Swing Analysis Videos
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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
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have changed so we don't have that exact
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frame where the shaft is parallel but we
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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
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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
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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
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of having shaft rotation from the wrist
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and shallow arm movements allows him to
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power the downswing with his body while
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still maintaining clubface control it
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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
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arms the club is coming slightly up
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through impact impact with a club that
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is close to the relationship of his body
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like he's because he's bowed that wrist
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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
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the path and this now D lofted club face
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are moving in the direction of the
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target and that's what helps produce a
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really ideal compression or smash factor
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which helps him hit the ball as far as
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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
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here but what we'll see is during the
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release his upper body and his lower
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body pretty much stay in about the same
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relationship that's going to cause more
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of a negative angle of attack and you'll
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see that this golfer has some low point
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control issues where he tends to top the
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ball what you'll also see is that this
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goal this golfer was told that he needs
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to get more into his left side you can
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see that his upper body in his lower
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body are behind that left leg so it
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gives the impression that he needs to
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get more into his left side but if we
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compare that to where Justin is at about
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the same point even though Justin's
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pelvis is further forward and into that
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left side his upper body is much further
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behind so if you're struggling with
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mostly with just the driver this access
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tilt thing is a key component to
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creating the proper path now in order to
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do that you have to have a solid release
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and usually I like to build that first
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so if you're unsure on
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what's supposed to be going on in the
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release I'd recommend checking out some
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of our videos in the release section you
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can head over to golf smart Academy comm
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and get a free membership and check out
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a number of the different concept and
00:09:05.710 --> 00:09:07.630
drill videos to help you understand how
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Justin gets into that position with the
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arms in the hands and how that release
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movement helps support what he's trying
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to do with his body if you're looking
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for more breakdowns of Toor swing models
00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:22.540
feel free to like and subscribe this
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questions or video suggestions please
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don't hesitate to contact us at support
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