00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
In this content video, we're going to talk about the core concepts of the Galsmar

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:11,000
Academy system. So the core concepts are basically a review or a preview of the key

00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,000
movements that you're going to learn in each section. And it's really to help us establish

00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:22,000
a more consistent vocabulary, right? So instead of having to use the technical terms,

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
my students have really come up with phrases over the last decade that have stuck with me.

00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000
So in this video, I'm going to help go through what are some of the common phrases

00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:38,000
like the motorcycle move that you're going to learn in this site and kind of create some

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:41,000
clear definitions so that we're at least starting on the same page. And that way we'll be able to

00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,000
communicate a whole lot easier as you ask questions and experiment with the different videos on this site.

00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:53,000
So I'll go through kind of each of the different phases and what some of the core fundamentals are.

00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:59,000
But the major kind of global picture is there's three major skills that we're trying to do

00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:03,000
when we're swinging golf club. We're trying to create speed in the clubhead. We're trying to

00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:08,000
coordinate the path of the clubhead so that it strikes the golf ball. And we're trying to organize the

00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000
face to path of relationship so that when that clubhead strikes the golf ball, it flies and curves

00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:20,000
the way that we want it to. Now we can simplify that into saying that we want to power this wing

00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,000
or we want to create most of the speed by using our whole body and then we're going to

00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:32,000
organize this face to path relationship by using somebody but mostly the arms. When I talk about

00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,000
powering the swing, it's very easy to get confused and think that it needs to be really explosive

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:46,000
movements. While using as much of your body as you can to create speed is important. It doesn't

00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:53,000
have to look very violent on video. So one of great analogies that I've heard was from Ben Doyle,

00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:58,000
which is looking at, let's say instead of a golf club, let's look at pushing a shopping cart.

00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:03,000
Right? I could push the shopping cart with just my wrists. I could push the shopping cart with my

00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,000
arms and shoulders. I could not really use my arms and push with just my legs or I could use

00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:16,000
my whole body to push the shopping cart. Well that fits very nicely into the analogy of using

00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000
your whole body or the metaphor rather for using your whole body to swing the golf club. I want to

00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:27,000
use my legs and my hips in my core in order to swing the golf club and then I'm going to do some

00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:32,000
simple movements to help coordinate the face to path relationship and that movement pattern tends

00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:40,000
to hold up best under pressure. So the 3D motion that I've used for the last 10 years helps give

00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000
parameters as far as how tour pros are using each parts of their body during these different phases.

00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:52,000
So when we're trying to build this body-powered swing, there's some key things that we're going

00:02:52,000 --> 00:03:00,000
to come up against. So the core concepts when we look at setup, setup is really simple. We're trying

00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:05,000
to keep our spine in a position where we're going to be able to use it for power and we're going

00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:10,000
to grip the club in a way that is going to give our free-to-move movement and give us a head start

00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:16,000
on coordinating that face to path relationship. There's really only two ways that I can coordinate

00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:21,000
that face to path relationship. One is with how I orient my hands on the grip to start and two

00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:29,000
is the movements of the wrists and forearms that I make during the swing. The backswing can be simplified

00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:35,000
into the goal is to use the body to swing the arms into place rather than positioning the club with

00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:42,000
the arms. So I could have a good swing plane, but if I'm picking up my arms and not using a whole

00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:48,000
lot of body, that probably wasn't a great swing plane, but if I'm just using my arms, I'm going to

00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,000
have a hard time with low-point control. I'm going to have a hard time with dynamic loft and I'm not

00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:58,000
going to be able to really create a whole lot of speed. So when I say that the body is driving the swing,

00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000
we know that we want to keep the club moving on a relatively planar path as we do it.

00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000
But most of the things that you're going to hear from not just my site, but in golf instruction

00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:19,000
everywhere is things like a low and slow or smooth or wide takeaway. All those

00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:25,000
things are all those descriptions are ways of looking at a body-driven swing. Why did the top

00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:32,000
extending the spine not swaying off the ball, not standing up? Those are all ways to look at

00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:38,000
making this somewhat centered pivot, which is one of the core concepts of the golf smart academy

00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:45,000
system, is a somewhat centered pivot revolved around the body movements. So in the backswing section,

00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:50,000
you'll see lots of videos to help you coordinate the face-to-path relationship and get ready for

00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:56,000
transition. But most of it is ways to stop yourself from not using your body to swing the club

00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,000
in the backswing. So while the core concepts in the backswing are great, it's really the downswing

00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:07,000
that I set up, think separates elite golfers from average golfers. And part of the reason why I think

00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:16,000
many elite golfers benefit from thinking about setup and posture and simple things during the backswing

00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,000
is they've already built for the most part a really functional downswing. Well, many

00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,000
amateurs struggle with their downswing have much more inconsistent contact and just having a good

00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:31,000
setup usually doesn't cut it. In my coaching experience, working on the downswing can have some

00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:38,000
of the biggest impacts into amateur golfers, ball striking ability. Now, when I'm looking at the

00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:43,000
downswing, I tend to talk about two different phases. One is transition and two is the release.

00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:49,000
Transition is kind of like the the weight shift and the the early part of the throwing motion and the

00:05:49,000 --> 00:05:56,000
release is the second half of the throwing motion. In the golf swing, transition is roughly until

00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:02,000
about shaft 45. So there's a bit of a weight shift, which I tend to refer to as the jacks in five

00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:09,000
or a little bit of the hit bump. There's a regaining in my posture and my what I typically refer to

00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:17,000
as the left tilt or transition crunch sometimes. So the body regained its flex as it helps with that

00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:21,000
weight shift. And then there's two things that the arms are doing. They're going to shallow,

00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:28,000
that allows me to make some of the steeper body movements. So the arms shallowing during transition

00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:34,000
is one of the core concepts that you're likely going to work on. And then earlier face rotation

00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:41,000
or what I refer to as the motorcycle movement. So the arm shallow is basically the arm's rotating

00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:47,000
away from the target to help shallow out the club so that my body can rotate and regain its flex

00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:54,000
and the club doesn't get too steep. And the motorcycle movement starts the club rotating. So I'll

00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:01,000
talk a lot about whether the club faces getting squared by in-plane shaft movement or the club

00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:07,000
passing your hands kind of like this or if the club is getting squared by shaft rotation.

00:07:07,000 --> 00:07:12,000
That pattern starts during transition and then continues hopefully during the release.

00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:19,000
The last movement during transition is kind of a bridge movement. It works between both

00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:26,000
transition and the release and it's called the wipe and it's basically working the arms across

00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:32,000
your body like so. Many golf instructors and many golfers have talked about playing well when they

00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:40,000
get their arms in front of you or arms back in front of their chest. I think that that's when I'm

00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:44,000
describing the wipe that's essentially looking at the same thing. It's the direction and the timing

00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:52,000
of where the arms are moving at the end of transition and through the release. If you tend to struggle

00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:58,000
with that wipe move you'll tend to have the arms back behind your body which could either be an

00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:04,000
outside in kind of getting into a chicken wing move or a kind of stuck look which will give you a

00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:11,000
big right-word path so it could either be behind my body like so to help control low point and help

00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:18,000
control club face or it could be more behind my body like so to really help control path and

00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,000
club face but the wipe movement is essentially getting the arms in front of your body. When you have a

00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:30,000
good wipe movement you're swing your contacts will be relatively solid and your swing will tend to have

00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:37,000
a look of rhythm or fluidity to it. When you lack that move you'll typically have more of a kind of

00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:43,000
a stalling look when you get down towards the bottom of the swing. So the wipe movement bridges

00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:48,000
because it kind of starts just as we're getting to the end of transition and then continues all the

00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:55,000
way until the end of a release and the release ends for me at about shaft parallel or what I call

00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:02,000
follow through position. So during the release we're going to continue the shaft rotation of the

00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:09,000
motorcycle movement. We're going to worry about shallowing by using unhing instead of arm rotation

00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:17,000
and then we're going to work on those arms working across your body with more of that white movement.

00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:25,000
That creates shaft lean body rotation that impact the flat left wrist. A lot of the things that you've

00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:31,000
probably read about and are familiar with will break down the different ways that you can train it.

00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:39,000
We focus on left arm or bright arm or body all those key movements. Now the main body movement

00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:46,000
that we work on during the release I call bracing. So at this stage I'm using my body really to get

00:09:46,000 --> 00:09:54,000
the speed into the clubhead and then just after impact my body now has to worry about decelerating

00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:01,000
or stabilizing all the speed that I create in the clubhead. So if I were to get way up on my toes and

00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:07,000
kind of get off balance if I had a lot of speed in the clubhead it would pull me even more off balance.

00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:14,000
So being kind of down and keeping my spine angle or keeping my posture as I go through

00:10:15,000 --> 00:10:20,000
using my hips having my hips a little bit more ahead of my body or my lower body

00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:26,000
puts me in a position where if this club was going to get yanked out of my arms I'm in a position

00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:32,000
where I can use the big muscles of my core the big muscles of my hips and my trunk in order to

00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:37,000
stabilize that speed. So it brings us full circle to where we want to use the body to control the

00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:43,000
backswing we want to use the body to help control the downswing we're going to use arm movements to

00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,000
coordinate that face to path relationship but we're primarily going to use our body for

00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:54,000
speed control and our body to safely decelerate all the speed that we created. By going through

00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:00,000
each section you'll figure out which one or two of these core fundamentals or core concepts

00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,000
you struggle the most with and you can put in most of your time with that. Now you will see that

00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:12,000
these fundamentals build off of each other so if I don't or if I don't shallow my arms if I get steep

00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:18,000
then I'm probably not going to have a big transition crunch and I'm probably not going to have a big

00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:24,000
white movement but if I if I gradually work on each of these pieces I'll find the one or two that

00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:31,000
will help tie all the other ones together and I'll instantly notice better contact better feedback

00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:36,000
which is why it's important to know how to read the feedback but better contact better ball flight

00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:43,000
and it will usually look better on video as well. So we'll see if we can throw a swing together

00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:52,000
that utilize all of those core concepts.