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Closed Shoulder Set Up

This drill focuses on correcting a common mistake in golf—shoulder alignment. Many golfers struggle with steep shoulders, leading to poor body pivot and shallowing. A common setup error is having the stance pointed right while the shoulders point left. To counteract this, we want the trail shoulder slightly lower and back, and the lead shoulder slightly up and forward at impact. By starting with proper shoulder blade alignment, we can improve shallowing, sequence, and the wipe. Exaggerate the correction at setup to achieve better results.

Tags: Not Straight Enough, Chicken Wing, Cast, Set Up, Drill

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This drill is closed shoulder setup. Um,

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so many golfers struggle with, uh, getting steep with the shoulders.

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I'd say that's one of the number one biggest culprits that causes a whole host

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of poor body pivot or poor body shallowing, um,

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actions down through the release. Um,

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but oftentimes you can see a sign of it at setup. In fact,

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some pros do this and then they just compensate for it, or,

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or overly shallow as a good shoulder movement.

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So what I'm talking about here is the classic setup where, um,

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golfers get their stance out to the right,

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but then their shoulders pointed to the left. So kind of looks like this. Now,

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it's somewhat natural to want to get into that position because if I take my

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normal golf grip, the trail hand, in this case,

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my right hand is lower on the club.

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And so by rotating it more out there,

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it's easier to get my hand lower like this. But you'll see if I do that,

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my shoulders are now pointing way to the left and that's not a trait that we see

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with really good ball strikers. Um, there's a couple reasons why we'll,

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we'll discuss in this video. So to counteract that,

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what we're gonna do is we're gonna work backwards from where do we want our

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shoulder blades at impact. At impact,

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we want our trail shoulder slightly lower and back,

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and our lead shoulder slightly up and forward. If I bring my hands together,

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that would put the club kind of back in this position here,

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and I would then be able to balance that by covering and turning

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my lower body.

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So now my shoulders are pretty close to square compared to the golf ball, um,

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but closed compared to my, um, compared to my body or compared to my chest.

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So by setting,

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by starting with that right shoulder a little bit back and that lead shoulder a

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little bit up,

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that gives me a easier reference and an easier connection that also can allow

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me to cover without feeling like I'm gonna be too steep.

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If you tend to get more of that right shoulder up and you get forward,

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you're gonna have this feeling like the club's gonna come really steep

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vertically down into the ground, where if that trail shoulder is back like this,

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it feels like I'm coming more almost horizontally across the ground and that's

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gonna encourage me to cover and turn.

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So it helps with shallowing by getting the shoulder blades there.

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That's one of the number one arm shallowing movements. Um,

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it helps with sequence because having the shoulders closed is a

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component to being able to rotate my body, um,

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while still being shallow and getting the low point forward. Um,

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and it tends to help with the wipe when the trail arm gets high. Um,

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oftentimes that peck is gonna rotate that elbow backward, um, like this.

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So your elbow, when this gets this way,

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is gonna get more behind the body and the arms are going to throw.

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And even if I'm hitting a good shot like that,

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you could see my overall flat spot in consistency, um, is gonna be,

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uh, suspect. So one of the most common times where I'll,

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you have golfers preset, some of this is if you really struggle with poles. If,

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um, if we see it on video and this somewhere during the downswing,

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that right shoulder is getting high,

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you'll see that that often either closes the face or gets the path to go too

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much to the left.

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And oftentimes that's balanced by then si some type of shallowing,

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but it often results in that pull draw or that kind of nasty little left

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start line. If on the other hand,

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I train myself so that that right shoulder is staying more back and down,

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that right shoulder blade is staying more back and down,

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you'll see that if anything,

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that's gonna encourage me to get more of a right start line.

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So oftentimes for golfers, it's easy to just feel like you, um,

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do it a little bit at set up, and more often than not, I would say it's,

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it's a hard one to overdo unless when you bring it back,

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you're also tilting backward if you just bring it back kind of like this and

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your upper body shifts a little bit forward. Um, so I'll demonstrate it, uh,

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facing the target line so they can see from the down the line cameras.

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If when I bring it back I shift this way as opposed to bringing it back and

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shifting that way.

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What you'll see from the face on view is if I do that one that just helps me get

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into this shallow position,

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but also helps me put more of my weight properly on that front foot for irons,

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that has a double effect of giving me much better low point control.

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So if you struggle with, with some of this arm shallowing, um,

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there's no harm in presetting. Some of it at set up that'll make it, uh,

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feel like you have to do less shoulder movement during the backswing and

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transition. It will help with sequencing, it will help with the wipe,

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it will help with low point control, your merry-go-round.

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Lots of good things will happen if you get your shoulder blade alignment taken

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care of. And an easy place to start with that is that setup. So quick demo.

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I'm a big fan of exaggerating, seeing how much I could do. Um, so if I,

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again, the careful thing is not to make sure that I'm tilting too much back,

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but then I'm just bringing that right shoulder back and that left shoulder

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forward. Now to me this feels like I'm aimed way out to the right,

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but as I put the stick there, I can see it is out to the right.

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But you'll see from the down the lo down the line camera, it's not crazy.

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This will also allow me to feel like I can stack a little bit more

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in my backswing. Uh, came out of it a little bit,

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but that often happens when I'm doing exaggeration drills.

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We'll see if we can get a little bit better release with that.

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So I'm gonna exaggerate, but still feel stacked. Maybe not slide as much.

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There we go. So that was a pretty good one. Um,

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started at the flag I was aimed at. Had a nice little draw to it. Um,

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so overall it's a hard one to overdo, especially if you have a really big, um,

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over the top move. But you can monitor it with the face on video,

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make sure you're not tilting too much, um, down the line.

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It's gonna be really hard for you to get too close with just the shoulders. Um,

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the only way you would get too closed is if you were cheating and doing it more

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from the pelvis or the knees or something like that.

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So hopefully this helps you with your setup position to set up for a more body

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driven downswing.

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