Bunker Basic Shape

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In this video, we're going to cover the basics of the bunker shot.

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So in this one, we're going to cover the grip and the setup and the overall

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shape.

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And then that'll give you enough to kind of get going and start practicing.

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And then if you're struggling with any one individual aspect, whether solid

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contact,

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trajectory, distance, we'll give you the tools to be able to troubleshoot and

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improve

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your swing.

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So let's start with the general concept.

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What we're trying to do with a bunker shot is we are trying to get the club to

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contact

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the sand before the golf ball, bottom out after the golf ball, and control the

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depth

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of the swing.

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So we want to have the contact just before the golf ball, one to two inches

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behind.

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We want to have the low point, one to two inches in front, but we want the

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depth to be fairly

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shallow.

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So one of the biggest pieces of advice is to get used to putting some lines in

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the sand

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when you're practicing.

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So here I've got a very lightly drawn line about one and a half inches behind

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the ball,

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and then I've got one about an inch to two inches in front of the ball, closer

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to an

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inch there.

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And now what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to set up in a way that's

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going to

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help me make contact with the first line and then have the middle of my divot

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or the bottom

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of the swing pretty close to the second line.

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So let's cover grip first, bunker is a special shot, it gets a special grip.

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Pete Cowin calls it the butterfly grip.

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My coach just said strong right hand.

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But basically what we're going to do is we're going to turn both hands so they

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're kind of

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on top of the club like this.

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So it's called the butterfly grip because it's kind of like your palms are

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facing away

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from you like you're making a butterfly where if you had the palms facing you,

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this is more

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of like holding a ball or something.

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Okay so we've got both hands on top in a weaker trail hand and a stronger lead

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hand.

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That helps prevent getting too much shaft lean which is a really big problem

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for getting

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poor depth control.

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When that trail hand is in a really weak position as it goes past it's going to

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tend

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to release the club easier which is going to help utilize the bounce down to

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the bottom

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of the swing.

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Okay so we got the butterfly grip.

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Same thing is posture.

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We're going to have or set up I should say.

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We're going to have a wide stance kind of almost like driver width so a little

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bit wider

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than shoulder width and we're going to have the ball pretty close to your left

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heel.

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So now in order to then move the bottom of the swing far enough forward I'm

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going to

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shift a lot of my weight onto that front foot.

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Most of my weight so that my nose is pretty much in line with the golf ball

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from the face

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on camera view.

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Not from the down line camera view but from the face on view.

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So I don't want to be like over the golf ball like I might be inputting but I'm

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in line

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with it.

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Nose in line with the golf ball.

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So it has this kind of lunge feel or this as Stan Utley calls it a speed skater

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position

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where I'm really in that left leg left quad.

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The other thing is from the down the line we're going to be a little bit more

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vertical

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with our posture to help shallow out the swing.

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So we're wide, we're on top and then we're a little bit shallow.

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The stroke is going to be a little bit more armsy.

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We're still going to use some core on the way through but we're not going to

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get nearly

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as much leg action as we might in a full swing.

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So we're going to feel like the club works a little bit more narrow, wide to

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narrow or

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around.

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So it's going to come up and be narrow in the backswing.

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We're going to widen everything at impact and then we're going to feel like it

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comes

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a little bit more around mostly from core activity not from a big hip action or

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leg

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action.

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So we're going to practice that first with the line and then with the ball.

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So here we go with the line.

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So I've got my butterfly grip line kind of in line just behind the heel and

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then narrow

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release.

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So it's wide and then we're going to finish over here to the left of the body

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not out

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at the target.

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So if we see where we hit that, that would have been a pretty okay swing.

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So now we are going to try to do the same thing with a golf ball here.

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So we're going to get into that wide stance, butterfly grip, nose in line with

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the golf

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ball, narrow.

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And when you hit a good bunker shot, you should hear that thud like you heard

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there.

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That's the sound of the bottom of the club hitting the sand kind of at the same

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time.

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Whereas what you'll learn in some of these other videos, if I was to rotate the

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face,

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it'll have more of a kind of a light hiss through the sand.

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If I use the bounce, it'll have more of a thud or a thwack.

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We want to try to get that whack.

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So this is the basics of the grip, the setup, the overall shape, practice with

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the line,

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get familiar with the line and then as you work through the program, it'll help

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you refine

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your technique in this overall shape.