80 Yard Shots - Down the Line
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You're graduating to full swings! So, this one is extremely important to set you up for long term success with the driver, so get these details spot on! If you want to learn how to strengthen these muscles for more power, here is the RSA video I referenced: RSA Explosive Power
As we move into the 80-yard shot, details matter.
So what I want you to do, I found an app that's free in the App Store called Visual Eyes.
That's what you see here on the screen now.
It allows you to do very good detailed comparisons, step through frame by frame, and even do an overlay, which I'll show you in just a moment.
But what I'm going to do is walk you through the first set of keys from down the line that you're going to start paying attention to, to get this swing dialed in so that you're swinging just like the goat.
So the first key during that takeaway is you want to be able to see the left-hand fingers.
You can see the glove fingers there.
For a while during the takeaway, a lot of times people roll that hand in immediately and so like the top of your glove would be visible instead of the fingers.
And so you want to make sure that that club head is staying outside your hand.
So during the first few frames of the takeaway, You want to make sure you can see those fingers and you're starting to set the risk to get the club.
To go up on plane through your hands, like you see here, rather than rolling inside behind your hands.
If you're doing that, your lead arm is probably pronating too much too soon and that's going to cause issues and make it very difficult to be very consistent.
From here, as the club keeps setting up, what we're doing is kind of coiling into that right leg.
And then as we start down, this is really the big key because as you get into 80-yard shots, you've got to start adding hand speed.
And that hand speed is going to come from, again, I'm making a little bit longer hitting an 80 -yard shot here.
Tiger's only hitting about a 50-60-yard shot here.
So I've got a little bit longer backswing.
But from here, we're both going to start supinating that right wrist, that trail wrist.
And that's going to shallow out the club.
Because if I just swung down and started pushing the club with my arms, I would come down steep and over the top from this position.
But you'll see that I'm able to shallow out because I'm supinating that right hand and that drops the club back down on plane through the forearm.
And this is key.
This is the main thing that you're going to start getting.
Once you get into the 80-yard shots, we've got to start adding hand speed.
We've got to start supinating and throwing from the top to get the club to work through the ball correctly and have speed.
So now let's take a look at the overlay feature so you can see how to track yourself against the goat as you're working on your drills.
All right, I'm going to show you how to start getting your 80-yard down-the-line wedge shot set up using this app that I mentioned, VisualEyes.
VisualEyes is free.
And I'm using it here because it's got a great overlay comparison.
So after you record your swing and import it, or you can record it directly from the app, select your swing and then go in and select the model swing that you're using.
So I'm going to use this.
Tiger's hitting a little bit of a shorter shot than I am here.
But they're very, very close.
It's maybe 15 yards short of what I'm hitting.
But what I want you to do is go to the impact frame, both for the model and for yourself, and then click this little chain link button.
And then click this top right button here next to the microphone that has the little two boxes.
And that will give you the overlay feature.
So now go back to a dress.
Now that you've got it synced up, and zoom in or out to get the model, and obviously Tiger, to line up with.
Now, obviously, everybody's build is different.
Tiger's much taller than I am, so I've got to shrink him down a little bit.
But I also choked up on the club here just to kind of get it all really, really close, as you'll see.
So you just kind of get it dialed in, get the head and feet in about the same spot.
And now, as you start working this slider on the bottom back, you'll be able to track everything side by side and see where you start to make a misstep or go off one direction or the other.
And so, again, I'm making a little bit longer swing here because I'm hitting this a little bit further than he is.
But you'll see that the motions are basically the same.
That's what you're looking for.
And so as you're working through this, start paying attention, obviously, first with the takeaway to see if you're ripping the club way inside your hands or what have you, if you're standing up.
Everything should start to match up very, very closely.
And then the downswing part here, as you start to supinate with that trail hand, that's what's going to get the club shallowed out, coming right back through the forearm, through the hands, and back to a good impact position.
As we move into the 80-yard shots, we're going to start needing to add hand speed, as I mentioned before.
And hand speed is really just learning how to supinate the wrist, which is really just kind of like a windshield washer.
If you remember the Axiom videos, I talked about how if you're looking at a clock, you're rotating everything clockwise if you are a right-handed golfer.
So now, let's start going into this step-by-step and start getting a feel for how to make these two critical pieces of the swing work, which is setting the takeaway, which sets up the supination, which is your hand speed.
So during the takeaway, what most golfers do to make a mistake is they pronate or internally rotate this lead arm, and that drives the club inside.
This flattens out the wrist, hinges this one back, and rotates it too much.
And now at the top of the swing, there's nowhere for you to go.
You have no room to supinate because when you pronate this arm, it supinates this arm, and so now you're in a position where you have nothing left at the top other than to push.
Once you start pushing, effortless powers out the door, because once you start pushing like this, it's going to force you to lose all your angles and start pushing the club through, and you lose that hand speed with your wrist.
So during the takeaway, what you want to feel is that, first of all, this lead arm is supinated at address.
If you start with it like this, it's going to already encourage you to dump it inside.
So start with it supinated, just like the trail arm is.
And then as you go back, you want to see the leather on your gloves, that white on your glove, going back during those first few frames.
So it feels like this during the takeaway, but of course, as you add speed, it doesn't actually do that.
But that's what you're going to feel is that you're taking your three fingers and you're moving them toward the camera instead of rotating right away like this, which dumps the club inside.
So once you have this, the only other feeling that you've got to have is that your wrist going up.
Now they're going to, the right wrist is, trail wrist is going to hinge and cock at the same time.
And the lead wrist, what you're wanting to focus on is maintaining a good chunk of that extension that you have during the swing, right?
That setup, you know, your left wrist is going to be an extension or cupped like this.
You don't want to flatten it out right away.
So you want to maintain that cupping because as you'll see in a moment, when you go to supinate, that's going to help you give you more leverage on the club to put torque on it to supinate even faster.
So all I'm feeling during the takeaway is this.
And I'm going to show you what this looks like from my perspective in just a minute.
But this is all I'm trying to feel is that motion.
So if I do that while the club, while I'm keeping those three fingers facing the camera and I start cocking the club up, in my practice swing, it looks a little goofy.
Like I'm just picking the club straight up.
But as I add speed to it, you'll see that now the club's going to go in line with my hands and up.
And that is the feeling that it takes is that you're really feeling like this and like that.
Now, again, it doesn't happen that way.
But once you have that feeling, the club is going to stay outside your hands.
And now I've got that extension maintained in my wrist.
And now I've got to do from here is the payoff, starting the release.
And that's why we want to start with 80 yard shots with a sand wedge.
So we're moving on from the 60 degree wedge because we want to start adding, getting used to the other clubs.
But also we don't want to go full speed just yet.
So an 80 yard shot with a sand wedge, anybody should be able to hit.
Even if you don't typically hit your, you know, your sand wedge full that far yet.
An 80 yard shot with a sand wedge is really just a half swing as you saw at the beginning of this video.
So once you get here and you've got this left elbow, another little key to this is feeling like this left elbow pit is pointing straight down at the ground halfway back.
Or as you get near the top of your backswing.
And this one is point, this elbow pit is pointing up.
It's not going to be exactly how they are, but you want to feel that because the opposite is if you start rotating with your shoulders, that's also going to dump the club inside and you'll see that your left elbow pit is pointing out away from you.
As soon as I point it straight down at the ground and maintain that extension, I keep the club back out in front of my body.
So now from here, all I want to do is this.
Now you've no doubt seen tour players who go to the top of their swing and most amateurs, the club goes this way and tour players go this way.
What is happening there?
It's all just this.
All I'm doing, like I showed in the recent RSA video, if you want to learn how to do this with some strength and learn how to develop these muscles, I'm basically just supinating my trail hand with the club shaft 90 degrees to my forearm.
This is the motion.
So when you put this in 3D, in 2D, it just looks kind of funny, like I'm just doing this.
But as I'm going up and I start to do this, as my body begins to go back, I begin to pivot, I begin to supinate this club, it drops the club down on plane.
So that's why you can be like Matthew Wolf, take a club up like this and then supinate it down.
You'll still be on plane, whereas most amateurs go up like this and come over.
You do not want to push the club at all.
You want to supinate from the top.
And so that's what you're learning in this 80-yard shot, is how to make a shorter, controlled swing and learn how to start supinating, rotating this wrist this way.
And the left wrist is going to pronate and help while the trail hand is supinating.
And once you have that feeling, that's what gives you speed.
Because this, you can do very quickly when you combine this with your whole body, learning how to do this all together, which we'll talk about as we go to full speed.
That's where you're going to get all of your club head speed.
That's where your hand speed comes from.
But on an 80-yard shot, it's a very simple, small stroke.
My fingers to the camera, cocking the wrist up.
And you'll see that because I've cocked my wrist instead of bowed them or supinated or pronated too early, I have something now to give me some leverage.
If I'm already here, how can I go here further?
So that's why you're feeling that the club head is staying outside your hands and you're maintaining that extension in the lead wrist.
So that as you get to the top, you can start to supinate.
So as you go through it, first here, up, supinate, and continue that supination and all the way through the shot.
Now let me show you what this looks like from my perspective, what you're going to see from your perspective with your hands, with a unique view.
So once I have my hands on the club, there's a couple of things that I want you to be able to focus on.
One, as I mentioned earlier, we want to be able to maintain this cupping or extension in the lead wrist.
And obviously, as you go back, you're going to lose some of that, but you don't want to lose all of it because then again, you don't have anything left to supinate with.
So once I have my left wrist focused on maintaining some of that extension, what do I do with my right hand?
Well, again, my right hand is going to supinate.
It's going to do this.
So supination, as you're looking at your hand, it's just doing this.
If you're holding the club straight up in front of you, you're just rotating it externally.
That's supination.
Now, as you're doing this, what is on the side of the shaft that would allow you to help do this with some more speed?
Your thumb.
So what you're going to focus on is the side of your thumb.
And you often see tour pros kind of do this with their thumb.
Some will do it more like this.
Some will do it more like this, but they'll kind of like tap their thumb, getting ready to use it.
Because that's actually how you trigger part of the supination movement.
Your left hand's involved.
Your right hand's involved.
But the main power is coming from the trail hand.
And this thumb helps you push against the shaft at the top of the swing.
So if I go to the top of the swing and I've got my wrist cupped up here, as I start to push against the shaft with my thumb, it's going to start tipping the club this way.
And I keep doing that all the way through into the hitting area.
So all I'm doing, I'm never trying to push my arms, never trying to push my club.
I'm trying to just simply supinate my hand, my trail hand, all the way down into impact.
That supination is how you create speed.
It's how you release the club.
You're never trying to do this with it.
That would be pushing the club.
It's not very fast.
Again, like I've talked about in the release videos, you are supinating all the way down.
And eventually you're going to run out of range of motion.
And that supination is going to turn into deviation and then pronation.
But that's happening extremely fast.
What you're in control of at the top is tipping the club this way.
So as you're working on these 80-yard shots, that's what I want you to begin to focus on is this, to trigger the club, to start down and let that supination continue all the way through.
So let's look at what this looks like in the real world as I'm practicing.
So here I am actually doing these drills, actually trying to get the same feeling that I just described for you.
Trying to feel my hands going in, you can see my glove hand working toward the camera and the club working, feeling extremely up and out away from my hands.
And then I get a little supination feel.
As I go to hit the ball, it doesn't look anything like that.
Now let's take a look at this step by step.
So we've got the old feel and reel here.
So now as you're working through this, the first thing, if your trail arm is nice and straight at address and supinated, the club should work back nicely to the inside immediately off the ball.
So even though it looks like I'm trying to take the club way outside, when you add speed and you start doing this all together with your body, the club actually goes immediately to the inside if done correctly.
And your hands should be angled in at this point.
So you can see my left arm is angled in.
If I draw a line here, so what you're going to be checking on, on your videos when you're looking at your swing.
So you can see my left arm kind of angles in towards my heel.
That's keeping the club head inside my hands.
I've lost some extension of my left hand, but I still have some of it.
And that's keeping the club head outside of my hands.
And as I go up to the top, the first thing I'm going to do here is supinate.
So you'll see that, again, most time when you're looking at your swing, most golfers are going to go on the outside of this line toward the ball.
What you want to see as you start down is that that club drops down and shallows out underneath where it is at the top.
And that's going to be all just due to supination.
At this point, I'm just rotating my trail wrist externally.
I'm trying to just basically take my right hand and stick the club head in the ground back here behind me.
Because I'm trying to create speed back at the back part of my swing with my hands.
I'm trying to feel that I'm trying to create speed immediately right here in this direction.
Most golfers feel like they try to move their club head back to the ball very quickly and create speed this way.
And they create speed very late.
It happens out here after the ball.
What you want to feel is that you start supinating immediately to start creating hand speed immediately.
Now, because the club is long, that it's moving, you're not going to be able to create that much speed.
So it's a little bit of a gradual start to the swing.
But your focus is feeling that you're starting to supinate with some speed right away.
So I'm pushing against the shaft with my thumb, supinating my right wrist, pronating the left wrist, getting them all together to try and move the club back here down behind me.
And that's what's giving me hand speed.
And so you'll find that even for an 80-yard shot, this is just a really easy swing.
You can see I'm really not putting anything into it at all with a sandwich.
And you should be able to do the same.
So once you start getting the feel of this supination, you're going to be able to have way more speed with way less effort.
Brian
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Brian
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
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Hyogo
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Jonathan
Jonathan
Jonathan
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
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Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Jonathan
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