Jason Day vs. Rory Mcilroy | Power Post Up

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In this video, I'll show you how Jason Day and Rory Mcilroy use ground force for speed and 1 keep move to be able to release the club with tons of speed in the golf swing.


This week we are going to be doing a show case show down with two of the world's best players, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy, who we saw square off this weekend at the Match Play Championship in the semi-final match where Jason Day was ultimately able to prevail and then move onto the finals where he picked up his next victory out there. Congratulations to Jason Day.

                This week we're going to be focusing in on club head speed. A lot of people come to the website wanting to ramp their club head speed. We're going to be focusing in on one of the most powerful moves that you can make in the golf swing to help get a good boost in speed and that is posting up and releasing. I'm going to be talking about one really critical move when you start to post up that's going to help you get maximum speed at the bottom of the swing arc. Let's go ahead and get started now.

                As I said in the opener, we are going to be focusing in on speed this week. These are two really good candidates to start showing you one of the more powerful moves that you can start to add to your golf swing. Once you've started to make sure that your weight transfer's in place. Weight shift is extremely critical for the golf swing and if you've started to master your weight shift from the right side back over to the left side, you really start to wake your legs up, then this is a great move to start to be able to really increase that club head speed.

                I will put a disclaimer at the front of this and say that if you haven't mastered weight shift then you need to make sure that you have that step in place before you start working on posting up properly. Posting up will be much easier with your weight moving over to your lead side. So let's go ahead and take a look at things here. I'm going to go ahead and get both players up to the top of their swing.

                You're going to see very similar style looking golf swings up to the top. Yeah, there's some minor differences in the way they rotate. There's some minor differences in the hand position at the top of the swing. Jason does use a little bit more elevation here. Rory's tends to look a little bit flatter at the top of the swing. Again, both of these golfers have very good golf swings through the take away and the back swing. Are there things that we might change in the down swing to allow them to be a little bit safer? Yeah, of course. Again, we're not going to bash either one of these players. They're both extremely fun to watch. Jason's obviously battling with a little bit of a bulging disk issue right now in his back and hopefully he gets that resolved on the sooner side so he can continue to grace us with his presence out there.

                Just taking a look at the big moves over to the lead side. You're going to see it done a little bit differently from Jason and Rory. Rory is going to make a little bit more of a squat move. If you watch his blue shirt here, it's peeking out underneath the line. What I want you to do is watch how he sits into his lead side here. So you're going to see that it drops about two to three inches as he's starting to work and shift his weight to his left side.

                Now if you shift your attention over here to Jason you're going to see very little squat move. His hips drop maybe about an inch or so, maybe a half inch. Not a giant sit move here. A lot of you would probably ask me, "Well, which one is better?" I think of the squat move as more of a graduate level move. Not that Jason Day's not ready for a graduate level move. He's balanced his golf swing out with proper width, proper leverage, and proper rotation in the golf swing. He obviously maximizes club head speed with his equation. Rory has got tons of speed throughout the golf swing. He's got good width. He's got good leverage. He's got good rotation. He's allowing himself to use a little bit more ground force in his swing. If Jason was to run out of speed at some point, which I don't foresee happening, and he wanted to add a little bit more ground force, then yeah, he might want to add a little bit more of a squat move but again it's not super imperative.

                The main thing here is that when you're making the shift over to your lead side, is that both players have maintained the flex in their legs. They're making a giant shift over to the left side and they're maintaining the flex in their knees. Rory's actually increasing his just a little bit.

                I used a big word here by talking to you guys about the big shift over to the left side. This may look like there's a lot of weight into their trail let at this point but I can assure you that there's not a lot of weight over in this trail side. I would call it probably about 30% of their weight's still in their right foot and about 70% of their weight in their left foot. Maybe even just a little bit more.

                When we start to make sure that we get our weight into that left side, this is where we're going to start to make that big powerful move. We're going to start to drive this left heel into the ground. We've made a big shift. Lead arm comes down to about parallel to the ground. Shoulders are still wound up a good 45 to 50 degrees. Once we feel that weight hit that left heel our job here is to be driving this heel into the ground. So we're going to be pushing that heel into the ground. We're also going to be using the left obliques to start to rotate the hips away from the target. That driving of the left heel into the ground is making your leg work to a straighter position. That's going to cause you to go up. When you're going up the club should be going down. You want to be moving in the exact opposite direction of the golf club, that's how you really maximize efficiency. That's how you're going to maximize your speed and consistency, as well.

                With the hips rotating, they're rotating away from the golf ball. That's moving you in the exact opposite direction. That's also a great way to be able to get the club moving at proper speed with efficiency. Here's the big key move here with the post up. I want you to pay very close attention to what both player's right legs do when they're starting to post up and release the club. Here we go, left leg is starting to straighten. As they're driving that foot into the ground they're working up. Watch this left leg on both sides. You're going to see that it starts to straighten. Right at impact it's at it's straightest point, and then the club releases.

                Now, watch the right leg. See how it helps maintain the width between the knees? The club is extending out in front of their bodies and it keeps that width there long up to where the hands are almost above their chest. Then you're going to see them swivel up onto their right toe.

                That's the big key move, being able to use the right side of the body as a break while the club is releasing in front of you. A lot of times we see amateur golfers tend to push off the right leg which can cause the body to spin through the hitting area. When your body is spinning through the hitting area essentially you can be delaying off your release or now you're actually not allowing the hands and the arms to act independently from the body. That means your arms and your club head are going to be working at the same rate as the rotation of your body. That's why we use the right side of the body as a break to be able to release the golf club. That is one of the most critical moves in the golf swing for producing club head speed. We want to be able to shift our weight, get on the breaks, and let the club release.

                Both of these players do it extremely well. Not saying that their bodies aren't rotating. I know a lot of people have come to bat at that one but they have slowed their lower half down to the point where now they can let their club release and that's part of the kinetic chain. Any hitting or throwing sport you see the body tends to come to a stall point and then the delivery point from the throwing or hitting motion. It's a great way to be able to create efficiency in the speed department.

                For those of you guys who have been struggling with this, definitely work on making sure that you shift your weight left. Use that left foot to post up by pushing that thing into the ground and then get on the breaks with that right side when you're releasing the club and you're going to see that you have tons of speed.

                Okay guys, so thanks again for tuning in to this week's video. For those of you that are joining us on the website, I've got some really great premium videos that are going to help you work on your sit move into that lead side. It's actually called "Sitting Into the Left Side". We've got the "Role of the Right Foot in the Downswing" which you'll hear me talk a lot about. We've also got the "Straight Left Legged Impact". That's a video that's going to talk to you about how to get some good muscle engagement onto that left side and how to really work that left leg into that straight position so you can start to work on your release.

                All of these videos that I'm mentioning are going to be to the right hand side of the video player underneath the "Recommended Videos" tab. Just click that tab. All the videos will start to populate. Also, another good video that a lot of people started to get some good success with, it's a video that I did that talked about fixing weight transfer. So I would suggest that you work on making sure that you're transferring your weight over to your lead side, then start to work on posting up and releasing the club and you will start to see a good size increase in club head speed. Get your weight transfer down, post it up, get on the breaks, and release that thing and you should be playing some of your best golf in 2016. 

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Mike
Should we feel the same sensation in opposite oblique during the post up as we do in the back swing?
March 9, 2020
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Mike. The core will be gully engaged, but most players will have a little more awareness of the lead oblique during post.
March 9, 2020
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Steven
when reviewing my swing, I seem to post up just (ie when my right leg is straigtht and in vertical position) just before my club is parallel on the down swing, ready for release. Is it possible to post up too early and what could be the cause? Thanks
December 20, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Steven. Yes, you can post up too early throwing the sequence off. I would suggest working on the Squat to Square Video and make sure you shift/squat before the post.
December 20, 2019
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Austin
I see, that makes sense. Will work on it. Thank you Craig.
May 7, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Austin. No problem.
May 8, 2019
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Austin
Thanks Craig. Maybe I am missing something but these videos don't mention the scooping of the pelvis I am struggling with. My hips stop turning and it's like my glutes contract and come up under me.
May 7, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Austin. I apologize I miscommunicated your note. It sounds like you are doing the "up" part of the post, but not the "back" part with the hip. You need to make sure your lead oblique pulls the hip behind you. You Hit the Golf Ball with Your Legs and Pro Power Move. Focus more on the clearing behind you with the hip.
May 7, 2019
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Austin
Down the line view when I post up right around impact my pelvis scoops under and hips stop turning. Think it corresponds to the time of the flip. It happens even when I keep my tush line. When I watch the pros they don't seem to scoop at all.
May 6, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Austin. The scoop has more to do with the pull of the lead hand. Take a look at Flip vs. Release and Taking a Divot Video.
May 6, 2019
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Giap
where should my club be when my left leg is fully post up?
April 22, 2019
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Giap. The post up should be completed right before impact.
April 22, 2019
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Erik
"using the right side as a brake" ... so what your saying is we want to "weight shift" to the left side but stop that momentum by keeping our right heel down as long as possible? What if my right heel never comes up more than a few inches? Is it ok to finish like that or does the left foot need to go vertical with the toes at the ground?
September 19, 2018
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Erik. After you fully release the club and start going beyond the 3 O'Clock position the trail foot will work to a fully upright position. The goal is into impact and the release is that the trail foot slightly rolls onto the instep. Ensuring you don't push, but also can't rip open the hips too much. This allows for deceleration of the body and the energy to be transferred into club head speed.
September 19, 2018
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Kevin
Great video. Can we expect that the players head will be lifting up when they're posting up? Above where initial set up is? My review had mentioned this being an issue as to why I'm hitting it fat.
October 12, 2017
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Kevin. The head should remain pretty stable, but maybe a slight variation depending on aggressiveness. As you post properly the spine angle actually gets pulled down (You Hit the Golf Ball with Your Legs Video) which should keep the head down and in the shot.
October 12, 2017
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Steve
In order to maintain the width between the knees as you talk about around the 6:00 mark, should you FEEL as if your right knee is bowing just slightly (1/2 inch or so) away from the target? I think I've always pushed from the right side and let my right knee shift toward my left knee too early, so the feeling of slightly increasing the width between my knees seems to be helping me wrap my brain around this move, but I want to be sure to be drilling it right.
June 20, 2017
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Joseph
What are Day and Rory doing that causes their upper body to rotate so much that they do not bend their left arms until they have rotated past the target (maintain triangle past facing target). Seems it is more than letting the momentum of the club rotate their torsos after impact, which is what I remember some vid on the site indicated is the proper method and which seems safer than what Day and Rory are doing. Is their amount of post impact rotation hazardous and if so how?
April 16, 2016
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Joseph. They are both maximizing their extension point. Trying to stay moving in the opposite direction of the club. Also, they tend to add a little trail side for added speed. These points coupled together lead to that position. Not necessarily hazardous on the body, but does require some good flexibility and strength. Using momentum of the release, added trail side speed and maximizing extension/width. With trail side speed I am more referring to trail arm release.
April 16, 2016
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Dean (Certified RST Instructor)
Great job Chris. This will be great to share with my students.
March 31, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Thanks Dean!!! Like Craig said...get to sharing
March 31, 2016
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Hello Dean. Get to sharing!
March 31, 2016
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Tom
Chris - This was a very helpful video. RST has consistently advocated using the right hip as a brake but this is the first time I could see how I could implement it and have a dynamic swing. I hit some of my longest drives today using these images. Thanks for the help. Tom N
March 29, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Awesome to hear Tom. Glad you enjoyed the video and you are always a great pleasure to work with.
March 29, 2016
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Lance
Is neutral joint alignment sacriced for something dangerous in these swings? How would rst differ?
March 29, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
Yes, they are not getting fully into neutral on these swings. That is due to stance width which helps with creating more secondary axis tilt to help launch the ball higher in the air to work with the modern technology. Is it safe, nope. To be safe, we want to be in neutral to not put stress on the critical joints in the swing.
March 29, 2016
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Heikki
Thanks Lance, a very good question, and thanks Chris for an honest answer. This RST, neutral joint alignment etc. has done for me (63 year old, HCP 5, golfed 15 years) in two years a lot only by studying your webside and practicing as much as a working man can after playing with his many grandchildren - no pain any more, my swing feels effortless and my drive travels in the air straighter and longer than ever. Is it right for me to try to practice like in the video if it is not safe? No, you´d obviously say, and right so. But now, how can I know it without clever Lance or someone like him?
April 13, 2016
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Chris (Certified RST Instructor)
No problem Heikki! So glad to hear you are playing pain free and getting some great results with the RST methodology. To be safe AND efficient, I would stick the the RST fundamentals and NOT what you see tour players doing that are getting injured left and right
April 13, 2016

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