April 23, 2025 • 50 mins
In this episode, Chris Finn welcomes back Adam Young, a top golf coach, to discuss the intricacies of golf swing analysis and coaching. They explore the body-swing connection, analyze the swings of two clients, Neil and John, and delve into the importance of skill drills, managing shot patterns, and understanding early release in golf swings. Adam emphasizes the dynamic nature of golfers and the need for tailored coaching strategies to improve performance and consistency on the course. In this conversation, Adam Young Golf discusses the intricacies of the golf swing, focusing on common issues like early extension and release, and how they affect performance. He emphasizes the importance of body mechanics, elasticity versus strength, and practical drills to improve ground contact and consistency. The discussion also highlights the significance of understanding impact patterns and how they relate to swing adjustments. Adam shares insights on how golfers can assess their swings and implement effective changes to enhance their game.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chris fit is ruiny the game, teaching these guys to
get bigger and stronger and faster, and we're gonna blade him.
Just a fantastic Christomatic it doesn't get old. Welcome to
the golf in his Bomb Squad. I'm your host, Chris Finn,
(00:20):
and I hope you enjoy our new intro music that
we're just experimenting with here. We had some good audio
from our friends out on Sirius XM Radio, so it
was pretty cool to have that on there. But I'm
excited today because we are doing a first for us
on this podcast. First, we have a return guest, Adam Young.
If you guys don't know him, he is one of
(00:43):
the top coaches in the world. He is the only
coach that we partner with remotely. We have a number
of clients that work with him. He's worked on a
bunch of the top facilities in the world, including the
Ledbetter Academies, world famous Turn Bear Resort, and he's currently
in Sonny Law, Vegas, where I get to go tomorrow
and I've just been told it's going to be very hot.
(01:03):
So but but Adam, welcome back. The show Man. Excited
to have you on.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah. So I'm excited today because we got a couple
of clients that have worked obviously with you, and it's
fun for me to always get to you know, the
first time we had John, we talked a lot about
the body swing connection and stuff that you see and
how the body influences things. But I think in this
episode it's going to be fun for a listeners because
we can actually we're going to take two of the
(01:30):
clients that I have all the physical data on. Obviously,
you have all the instructional side of things and what
you're working on with them, and be able to have
a conversation around what you're seeing from a performance side
for them, and then also for you know, kind of
have that back and forth of physically what they can
and can't do, and and hopefully you know, for all
of you guys listening. I mean, these are guys just
(01:52):
normally amateurs, you know from you know, one guys in
his fifties or late forties and the other one's seven
years old. So kind we kind of cover the game
it here. But I'm excited to jump into this. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, it's I suppose I should start with like how
I coach a little bit just or how I analyze
the swings, because you know, I do teach a little
bit differently, although it may not look it on the outset.
So you know, I'm not teaching to a model necessarily.
You know, I have an idea of what a good
(02:25):
swing looks like, certainly, but I understand I can pull
from different models like stack, until, lead, better, Ballard, whatever
you want. I don't necessarily see swing faults as faults
unless they're causing something at impact. So an example of
this would be, you know, early extension. Everybody hates early extension,
(02:48):
and yeah, it's something to maybe work away from, especially
in your area where if it may cause injury. But
there have been some great players who have early extended.
I posted a picture of Nicholas the the day, and
you know, early extending moving his butt forward off the line,
and I know VJ. Singh looks like a bean polear
impact as well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, those were.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Two they did all right, Yeah they.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Had an okay record.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, so you know, in those cases, it's not causing
an impact fault, so you don't necessarily have to change it.
But in other cases we'll see here with like John
John What should I mention names or not?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
John and Neil.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, you know, he had an early extension that he
wanted to get rid of, but you know I give
I give him basically rules for when to get rid
of it, you know, when to implement certain parts of it.
So my my coaching is more rules based. You know,
you look at when is a fault of fault? Is
Dustin Johnson's super strong club face a fault? Well know,
(03:51):
if he's piping everyone down the fairway or you know
not not that everybody does that, not even the pros
hit every fairway, but you know, if he's hitting seventies
sixty percent of fairways and his big misses are pretty good,
then you don't need to change it. But obviously if
there's a pattern in there, if everything's going to the left,
for example, then you might want to soften that club face.
(04:13):
So it's basically I changed things on an as needed basis,
not just for aesthetics reasons.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and I think that was one of my favorite parts.
Is you sent over kind of the walkthrough of what
you're working on with them, and it was one of
the first times that I've heard from an instructional standpoint
of it wasn't just like hey, this is the drill.
It was hey, this is what you know. I see
this and this has caused can cause this, And so
there was like a this is what's causing you know
(04:43):
before and after to your points you gave them, there's guardrails.
Now I'm so I'm excited to dive into kind of Hey.
There was one that was if you're hitting it fat,
this is you know, focus, this is going to be
the cue to focus on. If you're thinning it, this
is more the cue that you're going to be focusing on.
And that is such a useful, useful piece of instruction
that on the physical side, well, you know, we're like, hey,
(05:05):
if you have one sided back pain, you should release
the tissue here. But if it's in your middle of
your low back, then you should release the tissue on
this spot. Right because these two and so it very
much resonated for me and I know will resonate for
definitely they all the guys that we work with. But
just that continuity of conversation I thought was it was
(05:26):
just so easy to understand. And I'm sure that's what
you see from guys when you talk to them yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, the thing is with golfers, right, we never fixed ever,
We're always broken.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We're just a.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Dynamic mess effectively, and what we have to do is
try and keep ourselves as online as possible within certain
boundaries and notice when we're going off. So an example
of that would be, you know, we're never going to
hit the exact center of the face, little heel, little toe.
If it's bouncing around there, that's fine. But if it
starts to creep more towards the heel and you notice
(05:58):
there's a pattern there, well that's that's a sign that
you should make an intervention. And then you've got to say, well,
what is my tool to be able to change that,
to which it may be a technical fix, which you
know I give people. I say, if heel shots, then
you would do this, or it could even be just
an intent based, skill based fix such as trying to
hit it more towards the toe, which is a big
(06:19):
part of mine, which I know sounds very simplistic, but
I get all my players to work on these because
they have a good success right for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, well, let's let's dive in. Let me I've been
told I can share this screen, so we're gonna we're
gonna see how I do here. Let's try this. I'll
probably you guys watching here, we can can you see
that there? Adam?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Perfect, So this was so this is Neil, and you
can tell me how far forward or backwards do you
want me to play things? But so for just for
context for everybody, everyone listening. So Neil's kind of late forties,
a great roun fifty years old, been working on with
(07:02):
us for a good, good amount, and like any of
you guys in around that age range, this is a
could be you. So why don't you go ahead, I'll
make this full screen here all right? Where do you
want me to start? Here? Adam? I can just play
it through if you like. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So yeah, Neil's a six handicap, so very good player already.
You know, he's got a great looking backswing. He is
ideas he wants to reduce variability, you know, the old
thing of make yourself more consistent. So we're looking at
a lot with Neil was skilled drills. So the way
(07:41):
that you reduce variability is that there's not one thing
in the swing that's really going to reduce variability that much.
But if we can control variability. So, like I said,
if you start to see that, oh, I'm hitting a
little bit more towards a heel to day, or I'm
hitting it a little bit more right than normal, then
if you can change that and move it or recalibrate that,
(08:05):
then that's what's going to reduce variability. It's just like
tuning a piano or tune air guitar. You know, you
notice it starts ting to go off, but having the
ability to retune it, that's what's key. And so with
skilled drills, you know, we looked at hitting more off
the toe, hitting more off the heel intentionally, so you learn,
you learn the awareness number one of what it feels
(08:26):
like to do that, but you also learn the ability
to change it in specific amounts, hitting a little higher
or lower on the face as well, which relates strongly
to ground contact. And then even drills where we're intentionally
hitting a little bit more right and a little bit
more left. So I gave him a drill where I
asked him to hit I believe one two and three
(08:47):
fingers to the right or one two and three fingers
to the left. I change that scale depending on the
level of player, and so he starts to learn a
feel for oh, this is what more open feels like
with the face, this is more close feels like. So
that's going to give him the ability to consciously reduce variability.
So you know, every day, like I said, every day
(09:10):
is a lottery when you go on the range. But
when I'm on the range and I hit a shot,
I know instantly I'm hitting out of the toe today,
and I know how to move it, so I can
reduce or increase my consistency just through those skills.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
When at that Adam, do you like say all right,
that's just what it's going to be, or you then
you kind of play with it and you know how
to manage it, or do is like, oh I don't
want to hit off the toe, I want to adjust.
How does that? You know, how does that work? What's
the kind of it's recommendation in those moments?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So in terms of strike things, I would recommend changing it.
You know, if you are hitting it fat or thin,
you can't really play with that. And I mean, if
there's a groove law on the face, you're gonna you're
gonna be okay. But if there's a pattern there, I
would be check changing it. Now the caveat to that
is you have to have good skill. This has to
be a practiced thing. If you get out in the
(10:06):
golf course and you're like, oh god, I'm thinning everything
today and you try and dig deeper, there's a good
chance that you might overdo it if you've never practiced
it before. So this is why preparing or building these
skills on the range before you need them is important
so you can bring them out. Like I have these
skills locked in. If you ask me to hit more
(10:26):
on the toe or the heel, I know how to
do that, and I can actually move it in like
five millime meter increments if I need to. But that's
a practice thing. So then I have those skills, so
if I need them on the course, I can bring
them out. The thing that you might want to just
play with would be a directional issue. So if everything's
(10:48):
going to the right, for example, you can play with that.
You know, there's videos of Tiger Woods Jack Nicholas talking
about this. What's that old saying bring or.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Down the world? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
So what they mean by that is, you know, if
you're hitting everything to the right, just change your aim points.
There was Tiger Woods an interview talking about switching aim
points if everything's going to the left one day. I mean,
his philosophy very similar to mine. He will if he's
warming up on the range and everything's going to the right,
he will first try to change it and see if
(11:22):
he can do it. But if it starts going everywhere,
then he might just say, right, I'm just gonna play
with this pattern today and just change my aim points
go more to the left, you know, so you might
pick the left side of the green. I think that's
a pretty decent strategy if there's a small miss. So
what I mean by that is maybe one or two
fingers of miss, which when you extend one or two
(11:44):
fingers out to tw one hundred and fifty yards, that's
about five to ten yards miss. So I think you
can play definitely with that strategy. Wise, once it gets
if it's a big miss, like a four or five
finger miss, that's when I would probably recommend, Okay, let
let's start closing the face down a little bit here,
And to be honest, you know, when I'm on the
golf course, that could be as simple as just setting
(12:06):
the face more closed to address, honestly, something as simple
as just to get through the round of golf today.
You can always do a more complex fix on the
range later. But again, it's about having a toolbox. Right.
If I'm going to the right, I might have three
or four different things that I can use to make
that shot pattern less right, and one of them might
(12:27):
just be strategy aiming more left.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So that's that's brilliant. I think that's one of the
big pieces of feedback that we've gotten from the guys
that you've worked with has been the like the usability
of it. It's there's like, it's not like theory, right,
And I think that was the cool thing watching Neil here,
you know, with what you were trying to work. It was, hey,
here's the drill. Yeah, made me you can talk more
(12:50):
through it better than I can obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Well.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
In terms of Neil's technique, what I see in his
motion very good technique. The things that kind of stand
out to me were he has a little bit of
an early release, which is very common. I would say,
if I get a thousand golfers, nine hundred and ninety
five of them are going to have some form of
(13:15):
early release, and the five that don't are going to
be the better players. So an early release would be
I look at when does I'm trying to get this
year with a little club, when does that club cross
over the lead forums? So if I were to shoot
a line out from the lead forum, where does the
club line up with the lead forum or crossover? And
(13:36):
you can see with Neil has happening around about there,
which is just before the golf ball. Not bad at all,
it is where I would say a six handicap would be.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
But you know it can make a big difference.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, where does the scratch end up?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You know what do you see differently change as golfers
get better or worse?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yes, So the the higher the handicap, the earlier the release.
So you know, you get a twenty handicap and they're
going to be releasing before their hands reach the right
thigh and you get a pro and their lineup point,
you know, where the club lines up with the lead
forum is going to be close to the left thigh.
And what this results in or why this is more
(14:20):
important to a few reasons. It moves the low point
forwards when you have a later release, so that's better
for ground contact. It also reduces dynamic loft, so you
get more forward shaft lean And why is that important? Well, again,
it improves the consistency of ground contact. It also improves
(14:42):
things like compression generally, you know, so you get a
little bit more ball speed for any given club and
also things that I've seen more consistency with face angle.
This is less predictable, but I don't tend to see
it get worse.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Let's just say.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That, I'd say if I, you know, out of one
hundred golfers who our teacher later released, the face angle
tends to get more consistent, and I use GC quad
parameters for that. We look at face angle standard deviation.
And it also it means that you're heading on a
part of the arc where the hands are working up
more through impact. I know this is really difficult to understand,
(15:20):
but in a good golf swing, the club is actually
or the club head is traveling down as the hands
are working up. It's really difficult to understand. People say, well,
how can the hands be doing something the club head isn't. Well,
I'm showing you here, clubhead working down, hands working up,
and that produces what we call a flat spot, which
(15:43):
is where the arc it becomes less curved and it
becomes just easier to strike the ball. You start to
get away with more. You know, I notice that if
I'm on turf, I can hit an inch behind it
and it's fine. I lose very little distance. Not that
(16:03):
I'm trying to hit an inch behind it, but I
could do that and lose very little distance. Where I
know someone whose hands are working down more through impact
or have an earlier release, they hit an inch behind
and they might lose ten twenty yards more than me.
So it's the same mistake but bigger output error effectively, So.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
What do you see these would you anticipate guys struggling
with this? So like Neil in this case has full
hip internal rotation on his lead side, there's like he
has no rotary limitation of why he can't get to
his clearest hips too all the way through. Do you
tend to see more early releasing with guys who maybe
struggle to really clear that lower body and so the
(16:43):
arms kind of release and do a little bit more
work or does that move easier or harder depending on that.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Definitely, you know, body rotation helps that release to happen later,
and if you're very limited in your body rotation, your
ability to turn. Then that's going to encourage or it's
not going to aid a later release. So yeah, I
mean there are slight ways around that. You can obviously
flare the lead foot out a little bit if you've
(17:11):
got limited rotation, but obviously in your field you'll want
to try and fix that as well improve it, which
I would strongly recommend.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Only if the golfer. This is where we ask the golfer, like,
you know, are you willing to you know, spend fifteen
minutes that they doing it? If they're like no, we're
all right, flarefoot, just be ready for your back to
start earn, that's that's interesting. So the physical limitation of
and it's it's impactful because guys, you know, ninety five
percent of guys over the age of fifty fail a
(17:41):
rotary at least one rotary center. So it's interesting that
this is a if they fail that that this issue
may be more apparent for them.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And one thing you can see with
Neil there is if you look at the end position,
most better players are actually more extended at that point
where the body they've basically pushed up and kind of
straightened or posted up their body, whereas Neil is kind
of very flex down. There's a lot of knee flex
still is you know, his chest is kind of leaning
(18:14):
forwards a little bit almost. He's not pushed up as
much as if you look at sea. Yeah, that that
position there is kind of telling. You can see the
the hips are not pushed forwards towards the target much.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Perfect example of that. Yeah, you'd see more of a
straight line up there. But then when I see that,
so I say, Okay, this person's not extending up.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Why might that be the case.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And if you have a look at his left arm,
there's left arms got a reasonable amount of flex to
it as well.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
So you can think when you.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Flex the lead arm, when you bend the lead arm,
that pulls the hands away from the golf ball, so
that encourages more thin contacts. Okay, so then what Neil
is doing to alleviate that is he's staying down longer.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
His body's not pushing up.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So he's going to delay pushing out to the lead.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Now that set of matchups can work. And if if
Neil is flushing it from there, we don't change anything.
Because there are players who come to mind, like Lee
Westwood would be a player who kind of has that
look to it. So again, if you're flushing it over
and over from there, great, keep doing it. However, if
Neil is hitting fat shots, we have two options here.
(19:33):
We could focus on a later release, a later swish
of the club that would reduce the fat shot, or
we could also get Neil to push up and extend
up more through impact. So an analogy I gave Neil,
I give this one a lot, is to imagine a
glass ceiling above your head, and as you're at impact,
(19:55):
you are pushing up and smashing through the glass ceiling,
you know, using that left leg to straighten. Yeah, pushing
into the ground, pushing into that left foot. Now, the
advantage of that is you start to use more ground forces,
you start to use the ground better. And I often
see a jump in speed with people when they do that.
So yeah, just training that motion again. So these are
(20:17):
two things that he could implement. I wouldn't recommend doing
them both at the same time. I only recommend someone
focus on one thing at a time. But he has
two options there. If he's having a bad spell of
fat shots, he can go off and practice a later release,
or he can go off and practice springing up more
through himpact smashing up through that glass ceiling, and both
(20:38):
of those things will well. The later release will move
the ground contact forwards. The springing up will what do
what I call raise the arc depth. Basically, it'll stop
you digging in as deep, so it'll shallow at the divot,
and that also moves the ground contact forwards. So there's
just two options there, and.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So would that be So that's one of the interesting
things Adam with Neil is if we look at his
lower body power, he's actually in the ninety second percentile
for his age bracket, so he's actually can produce a
ton of force. But when we looked at his clubhead speed,
he's actually only like sixty or seventieth percentile. So would
(21:19):
that lack of driving up be a reason why he's
potentially losing some speed?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
If you know, there's a high correlation between in all sports,
between you know, how you pressure the ground and your
left foot and the timing of it and the speed
that we can produce.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean in baseball as well.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
They've looked at that batting speed and throwing speed and
engulf this seems to be a high correlation between it
as well.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
So if you can.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Push into the left foot harder, it allows your body
to rotate more. It also produces something called parametric acceleration,
or helps it and parametric acceleration. Everybody can actually try
this at home. If you just let a club drop,
it'll swim a certain speed, whereas if you let it
drop and then you pull up at the point of impact,
(22:06):
you're pulling up on it, that will wing the club around.
It will really whip around. It's the same the same
force in physics that you know creates a catapult when
you're swing it, or if you get your keys on
a string and you're spinning it round really fast, you're
basically just pulling on it. And that pulling force can
be greater if we push into the ground and spring
(22:28):
up through impact. That allows us to pull on the
grip through impact more, and that has been associated with
higher club speeds as well. In fact, there's a scientific
study by Mura which is spelled I think was spelled
m U I R A. I could have completely botched that,
but just type in, type in, because there's the clubs
(22:49):
as well mirrors, right, and I think they're spelled differently.
Type in parametric acceleration golf, and at the very least
you'll find my article on it explain it more. But yeah,
that's one reason why we could create more power. But
again you'd have to say, well, why is he not
Why is Neil not pushing up and springing up more aggressively. Well,
(23:14):
probably because that lead arm was folded there, and if
he did that, he would thin it or blade it.
So you know, this is why we have to balance
these things here. So my algorithms that I gave to
Neil were, if you're hitting it thin, then feel as
if you enter with that lead arm a little straighter
or your hands lower to the ground, that's going to
(23:35):
reduce the thin shot. And then from there, if you're
hitting it fat, you can spring up more aggressively. So
it's just about balancing those two things. So all he
has to do is look at his patterns. If he
hits ten balls and out of those ten shots he
says I hit a lot of fat shots in that,
then he's going to be working more and springing up.
Whereas if a week later he says, you know what,
(23:56):
I'm hitting a lot of thin shots at the moment
he's going to be working on those hands entering lower
through impact.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
That's so smart because I think there's a lot of
people in the fitness world who will say, oh, see
those stats right and say, hey, based on your physical ability,
you should be able to swing you know, five miles
an hour faster, right, and then say hey, just drive
you know, they'll see the knee right, Oh, your knee
is not You got to drive through your front leg.
But if they don't realize that the reason he's doing
(24:24):
that is because he's trying to control that because of
the elbow being vent then you just screwed the guy
up right.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, if you just took a robot and made it
drive up more through impact, it with thin everything, yeah,
you know if it's making the same swing, but you
you do that. And if you've got that same robot
and you dropped it in a little bit to make
the hands lower, eat fat everything, so you need you
need those swing changes to be interventions to fix a fault.
(24:52):
Now you end up if he does that, If he
does it the way I said the algorithmic approach, if
fat then spring up more, if thin hands end to lower.
If he does that over time, what you'll see is
you'll start to implement both elements into the swing, but
you'd be doing so in a way that still allows
him to play well. And it's more of a fault.
(25:12):
It's a fault fixing thing that gives long term benefits
as well.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Well.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It also like to yeah, I mean, we've all played
the round of golf with a guy who's just like
struggling and has no idea what to do. You know,
it gives you know, in this case, it gives Neil
the tool box tools in his toolbox if he's like, man,
I just started thinning it middle of the round, like, oh,
I know what to do. And I think that's something
that is not common from a golf instruction standpoint, at
(25:39):
least that's from what I've seen. I don't know if
you've seen similar.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, well, it's, like I said, slightly different approach. My
approach in the each move relates to an impact thing,
you know, because ultimately, if I, like I said, always say,
if I was to simplify golf, golf is strike the
center of the face, the ground in the right place,
and control where the face is looking. It's always those
(26:04):
three things. Now, any move that we implement into a
golfer needs to influence one of those three things. And
so in Neil's case, you know, it was ground contact right,
if thin, then this, if fat then this, and then
he can decide when he wants to implement those things. Now,
I also mentioned to Neil, when he's on the course,
(26:24):
I would probably recommend sticking to simpler things, such as,
if you're hitting it thin one day, just try and
dig a little deeper. It's more of an intent based thing.
So that's how I like to play, but when I'm training,
I might take a more complex approach or more internal
approach where we're working on the body mechanics. So you know,
I think that's an important point as well. However, you know,
(26:47):
if Neil's practiced these drills and he finds that, you
know what, when I do a later swish, I flush everything,
I never fat it. It's brilliant, then I'm happy. If
he's proven that that works and he can control it
and it's ingrained, he can go and take that out
on the golf course.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
But yeah, that's super cool. So let's jump to John.
And so John's a little older. He's late sixties, right
around seventy years old. I'll just hit play on the
video you sent over to me and I'll let you
kind of talk through kind of what you were saying.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And yeah, so John three point six handicaps a very
good player. Lots and lots of good things in the swing.
You know, his back swing looks great from down the line,
he hits, he hits all the typical positions. You know,
takeaway is good, backswing, plane is good, top of the
swing position really good. So you know that goes to
(27:37):
show that you can have a super pretty back swing.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But it doesn't mean that you're not going to.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Hit any bad shots. They're still going to be in there.
John didn't like the look of his early extension. Again,
for me, his early extension is not a problem unless
it causes things like toe shots or thin shots typically.
But what I did notice yet is there is an
early release there. Again, Now, as I said, if I
(28:02):
get a thousand golfers, we're going to see some form
of early release in nine hundred and ninety five of them.
It's just it's just a matter of when. So you
can see there's not a lot of forward shaft lean there.
So he's gonna have a shallower angle attack generally, maybe
apply too much dynamic loft. It's going to make ground
contact just a little bit more difficult. Now, he's a
(28:22):
highly skilled player, he's got great coordination, so he can
manage that quite well, but it's basically a harder task
when you're using that kind of technique. You can also
see when he gets an impact. His weight is not
particularly on his left side. If you draw a lineup
from that left ankle, most most pros are going to
(28:45):
be broken through that line. Yeah, I've got it somewherehere,
I've drawn it, but yeah, you can see there if
you drew a lineup through his left ankle, his lead
shoulder is kind of leaning or tilted back away from it.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And that's going to put the low point behind as well. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So at that point there, most pros, if you look
at his shoulder, his lead shoulder, and there's a good
six seven eight inches gap there between that wall and
his lead shoulder, most pros their shoulders on that wall
at that point, and there are some pros who are
not definitely, but those pros usually have a much later release,
(29:26):
and John unfortunately doesn't have the weight shift or the
release so both of those things combined are going to
result in probably more ground contacts that are early. He
may then try and not hit the ground at all
and just thin a lot of shots. So yeah, so
early release not in his left side a lot early extension.
(29:49):
Those two things actually tend to go hand in hand
as well. Early release and early extension. They've i would
say nine out of ten people who haven't hear release
also have early extension or vice versa.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Really, so yeah, because they match.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Up because an early release will tend to make the
club dig into the ground deeper. An early release is
going to make the club dig into the ground deeper.
An early extension or jumping up to early is going
to make.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You thin it.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
So those two things balance each other out. So they're
matchups in a way, but they're not effective matchups because
they while it gets the job done, it does so
in a way that doesn't give us a big margin
for error. The analogy I used there is he is
shooting arrows, he's you know, he's doing archery while bouncing
(30:42):
on a trampoline. So it's just a more difficult task.
It can you sure, you can do it. You can
get matchups, but it's a more difficult task. So what
I wanted to see from John was, you know, if
he could get more on his left side, if he
could get a later release, those two things are going
to help any fat shots that he would have. And
(31:02):
then if he if he could get more squat in transition,
that would help any thin shots that you would have.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, it was so yeah, because I think when you
look at his physical like the physicality as I was.
I was looking at those as you I was listening
to your kind of notes prior to the call that
we're doing now, and like looking his hip rotation for
his age is about as good as it gets. He's
pretty close to forty degrees being able to clear into
that lead side.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
His trunk rotation in terms of being able to rotate
throughout the spine is great. He is a little limited
in the shoulders, but I mean not terribly by any
stretch of the imagination. I thought. The interesting thing with
him is he has there's a test where we can
look at how elastic somebody is, right, so he actually is.
It's rare that somebody over the age of fifty is
(31:51):
actually more elastic than you know, basically can produce power
from more elasticity than from strength. Uh. And he's kind
of one of those guys who just genetically and being athletic,
he can do that. So it was kind of cool
watching you go through kind of the analysis of what
you were seeing with him and just knowing physically it's
like he can do all of that. That's so cool,
(32:12):
Like like he he will be able to do what
you're asking him to do if he practices and you know,
implements it, which was really neat.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I thought, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So I assume like
kids are more elastic. Yeah, you know, guys who are
sitting at a desk all day, they're going to.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Be more through you know, power muscle strength.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, so like we and we test like guys on tour.
Like if you look at like an Akha, I mean,
guy's a stringbean, right, And like so a guy like
is going to be very elastically driven, so he'll be
able to produce his speeds based on like the rubber
band stretching and then you know, shooting, you got a
bigger guy like a ram, right. And I think this
(32:53):
is the interesting thing as they age. This is why
where I think you know, justin Thomas is interesting still
continuing to be relatively a last as he's gotten older.
You know, guys like the age Ernie L's, like the
just the bigger guys. They naturally as we age, we
naturally become more reliant on our ability, like our strength
to produce force, which would eventually create the speed because
(33:14):
speed is forced times you know how fast you can
create it. So in the early days, like the kids
they just have, they can just create a ton of
speed around it. And then as they get older, you
start to see unfortunately, I'll see guys like a z
al taurus who gets like a back injury as the
spine starts to kind of settle in the mid twenties,
and then all those compensations that you could get around
(33:36):
being rubber bandy when you were younger, then they kind
of start to have implication. So that's where then getting
stronger and like what Rory did as he's gotten older,
to be able to maintain those speeds in a you know,
along with longevity in mind, it's it's it's interesting with
John kind of an anomaly in a way, and that
he does have a good amount of elasticity relative to
(33:56):
his force production. So that's for me, that was cool,
just being a you know, physical nerd, being like, oh cool,
he's be able to do whatever Adam needs him to do.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, I'd say I fall into that camp.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
When I was a junior, I was very elastic, you know,
just flinging my hips, everything else lagging behind. And now
as I've got older, you know, everything's I'm stronger but
also less flexible, and so yeah, I feel everything's more
you know, powered by strength than that. And you know
that's evolved my swing as well. So yeah, I completely
(34:28):
get that.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Well, you see as guys age, you know, particularly like
a John or you know, good players that were good
when they were young, and you're talking about it for yourself, Well,
you see that different matchups start to evolve as their
body changes and maybe they used to be elastic and mobile,
now they're not as mobile, they're not as elastic. Well
you see kind of those sorts of changes start to
pop up and swings as guys move over the ears.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think it probably works both
both ways. As well, as you try to change the swing,
maybe the power source changes a lot, but yeah, we'll
it'll work in reverse as well. I know, you know
my swing is more stacked now than it used to be.
And that makes sense with John because the position that
you see there, where you know, his lower body is
(35:14):
forward and his upper body is lagging behind. That's usually
something that a lot of juniors would do as well,
or of you know, elastic powered players would do, whereas
you'd see the opposite, you know, the player who kind
of comes over the top and they their upper body leads.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Usually those are guys with big.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Core strength and not a lot of core flexibility. They
can't create that separation. So yeah, that's two extreme examples
of how the power source would affect the dynamics of
the movement as well.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
So it's much.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Easier with someone like John to move him towards more
of what like a strength powered swing, whereas when you
have someone who's very solid in the core and they
can't create that separation, it's much more difficult to move
them towards the more a John flexible powered swing, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah, definitely. So the early early release or that's kind
of counters with the early extension. Is that more typical
and kind of this position where John is as opposed
to maybe the stronger core kind of over the top
kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, well, I mean I mean even the over the
top guys they early release as well. And different people, yeah,
different people early release for different reasons. Like for some
people it can be a face closing move to throw
the club through early, So you know, you have to
check is the club face particularly open at the top
of the swing, so you might you might want to
(36:44):
address that first.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
If that's the case.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
For John, that wasn't the case, you know. The other
times early release is a way of getting the club
to touch the ground if they if they didn't do it,
they would within it, you know, which I think is
more of John's case there for some players, and early
release is just an attempt to get the ball up
in the air. There can be conceptual reasons as well,
(37:08):
Like a beginner, for example, they think they have to
go under and scoop the ball in the air, and
so that action of an early release is perfect for
what concept they're holding in their head of how to
hit a ball. So, you know, I'm always trying to
with players understand are they early releasing because they're trying
to get under it. Are they early releasing because they're
(37:30):
trying to close the face? Are they early releasing because
they would miss the ground if they didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So there's lots of different reasons for it.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, in John's case, I think he's got a good
set of matchups in terms of what he's doing works.
He's a three point six handicap, so what he's doing
definitely works. But it's not the easiest way to play golf.
As I said, it's jumping on a trampoline while trying
to play arch. So if I could move him more
(38:03):
towards a professional set of matchups, Now, what is a
professional set of matchups? Will pros they shift more into
their left side, they also squat more, and then they
have a later release, and that set of matchups will
achieve the same goal as what John is doing. It'll
(38:23):
contact the ground in the right place, but it will
do so with the later release, which will have more
forward shaftlean which offers us a bigger margin for error
with ground contact.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And so you were saying that that's also where you
see more consistent face earlier on correct.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, yeah, that I tend not to use a later
release as a face consistency move, but it does have
a good effect on it. So it's like, well, if
I have to throw in a later release with a
player as a drill, which I often do. Then it's
there's benefits. There's several benefits to it. More consistent ground contact,
(39:08):
more forward chafflin which they go hand and hand, more
consistent club face directions. Generally, the only disadvantage of a
later release is it tends to present the face more open.
Now I say disadvantage if you are missing left, and
that's actually an advantage to present the face more open.
So for John, he was suffering with hooks, you know, pulls,
(39:31):
pull hawks, he said, so a later release was a
great drill for him because it helps him if he's
missing left, and it helps him if he's ever hitting
it fat.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
It's going to.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Improve ground contact consistency over time as well. So a
later release was a good drill for him. So again
I gave him that drill. For him, I just focused
on where the club was swishing. So I focused on
it is like an auditory thing, like focusing on the
sound that the club is making. Used to have a
good training ape, it broke is called sonic golf and
(40:06):
basically attach a little accelerometer to the end of the
club and it would make a lightsaber sound, so it'd
be room room and just by telling people, can you
make the lightsaber sound more out here ahead of the ball,
you would see players move their body better, they'd rotate.
They do this later release just by thinking about that sound.
(40:27):
So that's why I try and use the people because
it's very simple. And then yeah, that's the drill, and
you practice it without a golf ball to see the changes,
and then you apply that feel with a golf ball
when you need it as well.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
So you apply it basically if the ball is going.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Left or you're hitting fat shots, then a later release
is a good intervention for that.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
That's awesome. Well, any other kind of big takeaways that
you had from these two guys that you think would
be helpful for people watch and listen.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, with John as well, there was, you know, a
simple drill I did with him, the nail drill, which
I'm sure people follow me they heard me talk about that.
So for John, it looks like his path is in
out as well.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
You know he's talking about he hits a drawer shop.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
And actually as as he gets a later release and
as he gets more on his left side, that path
will move even more in out.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
So in order to.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Alleviate that, I gave him a nail drill, which is
basically visualizing a golf ball with a nail through it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
In fact, I actually got it here.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
This is my golf ball with the nail through it.
So I can place that on the ground and I
can angle the nail in different directions. And for John,
what I said to him is, imagine that nail has.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Angled more to the left.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
And so what happens when a player who's predominantly ind out,
when they angle that nail more to the left, they
start to stay more on top of it, it more
above the plane or less under the plane, and that
will keep their path more neutral. That will also help
with ground contact because as you move the nail more left,
(42:12):
that ground contact.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Will move more forwards.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
So and it also I've seen that in my own game,
angling the nail more to the left can tend to
help a little bit with early extension. So for some
for some reason, yeah, players who swing into out they
tend to at least look more early extended because their
body tends to be a little bit more closed impact,
(42:38):
Whereas when you angle and nail more to the left,
they tend to get more rotation from the down the line.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
It's a perspective thing.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
But from down the line, when the butt is more
rotated open or the hips are more rotated open, it
looks less early extended. So that would just be a
happy accident if that happened. And also with a nail drill,
sometimes I tell people to visualize the nail a little.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Bit closer to the feet or farther away.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
And in John's case, he tended to have a little
heel biased with with his shots. And when you look
at the video, you see the video his hands might
start say here, but by the time he gets to impact,
the hands go out away from his body a little
bit too much. So say you start here, move out.
That's going to create heel contacts. And so by visualizing
(43:29):
the nail being closer to his feet, that will tend
to change the hand location in space and it will
reduce the heel contact.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I got the video here.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
And so that one basically that one visual of the
nail being angled more to the left and closer to
his feet. That's one visual and that intent alone is
going to have an effect on plane rotation, maybe early
extension path.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
And ground contact.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
And by having it closer, it's going to affect the
face contact as well. So sometimes you can I say,
I use the phrase kill two or ten birds with
one stone.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
That's how I like to do it. And also you.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Know when whenever, if John ever does have a block
shot out to the right, he said he suffered more
with left shots, but I'm sure occasionally he hits a
block out to the right. Again, that's just a sign
that blocks and hooks are a sign that the path
is too much into out And I've found that using
the nail drill to help neutralize the path a little
bit better. It doesn't get rid of two way misses,
(44:36):
but it reduces the severity of them. Intends it tends
to be, and it makes it easier throughout the bag
as well. If you've got a wedge and you've got
a driver. I know the players, if they've got a
more neutral path, they tend to be better throughout the bag,
Whereas when the player's got an extreme out in or
into out path, they tend to get more inconsistencies.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Throughout the bag.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, so there was the FI is this sometimes simple,
sometimes more complex, sometimes more mechanical, But it's.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
All just tools.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I think this is what I love about how you
how you work through this with people, is the just
like this, you know, what do we want to address?
Why is it happening? And not just addressing And I
think what I appreciate is you're not just you're not
You understand where the symptom is and what the cause is,
like if we use you know, I guess John Drazzy
example of where he's kind of his knee was soft,
(45:30):
wasn't really driving up through that lead side. You understand
that that's happening because he has this other thing going
on with his elbow not right. And while other instructors
I think oftentimes I would imagine understand that you're the
first one who I've heard to actually explain it to
the student, and particularly for the golfer who's trying to
get better like that, Like he came back and he
(45:51):
was like, dude, this that was I've never heard that before.
That was so helpful, just because now he has that
framework or that algorithm that you were speaking of. And yeah,
I think that that's an important piece to take away
fone listening of understanding what the instruction is and understanding
how it's going to help your golf game. And I
think the cool thing was for both of these guys
is that physically they're able to actually do what you're
asking him to do, which is it's not always the case.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I'm sure, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Well, yeah, when it's not the case, obviously i'd like
to refer to someone like you to help them improve
their body. That's the best way to go about it.
There are other alternate solutions as well for many people,
like you know, I when I told in Austria not
everybody could shift their weight to their left side because
lots of them had torn meniscuses or is a menisca?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Is that the plural of meniscas?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Actually, I've never actually thought about that. I don't know,
I don't know, won't go with that.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, mesca, that sounds intelligent.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
So yeah, you know, sometimes you just have to put
the ball back in the stands a little bit and
they might be a little bit more on the back foot,
ball back in the sound. You've just got to work
around if it's impossible for them to shift. But obviously
if you can fix that issue, then that's a better
way of going around it. And yeah, I know a
lot of people watching this might say, well, that was
very complex, and yeah, what I'm talking about here is
(47:11):
kind of coach level stuff. When I give plans to people,
I explain it so they understand it if they want to.
But also there's very basic bullet points that I give them.
It's like, okay, so there was the explanation, but what
you need to know is if fat shots, then do
this stress. If thin shots, then do this str That's exactly.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
What they came back with. Yeah, We're like, how did
it go? Like we said, if this, do that, if that,
do this. He's like, exactly, it was great. Then obviously
you said that. And I'm like, oh, okay, I understand
why now, But I mean I can I can attest
to That's literally what they came back with. And I
think that's the mark of a great instructor, somebody who
understands the craft. I figure who it was, some smart philosopher.
(47:54):
It was like, to truly understand means you could explain
it to like a three year old, right, And I
think that's that's the mark of a really great instructor
or coach, is just that they can say, however, you
need to hear it so that it makes sense and
you know however deep you need, you can go without, yeah,
without losing what has actually meant?
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
And I always want players, you know, they understand the
process as well. I mean, number one, understand that impact
is everything. You know, all those changes will relate to
an impact thing. So then their job is go out
and look for their impact patterns. You know, whether that's
ten shots on the range, and you can say right
after each shot, So this is something everybody listening can
(48:36):
take after each shot, was that shot more toe or heel?
Was it more left or right? And was it more
fat or thin? You know, and just and just after
ten shots, you'll start to see patterns in there, and
then you can say, you know, all there's a lot
of fat shots in there. I need just to do
something to thin it out or move the ground contact forwards.
What options do I have available to me? It could
(48:56):
be something simple like a swing. Thought often, if I'm
hitting it fat, I'll just try and pick it off
the surface. It could be as simple as that, or
some days I'll say, you know what, it's fat and
it's left. I'm going to do a later swish because
that that works for me as well. You know, I
tend to have a slight early release. So yeah, it's
about then implementing one thought based on what you need
(49:18):
the most and just constantly going through that. We never
finished that game. Like even Tiger Woods has said, my
my swing's never done. It's never He's never There's never
been a player who's like, yep, got it now games
complete swings, swings there, I'm good and golf and play. No,
We're constantly tuning everything and going through that process.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah, well it's I mean it just it goes back
to assess and don't guess, like know what the actual
issue is and then have an intelligent solution for it. Adam,
I got thank you so much for today. This is
so much fun. Hopefully you guys listening watching got a
good amount out of this, Adam. Where's the best place
for people to find you? I know you're active on
social but where else?
Speaker 3 (49:55):
Yeah, adamyongolf dot com is the best place. I actually
just launched a three part course is absolutely free that
goes through some of these so you can do to
see what you're worst at basically, and so yeah, that
would be Adam and golf dot Com Forward Slash Course
c O U R S e and they can get
(50:16):
that for free.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Sweet well, we will definitely be putting that in the
show notes and the comments, but so guys, go check
that out. And Adam, thank you so much for hanging
out with me today. This is a blast and I
can't thank you enough for for helping our clients figure
out their matchups that they need and don't need and
need to improve on. So thank you so much. Man.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Love talking about it.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Jerzys, thanks for listening. We'll catch on in the next
episode of The Golf in this pound spot
Chris fit is ruiny the game, teaching these guys to
get bigger and stronger and faster, and we're gonna blade him.
Just a fantastic Christomatic it doesn't get old. Welcome to
the golf in his Bomb Squad. I'm your host, Chris Finn,
(00:20):
and I hope you enjoy our new intro music that
we're just experimenting with here. We had some good audio
from our friends out on Sirius XM Radio, so it
was pretty cool to have that on there. But I'm
excited today because we are doing a first for us
on this podcast. First, we have a return guest, Adam Young.
If you guys don't know him, he is one of
(00:43):
the top coaches in the world. He is the only
coach that we partner with remotely. We have a number
of clients that work with him. He's worked on a
bunch of the top facilities in the world, including the
Ledbetter Academies, world famous Turn Bear Resort, and he's currently
in Sonny Law, Vegas, where I get to go tomorrow
and I've just been told it's going to be very hot.
(01:03):
So but but Adam, welcome back. The show Man. Excited
to have you on.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, thanks for having me back on.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Yeah. So I'm excited today because we got a couple
of clients that have worked obviously with you, and it's
fun for me to always get to you know, the
first time we had John, we talked a lot about
the body swing connection and stuff that you see and
how the body influences things. But I think in this
episode it's going to be fun for a listeners because
we can actually we're going to take two of the
(01:30):
clients that I have all the physical data on. Obviously,
you have all the instructional side of things and what
you're working on with them, and be able to have
a conversation around what you're seeing from a performance side
for them, and then also for you know, kind of
have that back and forth of physically what they can
and can't do, and and hopefully you know, for all
of you guys listening. I mean, these are guys just
(01:52):
normally amateurs, you know from you know, one guys in
his fifties or late forties and the other one's seven
years old. So kind we kind of cover the game
it here. But I'm excited to jump into this. Man.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah, it's I suppose I should start with like how
I coach a little bit just or how I analyze
the swings, because you know, I do teach a little
bit differently, although it may not look it on the outset.
So you know, I'm not teaching to a model necessarily.
You know, I have an idea of what a good
(02:25):
swing looks like, certainly, but I understand I can pull
from different models like stack, until, lead, better, Ballard, whatever
you want. I don't necessarily see swing faults as faults
unless they're causing something at impact. So an example of
this would be, you know, early extension. Everybody hates early extension,
(02:48):
and yeah, it's something to maybe work away from, especially
in your area where if it may cause injury. But
there have been some great players who have early extended.
I posted a picture of Nicholas the the day, and
you know, early extending moving his butt forward off the line,
and I know VJ. Singh looks like a bean polear
impact as well.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, those were.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Two they did all right, Yeah they.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Had an okay record.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Yeah, so you know, in those cases, it's not causing
an impact fault, so you don't necessarily have to change it.
But in other cases we'll see here with like John
John What should I mention names or not?
Speaker 1 (03:27):
John and Neil.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, you know, he had an early extension that he
wanted to get rid of, but you know I give
I give him basically rules for when to get rid
of it, you know, when to implement certain parts of it.
So my my coaching is more rules based. You know,
you look at when is a fault of fault? Is
Dustin Johnson's super strong club face a fault? Well know,
(03:51):
if he's piping everyone down the fairway or you know
not not that everybody does that, not even the pros
hit every fairway, but you know, if he's hitting seventies
sixty percent of fairways and his big misses are pretty good,
then you don't need to change it. But obviously if
there's a pattern in there, if everything's going to the left,
for example, then you might want to soften that club face.
(04:13):
So it's basically I changed things on an as needed basis,
not just for aesthetics reasons.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, and I think that was one of my favorite parts.
Is you sent over kind of the walkthrough of what
you're working on with them, and it was one of
the first times that I've heard from an instructional standpoint
of it wasn't just like hey, this is the drill.
It was hey, this is what you know. I see
this and this has caused can cause this, And so
there was like a this is what's causing you know
(04:43):
before and after to your points you gave them, there's guardrails.
Now I'm so I'm excited to dive into kind of Hey.
There was one that was if you're hitting it fat,
this is you know, focus, this is going to be
the cue to focus on. If you're thinning it, this
is more the cue that you're going to be focusing on.
And that is such a useful, useful piece of instruction
that on the physical side, well, you know, we're like, hey,
(05:05):
if you have one sided back pain, you should release
the tissue here. But if it's in your middle of
your low back, then you should release the tissue on
this spot. Right because these two and so it very
much resonated for me and I know will resonate for
definitely they all the guys that we work with. But
just that continuity of conversation I thought was it was
(05:26):
just so easy to understand. And I'm sure that's what
you see from guys when you talk to them yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
Well, the thing is with golfers, right, we never fixed ever,
We're always broken.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
We're just a.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Dynamic mess effectively, and what we have to do is
try and keep ourselves as online as possible within certain
boundaries and notice when we're going off. So an example
of that would be, you know, we're never going to
hit the exact center of the face, little heel, little toe.
If it's bouncing around there, that's fine. But if it
starts to creep more towards the heel and you notice
(05:58):
there's a pattern there, well that's that's a sign that
you should make an intervention. And then you've got to say, well,
what is my tool to be able to change that,
to which it may be a technical fix, which you
know I give people. I say, if heel shots, then
you would do this, or it could even be just
an intent based, skill based fix such as trying to
hit it more towards the toe, which is a big
(06:19):
part of mine, which I know sounds very simplistic, but
I get all my players to work on these because
they have a good success right for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Yeah, well, let's let's dive in. Let me I've been
told I can share this screen, so we're gonna we're
gonna see how I do here. Let's try this. I'll
probably you guys watching here, we can can you see
that there? Adam?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Perfect, So this was so this is Neil, and you
can tell me how far forward or backwards do you
want me to play things? But so for just for
context for everybody, everyone listening. So Neil's kind of late forties,
a great roun fifty years old, been working on with
(07:02):
us for a good, good amount, and like any of
you guys in around that age range, this is a
could be you. So why don't you go ahead, I'll
make this full screen here all right? Where do you
want me to start? Here? Adam? I can just play
it through if you like. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So yeah, Neil's a six handicap, so very good player already.
You know, he's got a great looking backswing. He is
ideas he wants to reduce variability, you know, the old
thing of make yourself more consistent. So we're looking at
a lot with Neil was skilled drills. So the way
(07:41):
that you reduce variability is that there's not one thing
in the swing that's really going to reduce variability that much.
But if we can control variability. So, like I said,
if you start to see that, oh, I'm hitting a
little bit more towards a heel to day, or I'm
hitting it a little bit more right than normal, then
if you can change that and move it or recalibrate that,
(08:05):
then that's what's going to reduce variability. It's just like
tuning a piano or tune air guitar. You know, you
notice it starts ting to go off, but having the
ability to retune it, that's what's key. And so with
skilled drills, you know, we looked at hitting more off
the toe, hitting more off the heel intentionally, so you learn,
you learn the awareness number one of what it feels
(08:26):
like to do that, but you also learn the ability
to change it in specific amounts, hitting a little higher
or lower on the face as well, which relates strongly
to ground contact. And then even drills where we're intentionally
hitting a little bit more right and a little bit
more left. So I gave him a drill where I
asked him to hit I believe one two and three
(08:47):
fingers to the right or one two and three fingers
to the left. I change that scale depending on the
level of player, and so he starts to learn a
feel for oh, this is what more open feels like
with the face, this is more close feels like. So
that's going to give him the ability to consciously reduce variability.
So you know, every day, like I said, every day
(09:10):
is a lottery when you go on the range. But
when I'm on the range and I hit a shot,
I know instantly I'm hitting out of the toe today,
and I know how to move it, so I can
reduce or increase my consistency just through those skills.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
When at that Adam, do you like say all right,
that's just what it's going to be, or you then
you kind of play with it and you know how
to manage it, or do is like, oh I don't
want to hit off the toe, I want to adjust.
How does that? You know, how does that work? What's
the kind of it's recommendation in those moments?
Speaker 3 (09:44):
So in terms of strike things, I would recommend changing it.
You know, if you are hitting it fat or thin,
you can't really play with that. And I mean, if
there's a groove law on the face, you're gonna you're
gonna be okay. But if there's a pattern there, I
would be check changing it. Now the caveat to that
is you have to have good skill. This has to
be a practiced thing. If you get out in the
(10:06):
golf course and you're like, oh god, I'm thinning everything
today and you try and dig deeper, there's a good
chance that you might overdo it if you've never practiced
it before. So this is why preparing or building these
skills on the range before you need them is important
so you can bring them out. Like I have these
skills locked in. If you ask me to hit more
(10:26):
on the toe or the heel, I know how to
do that, and I can actually move it in like
five millime meter increments if I need to. But that's
a practice thing. So then I have those skills, so
if I need them on the course, I can bring
them out. The thing that you might want to just
play with would be a directional issue. So if everything's
(10:48):
going to the right, for example, you can play with that.
You know, there's videos of Tiger Woods Jack Nicholas talking
about this. What's that old saying bring or.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Down the world? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:01):
So what they mean by that is, you know, if
you're hitting everything to the right, just change your aim points.
There was Tiger Woods an interview talking about switching aim
points if everything's going to the left one day. I mean,
his philosophy very similar to mine. He will if he's
warming up on the range and everything's going to the right,
he will first try to change it and see if
(11:22):
he can do it. But if it starts going everywhere,
then he might just say, right, I'm just gonna play
with this pattern today and just change my aim points
go more to the left, you know, so you might
pick the left side of the green. I think that's
a pretty decent strategy if there's a small miss. So
what I mean by that is maybe one or two
fingers of miss, which when you extend one or two
(11:44):
fingers out to tw one hundred and fifty yards, that's
about five to ten yards miss. So I think you
can play definitely with that strategy. Wise, once it gets
if it's a big miss, like a four or five
finger miss, that's when I would probably recommend, Okay, let
let's start closing the face down a little bit here,
And to be honest, you know, when I'm on the
golf course, that could be as simple as just setting
(12:06):
the face more closed to address, honestly, something as simple
as just to get through the round of golf today.
You can always do a more complex fix on the
range later. But again, it's about having a toolbox. Right.
If I'm going to the right, I might have three
or four different things that I can use to make
that shot pattern less right, and one of them might
(12:27):
just be strategy aiming more left.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So that's that's brilliant. I think that's one of the
big pieces of feedback that we've gotten from the guys
that you've worked with has been the like the usability
of it. It's there's like, it's not like theory, right,
And I think that was the cool thing watching Neil here,
you know, with what you were trying to work. It was, hey,
here's the drill. Yeah, made me you can talk more
(12:50):
through it better than I can obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
Well.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
In terms of Neil's technique, what I see in his
motion very good technique. The things that kind of stand
out to me were he has a little bit of
an early release, which is very common. I would say,
if I get a thousand golfers, nine hundred and ninety
five of them are going to have some form of
(13:15):
early release, and the five that don't are going to
be the better players. So an early release would be
I look at when does I'm trying to get this
year with a little club, when does that club cross
over the lead forums? So if I were to shoot
a line out from the lead forum, where does the
club line up with the lead forum or crossover? And
(13:36):
you can see with Neil has happening around about there,
which is just before the golf ball. Not bad at all,
it is where I would say a six handicap would be.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
But you know it can make a big difference.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, where does the scratch end up?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Like?
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You know what do you see differently change as golfers
get better or worse?
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yes, So the the higher the handicap, the earlier the release.
So you know, you get a twenty handicap and they're
going to be releasing before their hands reach the right
thigh and you get a pro and their lineup point,
you know, where the club lines up with the lead
forum is going to be close to the left thigh.
And what this results in or why this is more
(14:20):
important to a few reasons. It moves the low point
forwards when you have a later release, so that's better
for ground contact. It also reduces dynamic loft, so you
get more forward shaft lean And why is that important? Well, again,
it improves the consistency of ground contact. It also improves
(14:42):
things like compression generally, you know, so you get a
little bit more ball speed for any given club and
also things that I've seen more consistency with face angle.
This is less predictable, but I don't tend to see
it get worse.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Let's just say.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
That, I'd say if I, you know, out of one
hundred golfers who our teacher later released, the face angle
tends to get more consistent, and I use GC quad
parameters for that. We look at face angle standard deviation.
And it also it means that you're heading on a
part of the arc where the hands are working up
more through impact. I know this is really difficult to understand,
(15:20):
but in a good golf swing, the club is actually
or the club head is traveling down as the hands
are working up. It's really difficult to understand. People say, well,
how can the hands be doing something the club head isn't. Well,
I'm showing you here, clubhead working down, hands working up,
and that produces what we call a flat spot, which
(15:43):
is where the arc it becomes less curved and it
becomes just easier to strike the ball. You start to
get away with more. You know, I notice that if
I'm on turf, I can hit an inch behind it
and it's fine. I lose very little distance. Not that
(16:03):
I'm trying to hit an inch behind it, but I
could do that and lose very little distance. Where I
know someone whose hands are working down more through impact
or have an earlier release, they hit an inch behind
and they might lose ten twenty yards more than me.
So it's the same mistake but bigger output error effectively, So.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
What do you see these would you anticipate guys struggling
with this? So like Neil in this case has full
hip internal rotation on his lead side, there's like he
has no rotary limitation of why he can't get to
his clearest hips too all the way through. Do you
tend to see more early releasing with guys who maybe
struggle to really clear that lower body and so the
(16:43):
arms kind of release and do a little bit more
work or does that move easier or harder depending on that.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Definitely, you know, body rotation helps that release to happen later,
and if you're very limited in your body rotation, your
ability to turn. Then that's going to encourage or it's
not going to aid a later release. So yeah, I
mean there are slight ways around that. You can obviously
flare the lead foot out a little bit if you've
(17:11):
got limited rotation, but obviously in your field you'll want
to try and fix that as well improve it, which
I would strongly recommend.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Only if the golfer. This is where we ask the golfer, like,
you know, are you willing to you know, spend fifteen
minutes that they doing it? If they're like no, we're
all right, flarefoot, just be ready for your back to
start earn, that's that's interesting. So the physical limitation of
and it's it's impactful because guys, you know, ninety five
percent of guys over the age of fifty fail a
(17:41):
rotary at least one rotary center. So it's interesting that
this is a if they fail that that this issue
may be more apparent for them.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And one thing you can see with
Neil there is if you look at the end position,
most better players are actually more extended at that point
where the body they've basically pushed up and kind of
straightened or posted up their body, whereas Neil is kind
of very flex down. There's a lot of knee flex
still is you know, his chest is kind of leaning
(18:14):
forwards a little bit almost. He's not pushed up as
much as if you look at sea. Yeah, that that
position there is kind of telling. You can see the
the hips are not pushed forwards towards the target much.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, that.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
Perfect example of that. Yeah, you'd see more of a
straight line up there. But then when I see that,
so I say, Okay, this person's not extending up.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Why might that be the case.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
And if you have a look at his left arm,
there's left arms got a reasonable amount of flex to
it as well.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
So you can think when you.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Flex the lead arm, when you bend the lead arm,
that pulls the hands away from the golf ball, so
that encourages more thin contacts. Okay, so then what Neil
is doing to alleviate that is he's staying down longer.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
His body's not pushing up.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
So he's going to delay pushing out to the lead.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Now that set of matchups can work. And if if
Neil is flushing it from there, we don't change anything.
Because there are players who come to mind, like Lee
Westwood would be a player who kind of has that
look to it. So again, if you're flushing it over
and over from there, great, keep doing it. However, if
Neil is hitting fat shots, we have two options here.
(19:33):
We could focus on a later release, a later swish
of the club that would reduce the fat shot, or
we could also get Neil to push up and extend
up more through impact. So an analogy I gave Neil,
I give this one a lot, is to imagine a
glass ceiling above your head, and as you're at impact,
(19:55):
you are pushing up and smashing through the glass ceiling,
you know, using that left leg to straighten. Yeah, pushing
into the ground, pushing into that left foot. Now, the
advantage of that is you start to use more ground forces,
you start to use the ground better. And I often
see a jump in speed with people when they do that.
So yeah, just training that motion again. So these are
(20:17):
two things that he could implement. I wouldn't recommend doing
them both at the same time. I only recommend someone
focus on one thing at a time. But he has
two options there. If he's having a bad spell of
fat shots, he can go off and practice a later release,
or he can go off and practice springing up more
through himpact smashing up through that glass ceiling, and both
(20:38):
of those things will well. The later release will move
the ground contact forwards. The springing up will what do
what I call raise the arc depth. Basically, it'll stop
you digging in as deep, so it'll shallow at the divot,
and that also moves the ground contact forwards. So there's
just two options there, and.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
So would that be So that's one of the interesting
things Adam with Neil is if we look at his
lower body power, he's actually in the ninety second percentile
for his age bracket, so he's actually can produce a
ton of force. But when we looked at his clubhead speed,
he's actually only like sixty or seventieth percentile. So would
(21:19):
that lack of driving up be a reason why he's
potentially losing some speed?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
If you know, there's a high correlation between in all sports,
between you know, how you pressure the ground and your
left foot and the timing of it and the speed
that we can produce.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I mean in baseball as well.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
They've looked at that batting speed and throwing speed and
engulf this seems to be a high correlation between it
as well.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
So if you can.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Push into the left foot harder, it allows your body
to rotate more. It also produces something called parametric acceleration,
or helps it and parametric acceleration. Everybody can actually try
this at home. If you just let a club drop,
it'll swim a certain speed, whereas if you let it
drop and then you pull up at the point of impact,
(22:06):
you're pulling up on it, that will wing the club around.
It will really whip around. It's the same the same
force in physics that you know creates a catapult when
you're swing it, or if you get your keys on
a string and you're spinning it round really fast, you're
basically just pulling on it. And that pulling force can
be greater if we push into the ground and spring
(22:28):
up through impact. That allows us to pull on the
grip through impact more, and that has been associated with
higher club speeds as well. In fact, there's a scientific
study by Mura which is spelled I think was spelled
m U I R A. I could have completely botched that,
but just type in, type in, because there's the clubs
(22:49):
as well mirrors, right, and I think they're spelled differently.
Type in parametric acceleration golf, and at the very least
you'll find my article on it explain it more. But yeah,
that's one reason why we could create more power. But
again you'd have to say, well, why is he not
Why is Neil not pushing up and springing up more aggressively. Well,
(23:14):
probably because that lead arm was folded there, and if
he did that, he would thin it or blade it.
So you know, this is why we have to balance
these things here. So my algorithms that I gave to
Neil were, if you're hitting it thin, then feel as
if you enter with that lead arm a little straighter
or your hands lower to the ground, that's going to
(23:35):
reduce the thin shot. And then from there, if you're
hitting it fat, you can spring up more aggressively. So
it's just about balancing those two things. So all he
has to do is look at his patterns. If he
hits ten balls and out of those ten shots he
says I hit a lot of fat shots in that,
then he's going to be working more and springing up.
Whereas if a week later he says, you know what,
(23:56):
I'm hitting a lot of thin shots at the moment
he's going to be working on those hands entering lower
through impact.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
That's so smart because I think there's a lot of
people in the fitness world who will say, oh, see
those stats right and say, hey, based on your physical ability,
you should be able to swing you know, five miles
an hour faster, right, and then say hey, just drive
you know, they'll see the knee right, Oh, your knee
is not You got to drive through your front leg.
But if they don't realize that the reason he's doing
(24:24):
that is because he's trying to control that because of
the elbow being vent then you just screwed the guy
up right.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, if you just took a robot and made it
drive up more through impact, it with thin everything, yeah,
you know if it's making the same swing, but you
you do that. And if you've got that same robot
and you dropped it in a little bit to make
the hands lower, eat fat everything, so you need you
need those swing changes to be interventions to fix a fault.
(24:52):
Now you end up if he does that, If he
does it the way I said the algorithmic approach, if
fat then spring up more, if thin hands end to lower.
If he does that over time, what you'll see is
you'll start to implement both elements into the swing, but
you'd be doing so in a way that still allows
him to play well. And it's more of a fault.
(25:12):
It's a fault fixing thing that gives long term benefits
as well.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Well.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It also like to yeah, I mean, we've all played
the round of golf with a guy who's just like
struggling and has no idea what to do. You know,
it gives you know, in this case, it gives Neil
the tool box tools in his toolbox if he's like, man,
I just started thinning it middle of the round, like, oh,
I know what to do. And I think that's something
that is not common from a golf instruction standpoint, at
(25:39):
least that's from what I've seen. I don't know if
you've seen similar.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yeah, well, it's, like I said, slightly different approach. My
approach in the each move relates to an impact thing,
you know, because ultimately, if I, like I said, always say,
if I was to simplify golf, golf is strike the
center of the face, the ground in the right place,
and control where the face is looking. It's always those
(26:04):
three things. Now, any move that we implement into a
golfer needs to influence one of those three things. And
so in Neil's case, you know, it was ground contact right,
if thin, then this, if fat then this, and then
he can decide when he wants to implement those things. Now,
I also mentioned to Neil, when he's on the course,
(26:24):
I would probably recommend sticking to simpler things, such as,
if you're hitting it thin one day, just try and
dig a little deeper. It's more of an intent based thing.
So that's how I like to play, but when I'm training,
I might take a more complex approach or more internal
approach where we're working on the body mechanics. So you know,
I think that's an important point as well. However, you know,
(26:47):
if Neil's practiced these drills and he finds that, you
know what, when I do a later swish, I flush everything,
I never fat it. It's brilliant, then I'm happy. If
he's proven that that works and he can control it
and it's ingrained, he can go and take that out
on the golf course.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
But yeah, that's super cool. So let's jump to John.
And so John's a little older. He's late sixties, right
around seventy years old. I'll just hit play on the
video you sent over to me and I'll let you
kind of talk through kind of what you were saying.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And yeah, so John three point six handicaps a very
good player. Lots and lots of good things in the swing.
You know, his back swing looks great from down the line,
he hits, he hits all the typical positions. You know,
takeaway is good, backswing, plane is good, top of the
swing position really good. So you know that goes to
(27:37):
show that you can have a super pretty back swing.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
But it doesn't mean that you're not going to.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Hit any bad shots. They're still going to be in there.
John didn't like the look of his early extension. Again,
for me, his early extension is not a problem unless
it causes things like toe shots or thin shots typically.
But what I did notice yet is there is an
early release there. Again, Now, as I said, if I
(28:02):
get a thousand golfers, we're going to see some form
of early release in nine hundred and ninety five of them.
It's just it's just a matter of when. So you
can see there's not a lot of forward shaft lean there.
So he's gonna have a shallower angle attack generally, maybe
apply too much dynamic loft. It's going to make ground
contact just a little bit more difficult. Now, he's a
(28:22):
highly skilled player, he's got great coordination, so he can
manage that quite well, but it's basically a harder task
when you're using that kind of technique. You can also
see when he gets an impact. His weight is not
particularly on his left side. If you draw a lineup
from that left ankle, most most pros are going to
(28:45):
be broken through that line. Yeah, I've got it somewherehere,
I've drawn it, but yeah, you can see there if
you drew a lineup through his left ankle, his lead
shoulder is kind of leaning or tilted back away from it.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
And that's going to put the low point behind as well. Yeah,
there you go.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
So at that point there, most pros, if you look
at his shoulder, his lead shoulder, and there's a good
six seven eight inches gap there between that wall and
his lead shoulder, most pros their shoulders on that wall
at that point, and there are some pros who are
not definitely, but those pros usually have a much later release,
(29:26):
and John unfortunately doesn't have the weight shift or the
release so both of those things combined are going to
result in probably more ground contacts that are early. He
may then try and not hit the ground at all
and just thin a lot of shots. So yeah, so
early release not in his left side a lot early extension.
(29:49):
Those two things actually tend to go hand in hand
as well. Early release and early extension. They've i would
say nine out of ten people who haven't hear release
also have early extension or vice versa.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
Really, so yeah, because they match.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Up because an early release will tend to make the
club dig into the ground deeper. An early release is
going to make the club dig into the ground deeper.
An early extension or jumping up to early is going
to make.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
You thin it.
Speaker 3 (30:19):
So those two things balance each other out. So they're
matchups in a way, but they're not effective matchups because
they while it gets the job done, it does so
in a way that doesn't give us a big margin
for error. The analogy I used there is he is
shooting arrows, he's you know, he's doing archery while bouncing
(30:42):
on a trampoline. So it's just a more difficult task.
It can you sure, you can do it. You can
get matchups, but it's a more difficult task. So what
I wanted to see from John was, you know, if
he could get more on his left side, if he
could get a later release, those two things are going
to help any fat shots that he would have. And
(31:02):
then if he if he could get more squat in transition,
that would help any thin shots that you would have.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Yeah, it was so yeah, because I think when you
look at his physical like the physicality as I was.
I was looking at those as you I was listening
to your kind of notes prior to the call that
we're doing now, and like looking his hip rotation for
his age is about as good as it gets. He's
pretty close to forty degrees being able to clear into
that lead side.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
His trunk rotation in terms of being able to rotate
throughout the spine is great. He is a little limited
in the shoulders, but I mean not terribly by any
stretch of the imagination. I thought. The interesting thing with
him is he has there's a test where we can
look at how elastic somebody is, right, so he actually is.
It's rare that somebody over the age of fifty is
(31:51):
actually more elastic than you know, basically can produce power
from more elasticity than from strength. Uh. And he's kind
of one of those guys who just genetically and being athletic,
he can do that. So it was kind of cool
watching you go through kind of the analysis of what
you were seeing with him and just knowing physically it's
like he can do all of that. That's so cool,
(32:12):
Like like he he will be able to do what
you're asking him to do if he practices and you know,
implements it, which was really neat.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I thought, yeah, yeah, that's interesting. So I assume like
kids are more elastic. Yeah, you know, guys who are
sitting at a desk all day, they're going to.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Be more through you know, power muscle strength.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Yeah, so like we and we test like guys on tour.
Like if you look at like an Akha, I mean,
guy's a stringbean, right, And like so a guy like
is going to be very elastically driven, so he'll be
able to produce his speeds based on like the rubber
band stretching and then you know, shooting, you got a
bigger guy like a ram, right. And I think this
(32:53):
is the interesting thing as they age. This is why
where I think you know, justin Thomas is interesting still
continuing to be relatively a last as he's gotten older.
You know, guys like the age Ernie L's, like the
just the bigger guys. They naturally as we age, we
naturally become more reliant on our ability, like our strength
to produce force, which would eventually create the speed because
(33:14):
speed is forced times you know how fast you can
create it. So in the early days, like the kids
they just have, they can just create a ton of
speed around it. And then as they get older, you
start to see unfortunately, I'll see guys like a z
al taurus who gets like a back injury as the
spine starts to kind of settle in the mid twenties,
and then all those compensations that you could get around
(33:36):
being rubber bandy when you were younger, then they kind
of start to have implication. So that's where then getting
stronger and like what Rory did as he's gotten older,
to be able to maintain those speeds in a you know,
along with longevity in mind, it's it's it's interesting with
John kind of an anomaly in a way, and that
he does have a good amount of elasticity relative to
(33:56):
his force production. So that's for me, that was cool,
just being a you know, physical nerd, being like, oh cool,
he's be able to do whatever Adam needs him to do.
Speaker 2 (34:05):
Yeah, I'd say I fall into that camp.
Speaker 3 (34:07):
When I was a junior, I was very elastic, you know,
just flinging my hips, everything else lagging behind. And now
as I've got older, you know, everything's I'm stronger but
also less flexible, and so yeah, I feel everything's more
you know, powered by strength than that. And you know
that's evolved my swing as well. So yeah, I completely
(34:28):
get that.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Well, you see as guys age, you know, particularly like
a John or you know, good players that were good
when they were young, and you're talking about it for yourself, Well,
you see that different matchups start to evolve as their
body changes and maybe they used to be elastic and mobile,
now they're not as mobile, they're not as elastic. Well
you see kind of those sorts of changes start to
pop up and swings as guys move over the ears.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I think it probably works both
both ways. As well, as you try to change the swing,
maybe the power source changes a lot, but yeah, we'll
it'll work in reverse as well. I know, you know
my swing is more stacked now than it used to be.
And that makes sense with John because the position that
you see there, where you know, his lower body is
(35:14):
forward and his upper body is lagging behind. That's usually
something that a lot of juniors would do as well,
or of you know, elastic powered players would do, whereas
you'd see the opposite, you know, the player who kind
of comes over the top and they their upper body leads.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
Usually those are guys with big.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
Core strength and not a lot of core flexibility. They
can't create that separation. So yeah, that's two extreme examples
of how the power source would affect the dynamics of
the movement as well.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
So it's much.
Speaker 3 (35:46):
Easier with someone like John to move him towards more
of what like a strength powered swing, whereas when you
have someone who's very solid in the core and they
can't create that separation, it's much more difficult to move
them towards the more a John flexible powered swing, if
that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
Yeah, definitely. So the early early release or that's kind
of counters with the early extension. Is that more typical
and kind of this position where John is as opposed
to maybe the stronger core kind of over the top
kind of guy.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
Yeah, well, I mean I mean even the over the
top guys they early release as well. And different people, yeah,
different people early release for different reasons. Like for some
people it can be a face closing move to throw
the club through early, So you know, you have to
check is the club face particularly open at the top
of the swing, so you might you might want to
(36:44):
address that first.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
If that's the case.
Speaker 3 (36:46):
For John, that wasn't the case, you know. The other
times early release is a way of getting the club
to touch the ground if they if they didn't do it,
they would within it, you know, which I think is
more of John's case there for some players, and early
release is just an attempt to get the ball up
in the air. There can be conceptual reasons as well,
(37:08):
Like a beginner, for example, they think they have to
go under and scoop the ball in the air, and
so that action of an early release is perfect for
what concept they're holding in their head of how to
hit a ball. So, you know, I'm always trying to
with players understand are they early releasing because they're trying
to get under it. Are they early releasing because they're
(37:30):
trying to close the face? Are they early releasing because
they would miss the ground if they didn't.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So there's lots of different reasons for it.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Yeah, in John's case, I think he's got a good
set of matchups in terms of what he's doing works.
He's a three point six handicap, so what he's doing
definitely works. But it's not the easiest way to play golf.
As I said, it's jumping on a trampoline while trying
to play arch. So if I could move him more
(38:03):
towards a professional set of matchups, Now, what is a
professional set of matchups? Will pros they shift more into
their left side, they also squat more, and then they
have a later release, and that set of matchups will
achieve the same goal as what John is doing. It'll
(38:23):
contact the ground in the right place, but it will
do so with the later release, which will have more
forward shaftlean which offers us a bigger margin for error
with ground contact.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And so you were saying that that's also where you
see more consistent face earlier on correct.
Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, yeah, that I tend not to use a later
release as a face consistency move, but it does have
a good effect on it. So it's like, well, if
I have to throw in a later release with a
player as a drill, which I often do. Then it's
there's benefits. There's several benefits to it. More consistent ground contact,
(39:08):
more forward chafflin which they go hand and hand, more
consistent club face directions. Generally, the only disadvantage of a
later release is it tends to present the face more open.
Now I say disadvantage if you are missing left, and
that's actually an advantage to present the face more open.
So for John, he was suffering with hooks, you know, pulls,
(39:31):
pull hawks, he said, so a later release was a
great drill for him because it helps him if he's
missing left, and it helps him if he's ever hitting
it fat.
Speaker 2 (39:42):
It's going to.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Improve ground contact consistency over time as well. So a
later release was a good drill for him. So again
I gave him that drill. For him, I just focused
on where the club was swishing. So I focused on
it is like an auditory thing, like focusing on the
sound that the club is making. Used to have a
good training ape, it broke is called sonic golf and
(40:06):
basically attach a little accelerometer to the end of the
club and it would make a lightsaber sound, so it'd
be room room and just by telling people, can you
make the lightsaber sound more out here ahead of the ball,
you would see players move their body better, they'd rotate.
They do this later release just by thinking about that sound.
(40:27):
So that's why I try and use the people because
it's very simple. And then yeah, that's the drill, and
you practice it without a golf ball to see the changes,
and then you apply that feel with a golf ball
when you need it as well.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
So you apply it basically if the ball is going.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
Left or you're hitting fat shots, then a later release
is a good intervention for that.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
That's awesome. Well, any other kind of big takeaways that
you had from these two guys that you think would
be helpful for people watch and listen.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
Yeah, with John as well, there was, you know, a
simple drill I did with him, the nail drill, which
I'm sure people follow me they heard me talk about that.
So for John, it looks like his path is in
out as well.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
You know he's talking about he hits a drawer shop.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
And actually as as he gets a later release and
as he gets more on his left side, that path
will move even more in out.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
So in order to.
Speaker 3 (41:27):
Alleviate that, I gave him a nail drill, which is
basically visualizing a golf ball with a nail through it.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
In fact, I actually got it here.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
This is my golf ball with the nail through it.
So I can place that on the ground and I
can angle the nail in different directions. And for John,
what I said to him is, imagine that nail has.
Speaker 2 (41:47):
Angled more to the left.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
And so what happens when a player who's predominantly ind out,
when they angle that nail more to the left, they
start to stay more on top of it, it more
above the plane or less under the plane, and that
will keep their path more neutral. That will also help
with ground contact because as you move the nail more left,
(42:12):
that ground contact.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Will move more forwards.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
So and it also I've seen that in my own game,
angling the nail more to the left can tend to
help a little bit with early extension. So for some
for some reason, yeah, players who swing into out they
tend to at least look more early extended because their
body tends to be a little bit more closed impact,
(42:38):
Whereas when you angle and nail more to the left,
they tend to get more rotation from the down the line.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
It's a perspective thing.
Speaker 3 (42:44):
But from down the line, when the butt is more
rotated open or the hips are more rotated open, it
looks less early extended. So that would just be a
happy accident if that happened. And also with a nail drill,
sometimes I tell people to visualize the nail a little.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Bit closer to the feet or farther away.
Speaker 3 (43:05):
And in John's case, he tended to have a little
heel biased with with his shots. And when you look
at the video, you see the video his hands might
start say here, but by the time he gets to impact,
the hands go out away from his body a little
bit too much. So say you start here, move out.
That's going to create heel contacts. And so by visualizing
(43:29):
the nail being closer to his feet, that will tend
to change the hand location in space and it will
reduce the heel contact.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
I got the video here.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
And so that one basically that one visual of the
nail being angled more to the left and closer to
his feet. That's one visual and that intent alone is
going to have an effect on plane rotation, maybe early
extension path.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
And ground contact.
Speaker 3 (44:03):
And by having it closer, it's going to affect the
face contact as well. So sometimes you can I say,
I use the phrase kill two or ten birds with
one stone.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
That's how I like to do it. And also you.
Speaker 3 (44:14):
Know when whenever, if John ever does have a block
shot out to the right, he said he suffered more
with left shots, but I'm sure occasionally he hits a
block out to the right. Again, that's just a sign
that blocks and hooks are a sign that the path
is too much into out And I've found that using
the nail drill to help neutralize the path a little
bit better. It doesn't get rid of two way misses,
(44:36):
but it reduces the severity of them. Intends it tends
to be, and it makes it easier throughout the bag
as well. If you've got a wedge and you've got
a driver. I know the players, if they've got a
more neutral path, they tend to be better throughout the bag,
Whereas when the player's got an extreme out in or
into out path, they tend to get more inconsistencies.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Throughout the bag.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, so there was the FI is this sometimes simple,
sometimes more complex, sometimes more mechanical, But it's.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
All just tools.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
I think this is what I love about how you
how you work through this with people, is the just
like this, you know, what do we want to address?
Why is it happening? And not just addressing And I
think what I appreciate is you're not just you're not
You understand where the symptom is and what the cause is,
like if we use you know, I guess John Drazzy
example of where he's kind of his knee was soft,
(45:30):
wasn't really driving up through that lead side. You understand
that that's happening because he has this other thing going
on with his elbow not right. And while other instructors
I think oftentimes I would imagine understand that you're the
first one who I've heard to actually explain it to
the student, and particularly for the golfer who's trying to
get better like that, Like he came back and he
(45:51):
was like, dude, this that was I've never heard that before.
That was so helpful, just because now he has that
framework or that algorithm that you were speaking of. And yeah,
I think that that's an important piece to take away
fone listening of understanding what the instruction is and understanding
how it's going to help your golf game. And I
think the cool thing was for both of these guys
is that physically they're able to actually do what you're
asking him to do, which is it's not always the case.
Speaker 2 (46:14):
I'm sure, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Well, yeah, when it's not the case, obviously i'd like
to refer to someone like you to help them improve
their body. That's the best way to go about it.
There are other alternate solutions as well for many people,
like you know, I when I told in Austria not
everybody could shift their weight to their left side because
lots of them had torn meniscuses or is a menisca?
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Is that the plural of meniscas?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Actually, I've never actually thought about that. I don't know,
I don't know, won't go with that.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, mesca, that sounds intelligent.
Speaker 3 (46:50):
So yeah, you know, sometimes you just have to put
the ball back in the stands a little bit and
they might be a little bit more on the back foot,
ball back in the sound. You've just got to work
around if it's impossible for them to shift. But obviously
if you can fix that issue, then that's a better
way of going around it. And yeah, I know a
lot of people watching this might say, well, that was
very complex, and yeah, what I'm talking about here is
(47:11):
kind of coach level stuff. When I give plans to people,
I explain it so they understand it if they want to.
But also there's very basic bullet points that I give them.
It's like, okay, so there was the explanation, but what
you need to know is if fat shots, then do
this stress. If thin shots, then do this str That's exactly.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
What they came back with. Yeah, We're like, how did
it go? Like we said, if this, do that, if that,
do this. He's like, exactly, it was great. Then obviously
you said that. And I'm like, oh, okay, I understand
why now, But I mean I can I can attest
to That's literally what they came back with. And I
think that's the mark of a great instructor, somebody who
understands the craft. I figure who it was, some smart philosopher.
(47:54):
It was like, to truly understand means you could explain
it to like a three year old, right, And I
think that's that's the mark of a really great instructor
or coach, is just that they can say, however, you
need to hear it so that it makes sense and
you know however deep you need, you can go without, yeah,
without losing what has actually meant?
Speaker 2 (48:12):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (48:13):
And I always want players, you know, they understand the
process as well. I mean, number one, understand that impact
is everything. You know, all those changes will relate to
an impact thing. So then their job is go out
and look for their impact patterns. You know, whether that's
ten shots on the range, and you can say right
after each shot, So this is something everybody listening can
(48:36):
take after each shot, was that shot more toe or heel?
Was it more left or right? And was it more
fat or thin? You know, and just and just after
ten shots, you'll start to see patterns in there, and
then you can say, you know, all there's a lot
of fat shots in there. I need just to do
something to thin it out or move the ground contact forwards.
What options do I have available to me? It could
(48:56):
be something simple like a swing. Thought often, if I'm
hitting it fat, I'll just try and pick it off
the surface. It could be as simple as that, or
some days I'll say, you know what, it's fat and
it's left. I'm going to do a later swish because
that that works for me as well. You know, I
tend to have a slight early release. So yeah, it's
about then implementing one thought based on what you need
(49:18):
the most and just constantly going through that. We never
finished that game. Like even Tiger Woods has said, my
my swing's never done. It's never He's never There's never
been a player who's like, yep, got it now games
complete swings, swings there, I'm good and golf and play. No,
We're constantly tuning everything and going through that process.
Speaker 1 (49:35):
Yeah, well it's I mean it just it goes back
to assess and don't guess, like know what the actual
issue is and then have an intelligent solution for it. Adam,
I got thank you so much for today. This is
so much fun. Hopefully you guys listening watching got a
good amount out of this, Adam. Where's the best place
for people to find you? I know you're active on
social but where else?
Speaker 3 (49:55):
Yeah, adamyongolf dot com is the best place. I actually
just launched a three part course is absolutely free that
goes through some of these so you can do to
see what you're worst at basically, and so yeah, that
would be Adam and golf dot Com Forward Slash Course
c O U R S e and they can get
(50:16):
that for free.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Sweet well, we will definitely be putting that in the
show notes and the comments, but so guys, go check
that out. And Adam, thank you so much for hanging
out with me today. This is a blast and I
can't thank you enough for for helping our clients figure
out their matchups that they need and don't need and
need to improve on. So thank you so much. Man.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Love talking about it.
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Jerzys, thanks for listening. We'll catch on in the next
episode of The Golf in this pound spot
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