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Downswing Lag Checkpoint

Lag is one of the most misunderstood concepts in golf; players of all skill levels are often confused as to how it is generated and where to spot it when analyzing their own swings. To make matters worse, there is also a point at which you can overdo this pattern. If you fall into these categories, this "checkpoint" can provide some straightforward clarification and hopefully, an improvement in contact and low-point control.

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Cast, Impact, Transition, Release, Drill, Intermediate

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In the video, we're going to take a look at a down swing lag checkpoint to make sure that

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you're maximizing power and helping improve your low point control.

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So lag is one of those concepts that I find many golfers are still confused about how

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to get it.

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We've seen it on video, but everybody, a lot of golfers when they try to create it, they

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don't actually make any improvement on video.

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So they're trying to get into this position here and when they think about either holding

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the wrist up or back like this, it still gets behind them just like this.

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So as a rough lag checkpoint, here's what we're going to do.

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We're going to train delivery positions.

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So I'm going to put the club in front of my belly button, or just behind my belly

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button so that the grip is even with my belly button just like this.

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And compared to my shoulder, the edge of my trail hand or my right hand is in front of

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the shoulder just like this.

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Now I'm going to bend forward and I'm going to turn my hips towards the target.

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So in this position, I've roughly got the button to the club, even with or if I'm exaggerating

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it a little bit past the ball, just like this.

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But the club is inside my hands and about parallel to the ground.

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Most of you lose your down swing lag because this arm gets way behind you just like this.

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And so you're forced to lunge in front, but the combination of the body getting in front

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requires the arms to get wide too soon.

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If the body stays more centered, then the arms can get in front of your body.

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Create that lag, but still control a really nice shallow ground contact, but though bottom

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the swing far enough forward.

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Okay, so we're going to get into this delivery position just like this.

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And then for the drill, what we're going to do is we're just going to get used to applying

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the end of the swing.

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So from here, we're going to turn our body to impact and we're just going to extend those

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arms through just to get used to hitting the golf ball from this position.

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Most of you are going to want to cheat on this.

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Most of you are going to want to throw this behind you like this.

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So when you start here you'll take it back and you'll kind of get behind you just like

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this.

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I would recommend either using a mirror or a camera so that you can make sure that

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you're not cheating that way.

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So arms in front just like this.

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And then I'm going to release the club through.

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So in the next part of the video, we'll take a look at it from the GoPro or my perspective

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so that you'll be able to imagine and visualize where we want to get these arms a little

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bit easier.

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Okay, so now looking at the lag checkpoint, I'm basically getting into this delivery position

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where my hand is in front of my shoulder, not back here.

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And the butt end of the club, you'll see from the camera is pretty much in line with

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the golf ball from here because I'm right, I dominant it looks like I'm a little bit ahead

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of it but I know from face on it's pretty close to in line.

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So if you are used to the club being parallel back here, you can see how much more room

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I have to kind of like scoop it on the way through versus if I'm here when I go to release

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it's going to tend to strike much further forward.

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You can see how that angle of the tack and the low point is going to move dramatically

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depending on that delivery position.

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So now the delivery and go drill, I'm going to preset this position and then from here

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I'm just going to turn my body and extend my arms and you'll see that the club is going

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to make pretty good ground contact.

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So I'm setting up in this delivery position from here, I'm just going to turn and extend

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and I'm going to make sure that I don't bring the club back so then I can do my normal

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scoop pattern.

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Once you've figured out that delivery position then it's just a matter of going up

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to the top of the swing and using your body to pump the club down into that position instead

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of pulling so much with my arms.

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When I tend to pull down with my arms I'm going to also tend to release the angle a little

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bit early.

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So the combination of feeling like the leg is created by setting the club behind you instead

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of up and then getting the elbow more in front into the delivery position will help you

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overcome getting into kind of this the classic amateur position where the arms get

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behind the body, release all the angles and the body has to lunge forward.

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That's one of the recipes for low point behind the ball, not a lot of compression, not

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a lot of fun.