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Insight - Adjusting From A Life Of Hockey

Playing hockey can train some great things in your golf swing. Most hockey players that I have tested have great sequencing, and usually have good hip speed. But there are a few major things that hockey players struggle with. As Liam Mucklow said recently, "hockey players love to get 'steep and deep'". This is because it is a very helpful condition for hitting a good slap shot, but it's not helpful for hitting a golf ball correctly. The three issues I see that ex-hockey players face are typically.

  1. Sway
  2. Excessively closed clubface (especially in takeaway)
  3. Forward lunge

This package of swing faults can be frustrating because often times it results in fairly solid mid irons, but struggles with both the wedges and driver swings.

Tags: Intermediate

WEBVTT

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this insight is adjusting from a life of

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hockey so as i've been in colorado here

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for a while i've been working with more

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and more hockey players

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they tend to have a pattern just like

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those tennis players just like those

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baseball players tend to have a pattern

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so there's three major things that i see

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consistently with hockey players doesn't

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mean that you're going to see them with

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everyone but if

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you're a x hockey player and you

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struggle with these issues hopefully

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this will help you understand why and

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give you some strategies to work on them

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so the three major things that hockey

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players are going to do with the golf

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club is they're going to tend to

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sway a little bit off of the ball

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they're going to tend to keep the club

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face closed or restrict forearm rotation

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during the backswing and they're going

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to tend to have a forward lunge of the

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upper body so these are three big

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movements that are helpful when i'm

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hitting a slap shot but problematic when

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i'm swinging a golf club so the the sway

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is essentially going to be this lateral

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movement and typically their initiation

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which would be good with a hockey stick

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is going to be that closed-faced um and

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they will have some of the most

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closed-faced of anybody who i've ever

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measured on 3d

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but they'll tend to have closed face

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with a little bit of a sway

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as opposed to rotating and kind of

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letting my upper body turn into my trail

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side they tend to stay a little bit more

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lead side bent

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which by itself can make it uh

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problematic for hitting the driver um

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unless i have this major jump on the way

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down which a lot of them tend to do

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the other one that i've seen more and

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more and from talking to one of my

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ex-hockey players he says that this is

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actually encouraged in hockey

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of the sports this is one of the few

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that i never really played but

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during the hockey slap shot you're going

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to want to have your upper body drifting

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towards the net

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during the entire time you're not going

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to want to post up and go like so um

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because you have the tendency to fan or

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swing over top of the puck this upper

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body covering movement like so tends to

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let you hit behind it and then keep the

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blade close to the ice as it goes

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through the puck but when it comes to

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golf this can cause big time angle of

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attack issues as well as forcing you to

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cast both to

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hold off some of this face rotation

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and to shallow out the club from this

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steep upper body movement so they tend

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to struggle with what i think are some

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of the more

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annoying problems one of which being

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fat wedges

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because i'm taking it away closed and

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i'm forward lunging kind of like so i'll

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tend to fall into this early extension

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pattern late

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and get the path coming too much from

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the inside

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now with a hockey slap shot i can hit

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behind it and

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that actually helps with a slap shot but

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the problem is with a golf club if i'm

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if i do that if i come from the inside

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and have the club bottom out behind it

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i'll typically get leading edge strikes

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so i'm going to get

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laying sod or i'm going to pull my arms

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in i'm going to blade it so if you're

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working on getting out of hockey

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and becoming more of a golfer one of the

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things that i would recommend is working

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on this stable pivot which we teach

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during the backswing in the transition

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section

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and then working on having a little bit

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more forearm rotation

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on the way back

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by letting it open up kind of like so

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it'll allow you to

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square it um

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without using that forward lunge and

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that forward lunge

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can be great for

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iron play it can be great for a few

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specific shots

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but

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typically hurts your wedges typically

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hurts your driver and so i think it's

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kind of one of those problems you want

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to get out of so if you're coming from

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hockey you got to learn to let the club

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face rotate a little bit more you've got

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to learn to stabilize your pivot

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and usually you'll have to work on a

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little bit of this early extension

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pattern but if you do i promise you can

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find that this game is just as fun and a

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lot less dangerous

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something that you can do well into your

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older years so good luck adjusting from

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a life of hockey into a life of golf

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