Discussing the Two Low Points - Hands and Club
Some of the recent golf science has focused on the path of the hands versus the path of the clubhead and what conclusions can be drawn by measuring this in 3D. From the data, we know that the low point of the hands, or handle of the club, does not coincide with the low point of the clubhead. More specifically, we know that the low point of the handle is going to roughly occur when the hands are in front of the trail leg on the downswing, while the low point of the club head is going to occur 3-4 inches or so past impact. This pattern of getting the handle to its lowest point well before the clubhead helps promote efficient release mechanics and creates a very consistent impact zone.
Now, how do you conceptualize this for your own game? The simplest way to work on this pattern is to make sure that the body and larger muscles are setting up your transition and release. If you are allowing any excess tension to creep into your arms or are getting into more of an upper body dominated swing, you are going to have a hard time creating this relationship. Working on some "Low to High" releases will help your pivot setup delivery, so that the handle can rise through impact as you use your lower body and core to push, rotate, and fully release the club.
Some of the recent golf science has focused on the path of the hands versus the path of the clubhead and what conclusions can be drawn by measuring this in 3D. From the data, we know that the low point of the hands, or handle of the club, does not coincide with the low point of the clubhead. More specifically, we know that the low point of the handle is going to roughly occur when the hands are in front of the trail leg on the downswing, while the low point of the club head is going to occur 3-4 inches or so past impact. This pattern of getting the handle to its lowest point well before the clubhead helps promote efficient release mechanics and creates a very consistent impact zone.
Now, how do you conceptualize this for your own game? The simplest way to work on this pattern is to make sure that the body and larger muscles are setting up your transition and release. If you are allowing any excess tension to creep into your arms or are getting into more of an upper body dominated swing, you are going to have a hard time creating this relationship. Working on some "Low to High" releases will help your pivot setup delivery, so that the handle can rise through impact as you use your lower body and core to push, rotate, and fully release the club.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440
This concept video is discussing the two low points.
2
00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.160
So the two low points are basically referring to the low point of the path of
3
00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:09.560
the hands
4
00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:12.600
and the low point of the path of the club.
5
00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:16.750
If you follow some of the golf science, then you may already be aware, but if
6
00:00:16.750 --> 00:00:17.880
you don't,
7
00:00:17.880 --> 00:00:24.190
the low point of the handle is roughly going to be even with about the right
8
00:00:24.190 --> 00:00:25.040
thigh or a
9
00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.160
little bit before the golf ball, kind of right about here.
10
00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:35.750
The low point of the club head for an iron shot is going to be somewhere around
11
00:00:35.750 --> 00:00:36.360
three
12
00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:39.260
to four inches in front of the golf ball.
13
00:00:39.260 --> 00:00:43.320
So you would think that if I was swinging this just like a pendulum, then the
14
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:43.960
low points
15
00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:45.720
would coincide.
16
00:00:45.720 --> 00:00:50.260
But how can I have the low point of the grip there and then the low point of
17
00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:52.280
the club there?
18
00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:56.600
For some, that can be a little bit of a puzzle.
19
00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:00.140
The simplest answer is that what you're going to do with the body and how you
20
00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:00.760
're going
21
00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:04.280
to pull on the club is going to create this relationship.
22
00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.800
It's not something that you actively have to force.
23
00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:12.720
But what can happen is some golfers, when they try to get the handle lower so
24
00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:13.360
that it
25
00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:17.430
can then come up through impact, they tend to hit the ball poorly because they
26
00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:18.040
're doing
27
00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.640
it mostly with their arms instead of with the body.
28
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.480
And that's really the key to this pattern of getting the low point of the hands
29
00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:25.200
low before
30
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:30.510
the ball and club low after the ball is making sure that the body is powering
31
00:01:30.510 --> 00:01:31.400
the pivot or
32
00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.760
the release pattern.
33
00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:41.070
So in order to do that, one drill that I like that we have on the site is the
34
00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:42.080
low to high
35
00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:43.080
release.
36
00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:48.210
So if let's imagine that I'm going to, you're going to get set up and I'm going
37
00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:48.760
to have
38
00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:50.800
you go to impact position.
39
00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:56.100
Now if the club is coming up into impact position, then if I pressed rewind, I
40
00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:57.120
'm going to bring
41
00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:58.560
the middle of the grip.
42
00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:03.440
So this point here down a couple inches.
43
00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:06.560
So you can see there it is an impact.
44
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:10.280
Now I'm going to try and get it lower to the ground through there.
45
00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.830
So then if I came through and I just released the hands because my grip is low,
46
00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:16.640
I'm going
47
00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.700
to really bottom out before the golf ball, even with where that low point of
48
00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:21.200
the grip
49
00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:22.500
is.
50
00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:28.040
But if I get back, there's impact, if I get back there, and then my body
51
00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:29.480
rotation brings
52
00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:34.410
the handle around and through more so than my hand action, then I can have the
53
00:02:34.410 --> 00:02:34.960
grip low
54
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:40.560
to the ground and still make contact with the golf ball first.
55
00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:44.880
And because of the arm extension complimenting my body, that will put the
56
00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:45.880
bottom of the swing
57
00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:53.480
out in front of the golf ball, basically when the club catches up with my body.
58
00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:59.790
So what I find is some golfers trying to get the hands to come to get low
59
00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:01.880
before the ball,
60
00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:07.460
do so all by straightening the arms, kind of like this, instead of using the
61
00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:08.160
body to
62
00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:10.800
bring the hands down low, they just use the arms.
63
00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.440
And if you just use the arms, then your body is typically going to be out of
64
00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:15.080
position to
65
00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:17.400
be able to bring it up on the way through.
66
00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:23.320
And so you will tend to catch behind the ball like I did there.
67
00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:29.640
So if you are working on getting a little bit flatter hand path, or oftentimes
68
00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:30.240
these
69
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.330
golfers, the golfers who need this are trying to get out of more of a hook
70
00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:35.120
pattern.
71
00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:39.320
So if you are trying to get more body rotation on the way through, trying to
72
00:03:39.320 --> 00:03:40.080
get the grip
73
00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:46.660
to go more up and around the plane, instead of kind of down and out, then you
74
00:03:46.660 --> 00:03:47.360
need to
75
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:51.650
make sure that you use your body more in transition and practicing that
76
00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:53.520
delivery position, or
77
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.770
the delivery and go, or the delivery pump, those all help create the
78
00:03:59.770 --> 00:04:01.320
relationship of
79
00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:03.520
the grip being lower to the ground.
80
00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:09.190
Once you then have a sense of the body bringing the club lower to the ground,
81
00:04:09.190 --> 00:04:10.120
then you can
82
00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:14.840
try to add a little bit of arm speed down at the bottom.
83
00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.090
I caution golfers who are doing this because usually when you are getting out
84
00:04:19.090 --> 00:04:19.760
of that arm
85
00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:23.650
pattern, any time you try to add speed, it is not so much that you swing harder
86
00:04:23.650 --> 00:04:24.080
, it is
87
00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:26.160
that the arms get involved earlier.
88
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.310
So oftentimes when you first start doing this, you are going to have to feel
89
00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:29.960
like the arms
90
00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:31.960
do very little.
91
00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:37.270
The analogy I give is imagine that you were throwing punches just all like a
92
00:04:37.270 --> 00:04:38.040
jab, and
93
00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:40.120
then I wanted you to try to get your body involved.
94
00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:43.200
So to do that, you now threw no punch with the arm.
95
00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:48.510
Ideally you would start to blend it so that you went body and then arm, but if
96
00:04:48.510 --> 00:04:49.080
every time
97
00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:52.110
you thought about body, you went just with your arm, it wouldn't be worth
98
00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:52.680
training in
99
00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:53.680
the pattern.
100
00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.030
So you may have to feel like your arms do very little, they are just in that
101
00:04:59.030 --> 00:04:59.880
delivery
102
00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:04.860
position all the way through with very little arm action and more of a sawed
103
00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:05.680
off or hold
104
00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:11.800
off move before you can really feel active arm action on the way through.
105
00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:15.540
But with some practice and with some training, you should be able to blend the
106
00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:16.340
body powering
107
00:05:16.340 --> 00:05:21.830
that transition and then the arms releasing or extending or transferring all of
108
00:05:21.830 --> 00:05:22.680
that energy
109
00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.880
into the golf ball during the release.
110
00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:30.680
So if you are struggling conceptually with the hands getting low before the
111
00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:31.400
club gets
112
00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:35.480
low, or if you are struggling practically on how to do it, hopefully this video
113
00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:36.120
clarifies
114
00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:40.780
why we teach some of the key movements in transition, how to get the grip low
115
00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:41.600
beforehand
116
00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.360
because of what the body is doing and then how to release the club with
117
00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:46.320
continued body
118
00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:51.810
rotation, all of that creates the general shape of the grip reaching its low
119
00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:52.600
point even
120
00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:59.320
with the right thigh and the club head reaching its low point more even with
121
00:05:59.320 --> 00:06:00.540
the left foot
122
00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:02.200
or out in front of the golf ball.
Have questions?
Ask Mulligan for helpDiscussing the Two Low Points - Hands and Club
Some of the recent golf science has focused on the path of the hands versus the path of the clubhead and what conclusions can be drawn by measuring this in 3D. From the data, we know that the low point of the hands, or handle of the club, does not coincide with the low point of the clubhead. More specifically, we know that the low point of the handle is going to roughly occur when the hands are in front of the trail leg on the downswing, while the low point of the club head is going to occur 3-4 inches or so past impact. This pattern of getting the handle to its lowest point well before the clubhead helps promote efficient release mechanics and creates a very consistent impact zone.
Now, how do you conceptualize this for your own game? The simplest way to work on this pattern is to make sure that the body and larger muscles are setting up your transition and release. If you are allowing any excess tension to creep into your arms or are getting into more of an upper body dominated swing, you are going to have a hard time creating this relationship. Working on some "Low to High" releases will help your pivot setup delivery, so that the handle can rise through impact as you use your lower body and core to push, rotate, and fully release the club.
Some of the recent golf science has focused on the path of the hands versus the path of the clubhead and what conclusions can be drawn by measuring this in 3D. From the data, we know that the low point of the hands, or handle of the club, does not coincide with the low point of the clubhead. More specifically, we know that the low point of the handle is going to roughly occur when the hands are in front of the trail leg on the downswing, while the low point of the club head is going to occur 3-4 inches or so past impact. This pattern of getting the handle to its lowest point well before the clubhead helps promote efficient release mechanics and creates a very consistent impact zone.
Now, how do you conceptualize this for your own game? The simplest way to work on this pattern is to make sure that the body and larger muscles are setting up your transition and release. If you are allowing any excess tension to creep into your arms or are getting into more of an upper body dominated swing, you are going to have a hard time creating this relationship. Working on some "Low to High" releases will help your pivot setup delivery, so that the handle can rise through impact as you use your lower body and core to push, rotate, and fully release the club.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.440
This concept video is discussing the two low points.
2
00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:09.160
So the two low points are basically referring to the low point of the path of
3
00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:09.560
the hands
4
00:00:09.560 --> 00:00:12.600
and the low point of the path of the club.
5
00:00:12.600 --> 00:00:16.750
If you follow some of the golf science, then you may already be aware, but if
6
00:00:16.750 --> 00:00:17.880
you don't,
7
00:00:17.880 --> 00:00:24.190
the low point of the handle is roughly going to be even with about the right
8
00:00:24.190 --> 00:00:25.040
thigh or a
9
00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:29.160
little bit before the golf ball, kind of right about here.
10
00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:35.750
The low point of the club head for an iron shot is going to be somewhere around
11
00:00:35.750 --> 00:00:36.360
three
12
00:00:36.360 --> 00:00:39.260
to four inches in front of the golf ball.
13
00:00:39.260 --> 00:00:43.320
So you would think that if I was swinging this just like a pendulum, then the
14
00:00:43.320 --> 00:00:43.960
low points
15
00:00:43.960 --> 00:00:45.720
would coincide.
16
00:00:45.720 --> 00:00:50.260
But how can I have the low point of the grip there and then the low point of
17
00:00:50.260 --> 00:00:52.280
the club there?
18
00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:56.600
For some, that can be a little bit of a puzzle.
19
00:00:56.600 --> 00:01:00.140
The simplest answer is that what you're going to do with the body and how you
20
00:01:00.140 --> 00:01:00.760
're going
21
00:01:00.760 --> 00:01:04.280
to pull on the club is going to create this relationship.
22
00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.800
It's not something that you actively have to force.
23
00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:12.720
But what can happen is some golfers, when they try to get the handle lower so
24
00:01:12.720 --> 00:01:13.360
that it
25
00:01:13.360 --> 00:01:17.430
can then come up through impact, they tend to hit the ball poorly because they
26
00:01:17.430 --> 00:01:18.040
're doing
27
00:01:18.040 --> 00:01:20.640
it mostly with their arms instead of with the body.
28
00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:24.480
And that's really the key to this pattern of getting the low point of the hands
29
00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:25.200
low before
30
00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:30.510
the ball and club low after the ball is making sure that the body is powering
31
00:01:30.510 --> 00:01:31.400
the pivot or
32
00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:33.760
the release pattern.
33
00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:41.070
So in order to do that, one drill that I like that we have on the site is the
34
00:01:41.070 --> 00:01:42.080
low to high
35
00:01:42.080 --> 00:01:43.080
release.
36
00:01:43.080 --> 00:01:48.210
So if let's imagine that I'm going to, you're going to get set up and I'm going
37
00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:48.760
to have
38
00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:50.800
you go to impact position.
39
00:01:50.800 --> 00:01:56.100
Now if the club is coming up into impact position, then if I pressed rewind, I
40
00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:57.120
'm going to bring
41
00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:58.560
the middle of the grip.
42
00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:03.440
So this point here down a couple inches.
43
00:02:03.440 --> 00:02:06.560
So you can see there it is an impact.
44
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:10.280
Now I'm going to try and get it lower to the ground through there.
45
00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:15.830
So then if I came through and I just released the hands because my grip is low,
46
00:02:15.830 --> 00:02:16.640
I'm going
47
00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:20.700
to really bottom out before the golf ball, even with where that low point of
48
00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:21.200
the grip
49
00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:22.500
is.
50
00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:28.040
But if I get back, there's impact, if I get back there, and then my body
51
00:02:28.040 --> 00:02:29.480
rotation brings
52
00:02:29.480 --> 00:02:34.410
the handle around and through more so than my hand action, then I can have the
53
00:02:34.410 --> 00:02:34.960
grip low
54
00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:40.560
to the ground and still make contact with the golf ball first.
55
00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:44.880
And because of the arm extension complimenting my body, that will put the
56
00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:45.880
bottom of the swing
57
00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:53.480
out in front of the golf ball, basically when the club catches up with my body.
58
00:02:53.480 --> 00:02:59.790
So what I find is some golfers trying to get the hands to come to get low
59
00:02:59.790 --> 00:03:01.880
before the ball,
60
00:03:01.880 --> 00:03:07.460
do so all by straightening the arms, kind of like this, instead of using the
61
00:03:07.460 --> 00:03:08.160
body to
62
00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:10.800
bring the hands down low, they just use the arms.
63
00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.440
And if you just use the arms, then your body is typically going to be out of
64
00:03:14.440 --> 00:03:15.080
position to
65
00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:17.400
be able to bring it up on the way through.
66
00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:23.320
And so you will tend to catch behind the ball like I did there.
67
00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:29.640
So if you are working on getting a little bit flatter hand path, or oftentimes
68
00:03:29.640 --> 00:03:30.240
these
69
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.330
golfers, the golfers who need this are trying to get out of more of a hook
70
00:03:34.330 --> 00:03:35.120
pattern.
71
00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:39.320
So if you are trying to get more body rotation on the way through, trying to
72
00:03:39.320 --> 00:03:40.080
get the grip
73
00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:46.660
to go more up and around the plane, instead of kind of down and out, then you
74
00:03:46.660 --> 00:03:47.360
need to
75
00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:51.650
make sure that you use your body more in transition and practicing that
76
00:03:51.650 --> 00:03:53.520
delivery position, or
77
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.770
the delivery and go, or the delivery pump, those all help create the
78
00:03:59.770 --> 00:04:01.320
relationship of
79
00:04:01.320 --> 00:04:03.520
the grip being lower to the ground.
80
00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:09.190
Once you then have a sense of the body bringing the club lower to the ground,
81
00:04:09.190 --> 00:04:10.120
then you can
82
00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:14.840
try to add a little bit of arm speed down at the bottom.
83
00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.090
I caution golfers who are doing this because usually when you are getting out
84
00:04:19.090 --> 00:04:19.760
of that arm
85
00:04:19.760 --> 00:04:23.650
pattern, any time you try to add speed, it is not so much that you swing harder
86
00:04:23.650 --> 00:04:24.080
, it is
87
00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:26.160
that the arms get involved earlier.
88
00:04:26.160 --> 00:04:29.310
So oftentimes when you first start doing this, you are going to have to feel
89
00:04:29.310 --> 00:04:29.960
like the arms
90
00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:31.960
do very little.
91
00:04:31.960 --> 00:04:37.270
The analogy I give is imagine that you were throwing punches just all like a
92
00:04:37.270 --> 00:04:38.040
jab, and
93
00:04:38.040 --> 00:04:40.120
then I wanted you to try to get your body involved.
94
00:04:40.120 --> 00:04:43.200
So to do that, you now threw no punch with the arm.
95
00:04:43.200 --> 00:04:48.510
Ideally you would start to blend it so that you went body and then arm, but if
96
00:04:48.510 --> 00:04:49.080
every time
97
00:04:49.080 --> 00:04:52.110
you thought about body, you went just with your arm, it wouldn't be worth
98
00:04:52.110 --> 00:04:52.680
training in
99
00:04:52.680 --> 00:04:53.680
the pattern.
100
00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:59.030
So you may have to feel like your arms do very little, they are just in that
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00:04:59.030 --> 00:04:59.880
delivery
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00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:04.860
position all the way through with very little arm action and more of a sawed
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00:05:04.860 --> 00:05:05.680
off or hold
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00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:11.800
off move before you can really feel active arm action on the way through.
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00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:15.540
But with some practice and with some training, you should be able to blend the
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00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:16.340
body powering
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00:05:16.340 --> 00:05:21.830
that transition and then the arms releasing or extending or transferring all of
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00:05:21.830 --> 00:05:22.680
that energy
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00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:25.880
into the golf ball during the release.
110
00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:30.680
So if you are struggling conceptually with the hands getting low before the
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00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:31.400
club gets
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00:05:31.400 --> 00:05:35.480
low, or if you are struggling practically on how to do it, hopefully this video
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00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:36.120
clarifies
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00:05:36.120 --> 00:05:40.780
why we teach some of the key movements in transition, how to get the grip low
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00:05:40.780 --> 00:05:41.600
beforehand
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because of what the body is doing and then how to release the club with
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continued body
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rotation, all of that creates the general shape of the grip reaching its low
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00:05:51.810 --> 00:05:52.600
point even
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00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:59.320
with the right thigh and the club head reaching its low point more even with
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00:05:59.320 --> 00:06:00.540
the left foot
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or out in front of the golf ball.
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