Jamie Donaldson - Downswing Sequence
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Jamie Donaldson has a remarkable golf swing and has a number of RST like characteristics to it. In this video, I'll show you a better way to sequence your downswing by using your legs properly.
- Externally rotate lead leg (internal femur rotation) to start the downswing.
- Keep your back to the target.
- Let arms fall.
- Once weight is shifted, post up and release it.
Hi everyone and welcome back to RotarySwing.
com.
This is RST instructor Chris Tyler.
And we are back with this week's tour analysis on the absolutely sensational golf swing of Jamie Donaldson, who just picked up his victory in Thailand this past weekend.
So congratulations to Jamie.
This week, our focus is on a key move in the downswing that's going to allow you to have better sequencing and more lag.
So if you've been looking for a better way to get more speed in your golf swing, you want to pay close attention to this fantastic golf swing.
For sure.
Let's go ahead and started.
Okay, so here we are with the Ryder Cup 2014 Ryder Cup star for the European team, Jamie Donaldson, who was absolutely fantastic in the 2014 Ryder Cup.
And he's got a fantastic golf swing, as I said in the opener from beginning to end.
Lots of key points in his golf swing that we could really focus in on.
But we would be here for about 30 to 40 minutes talking about all of them.
So this week we're going to be focusing in on one area that's going to allow amateur golfers to learn how to properly sequence the downswing.
That's a really big crux of the golf swing is how do we get things motoring back over to the lead side.
And let's go ahead and look at those both from a face on and down the line perspective this week.
Go ahead and get them loaded up to the top of the swing.
Very textbook looking position up here at the top.
Right elbow in line with the body.
Right at the base of the chest here.
Hands up above the right shoulder.
Good separation between the hip line and shoulder line here.
You can see that his hips have probably rotated about 35 degrees or so.
His shoulders have rotated 90 to 95 degrees.
Now, this is where we want to focus in on this week is how do we get things back over to lead side without using our smaller muscles.
And this is where amateur golfers struggle so much is that we want to use our shoulders and our arms so badly from the top of the swing that we start to throw the club very early, causing some casting, or you start to run in an over the top position.
When we really want to do very little with our upper body, we want to drive the downswing with our lower half.
So what I want you to pay attention to is over here on a face on perspective.
I want you to watch this lead leg here.
Okay so as the hands and arms start to near the top.
Okay I'm going to go through these few frames.
You're going to see some external rotation of that lead leg.
This is actually called from an anatomic standpoint internal femur rotation.
So this move right here is that leg externally rotating much like a pitcher.
So if you think of a baseball pitcher, their lead leg would would stride out and you would see that it would start to externally rotate.
It It would plant on the ground and you would see them start to pivot on their hip and then throw the ball.
That actually is what's happening in the golf swing essentially with the lower half.
But we're just stuck to the ground.
We're not picking the lead leg up.
So that external rotation of the lead leg is starting to number one.
It's starting to shift the hips.
So you see the hips shifting this direction.
Now from a different view here from a down the line perspective I want you to see that same move.
Now focus in on this lead leg making that external rotation.
Okay so now what you'll notice here I'm going to try to stop them right in the same frame.
When the hips and knees have gotten back to a square position.
All right so you can see that they've shifted and they've also unwound.
Okay that's the big key move is that understanding that the hips are making a dynamic move.
They're unwinding and they're shifting at the same time.
They're not just doing one or the other.
That's what that external rotation is going to allow you to do.
It's going to help pull the hips over to the lead side.
It's going to help you transfer your weight into that lead side so that you can begin to post up and then release the club.
Now, here's what the the big lesson is of the week is is that the focus point needs to be, as I said, where the shoulders and arms are when your hips and knees get back to square.
Okay so we're going to say that these hips are square.
These hips are square.
Notice from a face -on perspective that these shoulders still appear to be very wound.
Now, a lot of amateur golfers.
When you start to look at yourself on camera.
When your hips and knees get back to square, you're going to notice that your shoulders are almost back to a square position.
Kind of representation of that where that second line I just drew is.
That is where you need to start focusing in on.
Keeping your back more to the target for a longer period of time while you're sitting over into your left heel.
Okay, so that's our key move this week is that we're going to work on keeping our back to the target as long as possible.
And we're going to also from the top of the swing, maybe show from a face-on perspective here, we're going to keep that back to the target, we're going to have our arms feeling like they're falling straight down.
I don't want you to pull them straight down.
I want you to feel like you're keeping the back to the target, and you're letting your arms fall down while you're sitting over into this left heel.
Once you feel that weight, get into that left heel, Then go ahead and feel like you're turning the speed on here and release the club through the hitting area.
And you're going to see that you have a better path and more speed.
Okay, gang, so thanks again for tuning in to another edition of the tour player.
Analysis by Rotaryswing.
com.
Remember, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post those up below and we'll help you out as best we can.
Also, if you've been struggling with some downswing sequence, we've got some great videos on the website.
We have squat to square, we've got sitting into the left side, we've got building your swing from the ground up, we've got perfecting lower body stability.
All those videos can really help you use your lower half as a good power source and a good source of stability too as well.
So definitely check those videos out.
Good luck on your games, let's make it a great day.
Ivan
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Kip
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Lance
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
William
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)