Cure Your Over the Top with Your Setup - Webinar

Do you know that your over the top issue may just be in your setup? Players of all abilities have struggled with over the top at some point in time in their journey. Let’s take a deep dive into what causes over the top and how setting it up correctly can cure it for good. Follow along with easy checkpoints and future proof your swing from ever getting steep again!

---

Hello, everyone.

Welcome, welcome to the webinar.

How are we doing today, folks?

We're doing all right.

I see a lot of people checking in right now.

Fantastic.

One thing before I get started, if y'all could do me a favor.

They've been drilling next door all day, and so our internet's been a little bit spotty.

Can everybody let me know?

Can they hear me?

Can they see me?

Everything all good in the technical world?

That way, when I start my spiel, we don't have any glitches or anything.

All good.

You're fine.

All right.

Fantastic.

Fantastic.

Well, how's everybody doing today?

How's life?

How's the new year treating you?

How's the golf swing?

Everybody ready to learn how to not come over the top anymore?

By focusing on setup?

Good to see all your bones working.

Thank you, Mike.

I appreciate that.

This is kind of my inaugural comeback.

I'm not 100% yet.

And for those of you that don't know, I broke basically half my body a few months ago.

I'm not all the way back yet, but I'm walking.

I'm talking.

My arm works.

Rotation's still a little bit limited, but I'm getting there.

So thanks, Mike.

All right.

Gary has no audio.

Everybody else all good, or is it just Gary?

Oh, audio's fine.

All right.

Yeah, David, I was in a little bit of a motorbike accident, and it's a long story short, 17 fractures later.

So I fractured my left pelvis, broke my transverse process, L1 through fractured all my right ribs, and broke my clavicle.

So that was the middle of October.

All right.

Fuzzy pic.

The pic will get a little bit better, Michael, when I stop moving around.

It's just my monitor's way up here.

So when the camera gets back to me, it'll start to refocus.

I'm just going to give everybody about two more minutes, then we'll get started.

Sounds like you need to sell the bike.

You're going to have to talk to my boss about that one.

Actually, it was one of Chuck's bikes.

It was Christina's bike.

So I was actually more worried that the bike was okay than me.

Thanks, Jose.

I appreciate that.

So it's definitely been a long road.

Definitely been a long road.

I'm glad to be back, be on camera, be moving around.

This will actually be my first time swinging in three months now.

So we'll see how it looks.

We'll see if that muscle memory kicks into gear.

Sean, I know sticking to golf cars might sound safe, but I've done a lot of stupid stuff in those too.

Especially some of the ones I've been around.

Thank you, Romer.

I appreciate it.

How you doing, buddy?

Good to see you.

I'm going to give it one more minute and we'll get rocking and rolling.

And if you see me kind of move around a lot like this, it's just because my monitor's up here.

It's the only way I can kind of monitor the questions.

And also with my hip and my back right now, kind of staying a little bit mobile helps.

If I, if I stand in one place for too long, I kind of lock up a little bit.

You got half the class in here already.

Fantastic.

Hello, June from Houston.

Anybody watch that game last night?

There you go, James.

Of course we watch the game.

Come on.

Not look.

I had some people that are like, I'm not watching those two teams.

I've seen them enough.

Well, let's get started.

I think we got the enough of the group in.

Nobody will miss anything.

So what are we going to talk about today?

Now, this is a topic you've heard all over the website.

All right.

And so you've heard about axis tilt.

So what I want to talk about is what is axis tilt?

Why do we need it?

And how can we use that to help cure over the top?

Because the biggest thing that I see is that when people start slicing the ball, it's the proverbial, I'm coming over the top, casting all the fun stuff.

But how can I use this setup position?

And how can I monitor with this setup position to start ensuring coming down on plane every single time?

And if it doesn't work, which I know it does, but if it doesn't work, I've also got a little bit, as Chris would say, a little bit of a secret sauce at the end you can combine with it to ensure that every single time, if anything, you'll probably miss under plane.

I know for overtoppers out there, they would love to miss under plane a few times.

So what is axis tilt?

I don't know.

Everybody's heard it on the site.

You've heard us say not overdo it or underdo it.

All basically axis tilt is, is your spine leaning away from the target.

So if I was hitting in this direction, it would just be my spine leaning away from the target.

Now, it's very important how we add axis tilt.

It's very important that we have it.

And I'm going to kind of break down every single thing that it does for us.

Because I not only want you to understand how we're going to use this to cure over the top, but just kind of why we need it.

Okay.

You would think that such a simple move or such a simple position, you know, everybody would have, but I can tell you as many reviews that I do.

I mean, I've already done probably 70 today.

Other than my students that I see on a recurring basis, every single one of them had a different degree or didn't have it at all.

And it's what was one of the leading causes of why they couldn't swing on playing.

Okay.

So I'm going to check this.

All right.

So leave the questions till the end.

Nobody's posted anything yet.

I just forgot to mention that.

Leave it till the end.

I'll get everybody.

Everybody knows me.

I'll make sure everybody's happy and healthy with questions.

So let's talk about this.

And if you're at home, everything that I kind of do, do with me, stand up, grab a golf club, no problem.

So what is axis tilt?

It's that lean away from the target that I was mentioning earlier.

Okay.

Axis tilt is important for a few different reasons.

One, because it helps us get our trail hand on the golf club, because naturally it's set up.

Our trail hand is going to be below our lead hand.

And it's very important that we put ourselves into a position that we're not tweaking or getting into an awkward position.

To where our hands can move back naturally with the rotation of our body.

As you know, we don't want to just start swinging arms and hands and getting crazy with those off the ball, moving the golf club.

And we've got to kind of get into a preset position where our hands are nice and neutral, and we can rotate to move the club back.

Okay.

So axis tilt one is going to help us get the right hand on the club.

Now you would think that everybody would do that when they put their right hand on the club, but that's not the case.

You've seen the trail side dominant video, which I'll reference a little bit later.

But a lot of people, when they get this right hand on the club and they start going this way, you can see I'm already starting to lean this way towards the target, which is already changing my axis tilt.

So we need axis tilt number one, because we've got to get our right hand on the club.

But number two, which probably should be number one, it's for safety.

It helps us rotate properly.

Because in your spine, you have these things, what they call facet joints.

And these facet joints in between each vertebrae only have about a degree, degree and a half of mobility.

And when you set up with proper tilt, what it does is it keeps your spine nice and neutral.

Now, keeping your spine in a neutral position is definitely a big thing.

That Rotary has preached forever and ever and ever.

Because we want to be number one in safety.

But also keeping it in this position allows you to have full mobility, allows you to have full rotation.

When your spine's not in neutral and not in a position to rotate, you have a lot of different faults that you can get into, which we will cover.

But you want your spine to basically, if you just think about it, it's kind of being open instead of kind of locked and jammed on itself where it can't rotate.

You want your vertebraes to stay open so you can facilitate a full shoulder rotation, which is going to be very vital when we start talking about this over the top issue.

So axis tilt is going to help us get our right hand on the club.

It's going to keep our spine nice and neutral, safe, so that we can get full rotation.

What else is it going to help us do?

What else is axis tilt going to help us It's going to help us fix our swing plane.

All right?

Axis tilt is one of the biggest things that like when I look at a golf swing, I kind of monitor what's going on with it because your spine is directly linked to your swing plane.

And some players don't know that, but your spine has a direct influence on how you're moving throughout the swing.

So the first thing when getting axis tilt, we have to do it correctly.

So the simplest thing to do, you've seen the videos, drop a club straight down your sternum, just like this, put one hand on your sternum, might have a little mic pop for this, put one hand on your sternum and one hand on your belt and have the club head turned inward.

So you can see I've got the club head facing this way or the toe facing this way.

If I set up in this position with the toe facing this way, all I'm going to do is bump my hip and this is the big one.

I don't tilt my spine or tilt my head away from the target like this because all I'm doing now is curving my spine.

Number one rule is we got to keep this nice and neutral.

So the only way to keep it neutral is I'm going to take my hip, my lead side, and bump it towards the target until the club hits me on the inside of the lead knee.

And right there, I've got all the axis tilt that I need.

I'm kind of presetting right where I need to be.

Most players, when they add axis tilt, The two things that I see are the two most common faults that I see is they add axis tilt and they just kind of put their head behind the ball like this.

They end up creating this kind of reverse seat position, which now you're crunching those facet joints and now you're not going to be able to get a full shoulder rotation.

The other thing that I see, which I'm sure is going to be a question later, so I'm going to kind of knock this one out.

People add axis tilt and they add a ton of weight shift.

Okay.

So they get up here, they put the club down here, and they end up in this position.

And they're like, Craig, when I add axis tilt, like I don't feel like I can shift weight anymore or I'm predominantly all on the lead side, axis tilt isn't that much.

Okay.

When you add axis tilt, you want to kind of think about it as a counterbalance.

I'm taking my lead hip and moving it towards the target and my spine's leading away from the target.

So when I get into this position, I should still be 50-50.

Yeah.

I'm not going to argue if there's a couple percentage points here or you know, 55-45, something like that.

But you don't want to think about axis tilt or getting axis tilt as a means to shift your lead hip and weight to the lead side.

Okay.

That's not what we're trying to do here.

So when you add axis tilt and you bump your hip to get the club going to the inside, it should be about eight to 10 degrees of tilt.

Weight's still balanced roughly 50-50.

Now, what you'll notice is that when I do this, where's my head?

Well, now you can see that I'm leaning away from the target and my head and my ball position should be just off my lead ear logo, the shirt.

One common thing that I see when people add axis tilt is they start adding so much that their ball position is now off their lead shoulder and their head's way back over here.

If you see that, you've way overcooked it.

The ball position and all the rules that we've done with rotary do not change.

Balls should still be logo, lead ear, a little bit of axis tilt, it should still be sitting here.

This is very important because of how and where the bottom of your swing arc is going to be, but how you're going to help monitor not coming over the top or starting to help the issue with getting steep coming down.

So the first principle of this, after we get axis tilt, okay, this is going to help us do one thing in the backswing.

It's actually going to help us do two things.

It's going to help us load and it's going to help us rotate because once I get into this position where I have this lean away from the target, what's it going to make it easy for me to do in the backswing now?

It's going to make it very easy for me to shift weight because I'm already kind of tilted this way.

It feels kind of natural to go ahead and load my right glute early.

It's very easy for me to go ahead and start to shift weight.

Having proper tilt is the start to getting weight shift proper in the backswing.

The second thing, with helping of the low to the right side, it's going to facilitate a full shoulder rotation.

Now, why is this so important?

We could get into short stretch cycles and stretching muscles and how much speed we can create, but what is this going to have to do with your swing play?

One of the number one things that I see of why people come over the top is because they make their backswing with their arms.

Now, how does making my backswing with my arms cause me to come over the top?

Well, if I just make my backswing and I just swing my arms like this and I don't rotate my shoulders, what happens is I create a lot of tension in my shoulders and my arms and hands.

And when I create all that tension in my shoulders and arms and hands, where does that tension want to go?

It doesn't want to hang out there and it definitely doesn't want to shallow out the club.

When I just swing back with my arms, all that tension right there just wants to fire my arms and hands because your body doesn't like tension.

It's the same thing when you think about with lag.

If you load your wrist all in the backswing and you get them really overly cocked, it's going to be virtually impossible to maintain all that angle all the way to impact because when you get all that load, it wants to go in one direction and that's away.

So when you set up with proper axis tilt and you think about maintaining that axis tilt in the backswing, it's what helps you facilitate a full shoulder rotation.

And getting this full shoulder rotation is going to be very vital to not come over the top because what you're going to notice, if I get here and I've got good axis tilt, head's behind the ball and I maintain my head behind the ball and this axis tilt.

Just monitoring those two principles, head staying behind the ball, axis tilt maintained.

You can see I'm loaded away from the target, but my arms and hands are chilled out.

I don't have to use my arms and hands to get towards the top.

I can just really use a lot of my rotation right now because I'm kind of presetting this position.

To make it very easy for that very popular term on the site, the shoulder blade glide.

If you're rotating with your core or if you're pulling with your shoulder, when I get set up into this position, for me to keep my arms and hands chilled out, I have to be in the proper setup position to do it.

Now, I can't tell you how many times I see that's not the case.

Okay?

So this axis tilt thing, if you monitor your tilt, that you maintain it all the way to the top and that your head stays behind the ball, doesn't move too crazy on it.

We'll get into some pitfalls, but it stays behind the ball and you maintain it, it's going to allow you to rotate.

And when you rotate better, you're going to use your arms less.

And when you use your arms less towards the top, You're going to have less of a tendency to fire them towards the top.

Because they're going to be able to get up here and stay all nice and chilled out.

Okay?

So if we can get the proper axis tilt and we can watch and maintain that tilt up towards the top and maintain this head position, how can we use this to not go like that?

So we're set up, we got our tilt, we're loading, rotating, we're watching our tilt and we're keeping our head behind the ball.

It's going to be very hard for me not to look like a decent golfer if my head stays behind the ball and I have axis tilt.

Okay?

So how are we going to use this to not have the old he-ho?

Well, now we've loaded and rotated.

Okay?

So we're up here.

So our arms and hands should be nice and chilled out.

Life is good.

My core is loaded, my glutes loaded, I've maintained my tilt.

What now?

I know it's hard to say don't do anything with your arms and hands.

But when you don't do anything with your arms and hands, it usually leads to better in the golf swing.

Now if I go from here and I get up here towards the top, what do I want this club to do from here?

I want it to shallow out.

I want the club to start to come down on plane.

I don't want to see this, I don't want to see any other motion, I just want to see the club come down on plane.

Now, how am I going to make that happen by kind of monitoring my head and axis tilt?

That's the key question.

As I said earlier, your spine angle is directly linked to your swing plane.

Okay?

So if I get up here towards the top, I've maintained my head behind the ball and I've maintained that axis tilt.

What's the first move in the down swing?

What's the very first thing we're supposed to do?

You hear on every single video.

The very first thing we're supposed to do is shift weight.

So if I maintain my tilt and I maintain my head behind the ball, and the very first thing that I do is shift weight.

Okay?

And I don't allow for too much head motion.

It's okay for the head to move in transition.

It'll move back a little bit.

I'm talking about big massive motions.

But if I get up here and the very first thing that I do is shift weight, what happened to my axis tilt right now?

Did my axis tilt increase or did it decrease?

If the first thing that I do is shift weight and I do nothing with my arms and hands, my axis tilt is going to increase because my hip is now moving towards the target, which leans my spine a little bit more away from the target.

This is what we call secondary axis tilt.

Now if I get up here towards the top and all I do is shift my weight, my arms and hands and club automatically shallow out.

Okay?

And that's because I haven't done anything from up here.

All I did was move my legs, which created more tilt.

And the more tilt that's created right there starts to defect my swing plane.

Now this can go both ways.

And this is why I want to talk about this.

This can go both ways.

If I get up here towards the top and my very first move is the fire from the top.

Okay?

Watch what happens with my axis tilt.

My very first move is to fire from the top.

Where's my axis tilt go?

Well, my axis tilt is now vertical, which is now I'm getting steep.

Well, watch if I go like this and my axis tilt increases due to my weight shift.

Where does that automatically put my arms and hands?

It automatically drops them down.

If I do the opposite and I start to go from the top and I lose my axis tilt, the only way for me to make this tilt go this way is to involve my trail side.

I can't get here and shift my weight.

I physically am having a hard time doing that.

So when you get up towards the top and you've maintained your head behind the ball and you've got your axis tilt, all I want you to focus on is just shift your weight.

And when you shift your weight, you'll notice that the arms and hands drop.

But you'll also notice that the tilt increases slightly.

If your tilt is decreasing from the top, you're going to come over the top.

I've seen it maybe a handful of times.

A handful of times.

Where somebody's gone up here towards the top and their tilt actually increased and then they came over the top.

But you can kind of see how funky that would look.

If I got here and my tilt actually went forward in transition, like I lost it this way, how would I start to shallow out the club?

It's almost a physical impossibility.

You're not going to see somebody that gets their tilt like this start to go like this.

They're not going to shift, get this tilt, and go like that.

It doesn't work that way.

Now, Earlier, I tried to get this screen share thing working and I was having a big issue with it.

Because I was going to kind of show you on my swing, a couple ways to kind of draw the lines.

I'll see if I can get it at the end.

I don't want to waste a couple things that I'm talking about.

But this is what I want you to do.

When you're filming your swing and you set up here and you make sure that you have axis tilt.

So 50-50, bump the hip towards the target.

I want you to put a line on the side of your head right here and I want you to draw a line down your tilt.

So this same line that I have right here that I created, okay?

And I want you to keep your head behind that line and maintain that tilt towards the top.

And if you do that, what you're going to notice is you're going to start rotating better and you're going to feel weight in this right side.

Now we also have the trail hip line where you can go like that, okay?

But what you're probably going to see if you start to go like that, your head's going to start moving crazy off the ball, okay?

But what I want you to do is maintain that tilt and head position to here.

And when you get here, focus on keeping the head behind the ball doing nothing with the arms and hands and watching what the arms and hands do.

If your axis tilt's increasing due to the fact that you're starting with your lower half, it's going to be really hard not to shallow out the club.

The only way you're not going to shallow out the club is if you start losing that tilt and you start enacting too much from the trail side.

So you need to start thinking about kind of how your spine angle is directly linked to your swing plane.

You set up with tilt, you load, you rotate up to here.

As you shift, if that tilt's decreasing, you're probably coming in too steeply.

You're already probably starting to cast.

You're already doing everything.

If your back stays towards the target, which should be a ton easier now because we have this tilt, and I start to shift and this increases, it automatically starts to drop my arms and hands.

So you can kind of monitor just what your spine's doing and what your head's doing to ensure that your arms and hands start coming straight down.

Or to start shallowing out the club.

Now, this can go one or two ways.

People can start to get here and they start to really overcook it where they're like, okay, well Craig told me to keep all this axis tilt, so when I start coming down, they start creating all this secondary tilt and this club gets stuck under here.

But also look at what happened with my head.

My head's falling away from the target now.

So my head, not only is not just staying behind the ball, it's actually moving further away from the target.

So when you're watching that, it's not about being in extremes.

It's just about having it.

If you get here and you start to shift and this tilt increases, my arms and hands go down.

It's an automatic way to shallow out the club.

So earlier, as I referred to kind of secret sauce-wise, some players are like, all right Craig, well I can set up with axis tilt, I can load and rotate towards the top and I can get everything looking pretty.

And I can start to shift my weight and I can get secondary tilt to help me start to shallow out my plane, but I still come over the top.

So you get to here, they start to shift and they still come over the top.

How do I solve that?

How do I change that?

Well, if you're watching your tilt and you're watching how you're shifting your weight in your head right there from the setup position, plug in a little bit of Axiom.

It is a virtual impossibility to come over the top if your arms and hands are going clockwise and your axis tilt is increasing on the downswing.

It is an impossibility to get over the top.

I haven't seen anybody do it.

I can't even do it myself.

I can't go like this because now I'm already moving back counterclockwise.

So if I'm getting up to this position and as you think about Axiom, you know, moving in this clockwise circle, okay, if I'm getting up here and my arms and hands are going clockwise and the club's going clockwise and as my arms and hands are going clockwise, If I'm shifting my weight and my head and everything's staying behind the ball, and because my weight's shifting this way and my axis tilt is increasing, how could I come over the top?

In fact, I would start dropping it way under plane, okay?

So when you're watching your swing, you need to watch for the same cues like we do on swing reviews or when I look at any student.

When I see a student set up like this and they get their right hand on the club and they get very vertical like this, the very first thing that I see them do is swing with their arms and hands like this.

They don't rotate and when they don't rotate, they fire their arms and hands from the top.

Almost without fail, every single one is a caster over the topper.

So when you set up right here and you make sure that you have the proper tilt, as I'm looking at it, just on any student of mine, and I watch their head and I watch their tilt, that they maintain their tilt and they maintain their head towards the top.

Now, I know that they have the potential to rotate and I know when they rotate, their arms and hands are going to stay relaxed.

So now when they rotate and they get up here and their arms and hands are relaxed, if the only thing that they're focusing on is shifting weight and doing nothing, my head's staying behind the ball, my weight's going towards the target, like I'm not doing this with my arm and hand right now.

It's just because I'm moving my hip.

It automatically increases my tilt, which automatically shallows out the swing plate.

I'm just leaving my arms and hands here, moving my hips.

Club automatically shallows.

I'm not going to see somebody go like this, that it doesn't work that way.

So if you're just monitoring that you have proper tilt, that you're maintaining the proper tilt, and when you shift, that you're not losing your tilt.

That's kind of the kind of the mantra.

You set up with correct tilt, you maintain the proper tilt, and then when you start to shift, you don't lose the tilt.

It's going to be really, really hard, even if you go the wrong direction with this as in too much.

It's going to be really, really hard for me if I created too much secondary tilt to come over the top now.

I get up here, and I start to shift and come down.

Now how would I come over the top from here?

I'm not going to see that motion.

I've never seen that motion.

So those couple of you out there that are like, yeah, I still can do it, combine it with the axiom motion.

If you're going clockwise, and your hips are going towards the target, and your spine angle is increasing coming down, it's going to be impossible to come over the top.

So we set up with the axis tilt for safety.

We monitor it throughout the backswing.

As we start to shift, we make sure that we don't lose it, because if anything, it's maintaining and increasing as we shift.

The arms and hands automatically drop.

The only thing that's going to mess it up is if you get up there, and you start firing from your trail side early, as in spinning.

Well, what happens when I get up here and fire from my, where'd my tilt If my back's towards the target and my tilt's increasing, it automatically shallows.

I can't make this over the top motion without losing my tilt.

I can't do it.

It would look like this.

Nobody swings like that.

For those out there that may say that they do, then combine it with axiom.

Okay?

If you monitor proper, maintain it, make sure you don't lose it in transition, and you do nothing with your arms and hands, you can't come over the top.

You literally can't do it.

It's why I rarely have to teach a student, like, okay, let's fix this, because as soon as I fix that, the problem's already gone.

Okay?

All right.

So I went just a touch over.

I apologize for that.

Questions.

I know there's going to be a lot.

I'm here for you.

Let's fire away.

Let's get these things out.

All right?

Let's get these thoughts correct in the brain.

Why does an axis tilt cause thin shots?

I feel I have to hit down through the ball.

Axis tilt seems to be counter to hitting down.

Please demonstrate.

All right.

Great question, Greg.

So the problem is if we have a ton of secondary tilt, okay?

So what Greg's talking about is if we start to get down into the strike and we start hitting it thin, and your lead shoulder starts popping up towards the sky, I've got a ton of axis tilt right now.

I'm going to start hitting it off the bottom of the club and start hitting it thin.

It's not what I'm searching for.

What I want is that when you get here and you shift and create this tilt, do we keep pushing the hip beyond neutral to create more tilt?

No.

You've already preset the amount of tilt you're going to create in the downswing.

So when you get into this position here and we're two inches outside of neutral, where do we move this lead hip to?

Neutral.

Stacked over our knees, stacked over our ankle joint.

So when I get here and start to shift, that's all the tilt that I'm going to create because I'm not going to be moving my hips anymore towards the target.

If my lead shoulder starts coming up, more than likely your hip is going through neutral, creating all this tilt, and you're trying to swing up and hit the golf ball.

You have to think about the axis tilt is shallowing out the plane.

We can only get so much to where our hips over here in neutral.

We can't get any more.

It's a predetermined, preset measurement.

But I think where you're getting fuzzy is there's also something called shoulder plane.

Your shoulders rotate on this plane going back.

Well, what do they do from the top?

Do they just drop down like this and the shoulder gets high?

No, they rotate back on this plane.

And as I start to come down, they rotate on this plane.

Well, watch my left shoulder right now.

If I go from here, you can see I'm adding a ton of tilt.

You don't need this much just for show.

But if I start to go here and I'm maintaining my tilt and my shoulders are unwinding properly, my shoulder way up here, that's going to cause thin shots.

But my shoulder's not supposed to be up there.

And also look at what happens with my head when I do that.

My head's falling away from the target.

Head stays behind the ball.

It doesn't increase behind.

We're not these long drivers where we're trying to get here and create this maximum extension point.

We're looking for shallow width consistency.

What about a pull?

What about a pull?

The pull is mostly created by what?

Why do people pull the ball?

Pulling the ball comes from the fact that people start to get steep.

Their shoulders and their clubs start to work steep.

And when they release it, everything's aiming left and they get a pull.

It starts left of target.

Now we can get into, you know, different face dynamics and gear effect and all these other things, face to pass ratios.

But the simplest way to think about it, if I'm getting here and I start to shallow out my swing plane, where's the club going to start releasing?

Now this is excessive, but the club's going to start releasing out towards the right.

And my swing plane path are going from inside to out.

It's going to be really hard to pull it if I'm going like this.

That's going to be that old right to left shot, that old draw that everybody wants.

And you do it excessively, it's a hook.

But to get the ball to start out left, it's because typically the shoulders start this way.

What happens when my shoulders start this way?

Where did my tilt go?

Where'd it go?

I lost my tilt.

And when I lose my tilt, it steepens the club.

It steepens the path.

And now I'm hitting the pole.

You made a comment earlier that if you keep your arms relaxed, you can maintain lag up to the point of impact.

Is that right?

I thought you needed to release lag much earlier.

Well, let's think about this, Stephen.

If I go from here and I load and rotate towards the top right now, and this is, you can ask all my students, you can ask anybody who's played a golf with me.

You can even ask Chuck because sometimes I go too far with this.

And when I get up here towards the top, my arms and hands are chilled out.

Now you can almost pull this golf club out of my hand.

These are jello.

I'm just moving me.

My arms and hands are chilled out.

Now I'm going to shift, and you can see that my tilt's remaining, increasing slightly.

I'm going to post down here to my trail thigh, and now I'm going to release the club.

So I'm sitting here literally just moving my weight and moving my hip, which pulls my hands to here.

I haven't done anything.

My arms and hands are here.

My weight and hip pull them to here.

Then all I do is just let the club release.

So I'm not trying to maintain lag or do anything like that.

If I stay chilled out, and I'm just using my legs on the downswing, the lag's maintained.

All right.

George, good to see you on your two feet.

Thank you, George.

George, struggle is creating that separation between the lower half shift and the left shoulder staying quiet.

Between the lower half shift and the left shoulder staying quiet.

Well, if I'm reading the question correctly, George, you're saying that when you get here, the trouble is creating this.

The fact that my chest and back, back's towards the target, chest is staying away, and my legs are going this way, getting that separation.

Lower half this way, that way.

Yeah, that's a tough one, especially for right side dominant players and players that overuse their arms and hands too much.

But let's even think about your swing.

All right.

I've seen your swing before.

When you go from here and you start to come down and this comes steep, does this increase?

Even if it kind of goes with itself.

So let's say we get up here and the shoulders move too much.

So I get up here and I start to shift and my shoulders move too much.

The club, the pitch of the shaft, is still wanting to drop.

My arms and hands are racing too far out in front.

Yes.

It's a really tough one, George.

I mean, I've obviously seen your swing and I know how tough that is.

But that's why a lot of, in your swing in particular, when you get the arms and hands like this and they get a little deep and they get a little pinned, you get all this tension in your shoulder girdle.

And when you get that tension, you want to fire with your shoulders.

The more you can delete the tension here and keep the arms and hands in front, the easier it's going to be to keep them back in transition.

But when you post up, lead leg, shoulder does go up.

Here's the thin shot.

Sean, when you sit there and post up, so as I go down from here and I start to post up, so my hip is moving up and away to trigger the club to go down and out.

Okay.

This shoulder coming up and when you start getting into paramedic acceleration and all this, as my shoulder comes up, it's barely moving up right here.

I'm not moving up a ton as I'm doing this.

To hit it thin, I've got to be changing this to here.

That amount, because your left shoulder is going to be slightly above your right at impact.

I've really got to do this.

Now, this kind of comes back to the tension aspect in the thin.

If I post up 1000 aggressively, moving my hip away, not 1001 just up.

When I move my hip away, what is 1002 that club doing?

1003 That club's moving down and out.

1004 If I just get here and I just post up, 1005 yeah, my shoulder is just going to go 1006 straight up.

1007 Now you can see like my club is, 1008 that's the thin, but I'm moving the hip 1009 up in a way which is making the club go 1010 down and out.

The only way you're going 1011 to get the thin is if you really start 1012 overcooking this.

And I have players, 1013 even myself at some points, where I had 1014 to practice kind of feeling this lead 1015 shoulder staying low, but I didn't take 1016 my tilt and go like this.

I still had 1017 axis tilt, my lead shoulder staying low, 1018 and as I post right here, I shouldn't be 1019 like this.

That's what causes the thin.

1020 So at setup, are the shoulders naturally 1021 open or a slight amount due to the right 1022 hand lower on the club?

Should the 1023 shoulders be perfectly square at the hips 1024 and knees?

Great question, Carver.

1025 People have a tendency when they add axis 1026 tilt to go like this.

So they're standing 1027 up here and say, I'm pinning squarely 1028 with the fireplace.

1029 And they add axis tilt and they go like 1030 this.

1031 And now you can see that my shoulders are 1032 open towards the target, 1033 all right?

That's the natural tendency to 1034 do it.

Your shoulders need to be square 1035 at setup.

1036 The more your shoulders are open 1037 at setup, the less chance you're going to 1038 rotate because you've got such more of a 1039 greater distance to cover, you're going 1040 to tend to arm it back.

That's why when I 1041 look at somebody's setup and I sit here 1042 and look at this, you can kind of see 1043 like the top of my left forearm right 1044 here.

My shoulders are square because I'm 1045 making the takeaway super simple.

1046 Now I just take my shoulder behind my 1047 head.

When you set up with it open, it 1048 makes the tendency for you to swing with 1049 your arms.

And when you swing with your 1050 arms, you get all that momentum and 1051 tension and you're going to tend to fire 1052 from the top.

1053 Just wondering if I try to keep my back 1054 to the target as long as I can when I 1055 begin to shift and rotate my hips.

1056 I was just wondering.

Yeah.

1057 I mean, that's in effect what you need to 1058 do, Jeremy.

1059 So if you get up here towards the top, 1060 there's a lot of diminishing turn with 1061 everything in life, 1062 okay?

1063 Everything in life.

1064 But if you get up here towards the top 1065 and your back stays towards the target 1066 and my hips keep going, so I keep my back 1067 towards the target, what's the club 1068 doing?

Even as much as I'm going right 1069 now.

The club, the more and more I do 1070 that is just staying shallow.

1071 That's about as far as I can go hip wise.

1072 It's staying shallow.

Now, yes, you can 1073 get into a point to where you start going 1074 like this and your head's hanging back, 1075 but then you're going to start drop 1076 kicking it and you're going to come back 1077 and you're going to be like, Craig, I got 1078 another problem.

Like you stopped my over 1079 the top, but now I'm way underplaying and 1080 I'm drop kicking it.

Let's worry about 1081 missing underplay for a little bit.

1082 Could you explain a release point from 1083 the golfer's vantage point wedged through 1084 driver in order to maintain the spine 1085 tilt?

1086 Explain a release point from the golfer's 1087 vantage point for wedged through driver 1088 in order to maintain spine tilt.

1089 Try to elaborate a little bit more or 1090 narrow that down just a little bit more, 1091 David, because 1092 depending on what kind of shot you're 1093 trying to hit, that can vary a little 1094 bit.

So, I mean, 1095 you know, if I'm, you know, if I got a 1096 seven iron, I'm starting here to come 1097 down and I'm coming down at impact.

I 1098 have this position for me.

If I'm trying 1099 to hit a little bit more of a draw versus 1100 hitting it straight, I actually leave my 1101 chest a little bit closed.

Okay.

1102 So I'll get here.

I'll shift.

I'll start 1103 posting.

I'll actually leave my chest a 1104 little bit closed.

Because it'll start 1105 the release a little bit earlier and 1106 it'll get that club rotating a little bit 1107 sooner.

And I'll hit a little bit more of 1108 a draw.

1109 But in a, in a standard stock kind of 1110 everything, let's throw driver out of 1111 that because driver's a little bit more 1112 of a specialty club.

1113 If I'm loading, rotating up here with the 1114 tilt and I'm shifting and I'm posting, as 1115 soon as I start entering this trail 1116 thigh, this is where I'm releasing it 1117 from.

1118 Most players tend to cast or don't get to 1119 impact.

So they may exaggerate.

I I had 1120 two lessons I did today, where I had them 1121 feel like they were using their legs and 1122 getting their button in the club all the 1123 way to the lead thigh before they let it 1124 release.

But the typical standard stock 1125 shot, You're shifting weight to drop the 1126 arms and hands to here, and you're 1127 posting to get the hands into the trail 1128 thigh, and then you're just releasing the 1129 club.

1130 What is the correct position of the club 1131 at setup?

Many instructors have the club 1132 position with too much forward shaft lane 1133 according to the club's law.

1134 Very simple, Jose.

1135 When I set up right here, I've got the 1136 ball off the lead here, I've got my axis 1137 tilt and everything's good.

What's my 1138 club right now?

1139 Is it forward pressed, my hands behind 1140 the ball, or is it pretty vertical?

1141 Clubs should be vertical at address.

The 1142 more you start to push your hands forward 1143 like this, you can almost even see how my 1144 left arm and club almost get in a perfect 1145 line.

The more you start to do this, you 1146 start to activate these extensor muscles 1147 in your arms, okay?

In your forearms.

1148 And the tendency to go back is use your 1149 hands.

1150 Okay?

1151 So when you start to add more forward 1152 press, tendency is to overuse the arms 1153 and hands.

1154 So what you want is the club vertical 1155 because, you know, just like you've seen 1156 the belly button drill on the site where 1157 you put it in the belly button right here 1158 and you rotate to the takeaway, it's the 1159 same premise.

I'm right here, all I'm 1160 doing is rotating.

1161 Rotating.

And that's what gives me all 1162 the stuff that I need right here.

1163 I'll talk more about that.

I think I have 1164 a webinar in a week where I talk more 1165 about the takeaway issues.

1166 Let's see.

1167 I'm going to go to this question and 1168 answer tab.

It's hard for the instructors 1169 to get to this.

I'm going to see if I can 1170 get to it.

1171 Yeah, I think I got all those.

No other 1172 questions?

Nothing?

1173 Everybody happy, healthy?

Everybody know 1174 what they need to do.

I don't want you to 1175 overblow this, all right?

1176 We need axis tilt.

I know it's something 1177 that we, you know, may overuse on the 1178 side or underuse on the side.

All you've 1179 got to think about, set up with proper 1180 tilt, 1181 maintain that proper tilt, 1182 don't lose the tilt, reverse pivot.

1183 Don't increase the tilt a ton, head 1184 moving off the ball a lot.

You're setting 1185 up with tilt, you're maintaining that 1186 tilt.

And as you start to come down right 1187 here, as you shift your weight, if this 1188 tilt is still maintained, where do my 1189 arms and hands have to go?

1190 They have to go down.

They have to work 1191 from here to here.

1192 The only way that's going to change is if 1193 I start doing something from the top and 1194 losing that tilt.

Even if I start 1195 spinning and I'm increasing tilt at the 1196 same time, you're going to see that my 1197 arms and hands go out, but what did my 1198 club do?

My club still shout out.

Now 1199 that's not the position we want to get 1200 into, but the club still shout it out.

1201 Okay?

It has to.

1202 All right.

1203 That's what I thought.

Great info.

1204 Thanks, John.

Thanks, Jose.

So no more 1205 questions for tonight.

Everybody all 1206 good?

1207 Set it up.

Maintain it.

1208 Make sure you don't lose it.

1209 Okay?

1210 You don't need a ton.

You don't need 1211 anything crazy.

It's already preset up by 1212 where you set up at address.

1213 Thanks, George.

1214 Thanks, Paul.

1215 Mike, a lot of rotation.

Hope you're not 1216 sore.

I'm already hurting, Mike.

1217 I'm already hurting.

1218 But the good news is, just on that topic, 1219 just for fun, because I'm broken, 1220 did you not notice anything different in 1221 my swing?

You know my swing, Mike.

1222 What'd I do?

1223 I allowed for a little more hip rotation.

1224 Just take pressure off.

It's okay.

1225 Thanks, Jeremy.

Thanks, Robert.

1226 Thanks, Daniel.

1227 Yeah, Daniel.

I'm going to try on all 1228 these casts.

I'm going to try to keep 1229 them just very simple points, and just 1230 checkpoints you can watch 1231 to help get through this.

Okay?

1232 Well, I'm glad everybody enjoyed.

I'm 1233 going to sign off for the night.

1234 I'm going to go jump in a giant tub of 1235 ice, and I'll catch you on the site, and 1236 I'll see you in