WEBVTT

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In this analysis video, we're going to focus on one aspect of the club path and

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how it relates to driving performance.

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So we're going to take a look at the flat spot, or basically we're going to

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look at the club height to the ground.

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So on the screen I've got two of the top drivers in the game right now, Dustin

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Johnson on the left, Brooks Kepko on the right.

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But my goal is to quickly look through a number of the top drivers as well as

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some of the poorer drivers so that you can recognize the pattern.

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And what we're going to do is we're just going to look at roughly the foot

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before impact and the foot after impact.

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And I just want to observe the club height compared to the golf ball.

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What you're going to see is that the more consistent drivers of the golf ball

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tend to have the club height at about the same height as the golf ball for a

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longer period of time.

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So here you can see by about the right foot, Dustin has the club height close

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to the height of the golf ball, and then they're good, three, four inches after

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impact.

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It's still at about the same height.

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So he's by using his body as his main power source, his hips and his core as

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his main power source that delays the timing of the arms.

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So then when the arms extend, he's in this rotated and side bent position so

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that when his arms extend, that keeps the club at a more consistent height down

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at the bottom.

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As opposed to if you were to swing more with your arms and have a little bit

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more of a high to low pattern.

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So now over on the right, if we look at Brooks, we can see the club height is a

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little higher compared to the ground because he has the ball teed up a bit

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higher.

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But roughly from about that right foot, you can see the club is close to the

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height of the golf ball, close to the height of the golf ball, close to the

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height of the golf ball.

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And you'll see that he does it for a fairly long period of time.

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So even though he hits down on the golf ball, you'll see that he demonstrates

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this pattern of having a flatter path of the club down through impact.

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And it's one of my beliefs that this pattern helps with overall driving

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consistency.

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Okay, I don't want you to think it's just a trait of really tall guys. Here we

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have Justin Thomas and Jim Furek, couple different swing styles.

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Again, Justin Thomas who hits well up on the ball, you can see that he's got

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the height of the driver close to the height of the golf ball, well behind the

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golf ball, actually over a foot or so behind the golf ball.

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And he's done so because he's brought the club down there primarily with his

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body, and then his arms extending create a pretty long flat spot of the club.

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Here we have Jim Furek. The club is a little bit higher coming into the golf

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ball. He doesn't get it down quite as early, but you'll see that he does a

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really job of keeping it down pretty late.

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So he creates more of a flat pattern from right about there through there. Now

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it's going to have some arc to it, but we're just recognizing this general

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trend of having the club low to the golf ball beforehand and low to the golf

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ball afterward.

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So here we have two more examples of top drivers in the game, Francesco Molin

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ari and Justin Rose over on the right. Here you can see club height low to the

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ground, low to the ground, low to the ground, low for a long period of time.

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Roughly, I give my students the goal of from about the right foot through just

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past the left foot. Then over here on the right, we have Justin Rose so right

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about there, close to even with the right foot.

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It's a touch higher, but still within kind of the perimeter of the ball stays

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pretty low and flat until just past that left foot.

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So there's by having proper sequencing, empowering the swing more with your

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hips and lower body, whether you're hitting slightly up or slightly down.

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I don't think that has as big an influence as to the rate of change or what I

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look at as this flat spot from the face on camera.

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Now before we look at some pros who tend to perform works, let's take a quick

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look at an amateur and this is more consistent of what I see. This is a low

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single digit handicapper and you'll see that the club height is above the

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height of the golf ball.

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It's just getting down into the height of the golf ball stays down for a slight

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period of time and then starts to come up fairly quickly.

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So while it might be low for a period quite like that, it's nowhere near as

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long a flat spot as what we saw some of the more elite drivers of the golf ball

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demonstrating.

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So now we'll briefly look at a few of the worst ranked drivers on the tour

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right now. So this is Smiley Kaufman over on the right.

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We've got Cameron turn golly over here on the left. You'll see if we get to

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right about when the club is even with the height of the foot, you'll see that

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the bottom of the club is still higher than the height of the golf ball.

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He does get it down, but you'll see that it starts to come up pretty quickly

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compared to some of those more elite drivers who we saw in the first part of

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the video.

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As you can imagine, it's a little harder to find a really high quality video of

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the guys who tend to struggle a bit more, but here you can see just after the

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club is above the height of the golf ball.

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And then that frame, I wish we had the frame kind of even with the foot, but

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you can see that it's coming from a much more kind of almost V shape high to

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high pattern as opposed to more of that gradual changing flat to flat.

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One last example, I've got Phil Mickelson here, known for being a less accurate

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driver of the golf ball. I know everyone loves to talk about his club face

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control and the steep transition.

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I think part of that is what it does down here at the bottom. So you'll see I

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've got him flipped around to a right handed pattern. You can see club height is

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still at this point, so roughly even with the foot, the bottom of the club is

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still just above the top of the ball.

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Comes down, looks pretty good through there, but then it comes up very quickly

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before it gets to the other foot. So while there's still a flatish spot and

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when his timing is on, he's a great driver of the golf ball.

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His overall consistency puts him towards the bottom statistically in accuracy

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and performance.

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So if you're struggling with your driver, this is one of the first places I

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might look to just get the overall shape of the path of the club down at the

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bottom.

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And if you find that it has much more of a V shape or high to high pattern to

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it, that might be something you want to try to work on to improve your driving

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consistency.