Fix Your Cast
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In this analysis video, we're going to discuss the cast pattern.
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Our definition of the cast isn't early straightening of the trail arm.
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This can either be from the elbow, as demonstrated here on the left, or this could be
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from the wrist, as demonstrated here on the right.
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The most conventional and easiest way to look at the cast pattern is from the space
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on view.
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What you can typically look at is the angle between the left forearm and the club, or you
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can look at the space between the club and the body, such as that space there.
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What you will see on the cast pattern is that space is going to tend to increase where that
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angle is going to decrease more or less straight from the top of the swing, or at least
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before parallels the leg ground.
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On the right, you'll see a little bit more subtle change because the cast is happening more
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from the wrist than it is from the elbow.
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Sometimes the cast pattern is hard to see if it is occurring more from the trail wrist than
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the trail elbow.
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One easy way to look at it.
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The easiest way to look at it would be on 3D, but one way to look at it on video.
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One way to look at the top of the swing, and if you were to just analyze or look at the
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amount or the angle of that trail wrist, if you were then to bring the club down until
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it's just in delivery position or until it's about waist height, if that angle has decreased,
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then there's a good chance that this player has cast.
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Most players with an efficient release are going to maintain or at least increase the amount
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of hinge or extension in that trail wrist.
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Here's another example.
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You can see the amount or the angle roughly there.
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If we were to bring the scalper down to waist height, you can see that most of that angle
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is gone and you can see if we go one or two more frames, it's almost completely gone.
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That's a clear evidence of a cast pattern.
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Frequently, the cast is described as an unhinging of the wrist or an older deviation,
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which would be essentially extending your wrist like you're using a hammer, pointing it
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out that way.
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From what I've seen on 3D, it is very possible to not unhing yet still cast, which is why
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we define the cast as a movement from either the elbow or trail wrist flexion early in
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the downswing.
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From not 100%, the typical pattern for a cast is going to be complaining of distance or
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feeling that they're weak.
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They will typically have trouble hitting them more than about 250.
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Good wedge players.
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Typically bad drivers of the golf ball, and their wrist pattern will typically be more
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on the toe as opposed to the heel.
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Let's take a look at one of the most prominent casters who ever played the game.
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His name would be Nick Faldo, and I probably wouldn't have known that he was a castor if
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I hadn't seen the wrist graphs for his 3D, but it does make sense with the pattern given
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the fact that distance was always one of his issues.
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He is more of a wrist castor, so from the face on view, the cast will be very subtle.
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He actually loads his elbow, but unloads his wrist straight from the top of the swing.
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If we were to look at the angle, we may be slightly confused, because if I bring him down
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say to there, it gives the appearance that he has increased the angle, which he has.
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He has actually increased the amount of hinge in his wrist, but if we were to look from
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this down the line view in the way that I showed you during the definition section,
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you can see a subtle, and gradual, unloading of the right wrist to the point where when
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he gets to this waist type position, that right wrist is relatively straight compared to
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where it was at the top of the swing.
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It's just a slow, gradual, unhinging or flexing of that right wrist that produces his cast
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pattern, which is part of the reason why, even though he produces a path that's very
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good and a face point where he wants to, he struggles with distance.
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Now I don't want you to think that cast patterns can't hit the ball far, it's just
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the common pattern that they don't.
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Here's another golfer, Jason Zubak, who does have a tendency towards this cast pattern.
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If you're to look on at his face on view, and we were to draw this angle, you can see
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that early in the downswing he's going to release a good bit of that angle.
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Right about here, this is not the best camera angle for looking at it, but if you were to
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kind of visualize, you can see that he's released that angle.
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He's creating pretty much all of his speed from his body rotation, from his shoulder
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pull, his tricep extension, but he's getting actually little speed from his wrist, which
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is actually pretty phenomenal given the fact that he can hit the ball about 400 yards.
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From a power path and face perspective, what typically is going to happen with the cast
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pattern is from a power perspective, the arms are going to go early.
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Now when the arms accelerate, that's going to cause some stabilization to occur in your ribcage,
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which is going to limit its ability to create speed.
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And it may even travel further down the chain and stabilize your lower body, so it tends
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to create slower body rotations, but as you saw where Jason Zubak, that's not always
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the case.
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From a path point of view, it gets the club head further away from you.
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So since it increases this distance, it creates a bigger circle and thus a shallower, typically
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angle of attack.
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So while not always, it's going to cause a path that's going to go slightly to the left,
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or slightly more to the left, which will require an adjustment from the body in order
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to not have the path go left.
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Lastly, because of what's happening with the right wrist, it will tend to open up the club
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face, as we'll see in the typical example somewhere around there.
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Now there are two typical complementary movements that you will see to the cast pattern.
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One is a forward lunge, or a shift of the upper body towards the target, and the second
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would be either a lift or a lack of drop.
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So if we look over here on the left, as this golfer makes transition, you will see the upper
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body in the head drift forward and then more or less stabilize there.
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There's not much backward movement.
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The backward movement would cause access to which would because that right arm is getting
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straight or sooner would typically cause the club to hit the ground.
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Also, you'll notice during transition, the height of this person's head stays almost
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the same.
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Now while this is frequently talked about as a good thing on TV, you will rarely see a
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good ball striker, especially with the driver execute that movement.
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Over here on the right, we have Ray McAurey, and you'll see that compared to where he
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started, he gets further behind the golf ball and actually backs up slightly during the
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release phase, but you'll clearly see an amount of significant amount of drop.
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The drop helps support the lower body creating speed, but if that right arm were straight
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at this point, you could see that that would lengthen or lower his hands, which would pretty
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much put the club head into the ground.
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So the combination of the lunge forward and the standing up helps to account for the increased
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distance between your hands and your chest that's common with this cast pattern.