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Swing Analysis - Matt Kuchar

Matt Kuchar demonstrates really good arm shallowing and body sequencing during transition. These traits allow him to achieve a classic impact position capable of repeatable contact and ball flight. 

Tags: Analysis, Intermediate

WEBVTT

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in this analysis video we're going to

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take a look at the swing of Matt Kuchar

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now Matt Kuchar is a one of the prime

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examples used at for the one plane swing

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technique he works with a Chris

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O'Connell I'm going to take a look at

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his driver swing and show you a few

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things he does in transition and one

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thing you can learn from his release and

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impact that you can apply to your own

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game to help you with your ball striking

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consistency so on the Left we have Matt

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Kuchar hitting a draw with a 3-wood

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great filming work here by Terry rolls

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in his team so first thing we're going

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to look at is a transition so you can

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see he's got kind of some of his his

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normal hit keep the club head well

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outside the hands work that elbow back

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as if you were starting a lawn mower but

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as we get to the top of the swing we're

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going to pay attention to what's

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happening with the trail shoulder so now

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that I've been here in Houston for a

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little while I've worked with more and

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more golfers who tried the one plane

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method so nothing this won't be you know

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a batch one way or the other really what

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I want to do is is highlight what he

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does in his trail shoulder that allows

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him to play from such a flat position at

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the top of the swing and for comparison

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we're going to look at this iron swing

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over here on the right where it appears

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that he's playing less of a draw more a

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straight shot or even a fade so you'll

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have a lot of the similar

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characteristics to what we're going to

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see over here on the driver but I want

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to highlight a couple little changes

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that will see that vary from whether

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he's hitting a draw 3-wood or a straight

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slash fade iron okay so as we as we look

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at this transition at the top of the

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swing the the right elbow has worked a

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little bit more across his body that's

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that's kind of a or away from his body I

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should say it's kind of working more

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along the side of his body instead of

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staying well out in front of his chest

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right because it's just as kind of

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pointing out in this space here

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that's kind of characteristic for Matt

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Kuchar swing now as he starts down

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you'll be able to see that that right

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arm tends to start working into external

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rotation or if I was to zoom in here

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basically what we'll see is as he starts

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down you can see that the elbow reads

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the hands slightly and you can see that

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the club starts working a little bit

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more shallow even when he's working on

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this slightly steeper pattern when he's

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trying to hit more of a straight shot or

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a little bit of a fade you'll see that

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the elbow is there it's kind of out away

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from his you know away from his side

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kind of more towards the side of his

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body or out away from the front of his

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chest more towards the side of his body

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and then as he starts down that elbow is

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working in the direction of his belly

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button or sternum it's kind of working

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back in front of his body as it goes

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into a little bit of external rotation

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I'll bring up an amateur real quick just

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to show you the comparison of the danger

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of that arm getting too much behind your

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body zoomed in here's a golfer who had

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that right arm working a little bit more

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into that flying elbow position a little

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bit more along the side of his body now

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the danger from here is as you elevate

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with the arm behind your body you'll

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quickly run out of external shoulder

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range of motion so part of the the

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benefit of what Matt Kuchar does or part

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of the reason why Matt Kuchar is able to

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make a good transition shoulder move

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with that external rotation is that

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keeps his elbow close to if not

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connected to his ribcage if he were to

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raise it up there you'd be he'd be very

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restricted in terms of going into more

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external rotation so here we'll see the

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normal tendency when that shoulder runs

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out of external rotation it's frequently

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going to result to going into internal

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rotation as this gentleman is

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demonstrating there and that internal

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rotation can create a massive steepening

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of the shaft as you'll see by the

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very vertical position over on the right

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compared to the external rotation of the

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shoulder creating a much more flat shaft

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angle which will allow for him to make

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his good body pivot and have really good

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sequencing as he gets into the downswing

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so key number one for you is to make

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sure that your trail shoulder goes into

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external rotation as you start the

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downswing for key number two we're going

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to take a look at what matt kuchar looks

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like an impact so over on the left as we

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take him down we can get towards impact

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we can see well just to be fair we'll go

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one frame past

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so that it doesn't skew it that much so

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frequently golf instructors will talk

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about kind of keeping your shoulders

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parallel at impact while getting your

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lower body open now and typically we

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will use the down the line camera angle

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or the golf instructors will say that we

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use the down the right down the line

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camera angle in order to demonstrate

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that relationship because from down the

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line you do want to see this right arm a

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little bit underneath the left that's

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indicating that you had good shallowing

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arm movements during transition and good

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arm timing the release was a little bit

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more of what I call a wipe and then kind

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of extend as opposed to going in

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internal rotation and really just to

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kind of turn in that Club over through

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impact so this is really good forearm

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slash shoulder alignments here at impact

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now cautioning you again some danger can

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happen if you try to keep your shoulders

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closed so what'll what'll sometimes

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happen is trying to keep your shoulders

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close will limit the ability or the

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rotation amount in the ribcage

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so this three-quarter face on view is

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one of my favorites for showing where

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the chest is pointing as we reach impact

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it's also a good way to look at the

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sequencing so during his downswing you

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can see his lower body is starting but

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you can see that as soon as his lower

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body starts his rib cage is actually

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doing a good job of transmitting that

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force right through there

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then it gets into the shoulder girdle

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pretty quickly so you'll see there's a

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little bit of relaxation in this lead

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shoulder as the as the hips and the

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ribcage kind of work together rotating

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Oh towards the target you'll see that

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his shoulder blade which is kind of in

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line right there basically works a

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little bit towards the end of

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protraction so it basically works a

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little bit away from the target that way

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kind of stretching some of the muscles

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in the posterior shoulder so then as he

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starts down we're seeing that upper body

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that lower body continue to rotate kind

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of lagging behind with the arms and then

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here we have him pretty much at impact

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so now from this down the line view it

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does look like his shoulders are close

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to square right we can kind of see there

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are his shoulders from his face on view

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you can see that his chest or his pelvis

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is pointed well out in front of the

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target somewhere in that 4045 degree

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range we can see that his upper body is

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pointing well out in front of the target

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kind of down along that target line

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somewhere in that 30 degree range and as

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a result the arms kind of look like

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they're more behind or toward the right

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half of his body

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you can also we can imagine how it would

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look from down the line we can see this

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right forearm is kind of underneath the

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left so we know that this left arm is

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closer to us than the right keeping that

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perspective you can see how that right

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side is kind of underneath the left but

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it's more this side Bend that creates

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that look of the shoulder staying closed

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not actually lack of rotation I find

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that a lot of golfers who try to

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restrict their rotation of their core

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ends up with significant issues when

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hitting the longer clubs and can

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frequently have early release the arms

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hit it fat have lots of contact misses

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so two great keys you can learn from

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looking at Matt Kuchar Zoar how the

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trail arm works in

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into external rotation as he goes into

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his downswing and how he sequences his

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body from his transition from the ground

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up enabling him to reach this really

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classic looking impact position

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regardless of the little nuances that he

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has in his takeaway and/or backswing so

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if you're struggling to understand how

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to shallow your arms or what a good

00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:17.140
impact position should really look look

00:09:17.140 --> 00:09:19.690
at feel free to check out our other

00:09:19.690 --> 00:09:22.750
videos here on the YouTube channel or go

00:09:22.750 --> 00:09:24.430
over to golf smart Academy and get a

00:09:24.430 --> 00:09:26.529
free membership where you can learn

00:09:26.529 --> 00:09:28.480
about some of the science based

00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:32.350
instruction and what 3d research as well

00:09:32.350 --> 00:09:34.450
as current golf science trends can help

00:09:34.450 --> 00:09:36.279
you understand about how to simplify

00:09:36.279 --> 00:09:38.649
your goals when you're practicing your

00:09:38.649 --> 00:09:40.920
golf game

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