Click here and enter your email address to watch the full video
Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Connecting Body Rotation To Club Rotation

Body rotation is one of those things that amateurs seem to struggle with and pros seem to do with ease. Many times, golfers think that they are not physically capable of getting rotation, but as you'll see in this program, most of the reason that amateurs aren't as open with their body at impact is because of the movements of the arms and club.

Simply put, if you have the clubface in an open position, then you won't hit a good shot if you rotate your body. For a great way to visualize this phenomenon attach a piece of cardboard to a club perpendicular to the club's leading edge. This will give you an idea of where the club face is pointing and help you see how much club face rotation is required for a tour like impact position.

Playlists: Squaring The Club Face Explained

Tags: Fundamentals, Not Enough Distance, Impact, Concept, Intermediate, Beginner

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000
This concept video is connecting the dots between face rotation and body rotation and impact.

00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000
So, done another video working on helping you understand how the shaft has to flatten if you

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,000
want to have body rotation.

00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000
This is going to talk about what happens if the club faces open or closed.

00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000
Now frequently, we'll use these magnets on the golf club.

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
If you want to do this at home, just take a golf tee and some tape or stick them and

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,000
you can put it on the club face and it'll point where it's pointing.

00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:38,000
The other way that you can do it, that's not quite as accurate, but is a more powerful

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:40,000
visual, is this way right here.

00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:48,000
So I've got just a piece of cardboard that's taped to the club perpendicular to where the

00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,000
face is pointing or pretty close to it.

00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000
Putting the magnet on the face is definitely more accurate than this little airfoil

00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000
that I've created, but the airfoil does a really good job, especially from down the line

00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000
like so, of seeing roughly where this face is pointing.

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000
It doesn't take into account this upward and downward motion and how that affects the

00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000
club face, but it gives a good general representation of either if I have rotated it forward

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:21,000
or backward or if I have rotated the club or the club head forward backward.

00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:26,000
So I'm going to show you what body rotation does to the shaft and why we're going to have

00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000
to have the club face more close that impact than it was at setup.

00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:38,000
So the more that I get body rotation, if my hand stay roughly out in front of my body,

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:43,000
then what you'll see is that's going to point the club face much more to the right or in

00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:45,000
an open position.

00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000
So what'll happen is if you're in transition and you tend to open the club face, now

00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000
if I was to continue rotating, you can see that that club face is actually pointed over

00:01:57,000 --> 00:01:58,000
there.

00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,000
So about 80 degrees away from the target.

00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:06,000
So what'll happen is my body is smart, I'll get to this position where that club face

00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:12,000
is open and I'll stand up instead of rotating so that my hands can pass and now that

00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,000
is pointed in the direction of the target.

00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,000
But what Torpros are doing is they're getting a certain amount of shaft lean, whether

00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:25,000
it's 10 degrees, 15 degrees, they're getting the handle slightly ahead of the club, which

00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000
just by doing that if I keep the club's center of gravity in the same place, what happens

00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:32,000
is it opens the club face.

00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:39,000
So then my only other options would be to lower it like so, but I can only do that so much

00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,000
and I'm not ever going to get it pointed at the direction of the target.

00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:47,000
So the best option I've got is this rotation or the motorcycle move that I talk about.

00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:52,000
Now that can come from either the left or the right hand, whether it's the motorcycle

00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,000
or the throwers catch, they're the same thing.

00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
They're basically rotating the club face, so now it's pointed in the direction of the target.

00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:05,000
Now the change in that, if I'm facing you, is if I rotate it like so and then I turn,

00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:06,000
kind of looks like that.

00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:11,000
So instead of this little airfoil being perfectly level-in-pointed at the target, it's

00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,000
actually pointed down and pointed at the target.

00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,000
But again, the only way that I'm going to get that is if I've rotated my club closed and

00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:26,000
the more that I rotate my body and get my body in this open side bent position like so,

00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:30,000
at impact, the more that I'm going to have to close the club face.

00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:33,000
Now you have three options as far as closing the club face.

00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:36,000
You can adjust your grip, it's set up.

00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:40,000
You can change the arm movements or you can change the body movements.

00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:46,000
But the big ones are going to be this grip it's at up and body movement.

00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,000
So the motor cycle, or sorry, the grip it's at up and the arm movements.

00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:55,000
So the motor cycle movement is kind of trying to get this airfoil pointed down towards

00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:00,000
the ground as soon as possible so that when I just rotate my body, now that's pointed

00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:05,000
just slightly right of my target, but with a path that's going slightly in and out so I

00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:07,000
can hit that nice draw.

00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:12,000
So again, if you're struggling with getting that motorcycle movement in the club face

00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000
is pointing up, it would end up looking something like this and there's no way I'm going

00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:22,000
to get good rotation side bend and get that good flat spot down at the bottom.

00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:27,000
So if you're struggling with that while you're working on this arm shallow piece, you

00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,000
can also work on that club face closing.

00:04:30,000 --> 00:04:34,000
Both of those are going to allow that body rotation.

00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,000
One interesting point is if we look at the vines wedge, we're going to see that we're

00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:43,000
going to square the club face in a different way than we're going to do it with the full swing.

00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:50,000
So here we've got 52 degree wedge with that same, or sorry, I think there's a 52 degree wedge

00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:54,000
with that same piece of cardboard or similar piece of cardboard kind of pointing in the

00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:55,000
direction of the club face.

00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:00,000
So for these shots, we're going to come into the golf ball with the shaft a lot more

00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,000
vertical.

00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:07,000
James Seekman, who I think is one of the best of this, says it's about a three to seven

00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:10,000
degree amount of shaft lean.

00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,000
Not sure where he's getting his numbers, but we know that if you look at video, they're

00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:20,000
not going to have nearly as much lag and shaft lean compared to the full swing.

00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:24,000
So what we're doing with the finesse wedge is we're basically releasing it and getting

00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:31,000
it pointed square like so, we're in the full swing, we're getting it square like that.

00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:33,000
I'll demonstrate from down the line.

00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:39,000
So in the finesse wedge, I'm basically releasing so that this is now pretty much straight

00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:40,000
up and down in pointed it.

00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:46,000
Sorry, get that allows me to use the bounce as opposed to what a lot of people who struggle

00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,000
with this finesse wedge will do is they'll get too much lean and now the only way that

00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,000
they could close it is by slamming down the face, but that takes away bounce in your margin

00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:56,000
of air.

00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:00,000
Now I call this video rotation the club base, but this could very easily be shaft lean

00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:02,000
to club base.

00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,000
So the more that I get body rotation, the more that the handle gets out in front and

00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,000
the club base points off to the right.

00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:10,000
So in order to hit it relatively straight, I'm going to have to close that club base

00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:16,000
that gives me that delofted look of the club, but I faced it pointed in the general direction

00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:17,000
of the target.

00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:21,000
So if you're struggling with getting body rotation or shaft lean, you're going to have

00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:26,000
to look at the timing and how much you're closing the club base, whether with your setup

00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:28,000
grip or mostly with these arm movements.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.