means you're going to

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have some

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shaft lean, and it means that you're going to strike the golf ball before

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making contact

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with the golf ball, or you're in a very good position too.

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So this is a great place to start the diagnostic of what's going on with my

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swing.

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Why am I not making solid contact?

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In general, the swing shape in order to do this is we're going to have the

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center of

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the swing shifted in front of the golf ball.

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So let's say that this line right here represents a vertical line kind of like

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this, and I've

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got the center of my golf swing ahead of it.

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I want to basically make contact with the golf ball somewhere around here in

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order to

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make solid contact.

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That helps with minimizing getting ground and grass in between the golf ball,

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so I get more

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energy transfer, and by creating shaft lean, I'm going to strike the golf ball

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higher up

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on the face or closer to the center of the club head, so I'm going to get

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maximum energy

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transfer that way.

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If, for example, I was hitting on this part of the circle, then the club would

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be coming

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up into the ball, and I'd hit a lot of fat and thin shots.

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So in order to make solid contact, it's not so much that I'm just trying to hit

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down on

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it.

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I'm really just trying to shift my whole swing slightly in front of the golf

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ball for an iron,

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and we'll get the driver slightly behind.

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But for solid contact and kind of our stock swing, we're trying to get the

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ability to

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have the bottom of the swing out in front of the golf ball just like this.

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So that gets you kind of in the ballpark as far as solid contact goes.

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But we also want to look at how the club is contacting the ground, both in

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terms of depth,

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as well as the 3D location, or where is that ground contact compared to the

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golf ball.

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So the depth is pretty easy if I have the ground like this, and I've got the

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golf ball

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sitting on top of the ground, kind of like this.

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My overall goal, if I take the shape of my swing, the overall goal is to have

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the bottom

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of the swing slightly in front like this.

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But if the bottom of the swing was a few inches underground, you could see that

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that

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pool hooper, that swing would make contact with the ground behind the golf ball

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.

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So the goal is to have the bottom of the swing forward, but not so deep that it

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messes with

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my low point contact as well.

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So you can monitor the height of the divot, or the depth of the divot, you can

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monitor

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if you're still seeing grass, or is it going in really deep, or am I not making

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a divot

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at all?

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Some golfers will air on more picking the golf ball like this, which gives you

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a little

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less margin of air compared to a golf swing, the bottom of a little bit more

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like that.

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The 3D aspect is from this perspective, where am I making contact with the

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ground?

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Am I making contact with the ground in the middle of the golf ball, or too far

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away from

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me, that would be more like shanks, or a shank heel contact, or am I making

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contact with

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the ground too far close to me, that would be more toe contact.

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So when we're looking at low point, the number one thing is looking at where is

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the low point

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compared to the golf ball on the ground towards and away from the target, but

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the secondary

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aspect is looking at it towards and away from you, which would be heel toe

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contact.

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Okay, in general, the two main factors that relate to this low point are where

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is my upper

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body in space and the timing of my arm extension.

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So the more that I've gotten forward, the more that I've shifted forward and

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turned

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my body, so the more that my chest or my sternum is pointing out in front of

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the golf ball,

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in general, the more that the club is going to bottom out forward of the golf

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ball.

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The more that my body has stood up, hung back, stayed over my right foot,

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lacked rotation,

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the more that the club is going to contact the ground behind the golf ball.

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Got other videos in this program where you can dig into that just a little bit

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deeper.

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The secondary piece would be the timing of the arm extension, so the earlier

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that my

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arms extend, and that could be either straightening the arms or flipping the

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wrists, the earlier

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that I do that, the more that I will contact the ground behind the golf ball.

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The later that I do that, the more that the swing will bottom out ahead of the

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golf ball.

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So these are our two main factors that we're going to work through in this

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program.

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And in this kind of first run through looking at low point, we're going to

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attack the two

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big picture items relating to each one of these.

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Okay, so the first objective is we're just going to work with as little swing

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thoughts

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as possible.

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All we're going to do is we're going to do the playing with low point drill

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where you're

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going to take some Dr. Scholl's foot spray or draw a line with a T, and you're

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basically

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going to look at how well you can contact the ground, either slightly behind or

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slightly

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in front of the golf ball.

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You're going to look at how precise and how well you can control ground contact

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.

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When you're building your swing, this is a theme that will show up through a

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lot of

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the program.

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You want to start slow, so slow motion swings, and you want to start small and

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work bigger.

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So in general, you're going to work on nine to threes, ten to twos, and full

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swings.

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So a nine to three is basically waist height to waist height.

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A ten to two is more arm parallel to arm parallel or club vertical to club

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vertical.

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And then your full swing is going to be all the way up to the end of your back

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swing and

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then all the way into the end of your follow through.

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In general, if you make better contact with your full swing than the shorter

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swings, it's

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usually a release issue.

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If you make better contact with the short swings and struggle with the full

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swing, then the

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full swing problem is usually more of a transition or power source issue.

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But we'll dig into that when we get more into trouble shooting in the third

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round.

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So we're going to press pause here.

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This is the end of this first video.

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You're going to do the practicing or playing around with low point, just to

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assess your

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overall skill at how good you are at controlling the low point.

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And then in the next video, we're going to go into a little bit more of a

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process for

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how you can systematically learn to control it better.