Changing Trajectory with the Stroke

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In this video, we're going to discuss changing trajectory with your stroke.

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So as we talked about in the last video, some of the easier ways to influence

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trajectory

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are just with setup changes.

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But now we're going to talk about ways that we can change our stroke in order

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to affect

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trajectory.

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Most of the time we're going to make these changes.

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It's either we're a more advanced golfer and we find that we can dial it up a

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little

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bit easier with some of these changes or we're in a situation where we have

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some extreme

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scenarios that we have to work through such as really high lips or different

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types of

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sand potentially.

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But some golfers, for example, someone like Stan Utley talk about doing a lot

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and feeling

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it in the hands.

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So making some of these swing changes are more natural if you have a high level

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of feel.

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So first ones we're going to talk about are the main swing changes and then we

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'll talk

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about a little kind of concept changes that can influence as well.

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So the main swing changes are again trying to do some of the same things that

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we did

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with setup, which is we're going to try to apply more of an open club face in

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order to

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hit high or more of a square club face in order to hit it low.

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We're going to swing a little flatter to hit it high or we're going to swing a

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little

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steeper to hit it low.

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So when it comes to doing that more with your stroke, the main things that will

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tend to hit

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it high and soft would be feeling a little bit more of cupping that lead wrist

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in the

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backswing and then keeping that cup and just letting the club really pass kind

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of down

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at the bottom a little bit more like that.

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That can feel really comfortable for a high soft shot where you know with this

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cupped

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wrist position it's going to be very difficult to hit it past a certain

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distance.

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So I recommend doing that with some of your distance training to see what the

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upper limit

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is.

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So oftentimes when you do that we're going to feel like we swing a little bit

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more around

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or flat as opposed to a little bit more up and down.

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The main time where we're going to want the a little bit less open club face

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and a little

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bit steeper movement is when the ball is sitting down and we have lots of green

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to work with

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and we want to hit more of a chunk and run style shot.

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Oftentimes out of say a fried egg or when the ball is sitting in a down

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position it's

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risky to close the face too much but feeling like the wrist doesn't open quite

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as much

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and the swing is a little bit steeper is one of the ways to make sure that you

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don't blade

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that shot or chunk that shot.

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Okay, so let's draw a couple feedback lines, love doing that in the bunker.

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Okay, so now like I said these are a little bit riskier than the setup changes

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but sometimes

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these have really big impacts and feel very comfortable for golfers who have a

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high awareness

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of the swing in the hand position.

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So I'm going to feel like I'm going to go maximum extension and then keep that

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extension

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on the way through.

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So it might set up just a little bit more vertical, maximum extension.

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Keep that extension and you'll see I swung, I released really hard and that

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ball just

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pops straight up and for me it's hard to hit that more than about 10 yards.

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So I've got that purple noodle at about 15, the flag is pretty close to 10, I

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went like

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eight or nine in the air.

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So that can be one of the more powerful ways, especially out of kind of fluffy

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sand, that

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can be one of the more powerful ways to get a lot of height very quickly.

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So now I mentioned one of the times when we'll typically use the a little bit

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steeper option

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is when the ball is sitting down.

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So there I've got a little bit more of a fried egg.

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So in addition to maybe feeling a little bit more stacked I'm now going to

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swing the club

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a little bit more up and down and as it's coming down in order to keep the club

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working

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down into the sand I'm not going to let the wrist extend quite as much I'm

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going to keep

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it a little bit more neutral and the club is often just going to stop a little

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bit deeper

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in the sand.

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So it's going to go down you can see I got even more of a fried egg now from

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that little

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practice swing.

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So this will be good.

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So I'm going to lean a little bit more, swing the arm motion a little bit more

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vertical

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and then hold that angle of the wrist and you'll see that that's going to come

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out

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a little bit knuckly.

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It's not quite as extreme as the ball is really plugged the easiest way to get

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it out

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is to close the face but going steep with neutral face is a little bit easier

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like it's

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not going to be quite as dramatic as far as low and releasing it's still going

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to release

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some but oftentimes it's just really hard to get the ball to stop short when

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you have

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a fried egg like that.

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So it was the most common kind of arm manipulation similar to what we talked

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about with the finesse

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wedges.

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But I want to talk about two more concept things that you can do to influence

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trajectory.

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One is swing speed.

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So in the distance section we talk about kind of varying your tempo a little

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bit.

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One of the concepts here is the slower that I swing in general the lower that

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the launch

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is going to be and the faster that I swing the more I can get this to pop up

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high.

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So usually it's complimentary the faster I swing the more I can open the face

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and the

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slower I swing the more I'm going to want to play a face that's pretty square.

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So if you're a lower swing player kind of a newer golfer you might not want to

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open

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the club face dramatically like they might say on Instagram.

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So if I get this set up and I just do a really kind of longer but slower swing

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you'll see

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that that ball comes out really low compared to I already demonstrated the fast

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one where

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I released the club you saw that had a lot of speed and the ball pops up.

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So one of the ways especially on the longer shot that sounds counter intuitive

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but perhaps

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I take a little bit more of a longer club with less loft and I swing slow so

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the ball

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will come out lower and have a little bit more run.

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The other one the last the kind of the riskiest is changing contact location.

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So I tend to think that this is by far the riskiest option but trying to get

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contact

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a little bit closer to the golfer or a little bit cleaner.

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You really have to work on your low point control in order to do that and you

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can combo that

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with some of the other options.

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So potentially if I wanted to swing really fast really hard and get a little

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bit more

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distance than when I hit that 10 yard shot oh man this is scary.

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A little bit more distance I have to try to get contact really close to the

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golf ball.

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Too much golf ball this is why caution trying to get that contact right at the

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golf ball.

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So we'll try to do that again so now I'm trying to double my distance I'm

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trying to

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hit this all the way to the back of the green with a cupped face high release.

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So that was pretty close to as good as I got where that contacted just behind

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the golf

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ball but you saw the risk of the first one it wasn't a terrible shot or a

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terrible swing

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I should say but it was a terrible shot that likely went out of bounds.

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So I caution unless you're practicing your bunker shots at least a couple times

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a week

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I wouldn't vary the contact location instead I would take one of the other

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options.

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So you can either play with the setup changes or the swing and concept changes

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to influence

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your trajectory for your specific bunker shots.