WEBVTT

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this video is discussing the fairway bunker so how do we adjust our stock

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swing when we're in a fairway bunker the the simple answer is that we need to

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steepen our path so that we make solid contact we need to make sure we move the

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low point forward so we make solid contact the two patterns that tend to

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have the most trouble in the bunker or in the fairway bunkers tend to be more

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of a

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flip style release or scoop style release where the club passes the hands down

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at

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the bottom so the bottom the swing is moving more backward because if you hit

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a little bit behind the ball in the bunker the sand is going to absorb a lot

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of the speed and it's going to come up way flat or way short the other one if

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you don't have the scoop but you still struggle out of fairway bunkers is

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usually from having too much lower body movement whether that's early extension

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or thrust or whether that's lateral movement kind of like this if you have

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too much lower body movement with this unstable surface you're going to tend

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to have trouble controlling your low point so what we're going to do is we're

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going to go through some setup options we can make and some swing options or

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swing changes we can make in order to adapt for the fairway bunker the simple

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list is to try to make your normal swing with setup changes so I'll go over

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them

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but if you try these setup changes and they don't work it usually means you've

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got one of those two swing patterns and you've got to adjust so the common

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things that we're going to do with setup to ensure solid contact or have a

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little bit steeper angle of attack and the low point more forward are we're

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going to choke up on the club slightly so if we normally grip you know a half

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inch from the bottom of the grip we're going to choke up maybe an extra half

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inch so we're going to choke up a little bit we're going to narrow our stance

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and

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kind of stay taller when you go down it's a sign that you're really using your

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legs but for this shot we want to have a little bit more of the power coming

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from

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our ribcage and arms almost more like a distance wedge shot than using our

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legs like we do with the driver and the last thing we're going to do is we're

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going to dig in our feet but we're going to dig them in different amounts with

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a

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normal green side bunker shot you dig in both feet to kind of establish a firm

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level footing with a fairway bunker shot what we want to do is just dig in the

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lead foot or dig in the lead foot more than we would the trail foot so if

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normally let's say I get a little footing with the right foot I'm going to dig

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in

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a lot more with the left foot by digging in more with the left foot choking up

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a

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bit getting more tall and leaning a little bit forward so that you're not

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tilted away from the target no axis tilt you're more much more vertical so now

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if I'm more vertical choked up lead foot dig in then when I take my swing the

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bottom of my my swing is going to be well out in front of the golf ball I'm

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going to air on hitting it thin as opposed to fat and unless I have a high

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lip that I have to carry I would much rather hit these shots slightly thin

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than fat or risk blading it so making that good set up a little bit taller a

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little bit narrower dug that left foot in choked up a bit so it'll come out

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slightly thin but you can see that I made ball first contact came out a little

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low still went to my intended target so now if I do that I go run through that

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checklist and I'm still struggling with it or let's say I had a higher lip

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bunker

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and I can't just make the simple setup changes then I'm likely going to have to

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make more of the swing changes so in order to narrow the or in order to

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control the low point better to hit shots out of the bunker I'm going to try to

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keep my body a little bit taller I'm gonna focus on keeping my sternum up and

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tall and I'm gonna focus on using more of my arms as the power source and less

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of my lower body so I may even air on hitting more of a cut shot or more of a

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pull shot because I'm gonna have my path go a little bit more outside in if I

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get

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coming from the inside I do run the risk of potentially bottoming out behind it

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especially if I'm trying to get some higher launch where if I come from the

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outside I can have a little bit more loft and not have the fear of hitting

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quite as far behind it it is a little bit riskier than just doing my standard

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shot with the lead foot dug in here I'm going to dig both feet in but still the

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lead foot just a hair slightly more I'm still gonna choke up but I'm going to

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not lunge in front of it I'm going to stay behind it but stay tall and pick it

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by controlling the bottom of the swing with a slightly more outside in approach

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kind of like we do in the rough

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so that will allow me to really control the bottom of swinging kind of

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nip it but it is a little bit riskier than that standard shot where I just dig

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in the front foot get a little bit taller and more on front and really

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control the bottom of swing out in front of the golf ball but if you struggle

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with fairway bunker shots by working on your overall release pattern by

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working on a little bit more centered pivot you'll usually have enough

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progress to where you'll when you face these fairway bunker shots they won't

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present you with as big of a challenge so if you're trying to decide where to

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spend more of your time I wouldn't advocate using a lot of your practice

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time on fairway bunker shots maybe once or twice a month because your general

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iron practice should have a big carryover to the quality of your fairway bunker

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shots one last little swing thing you want to make sure that you're not

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swinging too hard unless you absolutely have to again our goal is controlling

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low point and when you swing hard you're going to tend to use your feet more

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than you need to and when you use your feet a lot you're going to tend to air

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on making poor contact so aim for having more of a consistent tempo and if you

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need to take one more club as long as you have enough loft to carry the lip you

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should be fine