00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:12,000
In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Francisco Malinari and how he is such a elite driver of the golf ball and what you can learn to apply to your own game.

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:20,000
Now Francisco Malinari is having a brilliant month of July having two wins including his most recent win at the Open Championship.

00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:28,000
He's currently second in a Sturkscane ball striking and one of the most interesting stats is per mile per hour.

00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:32,000
He hits the ball further in the air than anybody on the PGA tour.

00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:44,000
So we're going to talk about how he's able to maximize his swing for driver distance and compete with the guys who have much more clubhead speed.

00:00:44,000 --> 00:01:02,000
Because even though he is 117th on tour in terms of clubhead speed, he's 53rd in driving distance showing that he maximizes what he does with his swing and we're going to discuss a couple ideas of how you can learn to maximize your swing as well.

00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:07,000
So Francisco Malinari is the second rank ball striker on the planet right now.

00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:15,000
His putting his held him back in the past but he's historically been a very consistent and accurate striker of the golf ball.

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:22,000
There are three main things that I look at when it comes to ball striking consistency.

00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:30,000
One is looking at the swing plane or path of the club from the down the line camera angle.

00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:37,000
And one is looking at the wide point where the width in the swing is occurring.

00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:44,000
Both of those are path constraints that help produce good sweet spot contact in Francisco Malinari.

00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000
This is a beautiful job with both of those.

00:01:47,000 --> 00:02:02,000
The third thing that I look for is clubface control because if you are going to have great arm extension and with through the ball, then you need to have a clubface in a position that matches that swing style.

00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:12,000
So we're going to talk about a key check point for you to understand if you're controlling your clubface and how that relates to the path.

00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:17,000
So here we can see a screenshot of some of his driver characteristics.

00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:28,000
With a clubhead speed of below tour average, as I mentioned, he's above average in terms of distance and he's number one in carry distance per mile per hour.

00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:34,000
In order to maximize those numbers, you've got to hit the ball on the sweet spot, which would give you a high smash factor.

00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:41,000
You've got to hit up on the ball, he hits up on the ball for point three degrees on this particular driver and you've got to manage your spin rate.

00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:54,000
There are a few swing characteristics that lend to all three of these, where some golfers focus primarily on hitting up on the ball and don't necessarily manage their spin rates.

00:02:54,000 --> 00:03:09,000
In order to hit up on the ball and manage your spin rate, you're going to have to control the face-to-path relationship and avoid having too much of a scoop or too much trail risk flexion through the ball.

00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:17,000
Flection through the ball can help you hit up on it, but we'll typically cause lower contact on the face and a higher spin rate.

00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:27,000
So when we're looking at a rough estimate of how he's hitting up on the ball, you can look at the clubhead height compared to the golf ball or compared to the ground.

00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:38,000
And what you'll see from this face-to-in camera is when he gets the club down close to even with his trail foot, the clubhead is at about the same height as the golf ball.

00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:51,000
You'll see that while the clubhead is about the same height to the golf ball and it's or even slightly below it in order to hit up on it, you'll notice that his right arm still has a fair amount of flex in it.

00:03:51,000 --> 00:04:03,000
The only way to really get that relationship is to have this tilt behind the golf ball or have a fair amount of side bend of the hips to get that right shoulder lower to the ground.

00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:10,000
Then he's able to extend his arms through the shot in the direction of the target.

00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:21,000
I frequently have amateur golfers who come in struggling with their driver and one of their main goals is to get all of their weight on top of their front foot.

00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:31,000
You'll see that typically elite drivers the golf ball get a lot of pressure into that front foot so that they can brace and angle themselves away from the ball.

00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:39,000
But their upper body position is actually going to be closer to over their trail foot than over their lead foot.

00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:55,000
Combine that with good arm extension timing and that allows you to get a very long flat spot down at the bottom of the swing and allows you to have great width in the follow through just like Francis goes demonstrating here.

00:04:55,000 --> 00:05:04,000
Now in order to do that in order to have the club low coming into the ball, low through the ball with a gradual upward path.

00:05:04,000 --> 00:05:10,000
You're hitting it well before you reach the widest part of your swing.

00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:24,000
So in order to do that relationship, your chest will be pointing out in front of the golf ball at a rough angle about 2030 degrees out down the target line, which means the arms and the club will be slightly behind your body.

00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:34,000
In order to, when you have the arms and the club behind your body, that naturally opens the club face compared to where you were at setup.

00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:40,000
Set up because at setup you had the club directly in front of your chest.

00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:51,000
So when you have this relationship where you have the club behind your chest, in order to close it, you're going to have to rotate the club face more close.

00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:56,000
And then we're going to take a look at the down the line of how Francis go malinari does that.

00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:11,000
And then down the line, we're going to take a look at how he controls the club face. So during the backswing, you will see that the club face is roughly matching spine angular hasn't been very much for our rotation.

00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:30,000
And he gets into that position. You'll see that the the the on the right hand is pointing roughly vertical. Now when we get back down to that point, you'll see that club faces maybe just a touch more open than it was.

00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:46,000
And you'll see that the V is not quite as rotated on top, but very much on top of the the shaft. What many golfers who struggle with a slice or who struggle with more of a scoop will find is that if you look at your swing at this point.

00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:57,000
The V there that right hand will be a little bit more underneath the shaft. It will be pointing more back at your chest. And you won't have nearly as much extension of that trail wrist.

00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:08,000
That extension of the trail wrist is necessary for getting the club low to the ground, but not from our extension more from the pivot like we saw in the face on view.

00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:16,000
So this is a great little reference or checkpoint and you can either look at the flexing of the lead wrist or the position of the trail wrist.

00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:28,000
If you zoom in on his grip it's setup, you can see that he doesn't have a extremely strong grip. The V is pointing much more just off his to his cheek as opposed to well over to the right shoulder.

00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:43,000
So the weaker your grip, which many amateurs have, the more that you would have to get this right hand on top of the club. Also, the more that you're going to have shaft lean, the more that you're going to have the right hand on top of the club.

00:07:43,000 --> 00:08:01,000
A good little checkpoint is getting the club face pointing closer to the target earlier. This allows you to control the club face from less of a straightening of the arms and more with a rotation of the body and extension of the arms later or through the ball.

00:08:01,000 --> 00:08:13,000
So you can see a foot before impact or so roughly when the club is even with the right thigh is a great place to check the club face and make sure that it's already pointing closer to the golf ball.

00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:23,000
Many amateurs who I see battle a scoop or have problems with the driver, that club face would be pointing well over here just before impact.

00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:33,000
You'll notice one of the trends of some of the more consistent drivers of the golf ball these days is that they get the club face close to the path and pointing more at the target earlier.

00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:55,000
The more shaft lean that you're going to have, the more that you need this phenomenon to happen. So here we have Francis goes swimming a fairway wood or hybrid and you can see we can't quite look at it at the dead down the line because his the camera angle is great and the club is blocking the hand.

00:08:55,000 --> 00:09:07,000
But from here if you were to take a look you can see just a frame after it that right hand is well on top and the V is actually pointing on the other side of the shaft not back at him.

00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:14,000
If your right hand gets really underneath then you're going to have to scoop the risk in order to square the face.

00:09:14,000 --> 00:09:23,000
That's going to mess up your low point and give you more spin which is going to rob you of this ability to maximize your driver speed.

00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:38,000
As many of you know I'm a big fan of looking at the arm in hand action during the release and here you'll see a great view of how Francis go controls the club consistently through the release.

00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:52,000
You can see that through the ball he does not have a massive flexion or scooping of that trail arm instead he has more of a trail arm extension.

00:09:52,000 --> 00:10:08,000
You also see that he doesn't have a massive breakdown or bending of the left wrist or extending of the left wrist instead that arm stays relatively straight and matches the right arm with a little bit more rotation through the ball.

00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:24,000
All of these factors help produce the consistent path and outstanding face control it makes Francis go moanary one of the top ball strikers in the world.