Subscribe now to watch the full video.
Having your body "open" or rotated at impact is a goal for many amateur golfers. And it should be. Almost all tour pros get their body open at impact with their pelvis about 40-45° and their thorax about 30° open. This helps delay the timing of their arm extension which builds a better flat spot for more consistent contact.
Unfortunately, many amateur golfers don't get their body open nearly enough. It's not uncommon to have only a few degrees open at impact with their chest. If you are trying to get more open, it's important to understand the relationship between the arms and the body.
- The more the arms are steep in transition the harder it will be to get open
- The more the clubface is open in transition the harder it will be to get open
Tags: Fundamentals, Not Enough Distance, Impact, Concept, Intermediate
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
This video is connecting the dots between body rotation and arm movements.
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So one of the common things that students will come to me, especially in their early lessons,
00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:14,000
is when they're taking a look at themselves on video, they'll say, oh man, I don't have
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:16,000
enough of a rotation.
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:21,000
And there was a famous infomercial for Roger Friedrichs where they had Arnold Palmer talking
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:26,000
about seeing two cheek-sid impact, and they blended it into a fitness program.
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:31,000
But I'm going to talk to you about the technical relationship between these arm movements
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:34,000
and how much body rotation you're going to see.
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:41,000
So typically, with Torpros, you're going to see about somewhere in the 40 degree range
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000
of pelvis rotation, somewhere in the 30 degree range of thorax rotation.
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:51,000
So their body is pointing out in that open area, the way that we explain in the ironman
00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000
movements or the connected dots or any impact on falter drills.
00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:03,000
Well, that's a challenging position for a lot of amateurs to get in, not because they
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:07,000
can't physically get there, because they obviously have enough flexibility otherwise
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:11,000
they wouldn't get there in the falter, right?
00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,000
So it's more of a coordination thing.
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:18,000
And what is coordinating is how do I control this path and how do I control this face?
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:25,000
So to explain the relationship to it, I'm going to give you a simple little matrix here.
00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:30,000
The more that the arms act in a steep fashion or the more that the club face is open,
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:33,000
the harder it is for me to get body rotation.
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000
The more that the arms are shallow and the more that the club face is closed, the easier
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,000
it's going to be for me to get body rotation.
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:47,000
So if I go up to the top of my swing, and I pull a little bit more vertically with the
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000
arms kind of like so, as we talk about in the downverse out in the wrong shallowing,
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000
if I'm pulling down like this, if I was to rotate, that would create a steep on top of
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:01,000
steep, so my body would have to make some major adjustment.
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000
The steep major adjustments that I would probably make would be I'd stand up to shallow
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,000
and I'd scoop to shallow, right?
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:12,000
So you'll steep steep and then I'd shallow it with the stand up in the scoop.
00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:18,000
On the same category, if that club face is wide open, well, the more that I rotated
00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:25,000
my body, it would be very, very difficult for me to get the club face closed with just
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,000
rotation of club face with the motor cycle.
00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,000
So if I had a very weak grip and a very open club face, that combination would tend to
00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:35,000
produce wide open blocks.
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000
So what I'll usually do in that case, so if that's wide open, I can stop my body rotating
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:46,000
and that allows the club to kind of pass up or catch up and pass and now the club is
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:48,000
pointing in the direction of the target.
00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:54,000
So if I'm not rotating, we always want to ask ourselves why am I not rotating and what
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,000
would I have to do instead?
00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,000
So if I got steep with my arms and open with the club face, that's going to discourage
00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:03,000
rotation.
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:09,000
Well, the more that I get shallow with my arms, like so, now the only way that the club
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:15,000
is going to get to the ball, if I stay shallow with my arms, is if my body rotates.
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:19,000
Now the club is even with the golf wall and I did it in kind of an exaggerated fashion,
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000
but I did it with all body rotation.
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000
Typically there is going to be some, so shallow with the arms, body rotation and there's
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,000
going to be some release of the arms kind of like so.
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,000
But the more that the shallow and stay shallow, the more that I'm going to have to use
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000
body rotation to get there.
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:42,000
So, secondly, the more that this club face is closed, all exaggerate and close the heck
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:43,000
out of it.
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:48,000
If I was to not have body rotation, I would hit the ball left of left of left.
00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:54,000
So what I do is if I close the club face and then I rotate my body, now that club face
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,000
is pointing in the general direction of the target.
00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:03,000
So this is kind of that visual impact training and stuff like that, where typically
00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,000
amateurs tend to be too steep with their arms and too open with the club face and that
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000
prevents them from getting the amount of body rotation that they want.
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:15,000
So if you're struggling with getting your body to power this wing and getting the look
00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:20,000
of two cheeks or getting the look of body rotation and impact, double check what your arms
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,000
are doing in transition, both with the path of the club as well as with the club face.
00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000
So that may remove the barrier for you ultimately getting the rotation you want.