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

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er.

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Steve Stricker is typically referred to as one of those guys who has the

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simplest swing on tour. Frequently discussed as someone emily, I'm going to

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talk about what he does in his swing based on some 3D that I've seen that

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reveals why his swing looks so simple and so smooth. That simple and smooth

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technique is great for iron shots and for shots around the green and it's part

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of the reasons why he excels in strokes gained either with approaches to the

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green or around the green. But I'm also going to talk about why that smoothness

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may be a limitation if your goal is maximum distance. When I was involved in

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the presentation on rate of closure, I was able to get a look at Steve's 3D

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file

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and so I was able to see what he does so well that helps give the look of just

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everything working together with really good rhythm. Now, one of the most

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apparent is he has some really good sequencing. So if you were to see his

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kinematic sequence, you would see that the lower body leads the upper body, the

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upper body leads the arms and then the arms lead the club. And one way that you

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can see that pretty easily is if you pump back and forth kind of from here to

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there, you can see that there's very little change in his arm positions or his

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arm movements. You can see that most of the movement is happening down in this

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region here. So basically what he's doing is he's using his legs early on in

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order to move his arms into place so that then he can use his arms later and

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deliver the club with a little bit more speed and consistency. From the down

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the

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line view, you'll be able to see that between those two positions, again the

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arms appear like they haven't done a whole lot and what you'll see is he gets

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his thighs back pretty close to where they started by about the time the left

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arm is parallel to the ground. Now he does so without losing a lot of his

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position. So if sequencing is kind of key number one, the looking really smooth

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,

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key number two, we're going to look at the center of his upper body or kind of

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where his sternum is. So if I put a box around roughly, you know, where the

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measurement would be taking place. So just kind of inside the sternum kind of

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like that. What you'll see is that instead of focusing on keeping the head in

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place, this is where the arms actually connect. So keeping the chest about the

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same distance away from the golf ball, not having too much movement either

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towards the golf ball or away from the golf ball, not having too much movement

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up or down and not having too much movement backward and having an okay

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amount forward. All those will help keep your upper body in place so that you

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'll

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be more consistent with your strike. So if you have really good sequencing and

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an upper body that stays in place, you're going to typically have solid

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solid strike solid contact. So you won't need a whole lot of tension down at

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the

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bottom. So you'll see he has a little bit of movement away from the golf ball

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during the downswing. But he stays at close to the same height. He stays about

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the same distance away and he doesn't lunge closer to the target too much. It's

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okay to have a little bit of shift towards the target, especially with the

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irons. But if you start getting more than, let's say, two inches of shift

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towards the target from where you set up to impact, you're typically going to

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struggle with some release issues. So he keeps his upper body in place with

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that

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good while using that good sequencing. And those two factors help produce kind

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of that really smooth look of energy transfer. Now what he does with his arms

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is he has some of the more interesting wrist grafts that I've ever seen. So

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basically between the top of the swing and right about here, he has less than

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two degrees of wrist movement in any direction. He keeps his wrist pretty much

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in the same orientation. Now I said less than two degrees because they do move,

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he does have some arm shallowing, but he only has a couple degrees, not like

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the

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to where average of ten. He has some wrist loading, some increased trail

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wrist extension, but again he only has a couple degrees, not like the 20 you'll

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see with longer hitters. So from the top of the swing to here, he's doing very

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little with his wrist and he's controlling the movement mostly with his

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body. Now I think that's part of the reason that he does so well with the

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wedge shots is he minimizes having too much downswing load and he actually has

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a gentle cast pattern. But the cast pattern doesn't do as well off the tee.

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So even though he's typically in the lower or the higher rankings for

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accuracy, even though he's six feet tall, 190 pounds, he's typically not in the

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top 100 and frequently not in the top 150 in driving distance. Now I do want to

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stress that keeping your upper body in that relatively small bubble doesn't

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come from trying to keep your head still. It comes from a blend of spine

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movements and hip movements that keeps your upper body in place. So I have a

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I have a number of different videos to help teach how to keep your upper body

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in place. But that'd be too much for one of these analysis videos. Now because

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Steve is so great at the wedge shots, let's take a look at how he uses a

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similar pattern with his chipping and pitching. So Steve's cast pattern really

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helps him more with these wedge shots than it does with his shots off the tee.

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But what you'll see is that he has that same minimal movement of his wrist

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during transition. Instead he's providing the power more with his shoulders and

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more from his upper body. That combination is typically what we'll see

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with the better chippers and pitchers of the ball. So it's no surprise that

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Steve

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would be one of the best around the green with his natural pattern. He's able

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to use that pattern and generate enough speed by creating a little bit more

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body

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load with his full swing. But the way he uses his wrist is almost textbook and

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I

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ideal for these short shots around the green. It's not necessarily ideal for

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the

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tee shot which is why he's almost never finished below a hundredth in

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strokes gained off the tee even though he's one of the most accurate drivers.

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But it does allow him to have a really simple game for the places where you

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really need scoring which is the iron shots or the wedge shots.