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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the swing of Steve Strikker.

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Steve Strikker is typically referred to as one of those guys who has the simplest swing

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on tour.

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Frequently discussed as someone, Emily, I'm going to talk about what he does in his swing

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based on some 3D that I've seen that reveals why his swing looks so simple and so smooth.

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That simple and smooth technique is great for iron shots and for shots around the

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green and it's part of the reason why he excels in strokes gained either with approaches

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to the green or around the green.

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But I'm also going to talk about why that smoothness may be a limitation if your goal is

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maximum distance.

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When I was involved in the presentation on the rate of closure, I was able to get a look

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at Steve's 3D file.

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So I was able to see what he does so well that helps give the look of just everything

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working together with really good rhythm.

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Now, one of the most apparent is he has some really good sequencing.

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So if you were to see his kinematic sequence, you would see that the lower body leads

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the upper body, the upper body leads the arms and then the arms lead the club.

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The one way that you can see that pretty easily is if you pump back and forth from

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here to there, you can see that there is very little change in his arm positions or his

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arm movements.

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You can see that most of the movement is happening down in this region here.

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So basically what he's doing is he's using his legs early on in order to move his arms

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into place so that then he can use his arms later and deliver the club with a little

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bit more speed and consistency.

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From the down the line view, you'll be able to see that between those two positions, again

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the arms appear like they haven't done a whole lot.

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What you'll see is he gets his thighs back pretty close to where they started by about

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the time the left arm is parallel to the ground.

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Now he does so without losing a lot of his position.

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So if sequencing is kind of key number one to looking really smooth, key number two we're

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going to look at the center of his upper body or kind of where his sternum is.

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So if I put a box around roughly where the measurement would be taking place, so just

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kind of inside the sternum kind of like that.

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What you'll see is that instead of focusing on keeping the head in place, this is where

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the arms actually connect and so keeping the chest about the same distance away from

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the golf ball.

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Not having too much movement either towards the golf ball or away from the golf ball, not

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having too much movement up or down and not having too much movement backward and having

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an okay amount forward.

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All those will help keep your upper body in place so that you'll be more consistent with

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your strike.

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So if you have really good sequencing and an upper body that stays in place, you're going

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to typically have solid, solid strike solid contact.

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So you won't need a whole lot of tension down at the bottom.

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So you'll see he has a little bit of movement away from the golf ball during the downswing.

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But he stays at close to the same height.

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He stays about the same distance away and he doesn't lunge closer to the target too much.

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It's okay to have a little bit of shift towards the target, especially with the irons.

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But if you start getting more than, let's say, two inches of shift towards the target from

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where you set up to impact.

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You're typically going to struggle with some release issues.

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So he keeps his upper body in place with that good while using that good sequencing.

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And those two factors help produce kind of that really smooth look of energy transfer.

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Now what he does with his arms is he has some of the more interesting risk graphs that

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I've ever seen.

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So basically between the top of the swing and right about here, he has less than two degrees

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of risk movement in any direction.

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He keeps his risk pretty much in the same orientation.

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Now I said less than two degrees because they do move.

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He does have some arm shallowing, but he only has a couple degrees, not like the tour average

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of 10.

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He has some wrist loading, some increased trail risk extension, but again, he only has

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a couple degrees, not like the 20 you'll see with longer hitters.

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So from the top of the swing to here, he's doing very little with his risk and he's controlling

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the movement mostly with his body.

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Now I think that's part of the reason that he does so well with the wedge shots is he

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minimizes having too much downswing load and he actually has a gentle cast pattern.

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But the cast pattern doesn't do as well off the tee.

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So even though he's typically in the higher rankings for accuracy, even though he's 6 feet

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to all 190 pounds, he's typically not in the top 100 and frequently not in the top 150

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in driving distance.

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Now I do want to stress that keeping your upper body in that relatively small bubble

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doesn't come from trying to keep your head still.

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It comes from a blend of spine movements and hit movements that keeps your upper body in

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place.

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So I have a number of different videos to help teach how to keep your upper body in place,

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but that would be too much for one of these analysis videos.

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Now because Steve is so great at the wedge shots, let's take a look at how he uses a similar

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pattern with his chipping and pitching.

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So Steve's cast pattern really helps him more with these wedge shots than it does with

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his shots off the tee.

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But what you'll see is that he has that same minimal movement of his risk during transition.

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Instead, he's providing the power more with his shoulders and more from his upper body.

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That combination is typically what we'll see with the better chippers and pitchers the

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ball.

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So it's no surprise that Steve would be one of the best around the green with his natural

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pattern.

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He's able to use that pattern in generate enough speed by creating a little bit more body

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load with his full swing.

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The way he uses his risk is almost textbook and ideal for these short shots around the

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green is not necessarily ideal for the tee shot, which is why he's almost never finished

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below a hundredth in surfs gained off the tee even though he's one of the most accurate

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drivers.

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But it does allow him to have a really simple game for the places where you really need

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scoring, which is the iron shots or the wedge shots.