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Swing Analysis - Matt Kuchar
Matt Kuchar demonstrates really good arm shallowing and body sequencing during transition. These traits allow him to achieve a classic impact position capable of repeatable contact and ball flight.
WEBVTT
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in this analysis video we're going to
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take a look at the swing of Matt Kuchar
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now Matt Kuchar is a one of the prime
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examples used at for the one plane swing
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technique he works with a Chris
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O'Connell I'm going to take a look at
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his driver swing and show you a few
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things he does in transition and one
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thing you can learn from his release and
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impact that you can apply to your own
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game to help you with your ball striking
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consistency so on the Left we have Matt
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Kuchar hitting a draw with a 3-wood
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great filming work here by Terry rolls
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in his team so first thing we're going
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to look at is a transition so you can
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see he's got kind of some of his his
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normal hit keep the club head well
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outside the hands work that elbow back
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as if you were starting a lawn mower but
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as we get to the top of the swing we're
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going to pay attention to what's
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happening with the trail shoulder so now
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that I've been here in Houston for a
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little while I've worked with more and
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more golfers who tried the one plane
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method so nothing this won't be you know
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a batch one way or the other really what
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I want to do is is highlight what he
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does in his trail shoulder that allows
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him to play from such a flat position at
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the top of the swing and for comparison
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we're going to look at this iron swing
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over here on the right where it appears
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that he's playing less of a draw more a
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straight shot or even a fade so you'll
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have a lot of the similar
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characteristics to what we're going to
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see over here on the driver but I want
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to highlight a couple little changes
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that will see that vary from whether
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he's hitting a draw 3-wood or a straight
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slash fade iron okay so as we as we look
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at this transition at the top of the
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swing the the right elbow has worked a
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little bit more across his body that's
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that's kind of a or away from his body I
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should say it's kind of working more
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along the side of his body instead of
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staying well out in front of his chest
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right because it's just as kind of
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pointing out in this space here
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that's kind of characteristic for Matt
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Kuchar swing now as he starts down
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you'll be able to see that that right
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arm tends to start working into external
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rotation or if I was to zoom in here
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basically what we'll see is as he starts
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down you can see that the elbow reads
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the hands slightly and you can see that
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the club starts working a little bit
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more shallow even when he's working on
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this slightly steeper pattern when he's
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trying to hit more of a straight shot or
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a little bit of a fade you'll see that
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the elbow is there it's kind of out away
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from his you know away from his side
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kind of more towards the side of his
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body or out away from the front of his
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chest more towards the side of his body
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and then as he starts down that elbow is
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working in the direction of his belly
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button or sternum it's kind of working
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back in front of his body as it goes
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into a little bit of external rotation
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I'll bring up an amateur real quick just
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to show you the comparison of the danger
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of that arm getting too much behind your
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body zoomed in here's a golfer who had
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that right arm working a little bit more
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into that flying elbow position a little
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bit more along the side of his body now
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the danger from here is as you elevate
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with the arm behind your body you'll
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quickly run out of external shoulder
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range of motion so part of the the
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benefit of what Matt Kuchar does or part
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of the reason why Matt Kuchar is able to
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make a good transition shoulder move
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with that external rotation is that
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keeps his elbow close to if not
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connected to his ribcage if he were to
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raise it up there you'd be he'd be very
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restricted in terms of going into more
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external rotation so here we'll see the
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normal tendency when that shoulder runs
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out of external rotation it's frequently
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going to result to going into internal
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rotation as this gentleman is
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demonstrating there and that internal
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rotation can create a massive steepening
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of the shaft as you'll see by the
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very vertical position over on the right
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compared to the external rotation of the
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shoulder creating a much more flat shaft
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angle which will allow for him to make
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his good body pivot and have really good
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sequencing as he gets into the downswing
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so key number one for you is to make
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sure that your trail shoulder goes into
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external rotation as you start the
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downswing for key number two we're going
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to take a look at what matt kuchar looks
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like an impact so over on the left as we
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take him down we can get towards impact
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we can see well just to be fair we'll go
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one frame past
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so that it doesn't skew it that much so
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frequently golf instructors will talk
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about kind of keeping your shoulders
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parallel at impact while getting your
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lower body open now and typically we
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will use the down the line camera angle
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or the golf instructors will say that we
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use the down the right down the line
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camera angle in order to demonstrate
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that relationship because from down the
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line you do want to see this right arm a
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little bit underneath the left that's
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indicating that you had good shallowing
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arm movements during transition and good
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arm timing the release was a little bit
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more of what I call a wipe and then kind
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of extend as opposed to going in
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internal rotation and really just to
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kind of turn in that Club over through
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impact so this is really good forearm
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slash shoulder alignments here at impact
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now cautioning you again some danger can
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happen if you try to keep your shoulders
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closed so what'll what'll sometimes
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happen is trying to keep your shoulders
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close will limit the ability or the
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rotation amount in the ribcage
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so this three-quarter face on view is
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one of my favorites for showing where
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the chest is pointing as we reach impact
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it's also a good way to look at the
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sequencing so during his downswing you
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can see his lower body is starting but
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you can see that as soon as his lower
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body starts his rib cage is actually
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doing a good job of transmitting that
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force right through there
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then it gets into the shoulder girdle
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pretty quickly so you'll see there's a
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little bit of relaxation in this lead
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shoulder as the as the hips and the
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ribcage kind of work together rotating
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Oh towards the target you'll see that
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his shoulder blade which is kind of in
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line right there basically works a
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little bit towards the end of
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protraction so it basically works a
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little bit away from the target that way
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kind of stretching some of the muscles
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in the posterior shoulder so then as he
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starts down we're seeing that upper body
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that lower body continue to rotate kind
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of lagging behind with the arms and then
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here we have him pretty much at impact
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so now from this down the line view it
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does look like his shoulders are close
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to square right we can kind of see there
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are his shoulders from his face on view
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you can see that his chest or his pelvis
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is pointed well out in front of the
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target somewhere in that 4045 degree
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range we can see that his upper body is
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pointing well out in front of the target
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kind of down along that target line
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somewhere in that 30 degree range and as
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a result the arms kind of look like
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they're more behind or toward the right
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half of his body
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you can also we can imagine how it would
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look from down the line we can see this
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right forearm is kind of underneath the
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left so we know that this left arm is
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closer to us than the right keeping that
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perspective you can see how that right
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side is kind of underneath the left but
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it's more this side Bend that creates
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that look of the shoulder staying closed
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not actually lack of rotation I find
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that a lot of golfers who try to
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restrict their rotation of their core
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ends up with significant issues when
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hitting the longer clubs and can
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frequently have early release the arms
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hit it fat have lots of contact misses
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so two great keys you can learn from
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looking at Matt Kuchar Zoar how the
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trail arm works in
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into external rotation as he goes into
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his downswing and how he sequences his
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body from his transition from the ground
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up enabling him to reach this really
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classic looking impact position
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regardless of the little nuances that he
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has in his takeaway and/or backswing so
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if you're struggling to understand how
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to shallow your arms or what a good
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impact position should really look look
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at feel free to check out our other
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videos here on the YouTube channel or go
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over to golf smart Academy and get a
00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:26.529
free membership where you can learn
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about some of the science based
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instruction and what 3d research as well
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as current golf science trends can help
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you understand about how to simplify
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your goals when you're practicing your
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golf game