Merry Go Round - Finesse Wedge

WEBVTT

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This drill is the finesse wedge merry-go-round. So this basically breaking down

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the pivot for the finesse wedge. So in the merry-go-round drill, we're gonna

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tend to have this Jackson 5 tilt that creates a lot of side bend from the

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pelvis and then we're going to have body rotation, this leg straightening, and

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bracing so that our upper body is centered and our lower body is forward.

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Well, we know with the finesse wedge that we want the club to contact the

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ground a

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little bit differently, and so the body pivot is going to be different as well.

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We're gonna have a narrow stance, so that's gonna prevent us hopefully from

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getting a lot of this lateral movement. But the ball is still on the ground, so

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I need to have my shoulders turning and tilting closer to pointing down at the

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golf ball rather than horizontally. So I'm still going to have side bend, in

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fact at

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impact, pros are typically going to have about 20 degrees of side bend. So we

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'll

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just rehearse that part. So here I am at setup, and then I'm going to go 20

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degrees this way. Now you'll notice when I did that, I shifted off the ball.

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What

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I'm going to try to do instead is I'm just going to curve my spine so that I'm

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pretty straight up and down, but my shoulders are tilted. It may feel like more

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of just a shoulder shrug rather than a big spine movement if you're used to

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controlling the spine movement for more from your hips. When I go through to

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the

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end of my follow-through, that's going to be about 40 degrees. So almost

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pointing

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down towards the golf ball like this. Now at impact, I will have stood up just

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slightly while having that side bend, and I'll have very little, some rotation,

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but

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very little. So it's usually roughly in the 10 to 20 degree range for these 30

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yard shots at impact. So if normally I'm trying to get about 30 degrees open,

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on

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this shot I'm really only trying to get about 10 degrees open. Now the arms are

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going to be a little bit more in front of my body. So if I get into this 20

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degree slightly extended, this is about where I want to be at impact, right

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about

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there. And now I'm going to put my arms where they would be. This might feel

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like

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the club or the handle is a little bit more in front of you compared to this

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way for the full-on full swing merry-go-round version. So this is a simple

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kind of slow motion or position drill that you can do at home, or to reinforce

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what's going on here during your practice session. So I'm going to get

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side bend first, then I'm going to get some extension, and then I'm going to

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rotate

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my upper body, so it's just pointing out right about there. So this is roughly

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where I'm trying to get to. And you'll see that it's a lot less of a change

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compared to when I do the impact fix like this for the full swing. So it's a

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subtle change, but it's an important one. So I recommend working on practicing

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that

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with a little bit of mirror work. Some of the places where golfers tend to go

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wrong is they get none of the tilt from the spine and all of it from the hips,

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so

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none of this. They tend to get either too open or too closed, so they'll tend

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to

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stay shut and just kind of throw the arms. They'll tend to hit it really high,

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so

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they'll typically have trouble with more of the really short shots, or they'll

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tend

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to spin everything on top. And they'll tend to hit, they'll be really good out

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of rough, but struggle with the really tight, especially the wet lies. So if

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you

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get a combination of the two, if you get slightly open and side bent from the

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spine, it will tend to improve your ability to brush the ground. And that's

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one of the ways that I like to use this drill, is I'll have golfers experiment.

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So I'll say, okay, let's get way open and now try to brush the ground, and it

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'll

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feel a little bit firmer, or I'll say get down to the ground and try to brush

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it,

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and they'll see that it starts hitting too far behind, and I have to really

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flinch my arms, or we'll get them in the good position, and they'll say, okay,

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now

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I can kind of feel the club sliding along the ground instead of hitting and

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striking it. So if you struggle with your pivot, the amount of side bend,

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especially on the way through, or with the some of the lateral movements,

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because

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this helps you stay very centered, then I recommend doing this little merry-go-

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round

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drill. Again, it's about 20 degrees of side bend, not 30 degrees like in the

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full

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swing, and then it's only about 10 degrees of rotation, and it's mostly from

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the upper body. There's not a big straightening of the leg or or hip

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rotation, and then there's just a little bit of extension. So this tends to

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keep

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me very stacked up, but still right side a little bit lower than the left. That

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will

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help get the club to brush and slide on the way through. So I'm gonna preset

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that

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impact position, and then just coast it a little bit on the way through. It is

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hard

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to preset that movement, because oftentimes by pre-setting that right side

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bend movement, you will tend to sway off the ball. That's part of the reason

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why I

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believe that they do it more dynamically in transition rather than a preset,

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but

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it can help your brain figure out about roughly where we're trying to get to,

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especially if you have too much access to or not enough side bend, not enough

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rotation.