Lead Arm Only Distance Wedge

WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.960
This is the lead arm-only distance wedge.

2
00:00:07.960 --> 00:00:13.250
So you know I'm a big fan of separating the arms, whether you're working on

3
00:00:13.250 --> 00:00:13.840
putting,

4
00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:16.040
chipping, full swing.

5
00:00:16.040 --> 00:00:19.930
For the distance wedge, I tend to find that the lead arm-only drill is a lot

6
00:00:19.930 --> 00:00:20.800
more powerful

7
00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:28.270
than the trail arm, or I should say, when we're working on the trail arm, the

8
00:00:28.270 --> 00:00:28.520
bigger, the

9
00:00:28.520 --> 00:00:33.070
most important thing is kind of keeping this connection and getting the power

10
00:00:33.070 --> 00:00:33.800
of the swing

11
00:00:33.800 --> 00:00:38.420
coming more from the obliques and the body and the core and rotating it through

12
00:00:38.420 --> 00:00:40.680
like that.

13
00:00:40.680 --> 00:00:44.680
I tend to see a lot fewer problems with the trail arm because if it has a

14
00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:45.520
little bit of

15
00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:48.680
scoop, that's not the end of the world because we're going to be more in the

16
00:00:48.680 --> 00:00:49.720
stacked position.

17
00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:52.720
Oftentimes, I find golfers who struggle with their wedges have pretty big

18
00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:53.440
problems with

19
00:00:53.440 --> 00:00:55.640
the lead arm.

20
00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:58.760
What often happens is the lead arm steepens things.

21
00:00:58.760 --> 00:01:03.120
The lead arm pulls down and across too much kind of like this.

22
00:01:03.120 --> 00:01:07.930
So either what will happen is in transition, that arm will pull and when that

23
00:01:07.930 --> 00:01:08.720
arm pulls,

24
00:01:08.720 --> 00:01:12.620
it tends to throw the club out and it tends to steepen and close the face kind

25
00:01:12.620 --> 00:01:13.080
of like

26
00:01:13.080 --> 00:01:14.080
this.

27
00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:19.220
Or we could be in really good position and then that lead arm will tend to pull

28
00:01:19.220 --> 00:01:19.400
around

29
00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:24.960
and have a big chicken wing or a big shoulder retraction kind of like this.

30
00:01:24.960 --> 00:01:30.250
So the classic, if I did both of those, it would be kind of throw it from the

31
00:01:30.250 --> 00:01:30.800
top over

32
00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:32.520
the top and then pull in.

33
00:01:32.520 --> 00:01:33.520
And that's what will happen.

34
00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:36.760
You'll have really poor contact.

35
00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:42.150
So I find that golfers who struggle with contact benefit a lot from doing the

36
00:01:42.150 --> 00:01:43.880
lead arm drill.

37
00:01:43.880 --> 00:01:47.240
And so the lead arm drill, we're going to try and feel like there's a little

38
00:01:47.240 --> 00:01:48.400
bit of rotation

39
00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:51.920
in the backswing, but it's going to stay in front of the chest.

40
00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:56.140
And then most importantly, we're going to feel like there's a little bit more

41
00:01:56.140 --> 00:01:56.760
of this kind

42
00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:03.680
of lead arm block where it stays a little bit more away or up kind of like this

43
00:02:03.680 --> 00:02:04.120
.

44
00:02:04.120 --> 00:02:09.410
It's not pulling until my body helps it pull during the kind of the latter half

45
00:02:09.410 --> 00:02:09.880
of the

46
00:02:09.880 --> 00:02:12.480
release or through the ball.

47
00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:16.440
So I don't want to be pulling down with the shoulder into the ball.

48
00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:22.840
The hit is going to come more from the body rotation.

49
00:02:22.840 --> 00:02:26.540
Now I got a little diggy because oftentimes what happens when I go lead arm

50
00:02:26.540 --> 00:02:27.080
only is I

51
00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:31.040
get a little extra kick or slide from the lower body.

52
00:02:31.040 --> 00:02:35.010
So one of the things that you should watch out for is one of two different

53
00:02:35.010 --> 00:02:35.920
patterns.

54
00:02:35.920 --> 00:02:41.240
One either the body doesn't move at all and it just becomes a shoulder pull.

55
00:02:41.240 --> 00:02:46.530
Or more often what I showed there is the lower body tends to slide in order to

56
00:02:46.530 --> 00:02:47.080
hold the arm

57
00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:56.970
up off as opposed to just using the outside of the shoulder, some of your delto

58
00:02:56.970 --> 00:02:58.320
id muscle,

59
00:02:58.320 --> 00:02:59.320
kind of like that.

60
00:02:59.320 --> 00:03:00.720
Now you'll see I stayed more stacked.

61
00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:06.010
I got much better contact and if I came through that position impact, I would

62
00:03:06.010 --> 00:03:07.200
have felt like

63
00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:11.760
the arms were more coasting or riding with the body rotation instead of being

64
00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:12.680
the dominant

65
00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:14.120
engine.

66
00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:21.590
So one of the ways to use the lead arm only drill is one of two places, either

67
00:03:21.590 --> 00:03:22.280
make your

68
00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:26.560
backswing, hit the shot and then put the trail hand on and you'll say, wow,

69
00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:27.560
normally it feels

70
00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:32.260
like it's way pulled behind me like this instead of keeping a little bit more

71
00:03:32.260 --> 00:03:34.440
of that width.

72
00:03:34.440 --> 00:03:40.010
Or second place I said, golfers tend to get in trouble, it's a little bit trick

73
00:03:40.010 --> 00:03:40.600
ier but

74
00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:44.500
if I start my downswing and then put my right arm on, you might feel, wow, I'm

75
00:03:44.500 --> 00:03:44.960
used to the

76
00:03:44.960 --> 00:03:49.250
club being there and it feels like the arms are a little bit further away, the

77
00:03:49.250 --> 00:03:49.740
club is

78
00:03:49.740 --> 00:03:54.100
a little bit flatter, you might get some different sensations there.

79
00:03:54.100 --> 00:03:58.660
If you want you can then experiment with the open hand where you're feeling

80
00:03:58.660 --> 00:03:59.760
like the left

81
00:03:59.760 --> 00:04:03.300
hand is doing all the work and the right hand is just kind of shadowing or

82
00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:04.000
going along

83
00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.080
for the ride.

84
00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:15.040
You can do that even up into some bigger swings there or you can just get the

85
00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:16.080
feel by doing

86
00:04:16.080 --> 00:04:20.180
the single arm drill and then put both hands on and try to apply that feel or

87
00:04:20.180 --> 00:04:21.020
feel a little

88
00:04:21.020 --> 00:04:23.600
bit more of the arms matching up.

89
00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:30.630
So quick demo, let's go lead arm only, kind of like that, put the trail hand on

90
00:04:30.630 --> 00:04:31.440
, that was

91
00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:32.440
good.

92
00:04:32.440 --> 00:04:42.150
We'll do lead arm only with the trail hand on, open hand style, that was pretty

93
00:04:42.150 --> 00:04:42.980
good,

94
00:04:42.980 --> 00:04:47.160
we might have to try that on the course later, okay, now we're going to try and

95
00:04:47.160 --> 00:04:47.800
put the right

96
00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:51.740
hand on but decrease the sensation, so the right hand is doing very little, I'm

97
00:04:51.740 --> 00:04:52.120
going

98
00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:57.410
to do everything with the lead arm, kind of like that and now I'm going to

99
00:04:57.410 --> 00:04:58.320
allow the hand

100
00:04:58.320 --> 00:05:03.610
to squeeze just more so as a trigger that I didn't squeeze during the majority

101
00:05:03.610 --> 00:05:04.080
of the

102
00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:05.080
swing.

103
00:05:05.080 --> 00:05:08.960
So I felt like the hand was really kind of limp and dead and just following as

104
00:05:08.960 --> 00:05:09.480
opposed

105
00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:13.330
to being an active participant and the way I confirmed that was I still had

106
00:05:13.330 --> 00:05:14.160
room, I still

107
00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.450
had room to squeeze it at the end indicating that I wasn't squeezing on the way

108
00:05:18.450 --> 00:05:19.160
through.

109
00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:23.640
So that's a great way to help clean up some poor lead arm mechanics.

110
00:05:23.640 --> 00:05:26.640
If you do that and you look at home video and you're having a lot of trouble

111
00:05:26.640 --> 00:05:27.040
with the

112
00:05:27.040 --> 00:05:31.260
tilt piece then I recommend going after more of the stack centers drills, those

113
00:05:31.260 --> 00:05:32.360
will help

114
00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:38.470
match the width and the kind of blocking feeling of the lead arm only wedge

115
00:05:38.470 --> 00:05:39.360
swing.