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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

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Swing Analysis - Justin Thomas

Justin Thomas has won twice in the last year. Golfers marvel at his ability to pound the ball given his size. In this video, you'll learn to identify two keys to swinging the club like Justin Thomas.

Playlists: Swing Analysis Videos

Tags: Not Enough Distance, Analysis, Intermediate

WEBVTT

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in this analysis video we're going to

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take a look at the swing of Justin

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Thomas now Justin Thomas is one of the

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young Bombers on tour he's won twice in

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the last calendar year but what everyone

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wants to understand is how does he drive

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the ball as far as he does obviously he

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looks like he's giving it a good lash

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but we're going to talk about some of

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the things that he does to maximize his

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club head speed that might help you with

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your driving distance as well so justin

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thomas's club head speed is about 117 so

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he's not one of the fastest guys on tour

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the guys who tend to lead club head

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speed on tour typically are in the one

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mid 120 s at 117 he's currently ranked

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24th on tour in club hezbi and there's

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another golfer who he's tied with and

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that golfer hits the ball about 12 yards

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further or shorter on average off the

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tee so the question is is not so much

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how can you steal a few extra miles per

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hour of club head speed but how can you

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maximize the club head speed that you're

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getting because if two golfers can have

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identical club at club head speeds and

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one hits at about 12 yards further you

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want to figure out how you can make the

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same adjustments that will allow you to

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maximize your club head speed a golf bio

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mechanist by the name of Rob Neal did a

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video on Justin Thomas and talked about

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how his smash factor was consistently

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over about 17 balls 1.52 so basically

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he's hitting it in the middle of club

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but one of the things that was a the

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biggest note to rub was that Justin's

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angle of attack was about five degrees

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up giving him the launch angle about 14

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degrees so he's got that high launch low

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spin category that you typically see

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with more the LPGA or the long drive

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tour where people are really trying to

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maximize their driver distance we're

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going to talk about two things that he

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does in his swing to help maximize that

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driver distance so many of you are

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afraid of hanging back that's been one

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of the swing things that I frequently

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hear in lessons especially when I'm

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doing the initial interview golfers say

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they need to get on their left side and

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they they are

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constantly told that they're hanging

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back now we're going to look at what

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Justin does that might be interpreted as

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hang back move but it's a good hang back

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move that's common among long drivers of

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the golf ball let's look at the

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relationship between the center of his

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pelvis and the center of his upper body

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so here we can see kind of the ribcage

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right around there is going to be about

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the center of it and there's the pelvis

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right around there's the center of it so

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you can see that he's got a little bit

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of an a lean towards the target at the

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top of the swing now all the magic is

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really going to happen during the

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downswing so when we get him through to

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the end of transition so somewhere

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between those two frames we'll see that

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if we take those two points again we're

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pretty much looking at a square pelvis

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so the center of its going to be right

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around there and then if we look at his

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ribcage the center of it it's going to

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be right around there so they're pretty

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close to on top of each other you can

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see that there's a little bit of a tilt

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away from the golf ball but not very

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much what we're going to see during the

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release or during the remainder of the

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downswing is his lower body is going to

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shift this way and his upper body is

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going to shift this way with a hang back

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move the danger is when both the lower

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body and the upper body kind of stay

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well behind the golf ball and the

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problem with that is it can it tends to

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lead to an overly leftward path or a

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path of the club going way to the left

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kind of like that what we're going to

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see with most long hitters of the golf

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ball is this axis tilt move during the

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release where the upper body is working

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away from the target as the arms are

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extending out towards the target so what

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we'll see is if you use the trees in the

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background or I'll remark those upper

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body and lower body positions if we now

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take him down to around impact and

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that's the closest frame to impact we

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can see there's his rib cage that was

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upper body has moved backwards and we

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can see there's his pelvis center of is

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probably about there so we can see that

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his lower body has continued to move

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or word while his upper body is moved

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backward that sounds like a weird move

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but will break down a little bit how

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he's able to accomplishes that pattern

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is typically going to continue until

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about shaft parallel so all the way up

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until here you'll see that the upper

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body there's kind of the center of his

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ribcage it's pretty close to where it

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was at impact but it's a little bit

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further and the lower body is probably

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going to be pretty close to about where

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it was at that at impact so you can see

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by creating that axis tilt it allows him

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to extend his arms more parallel to the

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ground or even up if his upper body was

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directly on top of his lower body then

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when he extends his arms that's going to

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tend to cause the club to come down in

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more of a steep fashion or and create

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more of a negative angle of attack which

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is definitely going to rob you distance

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now he does some things with his body

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that allow him to create this axis tilt

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and that's what we'll look at from the

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down-the-line camera so from the

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down-the-line camera we're going to look

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at clubface control so when we get to

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this waist height position in the

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backswing you can see that he's got that

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left wrist in a slightly extended

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position right somewhere probably around

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20 degrees or so maybe a little bit less

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and you can see that the clubface is

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just closed compared to vertical now if

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we take him up towards the top of the

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swing and then get him back down to

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about the same point in the downswing

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we're going to notice that both of those

00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:04.010
have changed so we don't have that exact

00:06:04.010 --> 00:06:06.140
frame where the shaft is parallel but we

00:06:06.140 --> 00:06:08.870
can see just before then you can see

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that the lead wrist is in more of a

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flexed position so the wrist has

00:06:13.640 --> 00:06:17.450
probably changed a good 30 maybe even up

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to 40 degrees trail wrist has more

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extension and the clubface is actually

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more vertical so even though he's flexed

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his wrist which should rotate the

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clubface closed because he's shallowed

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with his arms and the club is well

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behind him and the body has powered the

00:06:34.010 --> 00:06:36.710
early part of the swing it's it appears

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that it's more

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compared to the target that combination

00:06:40.540 --> 00:06:43.900
of having shaft rotation from the wrist

00:06:43.900 --> 00:06:47.020
and shallow arm movements allows him to

00:06:47.020 --> 00:06:50.830
power the downswing with his body while

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still maintaining clubface control it

00:06:52.870 --> 00:06:55.150
also allows him to delay the timing of

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his arm so that he can get in this

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really good access tilt or delivery

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position so that when he extends his

00:07:01.540 --> 00:07:04.120
arms the club is coming slightly up

00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.880
through impact impact with a club that

00:07:06.880 --> 00:07:11.680
is close to the relationship of his body

00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:14.320
like he's because he's bowed that wrist

00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:16.389
he's closed the clubface

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wirdy lofted the clubface but because of

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what he's doing with his arms and body

00:07:20.440 --> 00:07:23.590
the path and this now D lofted club face

00:07:23.590 --> 00:07:25.180
are moving in the direction of the

00:07:25.180 --> 00:07:27.340
target and that's what helps produce a

00:07:27.340 --> 00:07:30.970
really ideal compression or smash factor

00:07:30.970 --> 00:07:32.770
which helps him hit the ball as far as

00:07:32.770 --> 00:07:34.750
he does so now over on the left let's

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just do a quick comparison we can see a

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golfer who's got pretty much a similar

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relationship that we saw with Justin at

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the end of his transition kind of right

00:07:45.700 --> 00:07:49.510
here but what we'll see is during the

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release his upper body and his lower

00:07:52.270 --> 00:07:54.940
body pretty much stay in about the same

00:07:54.940 --> 00:07:57.669
relationship that's going to cause more

00:07:57.669 --> 00:07:59.440
of a negative angle of attack and you'll

00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:01.000
see that this golfer has some low point

00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:03.130
control issues where he tends to top the

00:08:03.130 --> 00:08:08.139
ball what you'll also see is that this

00:08:08.139 --> 00:08:10.300
goal this golfer was told that he needs

00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:12.669
to get more into his left side you can

00:08:12.669 --> 00:08:15.010
see that his upper body in his lower

00:08:15.010 --> 00:08:17.349
body are behind that left leg so it

00:08:17.349 --> 00:08:18.639
gives the impression that he needs to

00:08:18.639 --> 00:08:21.340
get more into his left side but if we

00:08:21.340 --> 00:08:23.560
compare that to where Justin is at about

00:08:23.560 --> 00:08:25.750
the same point even though Justin's

00:08:25.750 --> 00:08:27.910
pelvis is further forward and into that

00:08:27.910 --> 00:08:30.130
left side his upper body is much further

00:08:30.130 --> 00:08:33.580
behind so if you're struggling with

00:08:33.580 --> 00:08:37.510
mostly with just the driver this access

00:08:37.510 --> 00:08:40.330
tilt thing is a key component to

00:08:40.330 --> 00:08:42.580
creating the proper path now in order to

00:08:42.580 --> 00:08:45.220
do that you have to have a solid release

00:08:45.220 --> 00:08:48.970
and usually I like to build that first

00:08:48.970 --> 00:08:50.710
so if you're unsure on

00:08:50.710 --> 00:08:52.120
what's supposed to be going on in the

00:08:52.120 --> 00:08:55.240
release I'd recommend checking out some

00:08:55.240 --> 00:08:58.420
of our videos in the release section you

00:08:58.420 --> 00:09:00.940
can head over to golf smart Academy comm

00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:02.980
and get a free membership and check out

00:09:02.980 --> 00:09:05.710
a number of the different concept and

00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:07.630
drill videos to help you understand how

00:09:07.630 --> 00:09:10.029
Justin gets into that position with the

00:09:10.029 --> 00:09:13.149
arms in the hands and how that release

00:09:13.149 --> 00:09:15.070
movement helps support what he's trying

00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:16.990
to do with his body if you're looking

00:09:16.990 --> 00:09:20.320
for more breakdowns of Toor swing models

00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:22.540
feel free to like and subscribe this

00:09:22.540 --> 00:09:24.640
video on youtube and if you have any

00:09:24.640 --> 00:09:26.560
questions or video suggestions please

00:09:26.560 --> 00:09:28.779
don't hesitate to contact us at support

00:09:28.779 --> 00:09:32.310
at golf smart academy calm

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