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Shallow Position Vs Shallow Movement
While positions are important, it's the movements that get you into those positions that rea matter. In this video, I highlight how two golfers with similar transition positions will have different results based on how they got there. Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson have very different driving abilities but a similar steep positon at the top of the swing. One shallows in transition, but is still steep. The other does not.
While positions are important, it's the movements that get you into those positions that rea matter. In this video, I highlight how two golfers with similar transition positions will have different results based on how they got there. Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson have very different driving abilities but a similar steep positon at the top of the swing. One shallows in transition, but is still steep. The other does not.
In this analysis video, I'm going to answer a member question about shallowing versus
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being shallow.
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So he asked if you shallow your arms, you know, where will the club point?
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And I wanted to do this video to point out that the key to arm shallowing is that it's
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a movement, it's not really a position.
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So I've got two golfers here that I hope will help illustrate this point.
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Now, I'm over on the right.
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I've got Fred Couples, over on the left.
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I've got Phil Nicholson.
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You can see they're slightly different camera angles, but you can see that compared to
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some body landmarks, both of these club shafts would be considered more steep.
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They're pointing slightly inside the golf ball, fills maybe a little bit more so.
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So they're both kind of steep in this position.
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Now, I know from there 3Ds that Fred Couples is shallowed actually a little bit more than
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average.
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So he's shallow to get bit together this point and Phil Nicholson hasn't had very much
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arm shallowing if any at all.
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He actually does more of his arm shallowing later.
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So if I back it up to the top of the swing, we'll see how they get into that delivery position
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or that kind of downswing checkpoint.
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So from here at the top of the swing, you can see they're both in a slightly across the
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line position.
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The cross-thaline is steep if you were to look it across the line.
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It basically means the club shaft is bicecting the arms.
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So it would be closer to the left arm than to the right arm, which is how it looks when
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we look at steep in shallow later in the downswing.
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Now, as Fred Couples starts changing direction, you can see some forearm rotation if you
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really know what to look for.
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You're looking at the relationship of the back of the left hand compared to the point
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of the elbow.
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You'll be able to see that there's some left arm rotation through that phase there where
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the club is just kind of dropping or shallowing.
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Now it's easier to see the effects of it here because he's given the club some shallowing
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momentum as he's still rotating and you'll see that the club through there has a the effect
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of a little bit more of a shallow position.
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And he's done so while his body's continued to power the swing.
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That allows him to hit it more with his body than with his arms and you'll see that he
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has some good arm bend still at impact.
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All that is really useful for when hitting the longer clubs like the driver.
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Now fill from a similar-ish club arm position at the top of the swing.
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You can see that the back of the left hand compared to the elbow doesn't really rotate
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through there.
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It's pretty much going in the same direction.
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So the club is swinging in roughly the same direction that the hands are going instead
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of swinging more down and back.
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And so he doesn't really get any shallowing there so he has the shallow more by straightening
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that right arm and kind of stalling some of his rotation.
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Now that combination can be great for wedges and short irons but is usually problematic
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with a club that has a little bit higher moment of inertia and less loft.
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So having limited flat spot, limited body power tends to produce some more problematic patterns
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for the longer club like the driver.
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So even though they have a club both in a steeper position in transition, Fred Couples
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is able to hit about 70% of the fairways and Phil Nicholson will be below 60, oftentimes
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in the 50s or some tournaments even lower than that.
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So they both hit the ball a long way but Fred Couples is significantly more accurate
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from a similar position because he's doing a different movement to get into that position
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not just the absolute position.
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So as you watch videos, I think it's important to kind of challenge yourself and train
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yourself to be able to see the movements they get them into positions not just the isolated
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positions.
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That's why on the website we teach the movement combinations that work during each phase
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of the swing so that you can pick and choose and kind of match up your swing to hopefully
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move your swing in a good direction and continue to have a long-term plan and continue
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positive results.