What can you learn from Lee Trevino?

What do you see in these pictures that relate to our GSA system, or what you're working on in your own game?

The 3 things that stand out to my untrained eye:

(1) Impact: it looks like his body has really driven the swing, with the club trailing behind, his hips and chest opened nicely
(2) 3 o'clock position looks sweet: arms fully extended, his hands released nicely and are still in front of the club head
(3) Great looking forward shaft lean at impact, the divot in the black & white photo makes me think he had a nice flat spot

I love his wrist mechanics in the picture of his release. I spend time on this area of my swing every week... His left wrist is nicely unhinged, his right hand is showing some of that “trail hand stop sign” pattern, and the club appears to be in that good position just outside of his hands. Great pictures!

The last picture of how open his body is at impact, yet he’s still in his posture... is simply a thing of beauty.

Andrew, completely agree with your observations. I love those pictures of his swing too! Especially that follow-through position. Such a thing of beauty!

Ed, good observations as well. His open stance might help exaggerate some of the looks. But, at impact, his chest and hips are not pointing at the golf ball. They are well out in front. His left arm is across his chest, which makes it almost impossible to chicken wing. There are many aspects to his swing that are excellent illustrations of the key pieces to a good golf swing. Sometimes a visual can be the spark your brain needs to making the actual change.

As an 'early extender' I struggle with my hips working out towards the ball. I notice two things: 1. Lee seems to get his hips moving back and deeper better during that transition like you talk about. I'm wondering how much his open alignment allows him to create that space?
And 2. his palmar flexion and external rotation of the trail shoulder that allow him make just turn hard to square it up and deliver it right on plane rather than having to early extend and stall / flip.

Scott,
No one knows for sure, but it's my guess that the open alignment was developed to compliment his arm movements. The shallow arm movements would shift the path in to out, but this is usually balanced by body rotation. In Lee's case, he adds extra body rotation by setting up open.

Secondly, I agree with the look of the trail shoulder wrist. It's a thing of beauty.

PS - I think you meant wrist dorsiflexion, not palmer flexion. Thos wrist terms can be a little confusing. From my experience with doctors, I think that's why that terminology went out of fashion many years ago. Most refer to it as wrist flexion and extension. Using plantar and dorsi makes sense at the ankle because the ankle never makes it into extension. But that's not the case with the wrist. Also, when you break down the movements, now you have to extensor muscles to create a form of flexion...which logically doesn't make much sense.

Tyler,
I was referring to the palmar flexion of the lead wrist and external rotation of the trail shoulder. I should have been clearer. But yeah, the dorsiflexion of the his right wrist too. The terms can be confusing to us non professionals but at least they are very specific. That's what's great about your terms like 'motorcyle movement' I am curious about how setup and alignment might affect the execution of core GSA movements but I'll start a different thread. Trevino setup way open and came into the ball with more sidebend than anybody. Snead setup closed and is way more vertical at impact. Is there a causal relationship? I'll post elsewhere to keep things on topic.

Gotcha. Yea, I thought you were talking about the trail arm with both.

For me, the big concept you're discussing is balancing steeps and shallows. Every move in the system has some flexibility, but if you want solid contact, you need to balance your steeps and shallows...which the two examples you mentioned do nicely.

Exactly, Trevino had all that external rotation because he worked his arms perpendicular to his torso. (Like in your video with the piece of tape across your shirt.) It matches his forward inclination (side bend) to the ball at impact. A player, like an early extender, who's spine gets more upright will match this with a steeper arm swing. Then we get the flip /stall etc... I'm guessing that Trevino's method (The GSA components that we're talking about) is a little more consistent way to strike a golf ball.
The question that I'm trying to answer is this: If you are an early extender that fights a hook, there is a chance that you might unknowingly or purposely align yourself to the right. If you are working on these shallow arm movements and more side bend thru impact wouldn't rightward alignment cause some trouble? Isn't it easier for Trevino to get his hips on that 'back 45' track that you talk about and hence, maintain (or increase) his forward inclination versus a player who's hips are starting aligned 15 degrees closed? What effect would this have biomechanically versus setting up square or slightly open as Hogan suggests (on the second to last page of 5 lessons) to set up in a manner to get your left hip out of the way?