Analyzing Rate of Closure on Video

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In this analysis video, we're going to discuss the look of rate of closure.

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So I've had a couple of questions about Sasha Mackenzie, Johnson-Claire

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presentation regarding

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the look of rate of closure.

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So I wanted to just do a quick video to kind of put in a couple of thoughts and

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give you

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a way that you can have a better way of looking at rate of closure on video.

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So historically, what a lot of guys have done is looked at two different points

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.

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So when the club's about parallel and the follow through and when the club is

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about

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parallel and the downswing, then basically advocating a certain look here in

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the follow

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through.

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Now, this is Phil Mickelson, flipped to a right hand golfer over here as Matt K

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uchar.

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You can see that they've got the club face pointed roughly in the same

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direction compared

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to the camera, golf balls started right of their target, so they were both kind

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of starting

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on a push trajectory.

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That means the club face is turned about the same amount between these two

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frames.

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Well, coming into impact, we're looking at their 3D's of Matt Kuchar as one of

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the lower

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rate of closures, and Phil Mickelson has one of the higher rate of closure.

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So this frame by itself doesn't give you enough to go off of.

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And there's a couple reasons that that might happen.

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One would be looking at contact location, so when you're looking at where the

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golf balls

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hit on the face compared to the COG, that can cause some funky twisting looks

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in the follow

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through.

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One other piece that might be relevant is in order to have a lower rate of

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closure at

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impact oftentimes golfers then are holding off or delaying the things that

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close the face.

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And so as a result, after impact, they have a rapid spike or a speed up in rate

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of closure,

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where oftentimes golfers who have a faster rate of closure at impact may have a

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look of

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a slower rate of closure after impact.

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And then lastly, the piece that we can't really tell from here is this is a 3D

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image.

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So we can look at the distance the club is away from where that T was.

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And often golfers who have the lower rate of closure have the later arc width.

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And so because their arms are extending more through the shot and the club is

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essentially

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working away from their body, the club may be further away, even though it's at

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the same

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angle, therefore it traveled a greater distance and therefore it moved a little

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bit slower.

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But one of the keys is, okay, this is a hard position right here in order to

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really look

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at rate of closure.

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So where do we want to look?

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The classic other position that I've heard discussed is looking pretty much at

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when the

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club is parallel to the ground or shaft parallel right around here.

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And you will see that if we look back at that position.

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So probably closest to this frame here, you will see that there's enough of a

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difference

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here right?

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Phil Mickelson's club is pointing above the horizon.

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Matt Cooches is already pointing down.

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So in order to get the club face to rotate a certain amount around the shaft,

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it's going

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to have to rotate less covering about the same distance so it's going to move

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slower.

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But I would challenge you to look even closer.

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So whether it's a foot before impact or basically it's close to impact as you

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can, seeing how

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early they get the face pointed roughly at the golf ball.

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So you'll see with Phil through this phase right through here, there's not a

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lot of club

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face rotation right through here.

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There's not a lot of club face rotation, so the club is still pointing well out

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to the

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right and then it's not until well down here that it starts to straighten and

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it's straightening

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more from a result of straightening that right arm rather than twisting the

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club with

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the wrist.

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And when you're doing it more from straightening that arm, you're going to tend

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to reach that

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low or widest point sooner, which is going to decrease the resistance to

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twisting and

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therefore it's going to twist much higher.

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So looking before impact, you can see that roughly when I've used when the club

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is in

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front of the right foot, if it's still pointing well out to the right, you're

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going to have

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a higher rate of closure.

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Alright, so one of the better places to look at rate of closure is looking at

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the face

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on view.

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Actually one of the best is the overhead view, but that one's really hard to

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come by unless

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you have your own studio and have a fair amount of pros.

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So from the face on view, you can basically look at about how much of the club

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face you

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can see.

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And you'll see over here with Phil, the club face really is apparent well into

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the downswing.

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So roughly when it's even with his trail foot, you can still see a fair amount

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of it.

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So now over here on the right, we've got Matt Coocher and you'll see that by

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that right

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foot, it's really rotating and pointing more at the golf ball.

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So right about here where it's even with the right foot, you can see pretty

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much the whole

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face.

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We're here, you can see a lot less of it.

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So he's already got it rotated towards the face or towards the golf ball, so

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then it's

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not going to have to rotate quite as much going into it.

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Phil on the other hand still has a fair amount of closing that he's going to

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have to do and

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he does it really in those last few frames.

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So even though they get to a similar look of club face rotation at that follow

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through

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position, they got there in very different ways.

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You can also see from this view, you can see more of that width aspect where he

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's reaching

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the widest point of his swing sooner.

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So when the down the line camera we're looking from this view here, the club is

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going to

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reach about the same height as Matt Coocher's would a little bit later and that

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can also

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kind of skew the look of how much the club face is actually rotated.

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So when you're trying to analyze club face rate of closure, you want to look at

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it just

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before impact, not after and sometimes down the line is a harder camera view to

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see rather

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than face on or overhead.

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Now here's a quick image to help with that idea of looking at the club after

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impact.

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Now these are amateurs hit on the swing vision and you'll see that when it's

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hit outside

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of the center of mass, it's going to cause a fair amount of club face rotation.

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So if you were to take a look at the image right about there, you might say

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that that

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was held open and therefore be slower, but if you were to look at this image

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here, it's

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still pointed fairly to the right.

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So my guess is that it's higher and unfortunately a lot of the golf swings that

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have a higher

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rate of closure tend to have more of a toe miss and therefore it's going to

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skew the

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look of it after impact.

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This would be more of the vertical gear effect from hitting it really low on

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the face.

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So now here we have Jim Furek, another lower rate of closure golfer and you'll

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see that

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he gets to a very different look here in the follow through than Matt Coocher

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did, but

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the rate of closure numbers are very similar.

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Now you can see that he gets the club through that key zone here pointing at

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the golf ball

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or closer to the target pretty early, it's not pointed out to the right quite

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as much.

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From this face on view, again by the time he gets even with that right foot,

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you'll

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see that the club is pointing more at the golf ball or more at the target so it

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's not

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going to have to rotate a ton through there.

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So I hope this helps you clarify the rate of closure discussion and how you can

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use video

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to identify.

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You're definitely not going to be able to get a numeric range as far as how

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fast you're

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actually closing, but you may be able to categorize yourself as more of a high

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rate, low rate,

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medium rate.

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So here's one last example.

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By looking at rate of closure in this way, you'll be able to understand why

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Jordan's

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beef has more of a medium rate of closure, he's not even really on the super

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low side,

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even though he has that kind of hold off look in the follow through that often

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gets attributed

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to a lower rate of closure.

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You can see that the club face is pointing a bit out to the right, not as much

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as Phil's,

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not as low as Furex or Kuchar, he's kind of more in the middle of the pack.

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From that face on view, you can still see a bit of the club face as it

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approaches more

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that right foot and then it closes there on the way through.

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So by using a more of a scientific or critical eye, hopefully you can

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understand a little

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bit better the rate of closure discussion.