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Fix Your Flip

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Fixing Club Face Too Open In Transition

A lot of golfers struggle with having the club-face rotate open in transition. This typically shows up as a bigger problem for the driver, which is better hit with less trail arm straightening than an iron. That trail arm straightening helps close the club-face, but also prevents body rotation. Because the timing of the trail arm straightening is later for the driver swing than the iron swing - keep in mind that the arm is typically a little more bent with the driver swing than the iron swing. If you have the club rotating open in transition, it is most likely the left wrist extending as you change directions coupled with a powering of the swing from the shoulders (lat and tricep) more than the hips and core.

Tags: Transition, Concept, Drill, Intermediate

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This video is opening the club face in transition.

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So in the club face section or in the video of understanding the movements that adjust the club face,

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I'm speaking as a global kind of hey these movements adjust the club face anywhere.

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But there's one specific time where I'll frequently see the club face airing towards getting to open and that's in transition.

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And it's usually part of a little bigger pattern.

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So what that looks like is if I go up to the top of the swing, as the golfer starts down that lead wrist will tend to go into extension.

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And the club face will rotate more up towards the sky kind of like this.

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So I'm exaggerating it.

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It may look just as subtle as something like that.

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But if it's opening, it's not starting the square and it's not closing.

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But we tend to see what the most consistent ball strikers is that they will be closing the club face somewhat consistently the entire downswing.

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So if we get back to this opening during transition, why would it go for do that?

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Well, the the bigger reason is if I'm using my lats and if I'm pulling down with my arms, it actually is going to feel stronger for and give me more force pulling down if this wrist goes into extension.

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So using that club face getting open as an indicator that I'm kind of more upper body dominant.

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I'm really starting that transition move with more of a lunge and pull pattern as opposed to a rotational body pattern.

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Because what you'll start to find is if I tried to get open like this and I tried to rotate open, this is almost going to get into an unplayable club face position where it have to really close it down during that release phase.

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Which is hard to really hard to do consistently.

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So the usual steps are if you're working on getting that if that club face is getting open and you're working on getting it to close a little bit.

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The main movement is going to be that flexion of the wrist because the club is at 90 degrees to my arm.

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So that's the one that's going to rotate it closed.

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So a lot of players tend to feel weak at first when they're rotating this or when they're flexing that lead wrist in transition.

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And the main reason is they're not using their legs, they're not using their core to bring the arms down into delivery position so that then the arms can extend during the release.

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So if you find yourself struggling with getting used to the motorcycle or if you find yourself getting really narrow in the club face opening, it's part of this global pattern of kind of pulling with the arms instead of getting more of the engine.

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Evenly distributed throughout my body working from the ground up so from the top of the swing if it's going to work from the ground up the first movements down should be controlled mostly by the lower body and the core.

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If you do that if you power the early movements by the lower body in the core then the wrist if it stays relaxed is going to want to go into flexion because the weight is going to be slightly behind where I'm attached to the club.

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You're struggling with getting open specifically during transition understand that it's part of how you're powering your swing and you want to look at the lower body drills during transition to really start working on powering your swing from your core.

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Work on continued rotation and getting that club face a little bit square or square earlier.

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That combination will ultimately help you to not pull quite as much with your arms and get the club open in transition.

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