WEBVTT

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(upbeat music)

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In this video, I'm gonna talk to you

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about how you can hit your driver straighter.

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I'm gonna give you two different ways

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to hit more fairways.

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One is gonna come from understanding

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what the consistent tour golfers do,

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and then two is going to come from understanding

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how you could take your current swing

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and apply something out on the course tomorrow.

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One of the questions I always get asked

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is what's the difference between the driver

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and the iron swing?

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And I actually did a presentation

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at the World Golf Fitness Summit a few years ago

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where we looked at the 3D differences.

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There are definitely differences

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between the ideal driver swing and the ideal iron swing.

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In general, the guys who are really consistent

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with the driver tend to use more of their lower body

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to create the speed compared to their arms and shoulders,

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and they tend to square the club face up earlier.

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And what that looks like is from the down-the-line camera,

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you'll see the club face pointing more

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at the ball earlier,

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so then when they come through,

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they don't have to rely on lining up the face.

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What you tend to see with good iron players

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is they'll swing more with their upper body.

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In doing so, they might get a little bit steeper

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and you'll tend to see the club face stay open longer

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and shut a little bit faster down at the bottom.

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You don't have to.

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You can use this early club face closing with every club,

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but that's just one of the trends

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that you'll see on the 3D data of tour pros,

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that good drivers of the golf ball

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tend to close the face earlier,

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so then it has more of a gradual change

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down at the bottom instead of a fast change.

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So in the next section where we look at it with the GoPro,

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we're gonna take a look at a checkpoint

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when the hands are basically even with the right thigh,

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roughly what angle is that club face?

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If you find that when you get down here,

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the club face is pointing more at this face on camera,

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or compared to this down-the-line,

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the club face is pointing way over there.

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You'll see that the club face is almost 70, 80 degrees

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compared to the target,

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and I'm going to have to try to square that up

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very late while the club is moving fastest.

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Instead, if I do a little bit of what we call

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the motorcycle movement,

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if I get a little bit of earlier face closing,

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now when I come down, I didn't have to rotate it that much,

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and now the club face is pointing closer.

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We'll get that even better there.

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The club face is pointing closer to the target.

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So then all I have to do is continue turning through

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and just let that club face continue closing

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at a more gradual rate.

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So if I close it early, I can do it gradual,

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that's gonna give me a little bit more consistency

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than if I wait longer and I have to close it fast

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when the club face is moving really quickly.

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So I've got lots of different drills

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to help you feel what it's like to close the club face,

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whether you do it more with the left hand

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or the right hand, if you're pulling down,

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that tends to open the face.

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We've got lots of ways to kind of work through it,

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but in this video, I'll just give you one simple checkpoint

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when we look at the GoPro section.

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Okay, so if you're setting up this little station

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for hitting your driver straighter,

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we're gonna get one line which is roughly gonna be

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where we're gonna put the golf ball.

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And now, just to give some type of standardization to this

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so that I know that we're on the same page,

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I've got my eight iron here.

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I'm going to take it and put it about a foot behind the ball

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or behind this first line.

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And then I'm going to draw a line

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kind of along the top line right here,

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not the leading edge, but the top line.

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So now I've got a line kind of at an angle,

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roughly kind of like this.

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That's gonna be our reference

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as far as getting the club face closed.

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So now if I get set up and put a ball on that first line,

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I'm just going to going to look at when my hands are

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even with the golf ball, or sorry,

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even with my thigh, kind of like this,

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where is the club face compared to this line right here?

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So as I come down,

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you'll see if I was to keep that club face open,

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you would see it pointing way right of this line.

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But if I do the motorcycle move

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with kind of a neutral grip,

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you'll start to see that that's coming in

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in a more like parallel to this line

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or square to that line position.

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Now I'm going to do a few kind of pump style drills

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where I'm just going to bring the club and just check,

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bring the club.

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That was a little open, that was pretty good there.

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Pretty good there.

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Once I've got that feeling,

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now I'm just going to do a nice, easy, maybe 60, 70% swing.

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Just to see if I can get the club face

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that come in pretty square.

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Now when I had a nice ball flight,

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I was able to get it pretty square.

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So then I can just work on taking that feeling,

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adding more and more speed, adding more pivot

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and lower body, but still focusing on getting the club face

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to get matched up to that line quicker.

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If it's still wide open or pointing right,

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you are going to have to stall and flip

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and that stall and flip is going to add

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a big timing element to your driver swing.

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So now we'll do one more at closer to full speed.

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Pretty good ball flight there.

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Now for some golfers, doing that feels really uncomfortable.

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They're not used to thinking about their hands.

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They don't even feel the club face.

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And so trying to become aware of it

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really creates almost a sense of panic.

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So then the other option is, well, all right,

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I can't feel my hands.

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I'm not really comfortable trying to close the face.

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What should I do then?

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Well, then we're going to rely on some more

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kind of old school teaching and we're going to talk about

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swinging more in rhythm or swinging a little bit smoother.

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Now you might be thinking, okay,

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what does that have to do with club face control?

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Well, what can happen is if I'm relying on the arms

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and the hands to square the club face very late,

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I hate the phrase, but it becomes

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a little bit more timing dependent.

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And so there are two things that really disrupt timing

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for these late closing of the club face,

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especially with the driver.

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And the two things are either getting nervous

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or swinging hard.

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So if you recognize, like let's say you take a look

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at yourself on video and you look and you see

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that the club face is still wide open

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when your hands are even with your right thigh.

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If your hands or the club face is really open at this point,

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then I would encourage you to work on your rhythm

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and make sure that you don't swing too hard.

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When you swing hard, that's often going to disrupt

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this timing and you can either have big right

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or big left misses.

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The other one that's a little bit harder to control

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is getting nervous.

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So you might want to work on relaxation, deep breathing,

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your ability to stay in rhythm,

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even when it's really important.

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Because oftentimes golfers who tend to have

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this late closing pattern will have really good range sessions

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where they can hit six, seven, eight out of 10

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into a fairway sized target.

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But then when they get on the course,

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it tends to break down.

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(upbeat music)