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Where is your sternum pointing?

Using a couple alignment sticks under your armpits can help identify general pivot tendencies. In this video, you'll learn where your sternum, or chest, should point at the top of the swing, the transition, impact, and follow through. 

Playlists: Stop Moving Off The Ball (Sway), Fix Your Chicken Wing (Bent Arm @ Impact)

Tags: Poor Contact, Sway, Chicken Wing, Drill, Beginner

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The drill is where is your sternum pointing?

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So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take a couple of linemen sticks and I'm going

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to go through some different parts of the swing to focus on where your sternum is pointing.

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Because I'm a big fan of training that ironman position and basically where is your sternum

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pointing compared to the golf ball when you may contact at impact.

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But what I tend to find is that many golfers benefit from focusing on where is that sternum

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pointing at other parts in the swing.

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Two areas that we're going to focus on in this swing are in this drill are the top of the

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backswing and the follow-through because where your sternum points reveals a lot about

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what's going on in the pivot and there's some common problems that you might be going

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up against that resolving or that are easier resolved by focusing on where that upper body

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is positioned.

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So basically I'm going to get into my setup position and then from here I'm going to make

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my backswing pivot.

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And now you'll notice if I have a good backswing shoulder plane then my sternum is pointing

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roughly parallel to the ground.

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I find that many golfers who circle with either swaying too much off the ball with their upper

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body or having a really short backswing these would be pointing down at the ground there

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and then most of their backswing is going to be created by lifting and maybe even bending

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your arms.

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A lot of golfers who tend to bend their arms to go to the top of the swing have the chest

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pointed way down and bending the arms is really the only way that they're going to get

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enough height where if you train a little bit more of this neutral pivot where the upper

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body stays relatively centered and has a combination of some side bend and some rotation

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and some extension that will get things pointing more horizontal.

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Now in the follow-through position we're going to try to point it even more up towards

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the sky.

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So here I am at the backswing.

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When I get into that first movement in the downswing you can see that this is going to

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increase in point basically back down towards the target line.

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I don't want to go this way initially, right?

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I don't want to go into side bends so this is pointing too much up there that's a form

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of early extension.

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So I'm regaining my flex, getting more into that left tilt and then through impact,

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my upper body is going to stay behind my lower body as I brace and so when I get in

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this follow-through position my lumbar spine and my body is supported by my abs but my

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chest is pointing just above the horizon.

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Many golfers who struggle with more of a scoop or a chicken wing or a bending of the

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arms.

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So I tend to have the upper body pointing more down there just like in the backswing and

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then the arms are what's creating more of the lift kind of like this.

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So we're going to get tilted this way up towards the top of the swing and then we're

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going to be coming through into impact where it's basically pointing slightly open and

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then getting into that follow-through position where this is pointing just above the horizon

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again.

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So that can give you a few little checkpoints that you can use when you're doing your pivot

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training at home and then you can take those concepts and the alignment sticks and apply

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them when you're practicing at the range.

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