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Jack Nicklaus - Can't Release Too Soon

Jack Nicklaus once said, "you can't release too early on the downswing." Golf instructors use that quote to support many different swing styles. There is a key second part of that quote often omitted, and without the second part of the quote, the meaning is completely changed. What Jack said was, "you can't release too early on the downswing, as long as you move into your leftside and swing the club from inside the target line". 

Also, when you analyze Jack's own swing, you will see that he has a great shallowing move (he needs it with a "flying elbow"). While he describes an idea that sounds like you can just throw the club from the top, he clearly demonstrates a "falling" or "waiting" move in transition. Perhaps his brain registers the start of the downswing at delivery position as opposed to the top of the swing?

Playlists: Train Your Release

Tags: Release, Intermediate

WEBVTT

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in this insight we're going to take a

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look at Jack Nicholas's release now Jack

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Nicholas described or has a famous quote

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where he says you can't release the club

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too soon in the downswing now if you

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investigate it you'll find the Golf

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Digest article where you said this and

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the second half of that statement is as

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long as you get into your left side and

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as long as you're releasing from inside

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the target line so a lot of players will

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interpret this in in different ways

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let's take a look from the down the line

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and see what he may mean because I've

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heard people say you should just throw

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your hands from the top and I want you

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to see that if we look at Jack Nicklaus

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this transition you can see that there's

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a pretty pronounced shallowing move um

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anyone who has a little bit more of that

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right flying elbow it's going to have to

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have a little bit more of that

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shallowing move in order to get the arms

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or the club between his arms on the

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downswing and he discussed this as one

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of his check points in that article so

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you'll see that most people would

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interpret the release as either rotating

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the arms to the left casting or ulnar

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deviating but you'll see that during his

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transition he's not doing any of that so

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the question then becomes well what

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exactly did he mean does he feel it

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earlier than it's actually happening or

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in his mind is this position here over

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on the right still pretty close to what

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he determines the top of the swing like

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maybe his brain is not really

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registering that he's started down until

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right about here because you'll see

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through the ball there's a pretty good

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timing and there's a pretty aggressive

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straightening of that right arm as his

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arms extend and he gets into a really

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good bracing position from this target

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line view we can get a really good look

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at what the left arm does so you can see

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that the the wrist of the left hand is

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fairly vertical here

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and you can see the pit of the elbow is

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kind of pointing a little bit more down

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towards the ground and then as you

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plants that left leg and gets into that

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left side you'll see that left arm

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really start to shallow out and you'll

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see he comes in on a beautiful delivery

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angle gets into a great delivery

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position and then you can you can see

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the timing of when his arms extend now a

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lot of golfers who tend to release early

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or cast or have an upper body dominant

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pattern and tend to extend those arms

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too soon what happens is if they try to

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keep the arms bent it makes it feel very

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athletic what Jack is demonstrating is

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if you look at his pelvis if you look at

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his back you can see that his body is

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just leading his arms until the arms

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kind of get triggered to release by the

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bracing move so if you're struggling

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with your arms getting active too soon

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or if you've just misinterpreted Jack's

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quote or if you think you have a

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different interpretation I wanted to

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present a couple good videos on Jack

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where you can see that he's clearly

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demonstrating a lot of the shallow

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movements that we talked about in our

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program and the timing that we discuss

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in the azure loops so if you have any

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questions about this video or any other

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videos on the site please don't hesitate

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to contact us and we will help you clear

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it up

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