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In this analysis video, we're gonna take a look at the swing of Brooks Kepka.

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The recent US Open champion is known for being a really long hitter.

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He's currently ranked fifth in driving distance and fourth in club head speed.

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We're gonna take a look at what he does at the top of the swing and in

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transition in order to help him achieve that feat.

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When it comes to hitting the ball a long way, one of the goals is to use your

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total body to create speed.

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Now, a sign that you're using more your body in transition is gonna be having

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this good look of leg.

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We're gonna break down that look of leg just a little bit more.

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Because most people think that leg either comes from starting your lower body

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or having really good sequencing

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or from hinging your wrist a lot in transition.

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But leg can really happen from anywhere from the feet all the way to the club.

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It's a sign of good sequencing of using the legs first, and then the knees and

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the hips and then the core

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and then the shoulders and then the elbows and then the wrists.

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The better that you have that sequencing, the more you're going to achieve a

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powerful look just like Brooks.

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Now, one of the places that I find amateurs really miss out on this leg is in

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the shoulders.

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So what we'll see is Brooks does a really good job of getting that right arm in

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front

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and letting that left arm kind of drift a little bit across his body as he

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works in transition.

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That's a sign that there's not a lot of tension in his arms and that his body

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is really pulling through his arms.

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So as we look at it one more time, you'll see that that right arm gets in front

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of his body very quickly.

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This is a similar elbow look to another long hitter Dustin Johnson.

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Now one of the keys to making sure that that move works is to make sure that

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when the arm gets in front of you,

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your forearms have enough relaxation in them so that the club shallows during

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that phase.

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Many amateurs that I've taught trying to get that arm in front of their body

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tend to steepen the club early in the downswing.

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And that can lead to a whole host of contact, path problems, you name it.

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There are two things that Brooks does in order to help make it easier for him

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to get that right elbow in front of his body.

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If we back him up to the top of the swing, you'll see that while he has a big

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full shoulder turn, he has a lot of arm height.

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You can see that that right elbow stays more or less in front of his peck. From

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this down the line, you can see again looking at either the elbow space

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or just the relationship of the right arm to that peck, you can see that it

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stays pretty much in front of his body.

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So that gives him a little bit more or that requires less of an adjustment move

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in order to get that right elbow back in front because it's already there.

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It basically has to just drop and come in front a little. Many amateurs get

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that right elbow in that flying position or more behind their body.

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That can work, but it requires a larger movement of the right arm to get in

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front of the body.

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And many amateurs don't like feeling that weighting during transition.

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If you're going to go earlier, if you're going to swing more aggressively from

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the top of the swing, it's much easier to do that with the arms with that right

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elbow more in front of your body.

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The other thing you'll see is that he has really good sequencing and pulls

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through his arms with his core.

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So whether this feels like a rotation or this feels like a push from the ground

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or this feels like more of a spine tilt, that's up to the individual.

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But what we can see objectively is that there's not a lot of activity in

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straightening those arms until the left leg starts to straighten.

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So he's pulling through and along the shaft of the club, and then right around

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here you'll see that that left leg starts to brace and starts to straighten.

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And it's that bracing and straightening of the leg that triggers the force

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going up this way and into the arms to get the club to start to release.

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Many amateurs trigger the release straight away just from the arms instead of

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doing so from the body, and that definitely costs you a lot of speed.

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Over here on the left is a great view for seeing that transition sequence as

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well as that trigger of the leg, that left leg pushing to cause his arms to

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start to extend and they'll extend in a direction out in front of the golf ball

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instead of at the golf ball.

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This trait of using his body as his main power source in transition and then

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using the arms later during the release is a trademark of most long hitters.

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Lining up is a big deal too. For me I have to line up left to the target

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because I like to hit a fade.

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So Brooks likes to hit a fade. If you're trying to get out of hitting a fade,

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there's some things that you might want to not copy about his swing.

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As you can see from these track man statistics, he's got a downward angle of

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attack. Over 3 degrees with the driver, almost 10 degrees with the iron.

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Those could be problematic numbers for a lot of amateurs, especially if you

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have lower club head speed, but what we'll talk about is how he actually

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creates that downward angle of attack.

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You can see from this body position that his upper body is far enough behind

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the golf ball. He could have a touch more tilt, but he's got a good amount of

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access tilt to where a lot of players with this body position would have a flat

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or possibly even positive angle of attack.

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So that tells us that the way he steepens the club must be coming more from the

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release.

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What you can see is he gets his leftward path and his fade more from the lack

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of ulnar deviation or having a little bit more of a steeper pattern during his

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release.

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Or basically that left wrist doesn't fully unhinge, he gets a little bit more

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of a roll movement in order to help him square the face.

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That roll movement does move the path left and frequently causes downward angle

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of attack.

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One other thing to note, that roll release tends to create a look in the follow

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through that has a bit more arm vent. So if you really hate the look of having

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a chicken wing, then having a steeper movement of your wrist during the release

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might not be a move that you want to try to copy.

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But if one of your goals is to create more speed, then modeling what Brooks

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does at the top of swing and in transition will definitely help you accomplish

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that.

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If you like the way we broke down Brooks's swing, then please like, subscribe,

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or share this video.

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If you want to learn more about transition and how to maximize power, I've

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included a playlist to a series of transition videos.

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You can head over to GolfSmartAcademy and sign up for a free membership.

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There you can watch any of the transition videos.

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They're organized so you can create a deeper understanding of how guys like

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Brooks are able to hit it as far as they do.