WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.750
In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Louis Ustaz

2
00:00:05.750 --> 00:00:06.000
en.

3
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:10.000
Now, Louis Ustazen is one of the top 20 golfers in the world right now,

4
00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:15.000
and he's frequently in the top tier of ball strikers,

5
00:00:15.000 --> 00:00:21.000
so driving distance, driving accuracy, or total driving, greens and regulation.

6
00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:25.000
He's always kind of in the mix in terms of the ball striking statistics.

7
00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.330
In this video, we're going to take a look at the one key that allows him to

8
00:00:29.330 --> 00:00:31.000
have this great tempo

9
00:00:31.000 --> 00:00:35.890
and allows that tempo to show up in these really highly ranked ball striking

10
00:00:35.890 --> 00:00:37.000
statistics.

11
00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:42.000
Louis embodies the idea of let your body swing the club.

12
00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:45.770
So I'm going to show you two ways that he shows that he powers the swing with

13
00:00:45.770 --> 00:00:46.000
his body,

14
00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:52.400
and that his arms are fairly relaxed and somewhat secondary in terms of

15
00:00:52.400 --> 00:00:53.000
creating speed

16
00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:55.000
to what his body's doing.

17
00:00:55.000 --> 00:01:00.000
So the first major key would be looking at this movement in transition

18
00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.000
and looking at the spacing between his lead arm and his chest.

19
00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:09.280
Golfers who tend to power their swing with the body will tend to retain that

20
00:01:09.280 --> 00:01:10.000
connection

21
00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:13.000
longer and longer into the downswing.

22
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:16.000
So you'll see that while the arm is dropping down,

23
00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:23.000
it doesn't come flying off his upper body until very late in the swing.

24
00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:28.600
We can compare that to a more arm driven swing where we can see that the arm is

25
00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:29.000
starting

26
00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:35.050
to get off of the body through this phase here, and then that results in having

27
00:01:35.050 --> 00:01:38.000
less body rotation at impact.

28
00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:43.000
Now getting back to Louis, we can see that as we scrub through his swing,

29
00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.000
while he has a tiny bit of lower body early extension,

30
00:01:47.000 --> 00:01:53.000
he keeps his upper body or his thorax in relatively the same space

31
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.100
and does a great job of using his body kind of as a complete unit to power the

32
00:01:58.100 --> 00:01:59.000
swing.

33
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:04.000
From the face on view, you can see a very good sequencing of that lower body

34
00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:10.120
transmitting that energy into his core and then using his arms last during the

35
00:02:10.120 --> 00:02:11.000
release.

36
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:15.280
So he has very good sequencing, which is part of what shows up to the

37
00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:16.000
commentators

38
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.000
is having beautiful tempo.

39
00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:22.470
Now from the face on view, we can look at his release in a little bit more

40
00:02:22.470 --> 00:02:23.000
detail

41
00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:26.610
because the release, I think, is one of the really telling things about Louis

42
00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:27.000
swing.

43
00:02:27.000 --> 00:02:31.250
He's frequently described as having this classic swing, frequently described as

44
00:02:31.250 --> 00:02:34.000
having this great ball striker,

45
00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:36.550
and I'm going to show you how there's a couple things that go on during his

46
00:02:36.550 --> 00:02:37.000
release

47
00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:41.000
that would make you question some traditional golf instruction.

48
00:02:41.000 --> 00:02:45.000
So for example, let's talk about the left arm staying straight.

49
00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:50.430
So you can see that he maintains the left arm staying straight here in the back

50
00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:51.000
swing.

51
00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:56.000
But now because of his arms being fairly relaxed and being powered by the body,

52
00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.000
you'll see that the left arm is going to change the amount of bend a couple

53
00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:03.000
different times during the downswing.

54
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.000
So as he gets to his delivery position right about here,

55
00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:10.770
you'll see that the club starts working more across his body and that left

56
00:03:10.770 --> 00:03:13.000
elbow tends to bend to help out with it.

57
00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:20.690
So the arms are basically initiating the wipe and bringing the club a little

58
00:03:20.690 --> 00:03:23.000
bit more across his body to allow for the side bend.

59
00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.520
Now, what you'll see is through impact, he'll then go back to straightening and

60
00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:33.000
rotating those arms.

61
00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:38.400
So he gets into a very classic looking arm extension position here in the

62
00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:41.000
follow through really good bracing position,

63
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:46.280
powered the swing with his legs and his core. Everything looks great at this

64
00:03:46.280 --> 00:03:47.000
position.

65
00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.050
But there are a lot of details that can get lost when we're looking at this

66
00:03:52.050 --> 00:03:53.000
release.

67
00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.000
From the face on view, you can see the similar pattern.

68
00:03:57.000 --> 00:04:01.000
So you can look at that left elbow and you can see that as it comes through,

69
00:04:01.000 --> 00:04:06.230
there's what I call a little left arm whip where the left arm is going to bend

70
00:04:06.230 --> 00:04:10.000
as it initiates the wipe and then straighten through the release.

71
00:04:10.000 --> 00:04:16.950
That's a classic combination of golfers who have low body weight and high club

72
00:04:16.950 --> 00:04:18.000
head speed.

73
00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:23.400
So we can look and see guys like Charles Howl, guys like Rory McRoy, guys like

74
00:04:23.400 --> 00:04:28.660
Sergio Garcia do really well with this bending of the lead arm as they initiate

75
00:04:28.660 --> 00:04:33.640
the wipe and then straightening of that lead arm as the club works through the

76
00:04:33.640 --> 00:04:34.000
release.

77
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:41.110
Here are two of those golfers. So we have Rory on the left and you'll see that

78
00:04:41.110 --> 00:04:43.000
left elbow bend through there and then straighten through there.

79
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:48.050
So with speed, you can see or if I scrub back and forth, you can see a little

80
00:04:48.050 --> 00:04:52.000
almost whip activity happening in the left elbow and left shoulder.

81
00:04:52.000 --> 00:05:02.880
We'll see the same thing if we look at Sergio. So the lead arm is pretty much

82
00:05:02.880 --> 00:05:05.320
locked at this point. It will bend and then it will straighten and you'll see

83
00:05:05.320 --> 00:05:09.570
that elbow or the space between his elbow and rib cage kind of decrease through

84
00:05:09.570 --> 00:05:10.000
impact.

85
00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.140
So it wipes across which increases and then it releases or straightens through

86
00:05:15.140 --> 00:05:18.000
impact with that little decrease move.

87
00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:23.520
It is very hard to do that movement with any amount of arm tension. If all the

88
00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:27.720
muscles in the forearm and shoulders are very tense in an effort to hold the

89
00:05:27.720 --> 00:05:32.220
club face in a certain orientation, you're going to have a lot of trouble

90
00:05:32.220 --> 00:05:37.420
having some of these fluid movements that add speed and help control the low

91
00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:38.000
point.

92
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:42.090
So one of the other little oddities of looking at his release that would be

93
00:05:42.090 --> 00:05:46.380
hard to do with arm tension is you'll see that his hands actually change on the

94
00:05:46.380 --> 00:05:48.000
grip during the swing.

95
00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:54.050
So on the right, you have this same video clip at setup as we have here at

96
00:05:54.050 --> 00:06:00.300
impact. So if we look at the amount of flexion in that lead wrist and where the

97
00:06:00.300 --> 00:06:04.200
V on his right hand is pointing, you can see the V on the right hand is

98
00:06:04.200 --> 00:06:07.000
pointing in a similar orientation

99
00:06:07.000 --> 00:06:13.040
kind of straight up towards the sky, but you'll see that he has a much greater

100
00:06:13.040 --> 00:06:18.190
amount of flexion in the left hand at impact over here than he did at setup

101
00:06:18.190 --> 00:06:19.000
here.

102
00:06:19.000 --> 00:06:22.980
We'll be able to see some of this movement a little bit easier from the down

103
00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:24.000
the line view.

104
00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:29.120
So from the down the line view, you'll see as he goes through impact, you can

105
00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:34.320
see that right hand coming off the club similar to a VJ or similar to a Fred

106
00:06:34.320 --> 00:06:37.000
couples or Phil Mickelson type movement.

107
00:06:37.000 --> 00:06:42.300
So what we've seen now is that Louie, who has this classic golf swing, bends

108
00:06:42.300 --> 00:06:47.630
and flexes his left elbow and his hands move on the club compared to where they

109
00:06:47.630 --> 00:06:49.000
were at setup.

110
00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:54.200
So if you're trying to have, say, constant grip pressure and hold your hands

111
00:06:54.200 --> 00:06:59.480
exactly the same way, that may require too much grip pressure to swing the club

112
00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:02.000
in an athletic way similar to Louie.

113
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:06.950
And if you're trying to keep that left elbow perfectly straight, it's going to

114
00:07:06.950 --> 00:07:12.320
be very difficult for you to have the amount of side bend and the amount of arm

115
00:07:12.320 --> 00:07:17.000
extension on the way through in order to have a release similar to Louie.

116
00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:22.430
So one last point about the release, and similar to a Jordan's speed where the

117
00:07:22.430 --> 00:07:26.000
left arm appears to be bending through impact.

118
00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.980
What I want you to see is that it's not so much that the arm is bending because

119
00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:35.000
most of the movement is happening in forearm rotation.

120
00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:40.220
What you'll see is that the arm is bent and he's having that bent elbow act as

121
00:07:40.220 --> 00:07:43.000
a stable platform to rotate around.

122
00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:47.000
This will be easiest to see from the behind view.

123
00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:53.040
So from the behind view, if that lead elbow was really bending significantly,

124
00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:57.000
what we would typically see is that elbow would start working around his body.

125
00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:02.120
But what you'll see is from as the elbow starts to appear until it reaches that

126
00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:08.660
follow through position, you'll see that the elbow actually rotates and comes

127
00:08:08.660 --> 00:08:11.000
off of his body towards the target.

128
00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:16.260
So if he was bending the arm, you would either see the hands getting closer to

129
00:08:16.260 --> 00:08:20.000
the shoulder or the elbow working around his side.

130
00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:25.410
What you'll see instead is that the arm is in a bent position, but he keeps it

131
00:08:25.410 --> 00:08:29.000
in that bent position as his forearms rotate.

132
00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:34.450
That's another good sign that Louis is having a relaxed or soft arm movement

133
00:08:34.450 --> 00:08:40.030
and allowing the rotation of forearms to transmit that force all the way into

134
00:08:40.030 --> 00:08:41.000
his back.

135
00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:46.030
That's a safer way to absorb speed, which is part of the reason why he's able

136
00:08:46.030 --> 00:08:50.000
to create the kind of clubhead speed that he's able to do.

137
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:54.470
So if you want to have a classic swing like Louis, first thing I would do is I

138
00:08:54.470 --> 00:08:59.530
would recommend trying or experimenting with having your body power, the swing,

139
00:08:59.530 --> 00:09:01.000
and having very relaxed arms.

140
00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:07.110
Now if your arms are relaxed through impact and you struggle with contact

141
00:09:07.110 --> 00:09:11.490
issues, that frequently means that there's more of a movement or technical

142
00:09:11.490 --> 00:09:15.000
issue, not so much a timing and tempo issue.

143
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.370
So if you relax your arms and your contact gets worse, then I would recommend

144
00:09:19.370 --> 00:09:23.700
taking a look at the drills and concept videos inside the membership area at

145
00:09:23.700 --> 00:09:25.000
GulfSmart Academy

146
00:09:25.000 --> 00:09:30.000
under the release section to understand exactly what each arm needs to be doing

147
00:09:30.000 --> 00:09:32.000
in order to release the club like Louis U stays in.