Keys To Transition
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It can seem odd to think of tilting left in transition, and you may feel like it's more of a flexion movement than a left tilt. What you feel is not important, but this video helps you visualize how the upper body works properly in transition. Keep in mind that if you have a very steep arm movement, you will have a hard time making this move without having a steep pattern, which typically comes with deep divots and toe shots.
Tags: Not Enough Distance, Transition, Analysis, Concept, Intermediate
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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the left tilt and transition.
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Now, there are two major body movements to transition.
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One being the Jackson Fiverr, kind of the lateral shift, and two being this left tilt
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or staying in your posture.
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So, we're going to take a look at a couple different angles so that we can really visualize
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this transition movement of the body, and specifically the left tilt and how it helps
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kind of load what we want to do during the release.
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So, over here on the right, we have very macro-right.
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And I'm going to show you a couple different camera angles where it's possible to view this,
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but it's a subtle movement.
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So, typically 3D is going to be the easiest place where you can observe it.
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What you'll see in 3D is that the left tilt will continue to increase until just after
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the top of the swing.
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And then the flexion or going into the flexion pattern is going to increase even a little
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bit longer.
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So, there's a combination of this left tilt and flexion that's kind of happening during
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transition.
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So, you can kind of see it from the down the line view.
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If we take a look at Rory there, I've got two different lines.
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You can see that he's not only lowering, you can see that the angle or the left side of
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his shoulder is kind of breaking through this line more so than his middle or kind of his belly
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button area.
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So that's the indication that he's kind of creating a little bit more of this left tilt
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with the left side of his ribcage during that first phase of transition.
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Now, if we take a look at an amateur who's who I have his 3D graph and is not left
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tilting in transition, what you'll see is as he starts down, everything kind of starts
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working away from that line almost instantly and the posture is actually increasing in
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angle.
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So, if we were to take a look, you can see that he's moving away from those lines where
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Rory's upper body is basically breaking through them.
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Now, if I was to just look at head height, that would obviously depend on camera angle,
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but you could see that this golfer is dropping his head.
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Now, part of that is because of the lateral movement of the pelvis, part of his movement
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of the tapping at the lower body.
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So, using the head is not a very good way to visualize or to monitor whether or not you're
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having this left tilt or keeping your spine angle in transition.
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But I'm going to show you a view that where I think it's almost as easy to view it in 3D,
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but unfortunately it's kind of a risky view.
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Over on the right, we have Ray McRoy, who this is part of the reason why I used him
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for the down the line is because A of scene is 3D file, I know he does this very well.
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B, he was one of the golfers that I was able to find a very good target line view on.
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So here what we'll see is as he starts his downswing, you can see that increase in the left
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tilt of the upper part of the spine.
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So you can see that upper body is kind of getting closer and he's also tilting a little
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bit left.
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Now the reason that you want to do that is because getting that upper body to tilt slightly
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to the left is going to cause the way that he is pushing against the ground to be more
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away from the target and less straight down.
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Imagine a running back or a soccer player that's going to change directions very quickly.
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They're going to get their upper body close to the ground and away from their foot so
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that they'll have basically a bigger moment arm or a better leverage to push against the
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ground from.
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It's part of the reason why the golfers are doing this is to change the direction that
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they're able to push against the ground with.
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So over on the left we have a teaching pro in Maryland who's a very good ball striker
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that I used to work with and he was brave enough to take one of these down from the target
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line.
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Can't reviews.
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And you can see that left tilt kind of right in there of the upper body turning into
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flexion and then it's not until right about here that you start to see it going into that
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right side bend.
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So again you can just kind of toggle back and forth a few and you can kind of visualize
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what's happening with that upper body getting slightly steeper.
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And that's part of the reason why the arms have to shallow a bit because if we go back
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over here to Roy Macroi, if those arms were to rotate to the left you would tend to see
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the shaft get very vertical because of what's going on with the upper body.
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So building off of the left tilt and transition then what will happen is during the release
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it will go into right side bend as that leg is pushing through and that rotation and upper
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body bend will help create the platform for those arms to extend through the shot.
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There's also a great camera view for being able to see the impact alignments.
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So this camera is well down on the target line and when he's making contact you can see
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that his belt buckle and even his chest are kind of pointed out at this camera.
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That allows for his arms to extend.
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So while this video is hopefully to show you about this left tilt and transition we might
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will take advantage of the camera angles and look at where these golfers are typically
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pointed at impact and how that enables their arms to extend.
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Most amateur golfers which unfortunately we don't have I was able to find a very good
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camera view like this because you'd be putting your camera in risk.
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Most amateur golfers would be facing much more at the golf ball and so as a result you
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would tend to see their arms bend on the way through in a little bit more of a chicken
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wing pattern.
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And now we have two more golfers we can take a look at.
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We've got Ricky Fowler on the right Dustin Johnson on the left.
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The both camera views were intended to highlight the lower body but they actually do a pretty
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good job of showing what we're trying to look at at the ribcage.
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So when he's up at the top of the swing right about here you can see that his shoulder is
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all the way up at the top of the screen and then as he starts working down it's that
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early first part of transition as he's shifting his pressure onto the left foot.
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He's increasing just slightly the amount of left side bend.
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So we're here on the left we'll be able to see even more exaggerated version from Dustin
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Johnson so you can see that as he's changing direction during that early part of transition
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you can think of it a lot of golfers feel it as more of a flexion pattern but you can clearly
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see that it's actually going 90 degrees to where it's chest is facing so it's technically
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more of a left side bend.
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But it's that movement that allows that as his upper body or his lower body shifts over
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here and his upper body is going down that's going to cause the direction that he's pushing
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with his foot to go from pushing kind of like this to more like that.
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It's not so much that he's able to push harder but it changes the direction which is
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one of the hallmarks of very good drivers of the golf ball especially.
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So if you're struggling with early extension if you're struggling with getting your arms
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to shallow perhaps you're not doing enough of this left side bend in transition.
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Now if you start to implement this left side bend in transition or the increased flexion
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in transition and you start to hit toe contact or you start to hit really kind of clunky
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steep contact then it's a very good indication that you're not shallowing out the club.
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This down the target line view is also great for seeing how they're able to rotate the
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arms and get into that shallow arm position and ultimately that combination allows them
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to get great extension on the way through which is one of those big keys to consistency.
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If you're having trouble implementing this in your own game feel free to submit a video
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or send us an email and we can help you figure out what's holding you back.