Fix Your Early Extension
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In this analysis video, we take a look at the practical application of the flat spot concept. You will learn how to use video to look at the path of the club during the impact zone and how that will relate to the flat spot and contact consistency. We want to have a gentle movement upward and inward as the club grip continues to move away from the body. To do this, we want to have the lower body ahead of the upper body and the body rotated and side bent. For that to happen, the arm shallowing during transition and the motorcycle are key as well. Hopefully, this video helps you see how the different pieces of the downswing fit together in one motion by painting the big picture of what you want the club to do as you hit the ball.
Tags: Fundamentals, Not Enough Distance, Early Extension, Analysis, Concept, Intermediate
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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at pros demonstrating the Komoflatsbot.
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So in the Komoflatsbot, I talk about how I like to use 3D to show the arc with increasing
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through impact into the follow-through position.
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And it's doable to kind of get a clue as to what's going on by looking at video.
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So I'm going to give you a few references that you can use.
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So we're going to really be exploring kind of the wipe and the bracing and getting into
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a really good impact position and typically how pros do it.
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So first we're going to look over here on the right and we've got Nick Watney.
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Now I've got a line drawn there.
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This was actually a appears that it was filmed on a tripod so everything looks like
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it's a pretty stable as far as the video doesn't change much.
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So what I like to do is I'll take the golfer down to about shaft parallel to the ground
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in the down swing and I'll just draw a line roughly at the top of their wrists.
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Now a couple things I want to look at is where is this in reference to their body.
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So you'll see with most pros this is going to be well below the belt if I was to take.
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It depends definitely on camera angle but since most camera angles are shot from a little
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bit above you'll tend to see it kind of in the mid-dye range or at least by the crutch.
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And then what you'll see is if we jump back to Nick Watney.
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As he goes through I want you to or as he goes through the release I want you to watch his
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hands and the hand height compared to that line.
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And you'll see that it basically works across the screen and then slowly starts working
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up just before impact and then after impact.
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And as a result of that kind of slow gentle ascent like so you will tend to see a very good
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amount of arm extension on the way through.
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We can jump over a grammy dial and look at the same thing.
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He's going to have a little bit more hands working up but you'll see for the most part
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they are working out towards the golf ball as they are going up as they are working into
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that good extension piece.
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Now in order to have that you're going to have to have this access tilt you're going
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to have the upper body side bent as well as rotated and the upper body behind the pelvis
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as your arms are extending.
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Now you will also have to have a little bit of that the motorcycle movement that we
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teach in transition in order to have the club face already getting into that square
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position so that when you delay your arm extension piece until this late the golf club
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is still pointed at the direction of target.
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So here we'll take a look at two more golfers.
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We got same sneak on the right and Jordan's teeth on the left.
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So I like to that line is drawn when the hands are parallel to the ground.
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I like to see when the club is at about chef 45 or pointed roughly at the golf ball again
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where that height is and you'll see you'll tend to see that most of these pros are going
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to be down around belt height or slightly below.
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Now if we think about if we want it coming flat if we want the hand path coming more
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less flat across as you're going into impact then the easiest way that that's going to
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happen is the hands are going to have to be slightly below where they're going to be
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an impact.
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That means during transition they're going to have to get down closer to the ground and
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that's going to come from having that good retention of forward or getting back into
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forward reflection and doing a little bit of that left tilt that we teach in transition.
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But we can take a look at a couple more here.
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So you got same sneak.
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Obviously this is a much slower frame rate but you can see the hands working kind of across
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and then the blur of the hands working really out.
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I actually tend to see compared to amateurs the pros who use their body tend to have
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not necessarily faster hands coming up and in.
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In fact they actually tend to be coming up a little bit less than amateurs but they tend
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to be moving in the direction of the target at a greater speed than amateurs going
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through that same phase and that's part of the reason why they're going to get that
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arm extension piece.
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So if we jump over here to Jordan's faith this is a little bit more modern camera so
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it'll be a little bit more clear and you can see the hands are still going down a little
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bit but now they're starting to work back up as he's approaching impact even though
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the handle is going down and that combination with the bracing is going to allow for that
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really good arm extension and those hands working more towards the target through here
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instead of kind of bending narrowing or chicken winging.
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So now we can take a look at a few amateurs just to see what the opposite or the alternative
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is going to look like.
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So I'll bring up a handful of examples and we can see what we can learn.
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As this golfer is coming down he has a little bit of a cast sequence and so you'll see that
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when I get that line drawn at the top of his hands you can see that it's above the
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crotch closer to the belt line so he's a little bit higher up and so what you'll see
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is he balanced that with standing up with his upper body instead of really kind of crunching
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down to use the ground and as a result those hands are going to be working much more
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down.
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Now again the exact height is going to depend on some of the camera angles and that's
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why I prefer to use the arc with graph in 3D but this is a good rough way of looking
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at this flat spot and now you'll see that he still gets a little flat spot kind of down
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through there where his hands are working slightly up and then they'll tend to work up
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actually faster than the pros so his hands will be working more up and less out towards
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the target so they'll the distance between himself and the grip will more or less stay
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the same in this particular case.
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This is actually a mid-single digit golfer so he's figured out how to make that cast pattern
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work but he struggles with getting his body involved struggles a little bit with the driver
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and both of those are both of those show up in golfer's who tend to have the handle
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working a little bit more down kind of in this v pattern down and up instead of having
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that really good gentle flat spot.
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Now over here on the right we're going to see another amateur kind of working on this
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pattern and you'll see that's got a pretty good transition and we're starting to lose
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the club in a little bit of a cast and so now if we get down to roughly where that handle
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would have been because we missed that frame because of this frame rate.
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You can see that his hands are back behind his body.
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This is a thing that I didn't necessarily highlight in that first batch of pros but one of the
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other reference points that I like to look at is when the hands get to parallel how what
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is their relationship to the right shoulder or to the body so you'll see that his hands are
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behind his body like so over here on the right.
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What that means is if he was to add any amount of side bend and if he was to get his shoulders
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more open and rotated because the hands are behind the body and the club is already gone
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that would tend to cause really fat shots so this golfer will avoid that.
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What he'll do instead is the hands will continue working down right up until contact and
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then they'll start working up relatively quickly.
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Now actually it does a pretty good job of getting that arm extension on the way through
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but you can see that it almost has to change directions a little bit.
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It starts working more up and in before it starts working out.
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That's going to cause toe contact fat shots weak shots off to the right.
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If he gets a little bit of early extension it could potentially cause heel shots but all of that
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is because the club is too much behind his body here and too high compared to the ground to
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have a really good consistent flat spot.
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Now we have an amateur golfer working his way through an early extension early release pattern.
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So over on the left is from when he first came to see me and we can see the handle line
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closer to where his belt line would be and because his upper body is stood up or worked away from
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my golf ball. We'll tend to see that right arm and left hand working down a little bit more
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as they lengthen and then working relatively up quickly. It's not, it's not awful. This again
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is a very good high single digit handicap golfer. So gets around the course very very well
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but you can see those hands working a little bit more up and in and less kind of out in the cross.
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So then over here on the right is a video taken from earlier this year where he's working on
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having that white movement and having the upper body stayed out and you'll see that if we take a
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look at where that line is it's much lower to the ground than it was over here with the driver
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and then as a result we'll see as he comes through that the hands work much more across and are
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starting to work up a little bit sooner but on a more gentle fashion as they work a little bit out
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towards the target. Okay so over on the left we have Roy McRoy on the right we have one of the
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classic swings of Ben Hogan. You can see that the line that I drew with the top of the of the
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wrists kind of again top of the thighs near the Karate area. A lot of amateurs you'll tend to see
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it up closer to the belt line and that's partly because they're standing up and they're
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releasing and powering it more with their arms that upper body staying flexed forward allows them to
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these golfers to use the ground to help rotate their bodies and delay the extension of the arms.
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So here he is and it's roughly the top of his wrists and you'll see those hands work more
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less across and just kind of slightly working up or gently working up pretty much from right
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about here. Now most of that up is going to be a result of where their body is pivoting and how
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the upper body is behind the lower body and they're continued to go into side bend with that left
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shoulder and with the rib cage but you'll see the arms gently working up but as I'll also working
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out towards the target that's what helps keep that club low to the ground through the hitting
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area and help develop that flat spot that we like to measure on 3D with the arc with graph
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and we can take a look at Rory and we can see him. There's the line roughly at the top of the
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wrists again. If any time you're using video we're looking for rough pictures we're not looking to get
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any real accurate measurements but you can see those hands at the top of the hands working
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kind of more across and towards the target and slightly working up through the hitting area
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as they continue to work out. So if you're struggling with understanding the wipe and trying to be
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able to visualize it this is a great way to kind of reference it. The two reference points would be
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when that shaft is parallel to the ground notice how if you were to draw a line from the
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outside the shoulders if this is truly face on. The more that the hands are kind of in front of the
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body the more that you've executed the wipe and the arms have worked across your body
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because we know that they were not in front of your body up at the top of the swing. The more that your
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hands are in this space behind the line or even back there we know that your arms have worked a
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little bit too soon and more of a cast pattern and kind of getting away from your body.
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Secondly if we draw that line the more that the hands are kind of just gently working up as they
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cruise across that line the more we know that we're going to have the arc width continue to increase
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and we're going to tend to have a really good kind of brushing in the ground in good
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turf contact and the more that those arms extend on the way through that's going to help us with the
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solidness of our strike as well as our consistency. So if you're having any trouble with any of the
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movements discussed in this video please let us know and we'll point you in the direction of videos or
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film one to clarify what we're talking about.