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

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swing of Gary

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player.

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Now Gary player has 165 wins worldwide and has victories in 28 consecutive

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years.

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That's a truly monumental feat if you think about it and perfect evidence why

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he's one

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of the best examples of how to carry yourself and how to have your swing aged

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gracefully.

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He is the only winner of the Grand Slam on both the regular and the Champions

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Tour and

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he made the cut at the Masters tournament at the age of 62.

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So he's shown that he can play great golf into his later years and I'm going to

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show

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you how his swing has changed from his prime until into his 60s and 70s.

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So over on the right, we have Gary hitting one of the ceremonial tee shots at

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the Masters

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and then over on the left, we have him roughly 30 years younger.

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Now interestingly, we've got about the same camera angle and similar style

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shoes.

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So if we go up to the top of the swings from this kind of unique perspective,

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we'll be

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able to see a couple little differences, but we'll be able to see, especially

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on the way

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through that a lot of things have remained the same.

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So with a somewhat similar camera angle, we can see that his hands are much

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lower and

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flatter and more around his body than when he was back in his prime.

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That could be due to some loss of range motion of the shoulders.

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It could be due to a changing swing philosophy, but we can see that he hasn't

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made quite as

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much upper body turn, which will be easier to see from the face on view.

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But we can see that difference in arm height very clearly.

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Now in the swing over here on the left, we'll see a very good look at his br

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acing strategy

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and you can see that that left arm stays pretty straight and he uses a lot of

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body rotation

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to kind of take the club from impact into his follow through.

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Over here on the right, it's a little tricky to see with the blur of the club,

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but we can

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see a little bit more of the speed being absorbed into his shoulders because he

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's not quite as

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able to use his lower body in his core as well as he did when he was 30.

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But we can see the overall pattern remains about the same.

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Comparing that to say a Jack Nicholas or an Arnold Palmer, you can see that his

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commitment

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to fitness has allowed his body to continue to make the swing movements that he

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's ingrained

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and that enable him to have success well into his twilight years.

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So Gary Player has one of the most famous triggers in all of golf.

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You'll see over here on the left, his famous knee kind of kicking in towards

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the center

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before he has his pressure shift during his takeaway.

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Now we'll see as he, in his younger years, he had a very, he did a great job of

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kind

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of staying centered even though he used kind of this full hip turn, full

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shoulder turn,

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got the club actually well past parallel with this full range of motion.

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Now over here on the right, we're going to see that same trigger and we're also

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going

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to see some evidence of some rib cage stiffness.

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So you'll see that he's not able to extend through the spine as well as he

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could when

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he was around 30 and you'll see that he's not able to have quite as much side

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bend.

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So as a result, when we look at his takeaway, you can see that his upper body

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tends to move

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a little bit more off the ball.

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That can be a little bit more, less consistent, but it can also create a little

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bit more speed

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if you're more of a shoulder puller on the club.

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So perhaps his power sources have changed as he's gotten older, but at the very

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least

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his range of motion has changed, which is going to upset or disrupt the steep

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and shallow

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blend.

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So we'll look from down the line and we'll see exactly what changes he had to

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make in

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order to still hit a quality golf shot with this different range of motion.

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So over here on the right, we're going to see a decreased ability to create arm

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lift with

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the shoulders.

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Over here on the left, he's going to have more shoulder turn and you'll see

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that his

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arm elevation and arm height is going to be much more exaggerated compared to

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over here

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on the right.

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Over here on the right, you can see his arms are working much more around and

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across his

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body.

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Now, body rotation and side bend both helps shallow out the club by creating

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depth of

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the hands.

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Now, if you lose some of that range of motion, you can benefit from having your

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arms work

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in a little bit flatter position.

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So when he starts coming down, we can see that he hits a pretty good looking

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delivery

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position where the club would be roughly just inside the hands, allowing him to

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come into

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the golf ball on a nice shallow path.

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With this vertical arm movement, you'll see that he's able to achieve kind of a

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similar

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delivery position alignment, but over here on the right, he's able to do so by

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taking

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advantage of more side bend, especially through the spine.

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This will become more apparent on the way through when we look at the tilt of

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his shoulders

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compared to the tilt of his pelvis.

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Over here on the right, because he doesn't have quite as much side bend ability

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, which

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is natural as you get older, roughly around the age of 65 or so, you're going

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to lose

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about a third of the total range of side bending compared to when you're around

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30.

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So you can see that the spine is in a much more neutral position, a lot less

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side bending.

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As a result, that tends to steepen the path of the club, so he works his arms

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in more

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of a shallow path, working more around his body.

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But he's still able to control the geometry of the club, create a really good

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path into

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the ball with a nice flat spot, allowing him to perform pretty consistently

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even with this

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changing movement.

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So you can see that as his swing evolved, he adjusted the top of the swing

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position to

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match what his range of motion would allow him to do, so that he could get the

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club to

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ultimately do what he wants.

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So even though he had different looking top of the swing positions in these two

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different

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swings, you will see that he has very similar sequencing.

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So you can see him replanting that left heel and getting his lower body to

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initiate the

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early part of the downswing, and you can see the timing and the direction of

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when that

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trail arm straightens.

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So he's pretty much at impact and you can see that that right arm hasn't fully

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straightened

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and it's not until through the shot that you see that right arm straightening.

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While he's not able to have the same amount of range of motion, you'll see that

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heel

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planting, lower body rotating, right arm kind of staying more up against this

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side,

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and then that same timing of the arm extension on the way through.

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So he's kept the same triggers and he's kept the same sequencing, but with the

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change

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of his body, he's had to adapt to steep and shallow balance in order to

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accomplish the

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rules of ball flight, the rules of the geometry of the shot.

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So whether it's injury or age, as your body changes, you'll have to make

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changes to your

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swing as well, and hopefully seeing how Gary Player did it will give you some

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ideas of

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ways that you can adapt your steep and shallow balance.

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Next let's take a look at the Gary Player walkthrough.

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Now Gary Player is famous for the walkthrough shot where basically he would

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talk about his

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continuing his upper body and really getting that right side to fire through.

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Now I've had golfers who have tried to incorporate that and tend to get that

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upper body getting

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very steep.

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So one thing you should notice is he never did that walkthrough with the driver

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or this

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really long clubs, it was always kind of a shorter or scoring club motto for

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him.

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And if you take a look through to bracing position, so if we look through until

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that

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club is about parallel to the ground, you'll see that his upper body is bracing

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nicely.

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And it's not really until past this position that he then just lets his upper

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body go through.

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Potentially to take some of the stress off of the hip, potentially to have a

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feeling

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of the upper body continuing to rotate through.

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But what ends up happening is a lot of golfers who try to emanate the walking

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through, they'd

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have their hips further back and their upper body going forward, which is going

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to cause

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more of a steep angle of attack, which can tend to cause some contact problems

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or poor

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bracing mechanics.

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So understand that even if you're doing that little walkthrough movement, you

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want to make

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sure that your upper body stays behind your lower body with most of the full

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shots and

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then it's only after you get into that full good extension position that you

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would let

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your upper body rotate through.

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So if you're not sure of your steep shallow balance or you just want to learn

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more about

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the golf swing and how it works, either subscribe to our YouTube channel or

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check out some of

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our steep and shallow videos with a free membership over at golfsmartacademy.

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com.