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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Arnold

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Palmer.

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Now Arnold Palmer was the first golfer to really make golf cool.

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So every golf instructor owes a debt of gratitude to Arnold Palmer.

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He's allowed us to make a living at something that we all enjoy and has really

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helped shape

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most of our lives.

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In this video, I'm going to help you see how his sequencing and the way that he

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used his

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body to power the swing is something that you can try to emulate.

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I'll also talk to you about how, as you get older, potentially your path and

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your bracing

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may change and Arnold Palmer changed with grace.

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You'll be able to see him hit some quality shots even though his body changed

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because

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he kept that sequencing and body powered swing.

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So we're going to look at Arnold Palmer's transition from a couple different

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swings.

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So here are a couple swings and what I want you to focus on is looking at the

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timing of

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his lower body changing direction.

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So what's happening is during the backswing, he's shifting his pressure into

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that back leg

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and he's going to push with that back leg to stop his body from rotating away

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from the

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target and then he's going to keep pushing in order to trigger rotation towards

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the target.

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So we'll look from a couple different views so that you can kind of see the

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timing of

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when he's really pushing against the ground.

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But you'll see, particularly with this driver swing over on the right, how his

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lower body

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is changing direction while his arms are still finishing the swing.

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Then as his body changes direction, he's basically using his whole body to pull

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through his arms

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on the club.

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So the early stages of the downswing, you're not going to see a lot of straight

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ening of

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the arms, you're not going to see a lot of arm activity.

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It's more body movements getting the club into delivery position and then the

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arms transferring

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that energy during the release.

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Over here on the left, we'll be able to see this in a little bit greater detail

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because

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of the frame rate.

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So right around here, he's starting to push in the opposite direction.

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You can see how his lower body changes direction before his arms in club change

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direction even

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on a iron.

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So it doesn't only work when you're trying to apply max power link with the

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driver.

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And you'll see that his body has brought his arms down into about this delivery

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position

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before there's any real straightening of that trail elbow.

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I think his sequencing was beautiful and that's part of the reason why he was

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able to have

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such a consistent career over such a great period of time.

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So we have lots of drills on our site to help you work on powering the swing

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with your body

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as well as working on your timing tempo and sequencing.

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And I think that's one of the things that Arnold had trained early in his swing

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that

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allowed him to have such good success.

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Now, one of the trademarks of Arnold's swing is that unorthodox finish.

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And I always preach that if you look at Arnold at about waist height or what I

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refer to as

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follow through position, you can see that it looks classically just like any of

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the great

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swingers of the golf ball.

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That's really how he absorbs speed from this follow through position into the

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end of his

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finish.

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And from watching him do a couple of these drills, you can see that he was

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working on

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potentially keeping his head down and pointed at the golf ball longer.

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And so that would stop body rotation.

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So he wouldn't be able to absorb as much of the speed with body rotation if he

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did a lot

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of these slow motion or shorter drills with the extended emphasis on keeping

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his head

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down.

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So one of the ways that you could then absorb speed would be going more into

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the shoulders.

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And that's potentially how part of his unique flair for the game really

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developed.

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But if you look at what he does during his release through follow through, if

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he then

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just continued his body and let that left arm fold naturally while letting his

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head rotate

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around, he would have looked, he would have had a more classic finish position

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than what

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he currently or what he did throughout his career.

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So hopefully by learning the different pieces of the swing that we talk about

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on our site,

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you'll be able to understand which parts of the swing are just your style and

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which

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part of swings are critical pieces.

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What Arnold did as part of his finish is more of a style movement than a

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critical piece.

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He had all the great critical pieces of powering the swing and a great solid

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release to get

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into that very classic looking follow through position.

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Arnold frequently shared a story about how he was told to keep his grip exactly

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the

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same.

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And that's a great fundamental, but what this camera view is going to show us

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is the fundamental

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of using that lower body sequencing to help him initiate his transition.

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So with this close up view, you can really see through here that just as the

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arm leaves

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camera view, his lower body is already starting to push in the direction of the

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target.

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And remember, you're going to push before it shows up on movement.

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So he's pushing through that right leg, probably starting right about now.

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And then he's just going to keep pushing to help him shift his weight before

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that left

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leg is going to push right around this period here to help him initiate his

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release.

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And one of the goals of this series of videos is to show you how swings evolve

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as you age.

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And so here we have two different swings of him around 80 years old.

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So well after his prime.

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But what you'll see is that by his ability to maintain his sequencing, you'll

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see that

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his lower body still starts well before his upper body.

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And you'll see that he keeps the arms a little bit more passive and during the

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early stages

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of the downswing and uses them more actively during the later stages or during

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the release.

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So by keeping that same sequencing, he was still able to hit some really

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quality golf

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shots even well into the ages of the early 80s.

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So now on the left, we have him hitting one of his more famous shots in his

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later years.

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This was a driver off the deck at his own tournament.

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And you'll what you can really see again is the timing of when those arms get

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involved.

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Now if you've tried delaying the timing of your arms and you tend to either hit

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it off

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to the right or you tend to stand up a little bit more and hit behind the golf

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ball, then

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it usually means that you have a club face closing problem.

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And the the sequencing or the reason you fire your arms too early is because

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that's how

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your brain coordinates where the club face is pointing or better ways and ways

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that match

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up with the body sequencing that Arnold is on Palmer is demonstrating in these

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clips.

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Okay, so over on the left, we have him with a mid iron and then over on the

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right with

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a mid iron during the par three contest again, more in his twilight playing

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days.

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But what what you'll tend to see is with his younger swing, he's going to

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finish his

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backswing more with his body pivot and with a fair amount of left side bend.

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You can really see the steepness of the shoulder plane.

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So the shoulders pointing well or very close to the golf ball.

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And you'll see them maintain that position into transition.

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It's kind of more typical of a body powered swing.

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Now over here on the right, you can see that he doesn't have nearly as much

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flexibility.

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So his arms separate a lot more as he gets towards the top of the swing and his

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arms

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are going to work in more of a steep position.

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So what will tend to happen when those arms get into a little bit more of a

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steep position

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is it's harder to close the club face.

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And so you will tend to have those arms bend a little bit more on the way

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through.

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So we can see that he's using a little bit more of an arm powered swing as he

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got older.

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But the driver swings that we saw before, he was still able to produce some of

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the body

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powered sequencing when he was able to stand a little bit taller.

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So when you're working on your flexibility, maintaining side bend and thoracic

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spine movement

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is going to be really helpful for being able to play great golf as you get

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older because

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that's naturally one of the movement patterns that people tend to lose first.

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So if you want to understand how to sequence your body like Arnold or you want

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to understand

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how to square the club face so that you can sequence your body, feel free to

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subscribe

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a look at our nearly 600 videos to help you understand all the nuances that

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make the

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stock tour swing work.