WEBVTT

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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at how the pros execute the

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distance wedge shot. So we're going to look at the few major differences

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between

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the stock full swing and the distance wedge swing. The distance wedge swing is

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going to be much similar to the stock full swing than say the finesse swing,

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but there are some minor differences. So here we have Dustin Johnson and we're

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going to take a look at, from the down the line, we're going to take a look at

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the impact position and the sequencing that got him into it. So over on the

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right is his full swing. And we'll take a look at the sequencing by looking at

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when the thighs are parallel to the target line. So he gets his thighs

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parallel to the target line, roughly when that left arm is parallel to the

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ground. And we'll look at impact and we'll see roughly how much rotation and

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how

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much trail arm bend. So how straight is that right arm and how much of his back

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can we see. So now here from the with the distance wedge, so you can see it's

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definitely not a full swing. You will see that his thighs get parallel right

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around there. Compare that to with his stock full swing. And you can see that

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the the stock full swing is going to be more lower body driven where for the

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distance wedge, we're going to tend to use the whole body as kind of one unit

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together at the same time. So it'll feel compared to kind of a driver swing,

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like

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it's a lot more arm based. So what we'll see is if we get them to impact, we

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can

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see that over on the left, we don't see nearly as much of his lower body and we

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see a lot more of his trail arm straightening. So what we teach here in the

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distance wedge section is how to pivot your body slightly different. So the

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upper body is a little bit more on top of the golf ball. And the engine is

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going

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to be a little bit more in the shoulders and that trail arm straightening. So

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by

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having the arm straighten, that adds a shallow element. And so the upper body

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being more on top is going to balance that out with a little bit of a steep

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element. We'll look at a couple other examples from the down the line and then

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look at these pivot, pivot differences from the face on. So now let's take a

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look at Luke Donald, former number one golfer in the world and a great wedge

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player. And we'll see looking at those same two kind of checkpoints, we can see

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that the thighs get parallel pretty much between this frame and this frame. So

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again, right around when that left arm is parallel to the ground. Or if we look

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at his distance wedge shot, you'll see that his thighs don't get parallel until

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his hands are about waist height. So one of the ways I like to look at what's

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powering the swing is to just kind of scrub back and forth a few times. And

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you'll look during transition that his arms are relatively passive and relaxed

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and you'll see that his body is very, very active. If you look at this distance

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wedge through that same zone, you'll see yeses hips are turning, but you'll see

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that his arms are leaving his body and kind of contributing about as much as

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the hips are as far as creating speed in the club. So then if we get both of

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these swings down towards impact, so we'll go just past impact to match those

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up.

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You'll see over on the left that there is a lot less body rotation than over on

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the right. And if we get them to as close as we can get to impact, you can see

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that

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there is a significant amount of trail arm straightening over in the one on the

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left. That's partly going to be due to this powering the swing more from the

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arms

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and partly due to or powering the swing more from the arms in the rib cage and

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partly due to the fact that there's not as nearly as much side bend or the

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upper

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body is more stacked and on top of the lower body. Now we'll take a look at one

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more example. This is Steve's trigger, largely regarded as one of the best

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wedge

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players on the planet and usually one of the first guys that gets mentioned

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anytime you ask a tour pro about the distance wedge game. So what'll be

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interesting to see is that his full swing is a little bit more like a large

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distance wedge swing. So you'll see that if we look at that five parallel

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checkpoint, he actually kind of matches them up and they're both closer to the

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distance wedge style of swing than they are to the full swing. If it was more

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like

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the stock full swing and as thighs were parallel earlier, he would probably

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tend

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to struggle with the wedges. Now if we scrub back and forth, you can still see

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that there's kind of a blend of arm movement with the body pivot where if we

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scrub here, we'll see that it's a little bit more lower body driven and part of

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where that'll really show up as if we get him pretty close to impact with both

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frames. We'll see that there is more of this lower body rotation and we'll see

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that that trail arm has more bend in it with the with the driver. But I do

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think

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it's interesting to note that one of the best wedge players in the game who

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also

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happens to be a fairly accurate driver of the golf ball but not one of the

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longest by any stretch. His kind of stock full swing mirrors closer to the

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elements that we like to see in the in the distance wedge shot rather than

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everything that we would ultimately want to see in the stock full swing. Now

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from the face on camera, we're going to be able to see some of this engine and

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sequencing stuff as well but we're also going to be able to see the

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relationship

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between the upper body and the lower body. We'll be able to see the amount of

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side bend a whole lot easier. So what we'll see from this wedge shot from

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Dustin

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is that as he comes down towards the golf ball you can see that yes this

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camera angle is not perfect but we can see that his upper body is more on top

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of

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his lower body and you can kind of see the angle of his shoulders as he's

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making

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contact. As a result of the shoulders being more level and powering it more

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with kind of a blend of his whole body rotating through, you'll tend to see

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that

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trail arm match it and straighten sooner in the movement. Over here with the

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driver we're going to tend to see that right shoulder get well underneath the

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left as part of the upper body being well behind the lower body. As a result

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we're going to see the timing difference of when those arms straighten. So over

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here you can see that his right arm is kind of maxing out straightening right

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around there just before or very close to shaft parallel to the ground. If we

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then switch to the wedge shot you'll see that that right arm is pretty straight

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just after impact. Again that's partly due to the sequencing issue and that's

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partly due to the positional difference of where the upper body is compared to

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the lower body. Now what you'll see if you start looking at YouTube and trying

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to find distance wedge shots is that the camera angles and the options are

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going to be very very slim. So if you find some great ones please send me some

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links. What we're going to look at here is that timing movement that we were

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seeing with Dustin. Now we know the one over on the left isn't a great camera

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angle it's more like 45 it's not even close to straight but what we're what

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we'll be able to see is that timing of that trail arm straightening. So as we

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kind of go through you can see that his arms are getting fairly straight just

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after impact. So you can see kind of between these two is when that right

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arm is maxing out and then it just kind of rides the moment of the club through

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the rest of the release. If we look over here on the driver what we'll see is

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if

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we max out that elbow it's right about there. So again similar to what we were

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seeing with Dustin where it's just short of parallel to the ground. You'll also

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be

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able to see if we had a true face-on view that his upper body is much more on

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top of his lower body and everything has kind of rotated together. So as we

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talk

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a lot about the blend of steeps and shallows because the upper body is going

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to be more on top with the distance wedge swing that's a steepening element. So

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we're gonna have to add a shallowing element to get a similar path for both

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shots. So what will end up happening is we will straighten that trail elbow to

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then balance out the difference in the position of the upper body. So now we'll

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take a look at Luke Donald from the face-on view and it'll be very apparent to

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see a couple of these relationship and positional differences. So one of the

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things that I want to key on is if we looked at where his upper body is and to

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make it really clear we'll put the line on the back of the golf ball just like

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so. Now this is trusting a decent camera angle but what you'll see is that his

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upper body moves forward during transition which is totally normal and

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then it tends to go more vertical or post up. You don't see a whole lot of

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backing up and you'll see that his arms upper body and pelvis kind of rotate

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through together. Where over here on the right if we're looking at the driver

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we

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will see that his upper body is well behind that line and yes it has kind of

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a similar little upper body shift during that transition phase but then what

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you'll

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see is as he goes into the release in addition to going up you'll see that his

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upper body and his head end up working away from the target. That helps to

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create this good axis tilt to help us create a flat or upward strike with the

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with the driver. As a result of the timing and the positioning what you'll see

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is

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that as his arms extend you'll see that his body is almost stalling a

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little bit or bracing. There's not nearly as much of a brace in the distance

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wedge shot where everything is kind of rotating through together. That rotating

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through together helps really control the bottom of the swing and the hand path

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as you release the club. So as you work on your distance wedge game you're

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going

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to be able to include a lot of the things that you learned in the stock

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full swing but it's important to recognize that while trying to get a

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really good path is important you'll see that with the distance wedge the

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golfers are going to tend to create that really good path or similar to path to

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what they're doing in the stock swing in a different way or with a different

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sequencing. Where if we get Steve Stricher here to impact we can see that

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there are very different body positions we can see that the amount of straight

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ening

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or the timing of the straightening for the trail arm is very different. Those

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two

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are going to be the biggest factors as far as taking your stock full swing and

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using it to build your distance wedge swing. If you by if you are normally

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pretty good at distance wedges and you struggle with the driver then you know

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that you're going to have to work on getting the timing of your arms to be

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later and powering it more with your lower body and creating more of this

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axis tilt while still keeping a good face-to-path relationship. Conversely if

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you're a really good driver of the golf ball but you hit a lot of fat shots

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with

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your distance wedges there's a very good chance that you're powering your

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distance wedges too much with your lower body getting too much axis tilt and

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having too late of a timing for the arms. Now you're going to have to make

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little adjustments so that you can get a good face-to-path with these different

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timings but ultimately that's what builds the capability to to go from your

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driver to your mid-iron and down to your distance wedges. In this section we

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will

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focus mostly on the positioning, sequencing and timings and movements of

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the distance wedge shot.