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

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uyama.

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Now, Hideki is consistently a top ball striker, and like many who can really go

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low, he shines with the iron shots.

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Specifically between 125 and 200 yards.

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In this video, we're going to discuss two of his keys on how he's able to hit

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such exceptional approach shots.

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Hideki is consistently in the top 10 in strokes gained approach to green.

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His proximity to the hole is great. He's a really solid iron player.

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He's a good driver of the golf ball, but he's an exceptional iron player.

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He can struggle at times with the putting, but when he gets that rolling, he

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can go really low.

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Now, what's nice for this analysis video is we're going to take a look at what

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he does during the release.

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Because right now, some of the hot concepts are to teach a lot of arm shall

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owing and early flexing of the lead wrist.

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And we'll see that Hideki doesn't really do either of those.

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You can see that early in his transition, he gets the shaft in a more vertical

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or steep position compared to his upper body,

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and he doesn't really flex that lead wrist.

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So how is it that he's able to do these things that typical amateurs struggle

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with,

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yet he is able to consistently be a great iron player, or just a great ball

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striker?

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Well, there's two keys that he's able to demonstrate in his swing.

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One, dealing with his arms and the way he releases the club, and two, dealing

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with his upper body

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and how stable he's able to keep his sternum.

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Now, your arms actually connect to the sternum.

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So the sternum is the chest bone, is a great kind of reference for how your

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upper body is going to influence low point.

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So what many amateurs would do is from this a little bit steep position, like

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so, they would shallow out the swing path

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by having the sternum go backwards away from the golf ball and having the stern

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um go up

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and probably having the sternum go a little bit forward.

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Now, what we'll see is through the release, he does a great job of keeping the

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sternum about the same distance away from the golf ball.

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That helps him provide a really consistent reference point for his arm

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extension.

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From the down the line, you'll see that even though he does a tremendous job of

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pushing with the legs

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and using the legs vertically as well as rotationally, you'll see that he doesn

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't let that cause his upper body or his sternum to move off of the golf ball.

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So he stays a pretty consistent distance from his golf ball and then what he

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does with his arms allows him to make very solid repeatable turf contact.

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What he does differently with his arms, which is kind of that second key, is he

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really releases the whole arm and not just the hands.

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What many people do from that steep position is they would release the club

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outside in and they would rehinge their wrist and bend those arms to help

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square the face.

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Hideki rotates the club, he just does it later than what most Torpros do

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currently.

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So he's able to rotate the club through this zone here, which allows him to get

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some shaft lean but still have the club face pointing at the target.

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If you struggle with getting shaft lean, then know that in order to have any

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amount of shaft lean and have the club pointing at the target, you're going to

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have to have some face rotation.

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Now on the way through, what he does in order to produce more of a wide

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consistent bottom to his swing is he straightens his arms and he extends or he

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only deviates.

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He unhinges his wrist, which helps keep the club wider longer.

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It helps keep the club moving on a more shallow path for a longer period of

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time.

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And he does it so long and so late that you'll see that by the hands are almost

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belly button height, the club is still below them.

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He's one of the best at this, along with a Jordan Spieth, and it's no

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coincidence that the two of them are some of the top iron players in the game.

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What many amateurs do is they would not really fully release their arms and

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shoulders, but instead flip the trail wrist and extend the lead wrist and have

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the club head pass very quickly.

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So they would have the club working its way towards that position compared to

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the hand height, where Hideki keeps with the unhinging, keeps his hands above

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the club head for a long period of time into the follow through.

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That helps him obtain this really classic looking what I call follow through

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position, where the arms are fully extended.

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The club is pointed just slightly right of his target line or pretty close to

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it, and the club is slightly below the hands.

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His sternum has maintained about the same distance it was from the golf ball,

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from where it was at impact through to the end of that follow through position.

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So you got your two keys for iron play, but I want to leave you with a tempo

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thought to work with as well.

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One of the things that Hideki demonstrates that I've seen in my experience is

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that golfers who have more of a vertical or steep arm movement tend to do

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better with a quieter upper body.

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So you'll see that Hideki has his famous kind of paws at the top where he

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collects himself, and what gives him the look of more of that slow tempo during

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transition is the fact that his upper body doesn't spin out very much.

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If you're going to have more vertical arm movement, then keeping your chest

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closed or keeping your upper body quiet tends to really help balance that out

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and coordinate it.

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So you'll see even though he goes pretty hard with his lower body, his upper

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body is not one of his major power sources.

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That combination of going harder with his lower body, harder with his arms, but

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being quiet with his upper body, not spinning out, not creating a lot of

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aggression from his upper body, helps him control his path, his low point, and

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his face to be one of the more consistent iron players.

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So if you want to learn more about how your swing works, head over to GolfSmart

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Academy.com, sign up for a free membership, and you can check out videos related

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to transition, the release, or general concepts like slicing and hooking.

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