Thorbjorn Olesen - Perfect your takeaway
Sorry, you need to be a member to access this video.
You Are Just Seconds Away - Become a member here!
Already a member? Log in now
See 2 key moves that Thorbjorn Olesen uses to build a picture perfect takeaway position every single time.
- Shift your weight first.
- Rotate your body.
- Keep arms relaxed.
- Keep the trail knee flexed when rotating the body.
Hey, Rotary Swing Golfers.
This is RST instructor Chris Tyler, and we are back with this week's tour analysis on Tor Bjorn Olesen, Who just picked up his third European Tour victory at the Alfred Dunhill Lynx Championship this past weekend.
And we're going to be doing something a little fun this week.
We're going to be focusing in on building a good, proper tour pro-like takeaway position every single time that you play golf.
And I know a lot of us are starting to approach our winter months, and this is a perfect time to take it on.
And I'm going to show you exactly how Olesen does a really good job with weight shift and establishing a lot of good width and rotation early on, which in turn he can use for a lot of great power, a lot of great speed in the downswing.
So if you've been struggling with your takeaway position, let's go ahead and get started.
All right, So I know a lot of us are fast approaching those ugly winter months where we won't be able to play or practice much golf, But I think this is a perfect time to promote a little bit of a challenge back to you at home and really get you to start working on some really important parts of the golf swing.
And we're going to focus on takeaway this week.
And takeaway, as silly as it sounds, and I know a lot of us struggle with this particular position, takeaway sets the golf swing off on the right tone.
It allows us to be able to shift our weight properly.
It allows us to start to load up our big muscles in our body that we can in turn use for club head speed.
And it also establishes a lot of width.
Width is extremely important to establish very early on in the golf swing.
Because what we want to look for at the top of the swing down is we want the arc to be able to narrow.
Once we get ready to start to release the club, then the arc will start to widen back up.
So it's a very common swing shape that you'll see with all golf pros.
And it's the wide narrow wide swing shape.
It's a video that's well liked around the website.
It gives you a good clear indication of what wide narrow wide means.
That video will be over here to the recommended videos tab, just to the right hand side of the player.
Just go ahead and click that tab.
All the videos mentioned here will go ahead and start to populate on that side.
But more importantly, What I want to focus on is getting the golf swing started off on the right tone, so that you have the ability to be able to narrow the arc from the top of the swing down, which in turn you can turn into lag.
And lag then is going to be a big part of your speed when you start to release it.
So let's get busy here.
Let's look at some of the takeaway positions here and get you on a good starting page with your golf swing.
So from a face-on perspective, what I want you to pay close attention to, I'm going to draw this line up, a very common line you'll see us use from an instructional standpoint.
I'm going to draw that line up right from the center of the ankle, straight up.
And you're going to notice this little bit of space between the right thigh and this line.
Okay, so just about the knee up, you'll see this little bit of space, about an inch space or so.
And I also want you to pay very close attention to the buttons on his shirt and the club head here.
So let's go ahead and mark that.
So club head and then the buttons on his shirt.
And I want you to pay very close attention to how the buttons on his shirt and his club head rotate at the same rate.
But I also want you to pay close attention to this little small gap that we have between the right thigh and that right hip line.
So you're going to see a small shift.
Okay, and now notice, now that you see the weight shifting into that right side, now watch the club head and the buttons on his shirt work together.
Okay, so this is the particular part of the golf swing that a lot of people struggle with.
And why is that?
Well, because we're moving from the wrong parts of our body.
We tend to try to move the golf club back with just our hands and our arms.
And in turn, we get a ton of wrist set.
And all that's really doing is loading up your hands and your arms first in your golf swing, which in turn now is going to start to make you want to fire them from the top of the swing down, which can rob you of speed, it can get you into a flippy impact position.
So you can see the kind of cause and effect.
Most all tour pros that you watch on TV, men's and ladies golf, you'll see that they start very wide into their takeaway.
Now the big moving parts of the big key components of that are weight shift and rotation.
Okay, So the only things that really started to happen in this golf swing was that he shifted his weight and he rotated his body.
Okay, so he made a one inch shift.
So you can see he's pushed up right against this right hip line.
And he rotated his body about 45 degrees.
Now, one of the big misconceptions that I'm going to show you from a down the line perspective is that we want to just shift our hips laterally.
Okay, in a sense, yes, for some of you that have battled with pelvic instability or allowing your hips to over rotate.
Yeah, we would coach you from an instructional standpoint and say, no, we don't want you to feel any rotation.
But the hips are making a very dynamic movement in the golf swing.
They're not just shifting.
They're not just rotating.
They're working together.
But it's important that they maintain stability throughout that process.
So what you'll notice here from a down the line perspective, you're going to see that the hips rotate just a fraction, maybe five or 10 degrees or so.
But most importantly, what he's done is he's maintained the right knee flex, and he's kept his weight driving into that right heel.
That's the most important part for stability in the lower half.
That's starting to get some engagement in the glute muscles, which are going to be critical for stability, and also getting the hips going in the other direction to start your downswing.
So again, what do we want to focus on to get into this position?
All we really want to do is just focus on shifting our weight and rotating our body.
Maybe maintain a little bit of that right knee flex as you're starting to rotate your body about 45 degrees, and you will start to develop a perfect takeaway position every single time.
And there's a good process to start to work your way through this.
I always start without a golf club.
I always go into a good setup position.
I'll cross my arms over my shoulders.
I'll make a small shift to the right using a mirror or using a camera, and then I'll go ahead and rotate my body on that right leg, making sure that I feel about 80% of my weight in that right side.
I haven't shifted too far laterally where I'm busted through this line, and then I feel what my body is really trying to tell me, okay?
I start to feel the tension in my core and my midsection.
Once I do maybe 50 to 100 reps of that, then I will add the golf club back to the mix, but I will flip the club over and go to the light end.
Every time we flip the club over and we go to the heavy end, we start to put momentum in it.
It's very difficult for us to maintain kinesthetic awareness within the body of what we're trying to achieve, and then you're just kind of like a dog chasing your own tail.
Once you've done enough reps with the light end of the club, maybe try to get 300 or 500 reps of that, flip the club over, and then start to do really good solid practice sessions with just some weight shift and rotation, And you are going to start to establish more width and a perfect takeaway position faster than you think.
All right, so that's our game plan.
I'm going to challenge you guys this offseason to start getting your golf swing set off on the right tone.
I want you guys to focus on shifting your weight and rotating your body.
We've got some videos that can help you out with that.
We've got move one, the takeaway video, which is really kind of the starting or the jumping off point of what RST is really all about.
Then we also have five minutes to a perfect takeaway, and we also have wide narrow wide swing shape.
If you've really battled with rotation as a whole in your golf swing, keep the right arm straight to turn.
It is another fantastic video that will help you out with this process.
All right, guys, so I wish you all the best.
Let's get out there and get a good takeaway position really ingrained, and then we will be setting our golf swing off on the right tone, and be well on our way to playing some of our best golf next season.
I wish you all the best, and make it a great day.
Kevin
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
T David
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)
Loran
Craig (Certified RST Instructor)