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Connecting Body Rotation To Arm Movements

Having your body "open" or rotated at impact is a goal for many amateur golfers. And it should be. Almost all tour pros get their body open at impact with their pelvis about 40-45° and their thorax about 30° open. This helps delay the timing of their arm extension which builds a better flat spot for more consistent contact.

Unfortunately, many amateur golfers don't get their body open nearly enough. It's not uncommon to have only a few degrees open at impact with their chest. If you are trying to get more open, it's important to understand the relationship between the arms and the body.

  • The more the arms are steep in transition the harder it will be to get open
  • The more the clubface is open in transition the harder it will be to get open

Tags: Fundamentals, Not Enough Distance, Impact, Concept, Intermediate

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This video is connecting the dots between body rotation and arm movements.

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So one of the common things that students will come to me, especially in their early lessons,

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is when they're taking a look at themselves on video, they'll say, oh man, I don't have

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enough of a rotation.

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And there was a famous infomercial for Roger Friedrichs where they had Arnold Palmer talking

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about seeing two cheek-sid impact, and they blended it into a fitness program.

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But I'm going to talk to you about the technical relationship between these arm movements

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and how much body rotation you're going to see.

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So typically, with Torpros, you're going to see about somewhere in the 40 degree range

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of pelvis rotation, somewhere in the 30 degree range of thorax rotation.

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So their body is pointing out in that open area, the way that we explain in the ironman

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movements or the connected dots or any impact on falter drills.

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Well, that's a challenging position for a lot of amateurs to get in, not because they

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can't physically get there, because they obviously have enough flexibility otherwise

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they wouldn't get there in the falter, right?

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So it's more of a coordination thing.

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And what is coordinating is how do I control this path and how do I control this face?

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So to explain the relationship to it, I'm going to give you a simple little matrix here.

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The more that the arms act in a steep fashion or the more that the club face is open,

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the harder it is for me to get body rotation.

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The more that the arms are shallow and the more that the club face is closed, the easier

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it's going to be for me to get body rotation.

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So if I go up to the top of my swing, and I pull a little bit more vertically with the

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arms kind of like so, as we talk about in the downverse out in the wrong shallowing,

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if I'm pulling down like this, if I was to rotate, that would create a steep on top of

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steep, so my body would have to make some major adjustment.

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The steep major adjustments that I would probably make would be I'd stand up to shallow

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and I'd scoop to shallow, right?

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So you'll steep steep and then I'd shallow it with the stand up in the scoop.

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On the same category, if that club face is wide open, well, the more that I rotated

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my body, it would be very, very difficult for me to get the club face closed with just

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rotation of club face with the motor cycle.

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So if I had a very weak grip and a very open club face, that combination would tend to

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produce wide open blocks.

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So what I'll usually do in that case, so if that's wide open, I can stop my body rotating

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and that allows the club to kind of pass up or catch up and pass and now the club is

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pointing in the direction of the target.

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So if I'm not rotating, we always want to ask ourselves why am I not rotating and what

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would I have to do instead?

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So if I got steep with my arms and open with the club face, that's going to discourage

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rotation.

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Well, the more that I get shallow with my arms, like so, now the only way that the club

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is going to get to the ball, if I stay shallow with my arms, is if my body rotates.

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Now the club is even with the golf wall and I did it in kind of an exaggerated fashion,

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but I did it with all body rotation.

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Typically there is going to be some, so shallow with the arms, body rotation and there's

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going to be some release of the arms kind of like so.

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But the more that the shallow and stay shallow, the more that I'm going to have to use

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body rotation to get there.

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So, secondly, the more that this club face is closed, all exaggerate and close the heck

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out of it.

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If I was to not have body rotation, I would hit the ball left of left of left.

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So what I do is if I close the club face and then I rotate my body, now that club face

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is pointing in the general direction of the target.

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So this is kind of that visual impact training and stuff like that, where typically

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amateurs tend to be too steep with their arms and too open with the club face and that

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prevents them from getting the amount of body rotation that they want.

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So if you're struggling with getting your body to power this wing and getting the look

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of two cheeks or getting the look of body rotation and impact, double check what your arms

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are doing in transition, both with the path of the club as well as with the club face.

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So that may remove the barrier for you ultimately getting the rotation you want.

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