Jordan Spieth - Brake and Release

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Congrats to the young 21 year old sensation Jordan Spieth for winning his first major championship at the 2015 Masters. For years, we have heard TV commentators tell you to spin your body through the hitting area. Well, you can do that if you want to lose a lot of speed in your golf swing. In this video, I'll show you how to use your trail foot as a brake for the lower body, so that you can release the club with maximum speed where it counts most...impact! Stalling the body has been a controversial topic in the past and I'll show you just how the #2 player in the world does it pretty darn well.

  • Load the trail side lower body up, early in the swing
  • Start the downswing by squatting and shifting into the lead side
  • Keep the trail foot down on the ground at impact to stall the body and release the club


Hey Rotary Spin Golfers, This is RST instructor Chris Tyler and it is my great pleasure to bring to you the 2015 Masters Champion, Jordan Spieth, who is now number two in the World Golf Rankings.

We're going to be discussing a topic that we've covered in the past.

And that's how to use your trail foot properly down in the hitting area so that you can use it as a break.

And that's going to allow you to release the hands and arms independently from the body and be at max speed at impact.

And also can help you be a lot more accurate.

All right guys, so as I said in the opener, We're going to be discussing a topic that has created a little bit of controversy in the golfing world about how to use your trail foot properly in the golf swing.

So that you can stall the lower body out and then, in turn, release the hands and arms independently from the body.

So you can be at max speed at impact.

And it's something that Jordan does really well, even though it's not necessarily what we would consider to a rotary swing model swing move, he still does it well enough to where I want to showcase it.

So let's go ahead and take a look here.

Let's go ahead and get Jordan down to an address position, we're going to go ahead and work into the takeaway.

Notice how the hips start to shift and load up into that right side.

And then, as he starts to work his hands and arms up into the vertical plane, pay very close attention to his hips, I'll point out his belt loop right here, pay close attention to his hips how they're not really moving or rotating at all.

Okay, so he's got that right side loaded up and ready to rock and roll.

And if we want muscle groups to kind of fire in order, we want to load them in order.

So obviously we want to start our downswing with the lower half.

So you see him kind of shift load into that side and now he's going to start his downward move with a really good, strong transition.

So let's go ahead and take a look at this.

So now he's going to start to unload here, gets back into that square hip and square knee position.

This is a great move.

We actually have a video on the website that I'm sure you guys have all seen.

It's a squat to square video that Chuck did.

It's a great video to teach you how to start the downward move with the lower half, providing that you've already loaded your right side up properly.

All right, so you can see that he's done that really well unloading into that lead side.

And now this is where he's going to start to push with both legs.

He's actually using his trail foot to push a little bit down in the hitting area, and he's also driving up off of that left foot as well.

All right.

So the reason why I say that this is not necessarily to a model swing standpoint, we would normally like to see this trail foot down on the ground, this trail heel, but rolled all the way to the inside part of the trail foot.

And when you start to push really hard from that trail side, you can see that he's actually rolling to the outside part of the lead foot here.

And in turn, that can put a lot of strain, a lot of pressure on the knee and the outside part of the hip girdle.

It can start to strain the actual, the labrum.

So obviously he's still making a very good pass at it and he's still, from when I show you guys these next few moves, you're going to see that this trail foot becomes a good break in his golf swing.

So let's go ahead and mark a few things here.

I'm going to mark where his foot is off the ground and then I'm going to go ahead and mark his belt loop back here.

Okay.

This is his belt loop.

This is his club face.

All right, so he's at the release point of the golf swing.

So now watch these next few moves.

So he's going to stall this lower half out.

Lower half is not really rotating at all.

Notice the trail foot as he's releasing it through here.

Trail foot's not lifting it up off the ground any further than it was.

And the belt loop actually hasn't rotated any further than where it was.

It actually moved a little bit forward because he's still transferring his weight into that lead side.

So this is a great example of how to use that trail foot as a break so that you can release the hands and arms independently.

He's now moved this golf club a good seven to ten feet from where it was at the starting point.

Over here, where we had it, where we're starting to release.

So it's something you can actually try out.

If you held a golf club over at the nine o'clock position, held it, you know, Kind of tight, where your wrists were kind of locked in place and then just spun your body back and forth, you would notice that you can't really get the club moving very fast.

That's because the club is only going to move as fast as your body's rotating.

But then if you shifted your weight to the left and then just released your wrist, you would notice that you can get the club moving really fast.

And that's what we're trying to preach here is that we want to be able to work efficiently through the hitting area.

And that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to load the body up, unload it, stall it out, and then release it.

And in turn, you're going to be at max speed at the hitting area where it counts the most.

So that was the whole point of today's review is that I wanted to show you guys a really clear example of how Jordan uses that trail foot.

And in turn, he's obviously playing some of his best golf.

He's hitting a lot more greens now.

The kid putts the lights out of it.

And it's just a great example of how we want to use lower body.

You can be a little bit safer with it by making sure that that lead side is stabilized.

And a couple of videos that are going to help you out with that is perfecting lower body stability.

That's a video that we just put out.

Squat to square is another great video.

And then the roll of the right foot.

Those videos are all going to help you with your lower body and help you motor up and power up your golf swing.

All right, guys.

So that's our review on the 2015 Masters Champion Jordan Spieth.

I hope you guys have a great day and let's play some great golf.

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Lance
Stoked by these videos that reinforce the principles of rst!
April 7, 2016
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Lance. Great! Thanks for the positive post.
April 7, 2016
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w
I like the concept of brake and release and have been getting better experiencing the feel with the irons. But with the 3 wood and driver, I revert back to the pushing off the right foot and this gets me hip spinning and opening the shoulders. Can you recommend any adjustments when using the driver related this concept of brake and release and the exact ideal position of the back foot at the point of release and contact with the ball. Thanks
April 4, 2016
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello W Gerrie. Take a look at the Role of the Right Foot. Also, Jason Day vs. Rory Mcilroy | Power Post Up for a good visual. Make sure you get the weight. When players with the woods don't get the weight over they tend to push more. It will be rolling off the instep with the outer edge slightly off the ground.
April 4, 2016
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Paul
I watch the PGA professionals and they all seem to really fire HARD the hips. When should we fire them? RST talks about arms squatting to square and then break the hips and release. The PGA professionals all seem to fire hard through impact.
June 25, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Paul. Take a look at a few videos for me. The Acceleration Profile and Hip Speed versus Hand Speed in the Downswing Advanced Section. Also, How the Lower Body Works in the Downswing Section.
June 25, 2015
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Paul
I certainly notice that when I brake the trail side I get the same distance without cranking the body around. My issue is, as i get the extension on the release I try to hold that position and don't let go of the 'brake" to complete the swing into a nice finish...comments?
June 9, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Paul. You need to let the momentum of the release pull you through to a completed finish. Take a look at the Move 4 Video and Move 4 Common Faults in the Follow Through Section.
June 9, 2015
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Tom
In my latest trip to Fla. I noticed all my misses were from major pushing from right side. When I do hit it solid my thought is to keep my left shoulder "closed" in relation to target line close to impact. Is there something better/easier to do to keep my right side from taking over other than having my right arm cut off?
April 26, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Tom. You wouldn't be the first one to experiment cutting off the trail arm. . Nevertheless, it just takes awareness and understanding that push from the trail side doesn't equal speed. Take a look at the Frisbee Drill (Weight Transfer Section), Proper Muscle Activation (Introduction Advanced) and Lose the Right Hand Drill (Downswing Section) to help get that trail side under control.
April 27, 2015
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Mario
Thank you. Played first round in Toronto canada this weekend. Best score ever at my home course was 79. After a winter of RST shot 75 with a double bohey (just too excited to hold it together) on 18. Focused on just a couple of fundamentals - weight over ankles and right foot break. Really good stuff thanks.
April 26, 2015
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R.J. (Certified RST Instructor)
Mario, congratulations on your round and good luck on your continued improvement. R.J.
April 26, 2015
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Erwin
As a lefty I have criticized you guys a few times because you would or could not make a transition from left/right to upper/lower or trailing/leading. So now I think it's only fair to applaud you on doing just that: using words like lead side and trail foot makes it easier for me to follow your comments and advice. Well done and thank you!
April 22, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Erwin. We appreciate the post. We are working hard to make the members happy. Thanks!
April 23, 2015
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Thomas
Looks just like me so I'm not sure why I haven't won the masters. Maybe because they haven"t invited me. LOL This was a great analysis (by Chris), I need lots of work on my right foot position but I'm trying to get my posture and backswing good first. WAs a great win for Jordan and the USA!!
April 18, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hey Tom. I will pass the good word to Chris. Thanks! I kept asking my mail man did he lose my invitation. Sadly, he said one never came across his path.
April 19, 2015
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Thomas
I like that. you just have a bad mailman!
April 19, 2015
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Jukka
Hi! Great video! It looks like he is holding litel his release. Arms are not rolling threw impact and the club is not FULLY released. Certainly this works great for him but what is your opinion about his release?
April 18, 2015
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Jukka. He does release the club. Nevertheless, he does look like he is holding the club off a little for this shot.
April 18, 2015

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