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Swing Analysis - Rickie Fowler

Ricky Fowler has made big changes to his swing in the last few years. He has improved his takeaway and release pattern - which both help his overall ball striking.

The biggest change is in his sequencing. Rickie has improved the use of his core through his swing which helps make his overall positions much improved.

His swing is frequently compared to Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy, but you’ll see in this analysis that Rickie’s swing is very different from those two golfers.

Tags: Analysis, Intermediate

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in this analysis video we take a look at

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the swing of Rickie Fowler

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now Rickie Fowler has made some pretty

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big swing changes under the tutelage of

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Butch Harmon he's played really well the

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last couple years and so it's no wonder

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that a lot of students have some

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questions about what swing changes he's

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made and why they've been so helpful so

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in this video we're going to take a look

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at them one major swing change that he

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is made with the help of Butch Harmon as

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well as his fitness trainer but then

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we'll highlight a couple of the other

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things such as how his swing is

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typically compared to both Sergio Garcia

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for this lay down move as well as Rory

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McIlroy for his right leg straightening

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and almost reversed hip thrusts I'm

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gonna help you understand that what he

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does is very different from those two

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golfers as well as helping you

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understand how sequencing has played a

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big role in his improvement under Butch

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Harmon now sequencing is one of those

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kind of catch-all buzzwords that we like

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to use to relate to how one body segment

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is interacting with another so the big

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area where Ricky tended to struggle was

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in using the muscles between his rib

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cage and pelvis so over here on the left

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is a close-up video from 2010 and then

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over here on the right is a close-up

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video from last fall now we can see that

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the take away positions are very

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different the forum relationships are

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very different we can also see that he's

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over on the right Ricky has a little bit

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more muscle mass he he worked out pretty

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hard when he started working with Butch

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Harmon and that can be contributing to

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what he's able to do with his core

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because here's what we want to see in

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transition and this is the movement that

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I think a lot of golfers amateur as well

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as some professionals miss out on and

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that is connecting the pelvis to a

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ribcage so as we look through and as we

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scrub through back and forth in

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transition what you'll see is that his

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pelvis is leaving behind his upper body

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so if you look at kind of this area

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right in here that's close to the bottom

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of his ribcage even now

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there that's close to the bottom of his

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ribcage and close to his lap muscle so

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what you'll see is his pelvis rotates

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away from that part and you'll see that

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there's not a ton of rotation happening

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it's a little bit more of a side Bend

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movement so there is some rotation but

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you'll see that the dominant movement is

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going to be more with that side Bend and

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it's not until he gets down to right

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around here that his rib cage really

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starts rotating we're in his new version

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what you'll see is his pelvis is still

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going to start a little bit before his

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lower body which it's good for it to

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start before the upper body for the

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lower body to start before the upper

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body but you want to make sure that that

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rotational movement of the lower body is

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transferred or connected to the rib cage

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so what you'll see in the more recent

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swings is you'll see that this part of

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his rib cage is rotating much sooner

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than where he was back here six years

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ago again back six years ago he had a

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little bit more of a side bend movement

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where now he's having more of that

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rotational swing activated and that

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rotational sling is going to help

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steepen the path of the club so yes his

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arms are in a better position at the top

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of the swing but the relationship

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between the arms in the upper body looks

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even better during the downswing because

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he has included more of this upper body

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rotation if he didn't rotate his body

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then the side Bend movement that you

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would tend to see is going to rely on

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more of an arm pull as a power source

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where over here on the right he's going

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to be using a little bit more of his

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total body to speed up the the club head

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as a result of having that body power

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that downswing now we're going to see

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that his arms are able to work a little

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bit more left and he's a look he's able

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to have more body rotation through the

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shot we're over here on the

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on the left he's got less of the body

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rotation so his hands work a little bit

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more out to the right through the

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release one key takeaway for you is if

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you look at a down-the-line video

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looking at where your upper body is and

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looking at where your arms are those are

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the two factors that are going to relate

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to where your hands are going to move

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through the ball are they going to move

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out towards the target line or are they

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going to move left following your body

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if they move left and and the arms are

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straightening then the only thing that's

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going to be pulling them left will be

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body rotation of the ribcage golfers are

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always compared to each other and one of

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the golfers who Riki is frequently

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compared to is Sergio especially in

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transition now probably less so with

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more with his more modern move that

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doesn't have quite as much of the arm

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drop but what you'll see is that his

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movement in transition is actually quite

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different from Sergio's if we look at

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the body movement of Sergio you'll see

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that if we had a kind of imaginary wall

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right here you'll see that his upper

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body and his head are working down this

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way and then he's having a lot of

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shallowing movement with the lead form

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so as we go through transition you'll

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see that his upper body works down his

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rib cage works down and he creates all

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of a shallow a movement with what he's

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doing with his lead form and trail

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shoulder now if we look at Ricky what if

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we draw that same line up against his

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forehead what you'll see is that during

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transition his shallowing movement is

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going to happen more from his upper body

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working away and from hand drop and

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creating depth not so much from the arms

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shallowing so while there is a

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significant plane shift I think

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comparing him to Sergio is actually

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comparing drastically different

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movements but similar flesh shaft

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position since their transitions are

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different you'll see that through the

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release

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they have very different looking

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movements as well you can see

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differences in the arm extension

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direction you can see differences in the

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amount of rotation and side Bend and you

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can see pretty dramatic differences in

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the overall hand path now the other

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golfer who Riki is frequently compared

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to is Roy back Roy and the place where

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their comparison typically exists is in

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the straightening of that right leg in

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the little reverse hip movement during

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the release so you will see that both

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have a print out straightening of the

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legs and Rory does have the reverse hip

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movement and so does Ricky but I want to

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show you that there is a drastic

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difference in how they use their pelvis

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during the downswing so as we go up to

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the top of the swing I want you to key

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in on the amount of slide of the pelvis

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and more importantly the rate of slide

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of the pelvis what we'll see with Rory

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over here on the left is that he's going

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to shift over onto that left side

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relatively early in the downswing

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roughly by the time the hands are at

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about between shaft parallel and arm

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parallel and then what you'll see is

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because of the orientation of his pelvis

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being behind his foot when he goes to

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push through his legs it's going to

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cause his pelvis to brace and it's going

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to cause his pelvis to elevate

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lovely-looking pelvis movement when we

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look over here now when we look at Ricky

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he does create a lot of speeds we know

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he's using his legs but you'll see that

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his way slide pattern is going to be

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very different from more of the classic

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looking swinging of say and Adam Scott

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or Rory McIlroy well we'll see with

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Ricky is he's going to have some early

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hip slide but then what you'll see is

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his hips continue to slide the rest of

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the downswing so he doesn't move as far

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as early as someone like Rory McIlroy

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and so because this pelvis is working

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more across his body or in the direction

00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:52.370
of the target

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you'll see that as he approaches impact

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his pelvis is more on top of his foot

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than say a Roy McAvoy so as a result

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he's going to have all the bracing be

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vertical with his lower body and then

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he's going to have to brace more with

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his rib cage and shoulders it's not

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going to be able to brace with this

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whole sling the way that rory mcilroy is

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demonstrating so while it's tempting to

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compare similar looking shaft positions

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and group golfers that way I like to

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look at the different movements of

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transition and release and build the the

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categories of swings more around power

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sources and how you're controlling the

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path and face to path relationship when

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you do it that way what you'll see is

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that Ricky has a unique move that works

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great for him and he has some really

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good pieces you can see that he's done a

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lot of work both with his swing

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technique as well as in the gym in

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strengthening the connection between his

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pelvis and his rib cage and that's

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resulted in some better play so if you

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like the way we break these swings down

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and you'd like to have your swing broken

00:10:00.320 --> 00:10:01.910
down or you'd have liked to have a

00:10:01.910 --> 00:10:04.040
certain golfer analyzed please don't

00:10:04.040 --> 00:10:05.960
hesitate to contact us at golf Smart

00:10:05.960 --> 00:10:08.800
Academy com

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