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TrackMan Data: Posture's Effect on Path
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In this video, I use our TrackMan launch monitor to show you how my pro student uses RST fundamentals to produce dead straight shots. You'll find out how a quick change in your golf posture can significantly affect your swing path. Check out this video now to attack the flag sticks!
- Data can be critical when working with a playing professional
- Zeroing out a path will lead to great ball striking and limited mistakes
I'm going to talk about how we use TrackMan and how the RST fundamentals validate all the work that we're working on in our golf swings to help you hit consistently straight golf shots.
So I'm going to pull up a professional student of mine and walk you through an example of not only how important the fundamentals are to helping you hit straight shots in RST, But also how using modern technology such as a launch monitor like TrackMan is going to help you understand how to work through these fundamentals.
So I've got three different groupings of swings here.
The first one we're going to look at is this guy here.
And I want you to notice one number here.
Notice the club path on this side.
These, this is the column that we want to be focusing on.
So this is going through in a sequence.
We started here, went to this swing, this group of swings, and then we ended up with the ones at the top.
Notice that the averages went from 4.
9 to 3.
2 to .
6.
That's a big difference in a short period of time.
So here's what I want you to focus on.
The first thing is, as we look at this swing here, you're going to notice that the blue line that we see here is representing the club, the path that the club was traveling on when the ball was fully compressed on the face.
And you'll note that the white line here in the middle is the target.
So that's the target line.
And the blue shows that the club was working well out to the right or in to out at impact.
And the club face, the red arrow here, shows that the club face was pointing left of the path at impact, but right of the target line.
Now of course this is going to create a shot, all things considered equal, that's going to end up well left of the target, which is represented by this pink and purple line here.
You can see this is the actual fly to the ball.
So, as we walk through this, we're going to notice a couple of things.
One, that club, the ball starting around that purple line, and then it's going to hook 15 yards or so, 10 or 15 yards left of the target.
That's obviously going to cause a missed green, and that wasn't necessarily a bad swing, but it's really hard to put all of these pieces together.
When that club is working this far out to the right, you have to get everything just perfect to get the ball to line up back on the target.
Of course, one of the things I talk about a lot is zeroing out that path.
And what I mean by that is that this blue line would be traveling straight down the target line, that white line at impact, and then all we'd have to worry about is getting that club face to line up with that.
So, that's the ideal goal in a swing.
Now, in, in this student's case, we had a couple of things that were going on.
And the first one that I wanted to fix, I worked through things in sequence here, is I wanted him to feel 100% left arm.
So that's what this next grouping of swings is here.
And we made a pretty big jump.
We went from about 5 degrees to 3.
2 degrees into out.
So you can see all of these swings here are a little bit closer.
We'll take a look at one here.
So here's one where he's just feeling 100 % left arm dominant.
Now, he didn't have the face pointing in the right direction on this one.
But what we did see is that the path was a little bit better, about 30% improvement.
Obviously, him feeling a left hand only wasn't being able to focus on the release.
So I don't consider this a bad result.
Even though the ball went further offline than we had before on this particular swing, the goal was we were working on getting that path.
And we can worry about the club face later.
That part's the easiest part to fix.
But getting that path to work out has a lot of complicated factors into it.
So we've made progress here.
And as we continued to work through some swings, work through 100 some different shots, we got a little bit 101 closer, a little bit closer.
But one of 102 the things that you're going to notice 103 that we've made the biggest size change 104 on was going to a much more upright 105 posture for him.
So if you look at this 106 swing compared to the ones that we were 107 looking at before, he feels like he's 108 standing straight up and down.
But keep 109 in mind, your swing plane and path, a lot 110 of it is dictated by your spine angle and 111 how that dynamically changes throughout 112 the shot.
So as he was coming through, he 113 was trying to lose his posture, lose his 114 tush line.
And that, that would cause his 115 hands to raise up more through the 116 hitting area.
And that would cause the 117 club to want to work out to the right.
So 118 now as we walk through, you'll notice now 119 that the club path, that blue line, is 120 literally exactly on the target line.
121 This is a 0.
0 path.
Now again, club face 122 was just a hair open here.
We work on 123 those pieces bit by bit.
But as we fix 124 the path, now if he gets that club face 125 squared up every time, that ball is going 126 to fly absolutely dead straight and stay 127 online.
And more importantly, Has the 128 opportunity to start online rather than 129 always starting right or left of the 130 target and then having to curve back.
131 That's the hardest way to try and control 132 a golf ball.
If we can get it to start 133 online and stay online, life becomes a 134 lot easier.
So, as we worked on just a 135 postural change, you'll notice a big 136 change in his path.
We actually had a 137 couple that went negative, which he never 138 does.
He tends to be way into out.
So, as 139 he's working through these changes bit by 140 bit, everything changes a little bit.
So, 141 he feels a little different.
But his shot 142 deviation became much more constant as he 143 got closer and closer to 0 on his path.
144 And that's what we were working on.
We 145 want to always try and 0 out this path 146 and get as close.
Here's one where he 147 actually came over negative slightly.
And 148 you'll notice the difference in the shot 149 curvature.
Just a tiny little controlled 150 fade.
And again, all just basic RST 151 fundamentals.
How much do you need to be 152 bent over to the ball?
Well, basically, 153 you need to be bent over far enough that 154 as you keep your spine in neutral, you 155 hinge forward far enough that you can see 156 the ball.
Which means you don't need to 157 be bent over an exaggerated amount.
158 That's going to cause you to tend to want 159 to come out of your posture as you come 160 through.
And as you saw here, that's 161 going to affect your plane and path into 162 the ball.
So, to zero out that path, 163 really pay attention to the fundamentals.
164 The setup fundamentals in RST aren't that 165 exotic or sexy, but they produce quality 166 golf shots.
When you set up correctly, 167 you can go from a zero point, you can go 168 from a five degree in to out path to 0.
0 169 Just by feeling the right things in your 170 swing and getting set up properly and 171 really paying attention to the 172 fundamentals.
So, don't overlook the 173 fundamentals of any part of RST, 174 especially the setup if you want to hit 175 straight golf shots.
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