Exploring the Como Flat Spot

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This drill is exploring the Como Flat Spot.

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So, one of the models for repeatability that I really like

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comes from a good friend of mine named Chris Como.

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As far as I know, he's the first person to really study this,

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so I call it the Como Flat Spot.

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But basically, it's looking at the path of this club head

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through impact, and his hypothesis is that,

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which does have some data that supports it from Enzo,

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and then what we can see on 3D of what the handle is doing

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kind of validates it as well.

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So, it seems like it's a great idea as something that relates

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very highly to consistency.

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So, basically, what it's talking about is if I was to just have

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a fixed point that this club kind of swung around like so,

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like if I just froze this handle in space and just swung it around that,

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then the path of the club would follow almost a perfect circle,

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you know, ignoring shaft flex and things like that,

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but it would follow almost a perfect circle.

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So, if I had that perfect circle trying to contact the ground,

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well, you would see that it would only touch the ground for a split second.

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So, this Como Flat Spot idea is in order to have a more,

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a bigger margin of error, instead of having the club touch the ground

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for just a second, I want to take this circle where the club is swinging around

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me,

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and I want to kind of flatten it out down to the bottom kind of like so.

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So, it doesn't change too much of the shape of the sides,

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but down to the bottom, it's going to get as much of a straight line

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as we can somewhat in the direction of the target.

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Well, that's a, you know, neat little high-level thing,

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and we'll talk about that in greater detail in the second half of this video,

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but the first part is the fun part, which I call the lab.

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You get to go explore it.

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So, you'll see that we have a number of drills in this,

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in the release section and in the follow-through section,

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working on getting the club to kind of brush along the ground.

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So, I use this concept of brushing the club on the ground

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to, as a practical way of applying this 3D flat spot.

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So, what you can do is you can try to experiment with different impact body

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positions,

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try to experiment with different timings,

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and just try to get the club to brush along the ground.

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Now, there's 3 ways that I want you to absolutely try this.

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You can add in your own, but there's 3 ways and 3 things that I want you to

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explore.

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So, one would be if I was to cast, so if I have my arms really straight like so

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,

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how am I going to get, because you'll see the club barely brushes the ground,

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and last I kind of, I have to have my upper body almost drag with it

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in order for me to figure out how to get it to brush the ground.

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Now, you may be able to figure out a way with kind of early extension or

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something else

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in order to get it to do even better, but that's one option.

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Option 2 is going to be with early extension.

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So, if I take my setup position and I get tall,

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and now I'm going to, you'll see I get it to brush,

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but you can see I'm only getting it to brush for a very small amount of space.

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So, those are the two most common swing errors,

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and you can see how they both make developing this 3D flat spot a little bit

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trickier.

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So, then the third one is I'm going to do a good merry-go-round

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so that I have a fair amount of rotation and side bend,

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and my arms are kind of delayed.

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And now what I'm going to do is I'm basically going to extend those arms,

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and you'll see that because my arms,

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because my body is kind of in this rotation and side bend position,

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when my arms extend, even though when my arms extend,

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basically that's going to help that club kind of brush along the ground.

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So, this is part of the reason why you'll see better players having, you know,

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30 degrees of rotation, 30 degrees of side bend, somewhere out in that range,

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so that when you extend your arms, the club just brushes against the ground.

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If I had zero rotation, zero side bend, and I extended my arms,

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you can hear the club just slam into the ground.

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So, the body position that we teach, this powering it from your whole body,

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all of this stuff is to help you develop this 3D flat spot,

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or the Como flat spot, which will help you ultimately be more consistent

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and have a more repeatable swing.

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If you're a novice golfer, I recommend you turn the video off now,

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but if you're really into the details, you're an instructor,

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or just what I consider the golf nerds, the guys who love to study this stuff,

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then I'll help you understand this 3D flat spot a little bit better.

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So, I'm just going to bring this in, this is just going to represent the ground

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,

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and hopefully it's pretty close to, you know, down camera line.

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So, let's just say that that is roughly our target line, and then here's the

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ground like so.

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So, in order for me to get, and I'll do this facing you first,

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so in order for me to get this club to kind of slide along the ground,

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there's a couple different ways I could do it.

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One, if I keep the shaft the same, and I just drag the grip across kind of like

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so,

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well, that creates this club staying flat against the ground,

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but you'll see that from a practical standpoint, it wouldn't,

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it would be very, very difficult for me to keep this the same and drag it

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across like so.

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My body is just not set up to do that, and it would be hard for me to create a

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lot of speed in doing that.

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So, the second option would be I'm going to create an exaggerated amount of

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lean,

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and then instead of just dragging it across, I'm going to raise it up kind of

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like so.

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So, you'll see that the handle here compared to my finger is basically going to

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be raising up.

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So, this fixed length shaft is essentially going to be changing its pivot

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slightly as that club raises up,

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which helps keep this club moving along the ground.

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So, this rotation and side bend causes this phenomenon that when I extend my

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arms,

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because my upper body is slightly going back and rotating,

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and this left shoulder is rotating away like so, you'll see that that causes

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the grip to actually come up and in.

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And that coming up and in creates this flat spot of both high to low as well as

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into out,

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because it's a 3D flat spot.

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But understand that one of the other important things and ways to develop this

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is to make sure that your arms are extending through the shot.

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The more that these arms kind of bend through the shot,

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the more that my flat spot is going to be right along where the golf ball is,

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as opposed to starting at the golf ball and working a ways past it.

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I'll show you a couple 3D graphs of the way that we can get our closest

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measurement to it,

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which is arc width.

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Arc width is measuring the distance between the center of the grip and the

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center of my torso,

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or my thorax, kind of right in here.

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And what we'll find is that if you look at the best players in the world,

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they tend to have the distance between this and this,

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increasing almost until follow through position.

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Some of them actually do it all the way until follow through position,

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where many amateurs will have it pretty much its widest point right before

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impact

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and then decreasing.

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And some very high handicappers will actually have it at its widest point

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well before impact and then increasing.

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So it matters how you're pulling in.

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The best way to do it is have this combination of rotation and side bends

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so that you can delay when those arms are extending.

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The whole purpose of that is to develop this 3D flat spot,

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which helps with your consistency.

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So if you're working on early extension, if you're working on casting and you

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just get lost,

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you can always come back to can I brush the ground for a long period of time,

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starting at about where my ball position would be.

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If you can do that, then what you're working on in your swing is going to help

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you be more consistent.

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If you can do that with a lot of speed, that's everything you pretty much need

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to be good at golf,

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other than controlling the clubface, which is that third piece.

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So hopefully this helps you see why we spend so much time working on the

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arms shallowing during transition and then those arms extending during the

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release

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because that combination of movements with a really good body pivot

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helps produce this flat spot, which has been shown to be predictable for

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increased levels

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of consistency with your stock full swing.

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So what you see now is a sample arc width graph from a tour pro.

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Basically the arc width graph is simply measuring the distance in inches

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between the thorax

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and the middle of the grip or the mid hands point.

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So what you'll see is during this timeline, the arc width graph during the take

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away

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stays about the same and then the distance starts to decrease as they make the

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rest

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of their backswing, you'll see that that continues to decrease through

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transition

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and then starts increasing fairly rapidly up until impact continues to increase

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until

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some point after impact, usually somewhere around the follow through position

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because this is actually how I define follow through position.

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And you'll see that that second peak is equal to or greater than where they

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were

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at address and there's a fairly rounded look to it.

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That's kind of the main two criteria that I'm looking for when I'm looking at

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one of these arc width

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graphs is going to be that timing of the peak at the top of the swing or

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transition

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and then the timing of the peak and the shape of the peak and the location of

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the peak

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after impact. Generally, tour pros are going to have this peak be more gradual

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or rounded

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and later after impact, which is kind of demonstrating that they're able to

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keep

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that club moving away from them through the impact interval, which wouldn't

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happen

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without a good flat spot.

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So here we have a different professional and you can see that it's kind of got

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that

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similar pattern. So if we look at the peak near the top of the swing, you can

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see

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that it happens after transition and then if we look at the peak after impact,

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we can see that there's a steady increase until kind of a rounding peak after

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impact.

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So those two graphs look fairly similar, but let's take a look at a couple

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amateur

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graphs and see what we will typically see with the higher handicappers who

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struggle

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with this flats up.

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So now here we have a high handicap golfer and what you'll see is the peak at

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the top

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of the swing is actually happening before the top of the swing. So this is

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indicative

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of a cast pattern. They're starting to kind of get that club working away from

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them

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before they transition and then you'll see that there's a very sharp peak right

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at impact

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and that peak is significantly lower than where they were at address. And then

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right

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after that peak, it drops back off indicating that they're bending their arms

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and or chicken winging and kind of collapsing through the hitting area.

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Typically this is going to be part of a cast lunge pattern, which is a lot less

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repeatable

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than the graph that we were demonstrating for the tour pros. Let's take a look

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at another one.

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So here's kind of a medium handicap golfer, you know, somewhere in that 10

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range,

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but you'll see that it has the similar characteristics of the higher handicap.

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His peak is right at the top of the swing instead of the downswing. So it's not

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quite

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as bad a cast, but it's still slightly in that cast category. And then you'll

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see their

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peak is right at it just after impact. So it is widening through impact, but

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just barely.

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And then it kind of has a gradual decline instead of a sharp one like that

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higher handicap

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golfer that we were just demonstrating. But you will see that compared to where

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they are

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at setup, the impact peak is lower than the setup peak, so they're not getting

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quite as

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much arm extension and width, which will limit their flat spot and consistency.

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Now let's take a quick look at a before and after with a skilled golfer that I

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work with.

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So here you can see on the right is the before and basically you can see that

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the peak at the top

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of the swing was happening just before the top of the swing. And then the peak

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at impact

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was fairly sharp right at impact. And then there was kind of a little plateau

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afterward.

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You can see that after working on some transition and release for a season,

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his next 3D revealed a delayed peak. So now the peak is happening just into the

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downswing

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and then the peak is now happening after impact and much more gradual.

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This helps him with his consistency as far as contact and ball striking,

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and now we're shifting more into short game. So hopefully that helps you

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understand

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the coma flat spot, how we measure it, what it is, and why it helps with repeat

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ability

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and why it's something that you should strive for with your game.