00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Colin Mori Kawa.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:12,000
So Colin is one of the young guys on tour who's already won and he's doing so well

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,000
because of his elite level ball striking.

00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,000
He's actually losing strokes to the field in terms of putting, but he's doing exceptionally

00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:25,000
well in terms of his ball striking both approach and the green as well as off the T.

00:00:25,000 --> 00:00:29,000
And he's one of the leaders in terms of EGLE's made.

00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:35,000
So we're going to take a look at his swing from the context of why it makes him such a good

00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:41,000
long iron player and we'll talk about two things that you can apply to your own game

00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:45,000
if long irons are one of the areas that you're hoping to improve.

00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:49,000
So we're going to look at his swing from a few different angles and we're going to focus on two main

00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:51,000
components that will help you with your long iron game.

00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:57,000
One is looking at and visualizing the sequence of his body during transition.

00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,000
So how he uses his lower body and his core to power swing more so than his arms.

00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:08,000
And then two, we're going to look at the arm shallowing or the path of his arms in transition.

00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:11,000
But first let's take a look at the sequencing.

00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:17,000
So this one over here on the left has a great camera angle for looking at sequencing.

00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:19,000
We're going to look at a couple different pieces.

00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:26,000
So as he starts down, I want you to watch how his lower body starts to rotate before his

00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:28,000
upper body starts coming down.

00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:35,000
And one area that you've never might not have looked at before is I want you to look at his left shoulder and left shoulder blade.

00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:41,000
So right around here is his spine and his shoulder blade is some distance away from that at the top of the swing.

00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:50,000
Now what we'll see is as he starts down that shoulder blade actually gets pulled further away from his spine.

00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:58,000
So if he was using the big muscles in his upper back, he would probably pull that shoulder blade in closer to the spine.

00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:04,000
And that would cause him to look like his upper body was firing a little bit harder in transition.

00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:11,000
But instead if we scrub back and forth like this, you'll see that there's movement of his ribs going this way.

00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:13,000
There's movement of his hips rotating.

00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:21,000
There's movement of his legs, but as he starts down that shoulder blade doesn't really go with it.

00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:29,000
So he's creating a bunch of speed through his legs and through his core and transferring that speed through the shoulder blade into his hands.

00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:36,000
But he's not really generating a whole lot of pull or speed with his upper body and his arms.

00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000
From this video over on the right, we're zoomed in on his upper body.

00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:45,000
You'll see that as he starts down, there's that lower body leading very nicely.

00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:48,000
From this view, I want you to take a look at his left arm.

00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:58,000
And you'll notice that while his left arm is a little bit bent at the top of the swing, it basically maintains a lot of that same bend as he starts down.

00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:09,000
So if he was to really pull with his upper body, if he was going to pull with his triceps or if he was going to pull with the lats, he would typically straighten that arm.

00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:22,000
Much earlier, but we know that since the shoulder blades not moving and that elbow isn't straightening very early in the downswing, he's not using a lot of the major power generating muscle groups in that left shoulder.

00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:30,000
So if you feel like you're swinging mostly with your arms and shoulders, that might be one of the reasons why you're struggling with your long irons.

00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:38,000
But it might not be the only reason. So in the next couple of clips, let's take a look at the arm shallowing component.

00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:44,000
Okay, so we have two swings where we can look at the arm shallowing component.

00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:54,000
I really like the swing over here on the left because the shirt gives us a good horizontal line across his chest or perpendicular to his spine.

00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:05,000
Now what you'll see is on the way in the backswing, the club, compared to that shirt line, is at an angle, let's say somewhere around 30 degrees,

00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:15,000
it's definitely more vertical than the line on a shirt. But as he starts down, you'll see compared to the line on his shirt.

00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:24,000
Now the back of his hand is basically perpendicular to that, or his elbow is pointing basically in the same direction as it.

00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:31,000
So those are two ways that you can look at how the left arm tends to get into the shallow position.

00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:41,000
And then the right arm would just mirror it. So that right palm is facing basically up towards the sky instead of already pointing straight up and down.

00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:48,000
And that right elbow is pointing more down towards the ground instead of pointing behind.

00:04:48,000 --> 00:05:01,000
Over on the right here, we're going to see that same thing. So as he starts with his lower body, you'll see that the club gets into that nice similar looking position where it's basically perpendicular to his spine.

00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:07,000
The hand is pointing parallel to his spine, just like that.

00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:17,000
And the left elbow is pointing out away from him. So this is that really good arm shallowing that can only happen if you're not being really active with your arms in the back of your chest.

00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:20,000
And then you're going to be able to move your arms in your arms in transition.

00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:33,000
Okay, now I want you to experience that position. So what you're going to do is take your hands placed in the front of you and put your hands together just like this. Now what we're going to do is we're going to match the arm position, the columns demonstrating here in transition.

00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:38,000
So now we're going to rotate our left arm or lead arm if you're right hand a golfer.

00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:52,000
The back of your hand is pointing up and your elbow is pointing towards the target. Your right hand is going to match it. So that right elbow is going to be pointing down and the back of the right hand is going to be facing the ground just like this.

00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:58,000
Now to make it a little bit more accurate, we're going to put it more in front of the right shoulder rather than in front of your chest kind of like this.

00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:05,000
Now what I want you to do is you're going to close your eyes in this position. And if you want to, you can take your golf grip, but you're going to keep your arms in this position.

00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:15,000
I just want you to ask yourself how do your arms feel compared to the middle of your downswing. Okay, open your eyes. If you're like most people what you're going to say is you'll feel a lot more normal or comfortable.

00:06:15,000 --> 00:06:27,000
If you turn this left arm so that it's pointing down and the left arm thumb up or close the thumb up. And now that right elbow is pointing behind you and the right palm is facing towards the target kind of like this.

00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:36,000
So just go back and forth a couple times between the shallow column position or the more vertical maybe more comfortable position.

00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:47,000
And now what I want you to do is stop when you're in this shallow position. And I want you to just kind of imagine what you would have to do in transition in order to get into that position during the downswing.

00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:55,000
And you probably start to feel that the energy is going to work more or round you, which supports what he's doing with his lower body and his core.

00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:09,000
So what Colin is demonstrating here is that good combination of shallow arms and a body powered swing that tends to produce a really flat bottom of the swing, which tends to create more of a consistent contact.

00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:17,000
As long as you have a club face that's matching the path, you'll typically become a really good long iron play with those two characteristics in your swing.