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Member Question - How do I figure out my match ups?

Each golfer has individual key matchups that help make their swing work. Some common matchups are:

  • Matching the face and path for the desired ball flight
  • Matching the transition power source and the release for solid contact
  • Matching the grip and the release style for shot shape

When figuring out which matchups are here are some clues for which are your keys.

First, one of your key pieces solves the same problem multiple times. if you have a tendency to fall into thin shots and working on a feeling or drill that improves your slide or early extension consistently solves that problem then you should make a note of that in your journal. This should be one of your checks during your pre-round warm-up.

Second, if you see something on video, but every time you work on it you struggle, then there is a component that your brain isn't quite ready to change. That piece is part of your matchup. Hopefully, this one is temporary and you just haven't figured out the magic feel/focus required to change it. But in the short term, this is a key part of your matchup.

One-third option is to see what happens when you take time off. I added this to the clarification video at the bottom. This is one of my personal favorite ways to see which are my key movements to train. If I take 3 weeks off and then come back, I'll usually fall into a couple of habits. I know to look out for those and can usually get it back to playable pretty quickly because I've learned which are my key movement match ups.

Tags: Member Question, Concept

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This concept video, we're going to discuss the member question.

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How do I figure out my matchups?

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So I mentioned a number of times about Jack Nicholice's comment that most good players

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have three to five keys that make their swing work.

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And basically when they're warming up or throughout the season, they're when they're off,

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it's one of those three to five keys.

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In order to figure out your three to five keys, you're going to have to experiment

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with a number of different pieces.

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But I want to give a quick little guide as to how you're likely going to figure them out,

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how I figured out mine and how a lot of my students have figured out theirs.

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So typically, we're going to start with video.

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We want to have a model we want to have a guide as to where we're trying to get to.

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That way we're not just going off of the feel of contact.

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There's sometimes where you'll hit it great, but if the video doesn't change,

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then it's usually not sustainable.

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It's only in the last for a day or round a few balls, who knows.

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But so the video will help guide the overall progress as far as the big pieces that you're

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going to work on.

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And then what you'll typically find is you'll either have areas that consistently

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help solve the same problem of multiple times.

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Or you'll have consistent areas where any time you work on it, you get worse.

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So I'll talk through each of those.

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So the first one is the ones that make it better.

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So let's say you consistently have the same problem.

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Let's say you're hitting it fat because you're getting too much tilt like this.

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And so one day you notice on on video and you set up a pool noodle and you work on your upper body

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covering the ball kind of like this.

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Well, you feel that okay, that upper body covering the ball.

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I hit the ball great that day.

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It was working good for a couple of practices and then I started hitting it fat.

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I looked at it on video and I was falling back into this pattern.

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I quickly remembered, oh, I need to get more on top and I started to hit it well again.

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So when the same issue solves the same problem multiple times in a row.

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Usually, I say at least three times in a row,

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that's usually going to be one of your keys.

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Now what could have all of it with that is maybe the first time I feel like my chest is covering

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my lower body.

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Maybe the second time I feel like my lower body is rotating or staying more centered instead of

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kind of too much tilt or too much slide.

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I might feel like my hips are back.

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I might feel a complimentary piece to it and that can either become one key.

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Like my whole pivot feels this way or two keys.

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Hips back chest forward and I almost never chunk the ball.

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So it solves a specific problem.

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So that would be how you're going to build your keys the first version.

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The second version is sometimes there are things that you consistently see and you try to work on.

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And whenever you work on it, it gets worse.

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That just means that you haven't quite figured out the part and it's so ingrained in your swing

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that if you try to disrupt it, it's going to break some of the other patterns.

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Give you an example of maybe someone who tends to pull down in transition.

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And anytime they work on shallowing, they do it too much with the body or they do it late.

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Like it doesn't actually change the pattern.

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If that's the case, then in the short term, I would say, okay that's part of my pattern.

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I'm not going to be able to change that today.

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I'm going to wait until I have enough time to really work on it.

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So I'm probably going to work on complementary keys.

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If that's the case, I might work on wherever rhythm or timing.

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And that could become one of my three to five keys.

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So I'll tell you, mine for this year have revolved around either using my abs.

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I actually had a hernia surgery two years ago.

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So I've done a bunch of work for getting my core working better.

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And that's freed me up to feel some things that I wasn't able to feel previously.

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So there's a feeling that I get in my abs, especially during transition.

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When I do that, there's a completely different rhythmic feel.

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And it feels like a good feel, like a effortless power type scenario.

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So my key number one this year has been using my abs.

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Part of that revolves around a little bit better, a little bit less slide and a little bit better

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bracing. And then to compliment that, I've had to work a little bit more on the wipe and a little

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bit more on the older deviation. So over the course of this year, most of the weeks when I've

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hit the ball really well and played pretty well in some of the playing lessons, my keys have been

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on one of those three pieces or sometimes two or even all three of those pieces.

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There have been times where it was a blend of abs and release that kind of encompass those three

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keys for me. I've experimented with a number of different things, whether it's a backswing pivot,

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whether it's a loading, whether it's lengthening to try to get a little bit more speed.

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And those are kind of part of the long-term goal, but right now my three keys that help me play the

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ball really well are hit the ball really well, feeling the abs, getting a little bit more of that

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trail arm wipe and then getting that good owner deviation all the way through impact.

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When I do that, it consistently solves my pattern of getting a little bit picky or a little

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thin with my contact and hitting a little bit more of an overdraw. Those go away, I hit the ball

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much more solid and far when I've worked on those keys and they've cycled. I haven't worked on them

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explicitly the entire time. It might be I work on the wipe for a couple of practices. I started

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drifting, I work on the wipe again, I started drifting to something new, I come back to it,

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but what I've noticed is over this year, the times when I hit the ball great, it's root. It's,

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I've had the same problem I was trying to solve, both on video and contact wise, and those three

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keys have been how I've been able to solve it. So when you use video and to dial in your feedback

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and you figure out how to change the picture, those will likely contribute to your keys

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and as you work through them and consistently the same keys, all the same problems,

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you'll become more confident, more durable and more resilient and being able to maintain your

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higher level of ball striking. All right, so let's see if we can throw one together where we get

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all of our keys. So we're going to feel the ab with the the white movement for me and then the

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owner deviation late. So a little bit of the overdraw, didn't quite feel the ab, the way that I

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wanted felt a little bit too much lagging back. So let's do that one more time. This time we're

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going to really focus on the ab feel we had the other day. There we go. So that I covered it a

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little bit more the wind took it late but it came out just the way that I want. So now I can

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challenge it by picking different targets, working on different lengths of swings and tempos,

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changing clubs, but I've got my keys ready to go play. Kind of like that.

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