Patrick Reed - Right Foot Brake

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Congrats to the young and always exciting Patrick Reed, for winning the 2015 Hyundai Tournament of Champions. In this new video, I will show you a great way to get over those hip spinning problems that have left you frustrated round after round. I will also show a couple of great checkpoints to help you maintain your spine angle through the entire golf swing and get you back to playing consistent golf. I'll show how to use the lower body properly in your downswing and then control it during the release by using your trail foot as a brake!

  • Sit into the trail side glute when working into the top of the backswing to help maintain spine angle. 
  • Shift the hips to the lead side and post up. 
  • Use the trail foot as a brake for the hips so that cannot spin open in the hitting area. 
  • Release the club


Hey guys, this is Rotary Swing Instructor Chris Tyler.
Patrick Reed pulls out a beautiful victory at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions for 2015, kicking the year off in stylish fashion.
So congratulations to Patrick Reed.
This week, I'm going to talk to you about how.
Patrick Reed uses the right foot in his downswing to help slam on the brakes of the lower body.
And have a ton of clubhead speed.
Let's go ahead and get started.
Okay guys, This week, we're going to be taking a look at Patrick Reed's golf swing.
And I'm going to show you guys a couple of really key areas in his move that help him.
Number one, be able to pull power out of the ground and turn it into clubhead speed through the release.
But I'm also going to show you what's allowing him to be really consistent.
And so those of you players that have ever been labeled as hip spinners, You want to pay really close attention to this review.
Because he does one move in his golf swing, probably better than 95% of the players that I've seen out on the PGA Tour.
And this is a really key move that's going to help you control the speed of the hips through the hitting area.
At address, you're going to notice, I'm going to focus in on a few key areas here this week.
I'm going to show you how he keeps his hips back.
He's also been able to maintain his spine angle throughout most of his entire move here.
But at address, he's got his glove logo facing down his target line.
And then as we get through the takeaway position here, you're going to notice that he's got his glove logo now facing out in front of him.
Also notice how he's been able to maintain spine angle into the takeaway.
He's also been able to keep his hips back beautifully.
And then you're going to see as he starts to work up into the vertical plane here, you're going to see some gradual rotation of those wrists.
Notice how he's also kept his right hip back and maintain spine angle just as he had at address.
So for those of you players that have noticed that, your spine angle starts to change from where you had it at address up to the top part of your golf swing, double check to make sure that your trail hip has stayed back.
If you notice that your trail hip comes forward off of this line, then that in turn can make the spine go more vertical.
And that's going to add a very big timing variable to your golf swing.
That's going to make it very difficult for you to play consistent from one day to the next.
We really want the spine angle to stay the same throughout the entire golf swing.
We really want to make sure that that's maintained and we're rotating our shoulders perpendicular to that axis.
Alright, so double check to make sure you keep that trail side hip back.
A good way for you to try this out is if you stick your tush up against a wall and you just make some 9 to 3 swings, you know, just with some small weight shift over to the trail side swinging out to 9 o'clock, shift the weight, keep the arms where they are, Go ahead and shift over to the lead side, and then go ahead and swing on through.
And try to keep your right tush back all the way through, just lightly, as you're starting to swing all the way through 3 Now, this is just obviously a toned down version and just a different way to think about how to keep the hips back and how to maintain spine angle.
But definitely a good little simple drill for you guys to try around the house.
Now, those of you that have had a problem with hips spinning, or those of you that have had a hard time understanding how we're going to pull power to the ground, these next few moves are really critical for you to understand.
So you're going to see here as Patrick gets in transition, you're going to go ahead and see him sit left.
He gets the hips back to a square position here, still keeping the hips back.
Now, his hands are going to be working down into that same position that he had into the.
And, you'll notice that his Glove logo is now facing just a fraction more vertical than where it was.
Now really, Really important for those of you players, like I said that are hip spinners is paying attention to two areas.
This right foot and his hips.
Okay, so now watch right through these next few frames.
These hips are done right here.
This is the release point of the golf swing.
The hips are not moving at all and he's still got his right heel down on the ground.
Let me get through one more frame here.
So a few key areas to take a look at.
Take a look at where his glove logo is now facing.
It's now facing directly behind him.
So it was out in front of him through the take away.
Much like we talk about in the five minutes to a perfect release video, or the nine to three drill.
We want to always have the wrist kind of rotating through the take away, and then in the downward move, there's some gradual rotation.
So we use the Glove logo out in front of us as a reference point at the nine.
So, double check to make sure that you have that clearly understood how we're trying to get there.
Make sure you don't have a lot of tension in the wrist while you're trying to achieve this.
Because we need to have them relaxed and allow the club to do what it's designed to do, and that's rotate.
But more importantly, if you take a look at this right foot it is still down on the ground.
It is allowing him to control the speed of his hips through the hitting area and well after the hitting area.
So what I mean by this is that if you were to set up in a static address position, and you guys at home can try this out, And you were to shift all your weight over to your lead side.
And then go ahead and roll to the inside part of your trail foot, keeping your heel down, and then pull your hips open.
Try to pull them open and you'll notice that you have very limited range of motion, very limited mobility.
Then go ahead and lift the trail foot up just a little bit.
Notice how you can start to rotate the hips more and more.
So we think of the right foot as a braking mechanism for the hips.
So what we want to try and do is we want to make sure that we get fully seated over the left side, just as he does.
We want to post up and then we want to use the right foot to be able to stall the body out and release the golf club at the proper time and get lots of speed at impact.
That's really how you control the speed of the body.
So if you've been one of those people that likes to, you've noticed that you're spinning your entire body through the hitting area.
Then you definitely want to check out the role of the right foot in the downswing video.
That's a great video that Chuck really kind of goes through, how we're going to use the right foot properly in the downward move.
You also, For those of you players that have been running into problems with having some early extension to your spine, we want to look at the losing the tush line video.
And all these videos are going to be to the right of the video player for you guys as recommended videos.
And again, one of the most critical areas of the golf swing is always going to be the release.
So five minutes to a perfect release is a great way to, you know, start off your 2015, Making sure that you understand how to control the hitting area and then get into some good nine to three drills.
And then understand how you can use your lower body in the downward move.
Not only one to get things fully shifted, get things posted up, And then obviously, you can use your trail foot now to understand that it's a braking mechanism and you can release the golf club with max speed at impact.
So I want you guys to try those out.
Take a look at those videos and let's get out there and play some great golf this 2015.
I wish you all the best.
I look forward to working more with you all in the future and have a great day.

Must be Premium Member to Comment

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T David
Great video. I have been focusing on my right foot and knee position through the downswing. As the ground force is applied to the right foot at the top of the swing, at what point does this pressure move to left side?
June 8, 2017
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Dave. You will still have some glute engagement in the trail side when shifting to help stabilize the hips. But, as you get into the release position is when you will feel the vast majority on the lead side.
June 8, 2017
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Brian
While working on the belt buckle drill, I started noticing something in my swing that appears to be similar to what Patrick Reed does. It's not quite as obvious in this video, but watch his hip rotation during the backswing and transition. I notice that he restricts the hip rotation almost at the completion of the backswing, but then there is one extra bit of hip rotation that triggers the downswing. I noticed this very subtle move in my swing when working on the belt buckle concept of trying to point the buckle back behind the ball when starting the downswing.
August 20, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Brian. I don't think you need to manually train a move like this, but I see what you are saying relative to Patrick's swing.
August 20, 2015
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Anthony
Chris, in the video pratice points you use the term "post up". Can you explain what that means, thanks
March 9, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Anthony, posting up is just an expression for creating max stability in the lead leg in a neutral joint alignment fashion. It also relates to once you have shifted the weight to the lead side and stabilized it, you are pushing the lead ankle into the ground and clearing the lead hip, thus giving you the term posting up. Hope that helps.
March 9, 2015
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Christian
guilty hip spinner. I just finished getting to the top correctly and now (with this video) I should be able to squat and keep my spin angle. I am looking forward to uploading a video with my improvements.
January 23, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Christian. We look forward to taking a look. Use that trail foot and squat correctly. Start getting good snap at the ball!
January 23, 2015
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Peter
I like this guy! He's not a lanky, willowy McElroy. He looks like me! A little tank. Your description of his stability, the use of his big hip/gluteal muscles is made more apparent by your attention to his right foot. I'd decided that stabilizing the right heel,with a little squat, was a great way for me to slow the hips. For now, however, I'm sitting on my gluteals, and drooling over your continued study of the Rotary Tour. I'm slow, but not stupid. I'll catch up...just as soon as I get these damned braces off (not the teeth kind). pk
January 21, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Peter. Apologize for the later reply. It's nice to see someone of "typical" build using good fundamentals for us normal folks. No need to be Arnold to have a good golf swing.
February 17, 2015
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Maciej
Patrick strange business with the left foot is because of his left knee which he has bent in impact. And his body instead on rotating on pelvis joint is trying to rotate on knee. That is what I see.
January 15, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Maciej -- His left foot his strange for sure. His weight does move to the lead side pretty drastically in the downward move. He is leveraging the ground which is pushing the left foot so hard into the ground that it becomes almost weightless in the hitting area. The point of the video was to see how he uses the trail foot to stall the hips. Sorry I did not make that more clear. Look at how Bubba Watson hits his driver. He is up on his toes and almost airborne at times. Does this mean he has not shifted his weight to the lead side? Just trying to give a good comparison here for further clarification.
January 16, 2015
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Don
Bye the way.........I was a big hip spinner!
January 15, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Gotcha. We all were at one point in time!
January 16, 2015
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Don
I have self-critiqued myself to others by saying that part of my problem is that I have two swings and I tend to switch back and forth if my timing is off on a certain day. (Usually when I haven't been playing much and try to come back out after a long layoff.) The one swing I use is almost identical to Reed's swing. At address I put 90% of my weight on the right foot and try to keep it there as long as possible. As my hips rotate to start the swing my weight just naturally shifts to the left side, but it only feels like I have a 50/50 weight distribution at impact and only completely shifts to the left side after my follow through passes the 90 degree point on my release. To me the total swing feels more "armsy" but my results, as long as I don't try to swing too hard, is unbelievably straight and long. Many times I have demoed the two shots for my sons-in-laws while playing a practice round by hitting two balls off of the tee. On the first shot I use the Reed swing and swing smooth and easy. On the second shot I shift my weight early and totally swing almost as hard as possible. When I connect on both, the second swing goes twice as high and stays in the air much longer, but the distance between the two distances are usually within 3 yards of each other unless I have a strong tailwind or headwind. I have this "hit it as hard as I can mentality" as long as I can control it so I don't play the Reed-type shot very often, unless my timing gets off during a round when I am swinging harder. I agree with the previous comments that Reed cannot pick up his left foot if he has his weight fully shifted left! So which should I play?
January 15, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Don. I don't want you presetting the weight on the trail side and then starting the swing. Nevertheless, have no issue with using you weight transfer to the trail glute as a trigger. If you want to start the swing by shifting into the trail glute to get a little momentum going I would go with that one. It seems to give you a little more flow in the swing according to the notes. Freeing items up and allowing for more efficiency.
January 16, 2015
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Braden
Sorry I didn't see the other comments.
January 15, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
No problem at all. I am here to help and trying to further clarify what is going on with reeds swing.
January 16, 2015
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Braden
Chris, I wish I could see front on view because it looks like in down the line view he is keeping a lot of weight on his right side. If he transfer his weight onto the left side he should not be able to spin his left foot out the way he does. What do you see with his foot spinning out?
January 15, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Braden -- His weight does move to the lead side pretty drastically in the downward move. He is leveraging the ground which is pushing the left foot so hard into the ground that it becomes almost weightless in the hitting area. The point of the video was to see how he uses the trail foot to stall the hips. Sorry I did not make that more clear. Look at how Bubba Watson hits his driver. He is up on his toes and almost airborne at times. Does this mean he has not shifted his weight to the lead side? Just trying to give a good comparison here for further clarification.
January 16, 2015
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Ian
I have to agree with Dan and Pavel. He lifts his left foot completely off the ground through release. At 3:35 his right heel goes back down onto the ground and his left foot (3:37) comes right off the ground (and at the end of the full swing ends up well behind his original stance). Now I fully understand the importance of keeping your right foot from lifting too early as you, Chris, and Chuck (in his video) explain. No problem with that. But I'm surprised you make no comment on this strange business with the left foot. It looks like a recipe for disaster for someone like myself or anyone with less talent than Patrick Reed.
January 15, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Ian -- His left foot actually stays down on the ground. His left foot slides back and externally rotates in the hitting area from all of the ground force he uses. You will see a lot of tour players come up onto their toes or even off the ground with all of the leverage they are trying to get from the ground. That is certainly not something we can teach to golfers. The point of the video, is to see how his hips are stalled at impact regardless of what his lead foot is doing. If you can stall the body properly in the hitting area then you can release the golf club with max speed at impact. Again, the point of the video was to watch how he used the right foot to stall the hips out regardless of what his left foot was doing.
January 15, 2015
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Pavel
Have you look at the left feet movement? It looks like there is no weight.
January 15, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
His weight does move to the lead side pretty drastically in the downward move. He is leveraging the ground which is pushing the left foot so hard into the ground that it becomes almost weightless in the hitting area. The point of the video was to see how he uses the trail foot to stall the hips. Sorry I did not make that more clear. Look at how Bubba Watson hits his driver. He is up on his toes and almost airborne at times. Does this mean he has not shifted his weight to the lead side? Just trying to give a good comparison here for further clarification.
January 16, 2015
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bradford
no sound on this video. sound is good on all the others
January 15, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Bradford. Try clearing your cache or browser history. It is playing fine on my end. Are you using Chrome or Firefox as your browser? If you are and everything is status quo. Please use the Contact Us Link at the bottom of the page and Customer Support will help you fix the issue.
January 15, 2015
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alex
same issue.....no audio...tried chrome,firefox and IE.......others video are fine......
January 15, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Alex. I will notify Customer Support. I apologize for your issue.
January 15, 2015
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Todd
I also have no audio. I have also tried IE, firefox and Chrome. I get the RST intro theme at full volume but only barely perceptible audio during the video itself.
January 15, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Todd. Amy with Customer Service should be contacting you shortly.
January 15, 2015
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grant
I saw a DVD by Manuel De La Torrey who says, "The body should get its timing going back and forward from the swinging of the arms.' The arms initiate the forward swing and almost simultaneously bring the body along with it to the finish.' With the arm swing giving you the timing & leading the way there is no need to concern yourself about how you get to your left foot finish. It just happens without all the concerns about how the move is made i.e. turn; slide and turn; how far do you slide before you turn etc.
January 14, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Grant. I am unfamiliar with Manuael De LA Torrey's teaching, but you notes are suggesting the the arms move the body. You would be letting the outside control the inside versus opposite. You don't want momentum to be flinging the club and body around. You want to dictate the motion by controlling the swing with the bigger muscles and moving in towards the body. There is a 3 inch weight shift into the lead glute before any active turning should happen. Take a look at the Sitting Into the Left Side Video in the Downswing Section.
January 15, 2015
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dan
im confused??? braking? he spins his hips so hard on this video that his left foot rotates to point toward the target? his right heel lifts early and lands again late for what looks like to regain balance. am i seeing something wrong?
January 14, 2015
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Dan -- He unwinds the hips hard, and then stalls them at the release point of the swing. If he were to stand up on the right foot while he was released it would spin he body including the hips through the hitting area while he is releasing the club.
January 14, 2015

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