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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.

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Net Force Discussion - Simplified Golf Physics

In this discussion video, Tyler answers an instructor question about seeing the overall net force pattern in the golf swing. This is important for instructors to understand, but not critical for the average golfer. This video targets golf nerds only!

Tags: Not Enough Distance, Driver, Concept, Advanced

WEBVTT

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hi in this call smart insight I'm going

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to help you understand the forces as

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they apply in the golf swing I know that

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there's a lot of confusion out there

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about what the forces are how you can

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see them or if you can see them and the

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general patterns so in this video I'm

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going to hopefully clarify some of those

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forces especially as they relate to the

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in-plane movement sometimes referred to

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as alpha alright before we look at how

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it relates to the golf swing I've got

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this simple little drawing to help you

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understand the net force because I think

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it's often confused for what a golfer is

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trying to do versus what is actually

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happening so okay so in this scenario

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I've got a cliff right and then there's

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a weight hanging around a pulley being

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held by this gentleman here now that

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pulley is not a string it's a cable and

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that's going to be important for this

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third situation okay now I've got the

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weight on a cable attached to the guy

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there's a couple different things that

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could happen scenario one he's kind of

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lowering it down slowly scenario two

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he's backing up and he's actually

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pulling it upward and then scenario

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three because it's a cable he's actually

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pushing it down so he's having it fall

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faster than gravity okay in the first

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scenario actually the second scenario is

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probably the easiest so let's start with

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that so in the second scenario right

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here he's got the cable moving up this

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way he is clearly pulling on the cable

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back towards him like this that's where

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the net force would be going and it

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would be greater than whatever the

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weight is with gravity on this second

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example we've got the weight going down

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so he's slowly letting it down so his

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hands and everything would be moving

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this way but because the weight is going

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down slower than gravity the net force

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is back towards him it's going to be in

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the same direction as him pulling up

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just to a lesser degree or a lesser of

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magnitude it's only an example three

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where if he was to accelerate this down

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greater than just what gravity would be

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do

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that he would actually have the force

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and his hand Direction going out towards

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the pulley like so now we'll talk about

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where this relates the golf swing but

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the the common thing I hear is okay if

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we want the forces coming back in

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towards you that you need to be really

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pulling up on the handle well understand

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that if you if you create a ton of club

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at speed and this weight is pulling away

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from you or the golf club is swinging

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away from you you're going to have a

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really high force pulling in towards you

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even though your arms are extending and

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kind of letting that weight up kind of

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pull your arms out so that's important

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thing to understand that the net force

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is a relationship of the physics

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happening to you or by you not

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necessarily what you're trying to do and

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what you're feeling now let's take that

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rope on a string analogy and apply it to

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the golf swing

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now let's specifically look at going

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normal down at the bottom so pulling up

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on the handle and having the force going

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more up towards you the orange dots that

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I have drawn represent roughly where the

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center of mass would be so just behind

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the shaft in the direction of a club

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head kind of like this again this is

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incredibly rough but we don't have to

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get too specific to be able to see this

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general pattern if we if we take a look

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at these dots and if we imagine just the

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vertical change or just the the change

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towards the ground kind of like this you

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can see as you get down here towards the

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bottom the vertical change between the

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dots gets smaller and smaller

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that means that the center of mass is

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not accelerating down towards the ground

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because the if it was then the space

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between these dots would get bigger and

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bigger so since the distance between the

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dots is getting slightly smaller that

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means that the force would be working up

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away from the ground so when we get down

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here where the swing where the club has

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a flattish path it was moving very

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vertically through here and then it has

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a flattish path that means somewhere

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around here which ends up being roughly

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when those hands are in front of the

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thigh it starts to flatten out and

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therefore the force would be working

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away from the ground from let's say the

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frame just before this all the way down

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through and past the impact so you can

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see that unless you had of an angle of

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attack somewhere around 90 degrees

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you're probably going to have the net

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force working away from the ground or

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towards you what really matters is how

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you apply that force away from the

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ground whether you do it more from your

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body whether you do it more by pulling

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and bending your arms but as you've seen

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you don't necessarily have to feel like

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you pull your hands in closer to your

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body in order to get the proper net

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force pattern the other instruction that

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I commonly hear is down at the bottom

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you want to be pulling not only up but

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you want to be pulling in so this is a

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little bit trickier to see the easiest

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way to see this is actually from an

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overhead cam but think of it in the same

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light as what we did from the face on we

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can see that at this phase in the

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downswing the center of mass is having

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some clear movement out towards the golf

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ball now remember if it slows down its

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movement out towards the golf ball or it

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changes direction then the center of

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mass starts moving away from the golf

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ball that means that there was a net

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force away from the golf ball so down

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here at the bottom where you can see

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that the the path of the club starts

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working back up and in that means that

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well before then there was a net force

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that is working away from the golf ball

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so you can see that in order to make a

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swing where you didn't have the net

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forces working back up and in or away

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from the ground and away from the golf

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ball it would be very challenging in

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fact it would not look very much like a

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golf swing at all the most important

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part is how you create these forces not

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necessarily what the forces actually are

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there's still a lot of stuff that we can

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learn from investigating these net

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forces but the overall pattern

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kind of makes sense with the general

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movement patterns if you're not sure

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what the general movement patterns are

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or therefore what the arms should be

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doing in the backswing or transition or

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the release either subscribe to our

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YouTube channel that way you can get

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updates as soon as we post them online

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or if you want to get into the real

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nitty gritty head over to golf smart

00:07:01.610 --> 00:07:03.650
Academy com sign up for a free

00:07:03.650 --> 00:07:05.660
membership and then you can take a look

00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:08.090
at the concept videos and the drill

00:07:08.090 --> 00:07:10.340
videos to help you understand all the

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details as far as what the body should

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be doing during the different phases of

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the swing and how to recognize the

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feedback as to if you're actually doing

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it or not

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