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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best
Young Teachers in
America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Understanding Backswing: Key Differences Between Pros and Amateurs
After this video, you'll be able to:
- Identify the key elements of a proper takeaway to enhance your swing
- Recognize how body rotation influences your backswing position
- Differentiate between the roles of big and small muscle groups in the swing
In this video, we'll analyze the crucial backswing phase of the golf swing, comparing the techniques of professional golfers to amateur players. Understanding these differences can help you improve your own swing mechanics.
Video Transcript
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In this analysis video, we're going to look at the backswing.
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So this is the first movement of the golf swing, and it basically goes from set
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-up position,
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which we've talked about over here on the left, all the way up to the top of
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the swing
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which you can look at on the right.
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Now we're going to divide it into two sections.
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First is going to be the takeaway, which ends roughly when the shaft is about
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parallel
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to the ground, and following will be setting the club, which you'll see over
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here on the
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left or from takeaway position until you go into transition.
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Now the takeaway position or the takeaway movement is going to be controlled
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mostly by the big
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muscles of your body, and then between the takeaway and setting the club is
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when the smaller
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muscles of your arms start to get a little bit more involved.
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So first we'll cover the takeaway, and then we'll cover the setting of the club
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.
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Now in theory, the takeaway is one of the easiest moves that we do in the golf
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swing.
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It should simply be a rotation of the spine to bring the club into this waist-
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height position.
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Essentially, you're not going to do very much with your arms and hands at all,
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and the way
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that we can look at this or the way that we can check this is if we were to
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extend a line
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out from your shirt buttons, you would see that the hands would roughly be
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somewhere
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in that space.
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So if Ironman had his light shining, they would pretty much be pointing at your
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hands.
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Here we can watch Justin Rose with both the driver and the iron, and as we go
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through
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this movement, you will see that there is a slight shift back of the upper and
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lower
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body.
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The lower body is going to be less dramatic.
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It happens typically a little bit more during the set of the club, but if you
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were to look
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at the center of his shirt in the center of the chest, there will be a slight
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shift about
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a half inch away from the target.
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Now we'll take a look at a few amateurs to see where this move can go wrong.
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So as we start going back, you'll see the club gets roughly in that same shaft
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parallel
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and pointed in the target line, but you can see that his chest is still pointed
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more out
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towards the ball instead of at his hands.
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If we look from the face on view, as he goes through that movement, you'll also
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see him
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get to the outside of the foot.
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So watch the angle in the knee or watch this general area as he goes through
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that movement.
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And you'll see that the knee and the pelvis start shifting a pretty good amount
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over onto
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that right side.
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The majority of the weight shift is going to be accomplished mostly through
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rotation and
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the way that the pelvis is shaped, not so much through an actual weight shift.
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So I focus more in the second half of the backswing, but also here on the early
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stages
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of keeping the weight and the pressure more on the inside of the foot instead
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of letting
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it go to the outside of the foot.
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But this has already started a cascade based on what he thinks he needs to do
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during transition
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and during the release.
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So we don't look at backswing as a cause of problems of the release.
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It's more a sign of what they're going to do on the downswing.
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Here's another golfer demonstrating a little bit more of a lateral movement,
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where a movement
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where the swing is controlled mostly by the knees and hips and the arms, but
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not doing
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very much in the actual thoracic spine.
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Here from down the target line, you'll see a similar movement where his chest
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is pointed
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more out towards the golf ball.
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Even though his hands reach that ideal chef parallel and pointed at the target
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position,
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because it's getting there in a way where it's not being driven by the spine,
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he's already
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setting himself up for some trouble during transition and then ultimately the
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release.
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But again, this is a sign of what his brain thinks it needs to do to load what
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he is going
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to do on the downswing.
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This is not a cause and effect that because he shifted his weight to the
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outside of his
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foot, he only had one option.
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So we look at the takeaway and then we can correct it, but not until you fully
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understand
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the transition and downswing will it all make sense.
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Now let's start looking at the second phase of the backswing and then we can
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put it all
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together.
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So during the second phase of the backswing, if you look over here at Adam
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Scott, you will
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see that the spine is going to continue rotating as well as extending, which I
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've talked about
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in the concept video, at the same time that the spine is bringing the hands up
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into position,
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the right arm is going to begin folding and positioning the hands for what we
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want to
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do during the transition.
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We'll look over here at Jason Duffner and you can see he has a little bit of a
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shorter
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swing, but he has gotten into a similar position with his spine.
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So when we're looking at the spine at the top of the swing, if you were to draw
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a line
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down from the back of the neck to roughly the beltline, that's going to give
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you a pretty
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good indication of the amount of flexion or extension in the spine.
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What you'll see is that most good golfers will reach this neutral position
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where it's
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a fairly straight line.
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Even if you see this golfer here over on the right, which is Jason Duffner, it
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looks like
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he has a very short swing in that his chest is stayed pointed down towards the
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golf ball,
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but he has extended his spine back to neutral and got it ready for what we want
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to do during
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transition.
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And here are a couple more examples so that you can start really visualizing
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what's happening
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with the spine.
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So as we approach the top of the swing with Graham McDowell over here on the
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left, you
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can see that his spine is still somewhat flexed because there's a little bit of
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a curve right
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there or an angle or a hinge.
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Now as he approaches the top of the swing and starts into that transition, you
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will see
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that he finishes his spine extension to where the point is roughly that
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straight line that
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I've mentioned.
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There's another golfer on the right with a camera that's moving all over the
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place,
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but there's Tommy Gainey.
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And you can see that even though he is very much flexed forward from the hips,
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which we'll
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talk about, his spine has very much approached and extended or neutral position
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.
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He's lost the curve that he started with.
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That curve is generally going to be replaced by side bend, which we'll look at
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from the
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down the line view.
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But from this face on view, you can pay attention to how much the spine has
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actually extended
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and whether or not the person shifts off the ball or onto the outside of the
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foot.
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During this second phase, you will frequently see different looking positions
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at the top
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of the swing.
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While they're reaching the same rough spine angle or spine position that I'm
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talking about,
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the reason why Graham over here on the left looks like he's very much vertical
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and Tommy
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over here on the right looks like he's bent over a lot, is because of the
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amount of flexion
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in the knees and the hips, and that's a much bigger issue than what's actually
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happening
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at the spine.
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I'll show a couple examples of amateurs so that you can see what I'm talking
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about.
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Here you can see Jason Duffner as he's approaching the top of his swing, and
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you can see that
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his spine has reached that straight position.
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Now, over here on the left, we're going to see a golfer who reaches a similar
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arm and
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club look.
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In fact, he actually goes a little bit further towards parallel.
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But if you were to draw that same line from the base of the neck to the belt
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line, you
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can see that his spine is still flexed forward.
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So the way that he was able to get the club to reach that high of a position
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was more
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from a lateral movement of the lower body, not so much an extension of the
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spine.
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Here's another example of an amateur.
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Now, this golfer is a single-digit handicap, so he's a pretty skilled golfer.
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But you will still see that he reached that actual longer arm position than
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Jason Duffner
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while maintaining flexion in his spine.
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Now, he has a fairly rigid ribcage, so that's going to be something that's a
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little tricky
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for him to work on.
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Instead, what we would typically work on is getting the arms to be a little bit
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more
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in position and minimizing the shift of the weight into the outside of the foot
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.
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But I just wanted to provide a few examples so that you can see that not
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everyone who
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gets into the 3/4 position or everyone who gets in the full swing does it the
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same way.
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And so, as a Golf Smart Academy member, I want you to start paying attention as
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you
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watch golf swings for looking for how they're getting into these positions, not
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just what
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positions they're getting into.
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As we look from the down-the-line view, we can focus on a couple other things.
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So let me take both Jason and Brent Snedeker into their takeaway position, just
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like so.
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And now, you'll see very different lower body actions.
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If you look at Brent Snedeker, you can see that his lower body is barely moved
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at all.
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If you look at Jason Duffner, you can see that his legs have rotated quite a
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good bit.
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But they both maintain the alignment of the club pointed in front of the chest.
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Brent Snedeker just tends to have a little bit more upright swing, Jason Duff
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ner a little
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bit flatter.
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Neither is better or worse, they're just a little bit different.
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So now, as we go up towards the top of the swing, you'll see that as he
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completes his
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shoulder rotation, the alignment of his spine appears to maintain a pretty
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consistent angle.
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Now, we know that this is a combination of side bend, whoops, let's bring it
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blind.
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We know that this is a combination of side bend and that loss of flexion that
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gives this
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appearance.
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And you'll see that his shoulders have turned on an angle there, or his spine
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is rotated
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on an angle that's roughly perpendicular to that initial spine angle that he
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created.
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We take Jason Duffner up towards the top of the swing, and remember, he didn't
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have quite
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as much hip extension, but his shoulder plane is kind of in that same similar
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area, his
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is a little flat.
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He uses the flatness of the shoulder plane to help flatten out his swing.
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Now you'll also notice a very different looking right arm.
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So, I don't speak of whether you keep your right elbow up against your chest or
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whether
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you let it come off away as one of the key fundamentals.
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But I do talk about the rotation of the arms between the takeaway and setting
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the club as
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one of the fundamentals.
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So you'll see that as he goes up, that right elbow is staying more or less in
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front of
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his chest, even though it's come up off of it.
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As in, if you were to look at his shirt seam or you were to look at his
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shoulder blade,
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he hasn't let his right elbow drift too far behind his back.
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Same thing you'll see even in an exaggerated position or an exaggerated fashion
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over here
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with Jason Duffner.
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Now here we have a couple of amateurs that are demonstrating the loss of
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posture during
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the second phase of the takeaway.
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So you'll see that as we get to here, he's pretty close.
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His chest is pointing a little bit more towards the golf ball than at his hand.
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So he's done a little bit more arm movement than I would like to see.
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But so as a result, the shoulder has pretty much reached the end range of
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movement and
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the only way he can get elevation is to then stand up.
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So you'll see his ear come back into a second spine angle at the top of the
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swing as opposed
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to what he started in.
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Now over on the left, we have a higher handicap golfer and we'll see, okay, his
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ear is relatively
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close, but you can see his chest pointing pretty much straight out at the golf
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ball while his
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hands have gotten into that takeaway position.
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So we know that he's done that mostly by the arms.
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And then as he goes to finish his backswing, you'll see very much, he's using
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the extension
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of his hips, he's using the extension of his legs in order to create this top
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of the backswing
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position.
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If you were to have his hips more tilted and his spine a little bit more left
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side bent,
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instead of this pointing out at the ocean, it would be pointing roughly down at
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the golf
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ball and you wouldn't have to make as big an adjustment during transition in
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the down.
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The real key takeaway to understanding the takeaway in setting the club is that
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what
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you do on the backswing gives us insight into what your brain wants to do on
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the downswing.
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So working on the top of the backswing position or working on how you set the
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club and how
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you take the club away can help you understand even better what we're then
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going to do during
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transition, which is going to be the next analysis video that I'll watch you to
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watch.
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But for right now, it's pretty much a simple spine load during the backswing
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and an arm
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movement that helps set the club at the top of the backswing.
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I don't want you to be focused on trying to hit an ideal looking position
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because the
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movements are much more important than having a picture perfect look to the top
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of your
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backswing.
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In this analysis video, we're going to look at the backswing.
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So this is the first movement of the golf swing, and it basically goes from set
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-up position,
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which we've talked about over here on the left, all the way up to the top of
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the swing
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which you can look at on the right.
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Now we're going to divide it into two sections.
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First is going to be the takeaway, which ends roughly when the shaft is about
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parallel
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to the ground, and following will be setting the club, which you'll see over
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here on the
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left or from takeaway position until you go into transition.
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Now the takeaway position or the takeaway movement is going to be controlled
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mostly by the big
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muscles of your body, and then between the takeaway and setting the club is
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when the smaller
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muscles of your arms start to get a little bit more involved.
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So first we'll cover the takeaway, and then we'll cover the setting of the club
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.
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Now in theory, the takeaway is one of the easiest moves that we do in the golf
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swing.
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It should simply be a rotation of the spine to bring the club into this waist-
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height position.
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Essentially, you're not going to do very much with your arms and hands at all,
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and the way
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that we can look at this or the way that we can check this is if we were to
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extend a line
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out from your shirt buttons, you would see that the hands would roughly be
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somewhere
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in that space.
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So if Ironman had his light shining, they would pretty much be pointing at your
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hands.
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Here we can watch Justin Rose with both the driver and the iron, and as we go
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through
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this movement, you will see that there is a slight shift back of the upper and
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lower
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body.
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The lower body is going to be less dramatic.
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It happens typically a little bit more during the set of the club, but if you
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were to look
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at the center of his shirt in the center of the chest, there will be a slight
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shift about
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a half inch away from the target.
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Now we'll take a look at a few amateurs to see where this move can go wrong.
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So as we start going back, you'll see the club gets roughly in that same shaft
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parallel
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and pointed in the target line, but you can see that his chest is still pointed
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more out
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towards the ball instead of at his hands.
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If we look from the face on view, as he goes through that movement, you'll also
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see him
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get to the outside of the foot.
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So watch the angle in the knee or watch this general area as he goes through
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that movement.
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And you'll see that the knee and the pelvis start shifting a pretty good amount
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over onto
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that right side.
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The majority of the weight shift is going to be accomplished mostly through
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rotation and
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the way that the pelvis is shaped, not so much through an actual weight shift.
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So I focus more in the second half of the backswing, but also here on the early
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stages
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of keeping the weight and the pressure more on the inside of the foot instead
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of letting
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it go to the outside of the foot.
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But this has already started a cascade based on what he thinks he needs to do
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during transition
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and during the release.
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So we don't look at backswing as a cause of problems of the release.
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It's more a sign of what they're going to do on the downswing.
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Here's another golfer demonstrating a little bit more of a lateral movement,
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where a movement
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where the swing is controlled mostly by the knees and hips and the arms, but
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not doing
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very much in the actual thoracic spine.
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Here from down the target line, you'll see a similar movement where his chest
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is pointed
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more out towards the golf ball.
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Even though his hands reach that ideal chef parallel and pointed at the target
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position,
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because it's getting there in a way where it's not being driven by the spine,
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he's already
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setting himself up for some trouble during transition and then ultimately the
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release.
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But again, this is a sign of what his brain thinks it needs to do to load what
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he is going
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to do on the downswing.
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This is not a cause and effect that because he shifted his weight to the
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outside of his
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foot, he only had one option.
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So we look at the takeaway and then we can correct it, but not until you fully
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understand
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the transition and downswing will it all make sense.
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Now let's start looking at the second phase of the backswing and then we can
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put it all
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together.
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So during the second phase of the backswing, if you look over here at Adam
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Scott, you will
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see that the spine is going to continue rotating as well as extending, which I
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've talked about
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in the concept video, at the same time that the spine is bringing the hands up
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into position,
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the right arm is going to begin folding and positioning the hands for what we
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want to
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do during the transition.
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We'll look over here at Jason Duffner and you can see he has a little bit of a
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shorter
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swing, but he has gotten into a similar position with his spine.
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So when we're looking at the spine at the top of the swing, if you were to draw
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a line
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down from the back of the neck to roughly the beltline, that's going to give
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you a pretty
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good indication of the amount of flexion or extension in the spine.
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What you'll see is that most good golfers will reach this neutral position
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where it's
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a fairly straight line.
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Even if you see this golfer here over on the right, which is Jason Duffner, it
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looks like
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he has a very short swing in that his chest is stayed pointed down towards the
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golf ball,
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but he has extended his spine back to neutral and got it ready for what we want
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to do during
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transition.
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And here are a couple more examples so that you can start really visualizing
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what's happening
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with the spine.
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So as we approach the top of the swing with Graham McDowell over here on the
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left, you
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can see that his spine is still somewhat flexed because there's a little bit of
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a curve right
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there or an angle or a hinge.
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Now as he approaches the top of the swing and starts into that transition, you
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will see
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that he finishes his spine extension to where the point is roughly that
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straight line that
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I've mentioned.
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There's another golfer on the right with a camera that's moving all over the
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place,
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but there's Tommy Gainey.
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And you can see that even though he is very much flexed forward from the hips,
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which we'll
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talk about, his spine has very much approached and extended or neutral position
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.
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He's lost the curve that he started with.
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That curve is generally going to be replaced by side bend, which we'll look at
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from the
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down the line view.
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But from this face on view, you can pay attention to how much the spine has
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actually extended
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and whether or not the person shifts off the ball or onto the outside of the
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foot.
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During this second phase, you will frequently see different looking positions
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at the top
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of the swing.
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While they're reaching the same rough spine angle or spine position that I'm
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talking about,
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the reason why Graham over here on the left looks like he's very much vertical
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and Tommy
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over here on the right looks like he's bent over a lot, is because of the
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amount of flexion
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in the knees and the hips, and that's a much bigger issue than what's actually
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happening
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at the spine.
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I'll show a couple examples of amateurs so that you can see what I'm talking
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about.
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Here you can see Jason Duffner as he's approaching the top of his swing, and
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you can see that
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his spine has reached that straight position.
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Now, over here on the left, we're going to see a golfer who reaches a similar
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arm and
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club look.
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In fact, he actually goes a little bit further towards parallel.
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But if you were to draw that same line from the base of the neck to the belt
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line, you
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can see that his spine is still flexed forward.
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So the way that he was able to get the club to reach that high of a position
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was more
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from a lateral movement of the lower body, not so much an extension of the
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spine.
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Here's another example of an amateur.
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Now, this golfer is a single-digit handicap, so he's a pretty skilled golfer.
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But you will still see that he reached that actual longer arm position than
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Jason Duffner
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while maintaining flexion in his spine.
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Now, he has a fairly rigid ribcage, so that's going to be something that's a
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little tricky
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for him to work on.
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Instead, what we would typically work on is getting the arms to be a little bit
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more
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in position and minimizing the shift of the weight into the outside of the foot
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.
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But I just wanted to provide a few examples so that you can see that not
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everyone who
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gets into the 3/4 position or everyone who gets in the full swing does it the
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same way.
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And so, as a Golf Smart Academy member, I want you to start paying attention as
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00:09:06.970 --> 00:09:07.120
you
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00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:11.930
watch golf swings for looking for how they're getting into these positions, not
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00:09:11.930 --> 00:09:12.200
just what
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00:09:12.200 --> 00:09:15.280
positions they're getting into.
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As we look from the down-the-line view, we can focus on a couple other things.
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So let me take both Jason and Brent Snedeker into their takeaway position, just
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like so.
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And now, you'll see very different lower body actions.
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If you look at Brent Snedeker, you can see that his lower body is barely moved
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00:09:37.100 --> 00:09:37.560
at all.
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00:09:37.560 --> 00:09:41.940
If you look at Jason Duffner, you can see that his legs have rotated quite a
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00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:42.760
good bit.
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00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:49.040
But they both maintain the alignment of the club pointed in front of the chest.
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Brent Snedeker just tends to have a little bit more upright swing, Jason Duff
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00:09:52.060 --> 00:09:52.640
ner a little
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00:09:52.640 --> 00:09:53.840
bit flatter.
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00:09:53.840 --> 00:09:57.760
Neither is better or worse, they're just a little bit different.
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00:09:57.760 --> 00:10:02.140
So now, as we go up towards the top of the swing, you'll see that as he
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completes his
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shoulder rotation, the alignment of his spine appears to maintain a pretty
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consistent angle.
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Now, we know that this is a combination of side bend, whoops, let's bring it
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blind.
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We know that this is a combination of side bend and that loss of flexion that
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gives this
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appearance.
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And you'll see that his shoulders have turned on an angle there, or his spine
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is rotated
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on an angle that's roughly perpendicular to that initial spine angle that he
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created.
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We take Jason Duffner up towards the top of the swing, and remember, he didn't
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have quite
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as much hip extension, but his shoulder plane is kind of in that same similar
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area, his
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is a little flat.
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He uses the flatness of the shoulder plane to help flatten out his swing.
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Now you'll also notice a very different looking right arm.
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So, I don't speak of whether you keep your right elbow up against your chest or
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whether
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you let it come off away as one of the key fundamentals.
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But I do talk about the rotation of the arms between the takeaway and setting
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the club as
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one of the fundamentals.
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So you'll see that as he goes up, that right elbow is staying more or less in
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front of
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his chest, even though it's come up off of it.
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As in, if you were to look at his shirt seam or you were to look at his
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shoulder blade,
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he hasn't let his right elbow drift too far behind his back.
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Same thing you'll see even in an exaggerated position or an exaggerated fashion
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over here
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with Jason Duffner.
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Now here we have a couple of amateurs that are demonstrating the loss of
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posture during
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the second phase of the takeaway.
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So you'll see that as we get to here, he's pretty close.
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His chest is pointing a little bit more towards the golf ball than at his hand.
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So he's done a little bit more arm movement than I would like to see.
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But so as a result, the shoulder has pretty much reached the end range of
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movement and
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the only way he can get elevation is to then stand up.
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So you'll see his ear come back into a second spine angle at the top of the
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swing as opposed
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to what he started in.
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Now over on the left, we have a higher handicap golfer and we'll see, okay, his
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ear is relatively
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close, but you can see his chest pointing pretty much straight out at the golf
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ball while his
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hands have gotten into that takeaway position.
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So we know that he's done that mostly by the arms.
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And then as he goes to finish his backswing, you'll see very much, he's using
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the extension
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of his hips, he's using the extension of his legs in order to create this top
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of the backswing
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position.
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If you were to have his hips more tilted and his spine a little bit more left
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side bent,
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instead of this pointing out at the ocean, it would be pointing roughly down at
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the golf
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ball and you wouldn't have to make as big an adjustment during transition in
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the down.
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The real key takeaway to understanding the takeaway in setting the club is that
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what
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you do on the backswing gives us insight into what your brain wants to do on
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the downswing.
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So working on the top of the backswing position or working on how you set the
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club and how
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you take the club away can help you understand even better what we're then
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going to do during
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transition, which is going to be the next analysis video that I'll watch you to
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watch.
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But for right now, it's pretty much a simple spine load during the backswing
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and an arm
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movement that helps set the club at the top of the backswing.
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I don't want you to be focused on trying to hit an ideal looking position
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because the
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movements are much more important than having a picture perfect look to the top
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of your
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backswing.
Have questions?
Ask Mulligan for help
Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of
Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Understanding Backswing: Key Differences Between Pros and Amateurs
After this video, you'll be able to:
- Identify the key elements of a proper takeaway to enhance your swing
- Recognize how body rotation influences your backswing position
- Differentiate between the roles of big and small muscle groups in the swing
In this video, we'll analyze the crucial backswing phase of the golf swing, comparing the techniques of professional golfers to amateur players. Understanding these differences can help you improve your own swing mechanics.
Video Transcript
WEBVTT
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In this analysis video, we're going to look at the backswing.
2
00:00:05.800 --> 00:00:09.970
So this is the first movement of the golf swing, and it basically goes from set
3
00:00:09.970 --> 00:00:11.320
-up position,
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which we've talked about over here on the left, all the way up to the top of
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the swing
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which you can look at on the right.
7
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Now we're going to divide it into two sections.
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First is going to be the takeaway, which ends roughly when the shaft is about
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parallel
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to the ground, and following will be setting the club, which you'll see over
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here on the
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left or from takeaway position until you go into transition.
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Now the takeaway position or the takeaway movement is going to be controlled
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mostly by the big
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muscles of your body, and then between the takeaway and setting the club is
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when the smaller
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muscles of your arms start to get a little bit more involved.
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So first we'll cover the takeaway, and then we'll cover the setting of the club
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.
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Now in theory, the takeaway is one of the easiest moves that we do in the golf
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swing.
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It should simply be a rotation of the spine to bring the club into this waist-
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height position.
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Essentially, you're not going to do very much with your arms and hands at all,
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and the way
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that we can look at this or the way that we can check this is if we were to
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extend a line
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out from your shirt buttons, you would see that the hands would roughly be
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somewhere
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in that space.
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So if Ironman had his light shining, they would pretty much be pointing at your
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hands.
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Here we can watch Justin Rose with both the driver and the iron, and as we go
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through
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this movement, you will see that there is a slight shift back of the upper and
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lower
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body.
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The lower body is going to be less dramatic.
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It happens typically a little bit more during the set of the club, but if you
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were to look
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at the center of his shirt in the center of the chest, there will be a slight
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shift about
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a half inch away from the target.
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Now we'll take a look at a few amateurs to see where this move can go wrong.
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So as we start going back, you'll see the club gets roughly in that same shaft
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parallel
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and pointed in the target line, but you can see that his chest is still pointed
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more out
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00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:21.400
towards the ball instead of at his hands.
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If we look from the face on view, as he goes through that movement, you'll also
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00:02:26.370 --> 00:02:26.920
see him
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00:02:26.920 --> 00:02:29.800
get to the outside of the foot.
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00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:34.520
So watch the angle in the knee or watch this general area as he goes through
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00:02:34.520 --> 00:02:35.600
that movement.
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00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:39.990
And you'll see that the knee and the pelvis start shifting a pretty good amount
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over onto
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00:02:40.760 --> 00:02:42.560
that right side.
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The majority of the weight shift is going to be accomplished mostly through
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rotation and
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the way that the pelvis is shaped, not so much through an actual weight shift.
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So I focus more in the second half of the backswing, but also here on the early
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stages
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of keeping the weight and the pressure more on the inside of the foot instead
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of letting
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it go to the outside of the foot.
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But this has already started a cascade based on what he thinks he needs to do
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during transition
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and during the release.
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So we don't look at backswing as a cause of problems of the release.
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It's more a sign of what they're going to do on the downswing.
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Here's another golfer demonstrating a little bit more of a lateral movement,
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where a movement
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where the swing is controlled mostly by the knees and hips and the arms, but
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not doing
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00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:36.320
very much in the actual thoracic spine.
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00:03:36.320 --> 00:03:42.700
Here from down the target line, you'll see a similar movement where his chest
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is pointed
78
00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.520
more out towards the golf ball.
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Even though his hands reach that ideal chef parallel and pointed at the target
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position,
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because it's getting there in a way where it's not being driven by the spine,
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he's already
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setting himself up for some trouble during transition and then ultimately the
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release.
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But again, this is a sign of what his brain thinks it needs to do to load what
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he is going
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00:04:08.160 --> 00:04:09.640
to do on the downswing.
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This is not a cause and effect that because he shifted his weight to the
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00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:14.960
outside of his
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00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.480
foot, he only had one option.
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So we look at the takeaway and then we can correct it, but not until you fully
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understand
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the transition and downswing will it all make sense.
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00:04:26.840 --> 00:04:29.760
Now let's start looking at the second phase of the backswing and then we can
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00:04:29.760 --> 00:04:30.240
put it all
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together.
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00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:35.260
So during the second phase of the backswing, if you look over here at Adam
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Scott, you will
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see that the spine is going to continue rotating as well as extending, which I
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00:04:41.020 --> 00:04:41.760
've talked about
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in the concept video, at the same time that the spine is bringing the hands up
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into position,
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the right arm is going to begin folding and positioning the hands for what we
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want to
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do during the transition.
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We'll look over here at Jason Duffner and you can see he has a little bit of a
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00:05:00.810 --> 00:05:01.360
shorter
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00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:07.160
swing, but he has gotten into a similar position with his spine.
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So when we're looking at the spine at the top of the swing, if you were to draw
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a line
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00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:16.110
down from the back of the neck to roughly the beltline, that's going to give
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00:05:16.110 --> 00:05:16.840
you a pretty
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good indication of the amount of flexion or extension in the spine.
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What you'll see is that most good golfers will reach this neutral position
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where it's
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a fairly straight line.
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Even if you see this golfer here over on the right, which is Jason Duffner, it
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00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:36.520
looks like
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00:05:36.520 --> 00:05:40.660
he has a very short swing in that his chest is stayed pointed down towards the
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00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:41.440
golf ball,
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but he has extended his spine back to neutral and got it ready for what we want
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to do during
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00:05:47.320 --> 00:05:50.680
transition.
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And here are a couple more examples so that you can start really visualizing
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what's happening
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00:05:54.440 --> 00:05:55.680
with the spine.
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So as we approach the top of the swing with Graham McDowell over here on the
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left, you
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00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:04.900
can see that his spine is still somewhat flexed because there's a little bit of
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a curve right
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there or an angle or a hinge.
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Now as he approaches the top of the swing and starts into that transition, you
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will see
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that he finishes his spine extension to where the point is roughly that
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straight line that
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I've mentioned.
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There's another golfer on the right with a camera that's moving all over the
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place,
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but there's Tommy Gainey.
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00:06:25.520 --> 00:06:30.330
And you can see that even though he is very much flexed forward from the hips,
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which we'll
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00:06:30.880 --> 00:06:37.000
talk about, his spine has very much approached and extended or neutral position
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.
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He's lost the curve that he started with.
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That curve is generally going to be replaced by side bend, which we'll look at
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from the
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down the line view.
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But from this face on view, you can pay attention to how much the spine has
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actually extended
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and whether or not the person shifts off the ball or onto the outside of the
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foot.
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During this second phase, you will frequently see different looking positions
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at the top
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of the swing.
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While they're reaching the same rough spine angle or spine position that I'm
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talking about,
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the reason why Graham over here on the left looks like he's very much vertical
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and Tommy
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00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:21.230
over here on the right looks like he's bent over a lot, is because of the
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00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:22.400
amount of flexion
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in the knees and the hips, and that's a much bigger issue than what's actually
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happening
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at the spine.
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I'll show a couple examples of amateurs so that you can see what I'm talking
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about.
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Here you can see Jason Duffner as he's approaching the top of his swing, and
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you can see that
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his spine has reached that straight position.
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Now, over here on the left, we're going to see a golfer who reaches a similar
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arm and
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club look.
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In fact, he actually goes a little bit further towards parallel.
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But if you were to draw that same line from the base of the neck to the belt
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line, you
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can see that his spine is still flexed forward.
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So the way that he was able to get the club to reach that high of a position
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was more
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from a lateral movement of the lower body, not so much an extension of the
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spine.
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Here's another example of an amateur.
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Now, this golfer is a single-digit handicap, so he's a pretty skilled golfer.
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But you will still see that he reached that actual longer arm position than
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Jason Duffner
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while maintaining flexion in his spine.
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Now, he has a fairly rigid ribcage, so that's going to be something that's a
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little tricky
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for him to work on.
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Instead, what we would typically work on is getting the arms to be a little bit
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more
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in position and minimizing the shift of the weight into the outside of the foot
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.
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But I just wanted to provide a few examples so that you can see that not
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everyone who
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gets into the 3/4 position or everyone who gets in the full swing does it the
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same way.
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And so, as a Golf Smart Academy member, I want you to start paying attention as
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you
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watch golf swings for looking for how they're getting into these positions, not
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just what
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positions they're getting into.
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As we look from the down-the-line view, we can focus on a couple other things.
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So let me take both Jason and Brent Snedeker into their takeaway position, just
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like so.
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And now, you'll see very different lower body actions.
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If you look at Brent Snedeker, you can see that his lower body is barely moved
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at all.
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If you look at Jason Duffner, you can see that his legs have rotated quite a
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good bit.
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But they both maintain the alignment of the club pointed in front of the chest.
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Brent Snedeker just tends to have a little bit more upright swing, Jason Duff
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ner a little
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bit flatter.
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Neither is better or worse, they're just a little bit different.
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So now, as we go up towards the top of the swing, you'll see that as he
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completes his
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shoulder rotation, the alignment of his spine appears to maintain a pretty
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consistent angle.
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Now, we know that this is a combination of side bend, whoops, let's bring it
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blind.
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We know that this is a combination of side bend and that loss of flexion that
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gives this
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appearance.
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And you'll see that his shoulders have turned on an angle there, or his spine
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is rotated
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on an angle that's roughly perpendicular to that initial spine angle that he
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created.
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We take Jason Duffner up towards the top of the swing, and remember, he didn't
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have quite
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as much hip extension, but his shoulder plane is kind of in that same similar
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area, his
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is a little flat.
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He uses the flatness of the shoulder plane to help flatten out his swing.
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Now you'll also notice a very different looking right arm.
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So, I don't speak of whether you keep your right elbow up against your chest or
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whether
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you let it come off away as one of the key fundamentals.
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But I do talk about the rotation of the arms between the takeaway and setting
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the club as
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one of the fundamentals.
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So you'll see that as he goes up, that right elbow is staying more or less in
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front of
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his chest, even though it's come up off of it.
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As in, if you were to look at his shirt seam or you were to look at his
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shoulder blade,
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he hasn't let his right elbow drift too far behind his back.
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Same thing you'll see even in an exaggerated position or an exaggerated fashion
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over here
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with Jason Duffner.
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Now here we have a couple of amateurs that are demonstrating the loss of
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posture during
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the second phase of the takeaway.
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So you'll see that as we get to here, he's pretty close.
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His chest is pointing a little bit more towards the golf ball than at his hand.
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So he's done a little bit more arm movement than I would like to see.
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But so as a result, the shoulder has pretty much reached the end range of
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movement and
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the only way he can get elevation is to then stand up.
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So you'll see his ear come back into a second spine angle at the top of the
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swing as opposed
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to what he started in.
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Now over on the left, we have a higher handicap golfer and we'll see, okay, his
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ear is relatively
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close, but you can see his chest pointing pretty much straight out at the golf
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ball while his
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hands have gotten into that takeaway position.
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So we know that he's done that mostly by the arms.
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And then as he goes to finish his backswing, you'll see very much, he's using
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the extension
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of his hips, he's using the extension of his legs in order to create this top
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of the backswing
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position.
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If you were to have his hips more tilted and his spine a little bit more left
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side bent,
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instead of this pointing out at the ocean, it would be pointing roughly down at
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the golf
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ball and you wouldn't have to make as big an adjustment during transition in
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the down.
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The real key takeaway to understanding the takeaway in setting the club is that
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what
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you do on the backswing gives us insight into what your brain wants to do on
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the downswing.
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So working on the top of the backswing position or working on how you set the
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club and how
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you take the club away can help you understand even better what we're then
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going to do during
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transition, which is going to be the next analysis video that I'll watch you to
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watch.
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But for right now, it's pretty much a simple spine load during the backswing
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and an arm
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movement that helps set the club at the top of the backswing.
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I don't want you to be focused on trying to hit an ideal looking position
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because the
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movements are much more important than having a picture perfect look to the top
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of your
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backswing.
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In this analysis video, we're going to look at the backswing.
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So this is the first movement of the golf swing, and it basically goes from set
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-up position,
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which we've talked about over here on the left, all the way up to the top of
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the swing
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which you can look at on the right.
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Now we're going to divide it into two sections.
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First is going to be the takeaway, which ends roughly when the shaft is about
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parallel
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to the ground, and following will be setting the club, which you'll see over
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here on the
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left or from takeaway position until you go into transition.
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Now the takeaway position or the takeaway movement is going to be controlled
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mostly by the big
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muscles of your body, and then between the takeaway and setting the club is
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when the smaller
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muscles of your arms start to get a little bit more involved.
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So first we'll cover the takeaway, and then we'll cover the setting of the club
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.
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Now in theory, the takeaway is one of the easiest moves that we do in the golf
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swing.
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It should simply be a rotation of the spine to bring the club into this waist-
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height position.
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Essentially, you're not going to do very much with your arms and hands at all,
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and the way
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that we can look at this or the way that we can check this is if we were to
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extend a line
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out from your shirt buttons, you would see that the hands would roughly be
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somewhere
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in that space.
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So if Ironman had his light shining, they would pretty much be pointing at your
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hands.
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Here we can watch Justin Rose with both the driver and the iron, and as we go
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through
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this movement, you will see that there is a slight shift back of the upper and
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lower
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body.
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The lower body is going to be less dramatic.
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It happens typically a little bit more during the set of the club, but if you
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were to look
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at the center of his shirt in the center of the chest, there will be a slight
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shift about
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a half inch away from the target.
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Now we'll take a look at a few amateurs to see where this move can go wrong.
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So as we start going back, you'll see the club gets roughly in that same shaft
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parallel
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and pointed in the target line, but you can see that his chest is still pointed
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more out
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towards the ball instead of at his hands.
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If we look from the face on view, as he goes through that movement, you'll also
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see him
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get to the outside of the foot.
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So watch the angle in the knee or watch this general area as he goes through
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that movement.
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And you'll see that the knee and the pelvis start shifting a pretty good amount
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over onto
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that right side.
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The majority of the weight shift is going to be accomplished mostly through
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rotation and
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the way that the pelvis is shaped, not so much through an actual weight shift.
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So I focus more in the second half of the backswing, but also here on the early
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stages
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of keeping the weight and the pressure more on the inside of the foot instead
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of letting
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it go to the outside of the foot.
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But this has already started a cascade based on what he thinks he needs to do
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during transition
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and during the release.
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So we don't look at backswing as a cause of problems of the release.
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It's more a sign of what they're going to do on the downswing.
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Here's another golfer demonstrating a little bit more of a lateral movement,
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where a movement
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where the swing is controlled mostly by the knees and hips and the arms, but
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not doing
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very much in the actual thoracic spine.
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Here from down the target line, you'll see a similar movement where his chest
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is pointed
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more out towards the golf ball.
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Even though his hands reach that ideal chef parallel and pointed at the target
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position,
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because it's getting there in a way where it's not being driven by the spine,
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he's already
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setting himself up for some trouble during transition and then ultimately the
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release.
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But again, this is a sign of what his brain thinks it needs to do to load what
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he is going
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to do on the downswing.
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This is not a cause and effect that because he shifted his weight to the
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outside of his
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00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:17.480
foot, he only had one option.
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So we look at the takeaway and then we can correct it, but not until you fully
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understand
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the transition and downswing will it all make sense.
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Now let's start looking at the second phase of the backswing and then we can
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put it all
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together.
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So during the second phase of the backswing, if you look over here at Adam
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Scott, you will
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00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:41.020
see that the spine is going to continue rotating as well as extending, which I
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've talked about
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in the concept video, at the same time that the spine is bringing the hands up
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into position,
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the right arm is going to begin folding and positioning the hands for what we
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want to
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do during the transition.
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We'll look over here at Jason Duffner and you can see he has a little bit of a
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shorter
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swing, but he has gotten into a similar position with his spine.
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So when we're looking at the spine at the top of the swing, if you were to draw
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a line
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00:05:11.680 --> 00:05:16.110
down from the back of the neck to roughly the beltline, that's going to give
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00:05:16.110 --> 00:05:16.840
you a pretty
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00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:23.360
good indication of the amount of flexion or extension in the spine.
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What you'll see is that most good golfers will reach this neutral position
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where it's
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00:05:28.440 --> 00:05:30.840
a fairly straight line.
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Even if you see this golfer here over on the right, which is Jason Duffner, it
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00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:36.520
looks like
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00:05:36.520 --> 00:05:40.660
he has a very short swing in that his chest is stayed pointed down towards the
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golf ball,
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but he has extended his spine back to neutral and got it ready for what we want
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to do during
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transition.
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And here are a couple more examples so that you can start really visualizing
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what's happening
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with the spine.
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So as we approach the top of the swing with Graham McDowell over here on the
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left, you
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can see that his spine is still somewhat flexed because there's a little bit of
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a curve right
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there or an angle or a hinge.
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Now as he approaches the top of the swing and starts into that transition, you
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will see
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that he finishes his spine extension to where the point is roughly that
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straight line that
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I've mentioned.
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There's another golfer on the right with a camera that's moving all over the
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place,
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but there's Tommy Gainey.
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And you can see that even though he is very much flexed forward from the hips,
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which we'll
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talk about, his spine has very much approached and extended or neutral position
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.
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He's lost the curve that he started with.
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That curve is generally going to be replaced by side bend, which we'll look at
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from the
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down the line view.
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But from this face on view, you can pay attention to how much the spine has
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actually extended
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and whether or not the person shifts off the ball or onto the outside of the
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foot.
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During this second phase, you will frequently see different looking positions
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at the top
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of the swing.
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While they're reaching the same rough spine angle or spine position that I'm
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talking about,
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the reason why Graham over here on the left looks like he's very much vertical
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and Tommy
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over here on the right looks like he's bent over a lot, is because of the
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amount of flexion
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in the knees and the hips, and that's a much bigger issue than what's actually
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happening
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at the spine.
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I'll show a couple examples of amateurs so that you can see what I'm talking
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about.
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Here you can see Jason Duffner as he's approaching the top of his swing, and
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you can see that
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his spine has reached that straight position.
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Now, over here on the left, we're going to see a golfer who reaches a similar
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arm and
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club look.
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In fact, he actually goes a little bit further towards parallel.
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But if you were to draw that same line from the base of the neck to the belt
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line, you
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can see that his spine is still flexed forward.
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So the way that he was able to get the club to reach that high of a position
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was more
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from a lateral movement of the lower body, not so much an extension of the
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00:08:13.050 --> 00:08:13.840
spine.
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Here's another example of an amateur.
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Now, this golfer is a single-digit handicap, so he's a pretty skilled golfer.
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But you will still see that he reached that actual longer arm position than
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Jason Duffner
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while maintaining flexion in his spine.
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Now, he has a fairly rigid ribcage, so that's going to be something that's a
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little tricky
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for him to work on.
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Instead, what we would typically work on is getting the arms to be a little bit
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more
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in position and minimizing the shift of the weight into the outside of the foot
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.
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But I just wanted to provide a few examples so that you can see that not
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everyone who
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gets into the 3/4 position or everyone who gets in the full swing does it the
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same way.
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And so, as a Golf Smart Academy member, I want you to start paying attention as
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you
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watch golf swings for looking for how they're getting into these positions, not
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just what
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positions they're getting into.
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As we look from the down-the-line view, we can focus on a couple other things.
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So let me take both Jason and Brent Snedeker into their takeaway position, just
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like so.
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And now, you'll see very different lower body actions.
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If you look at Brent Snedeker, you can see that his lower body is barely moved
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at all.
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If you look at Jason Duffner, you can see that his legs have rotated quite a
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good bit.
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But they both maintain the alignment of the club pointed in front of the chest.
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Brent Snedeker just tends to have a little bit more upright swing, Jason Duff
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00:09:52.060 --> 00:09:52.640
ner a little
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bit flatter.
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Neither is better or worse, they're just a little bit different.
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So now, as we go up towards the top of the swing, you'll see that as he
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completes his
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shoulder rotation, the alignment of his spine appears to maintain a pretty
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consistent angle.
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Now, we know that this is a combination of side bend, whoops, let's bring it
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00:10:15.310 --> 00:10:16.040
blind.
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We know that this is a combination of side bend and that loss of flexion that
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gives this
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appearance.
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And you'll see that his shoulders have turned on an angle there, or his spine
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is rotated
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on an angle that's roughly perpendicular to that initial spine angle that he
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created.
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00:10:33.040 --> 00:10:38.750
We take Jason Duffner up towards the top of the swing, and remember, he didn't
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have quite
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as much hip extension, but his shoulder plane is kind of in that same similar
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00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:46.600
area, his
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00:10:46.600 --> 00:10:47.600
is a little flat.
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He uses the flatness of the shoulder plane to help flatten out his swing.
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Now you'll also notice a very different looking right arm.
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So, I don't speak of whether you keep your right elbow up against your chest or
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whether
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00:11:02.920 --> 00:11:07.080
you let it come off away as one of the key fundamentals.
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But I do talk about the rotation of the arms between the takeaway and setting
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00:11:13.680 --> 00:11:14.640
the club as
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00:11:14.640 --> 00:11:16.680
one of the fundamentals.
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So you'll see that as he goes up, that right elbow is staying more or less in
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00:11:22.390 --> 00:11:22.800
front of
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00:11:22.800 --> 00:11:28.460
his chest, even though it's come up off of it.
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00:11:28.460 --> 00:11:32.200
As in, if you were to look at his shirt seam or you were to look at his
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00:11:32.200 --> 00:11:33.080
shoulder blade,
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00:11:33.080 --> 00:11:37.280
he hasn't let his right elbow drift too far behind his back.
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00:11:37.280 --> 00:11:41.160
Same thing you'll see even in an exaggerated position or an exaggerated fashion
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over here
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with Jason Duffner.
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00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:48.340
Now here we have a couple of amateurs that are demonstrating the loss of
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posture during
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00:11:49.360 --> 00:11:51.920
the second phase of the takeaway.
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00:11:51.920 --> 00:11:55.360
So you'll see that as we get to here, he's pretty close.
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00:11:55.360 --> 00:12:00.920
His chest is pointing a little bit more towards the golf ball than at his hand.
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00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:06.400
So he's done a little bit more arm movement than I would like to see.
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But so as a result, the shoulder has pretty much reached the end range of
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00:12:10.360 --> 00:12:11.160
movement and
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00:12:11.160 --> 00:12:15.000
the only way he can get elevation is to then stand up.
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00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:19.980
So you'll see his ear come back into a second spine angle at the top of the
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00:12:19.980 --> 00:12:21.320
swing as opposed
260
00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:23.300
to what he started in.
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00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:28.500
Now over on the left, we have a higher handicap golfer and we'll see, okay, his
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00:12:28.500 --> 00:12:29.960
ear is relatively
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00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:34.630
close, but you can see his chest pointing pretty much straight out at the golf
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00:12:34.630 --> 00:12:35.280
ball while his
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00:12:35.280 --> 00:12:37.520
hands have gotten into that takeaway position.
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00:12:37.520 --> 00:12:40.480
So we know that he's done that mostly by the arms.
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00:12:40.480 --> 00:12:47.580
And then as he goes to finish his backswing, you'll see very much, he's using
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00:12:47.580 --> 00:12:48.960
the extension
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00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:54.440
of his hips, he's using the extension of his legs in order to create this top
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00:12:54.440 --> 00:12:55.340
of the backswing
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00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:56.340
position.
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00:12:56.340 --> 00:13:02.720
If you were to have his hips more tilted and his spine a little bit more left
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00:13:02.720 --> 00:13:03.880
side bent,
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00:13:03.880 --> 00:13:08.540
instead of this pointing out at the ocean, it would be pointing roughly down at
275
00:13:08.540 --> 00:13:08.960
the golf
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00:13:08.960 --> 00:13:12.410
ball and you wouldn't have to make as big an adjustment during transition in
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00:13:12.410 --> 00:13:14.640
the down.
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00:13:14.640 --> 00:13:19.310
The real key takeaway to understanding the takeaway in setting the club is that
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00:13:19.310 --> 00:13:19.700
what
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00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:24.970
you do on the backswing gives us insight into what your brain wants to do on
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00:13:24.970 --> 00:13:26.360
the downswing.
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00:13:26.360 --> 00:13:30.740
So working on the top of the backswing position or working on how you set the
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00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:31.520
club and how
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00:13:31.520 --> 00:13:36.190
you take the club away can help you understand even better what we're then
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00:13:36.190 --> 00:13:37.200
going to do during
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00:13:37.200 --> 00:13:42.100
transition, which is going to be the next analysis video that I'll watch you to
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watch.
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00:13:42.760 --> 00:13:47.720
But for right now, it's pretty much a simple spine load during the backswing
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00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:48.480
and an arm
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00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.320
movement that helps set the club at the top of the backswing.
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00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:57.420
I don't want you to be focused on trying to hit an ideal looking position
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because the
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00:13:58.280 --> 00:14:02.950
movements are much more important than having a picture perfect look to the top
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00:14:02.950 --> 00:14:03.440
of your
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backswing.
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