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I am particularly proud of this video/lesson as it took an already very good swing and made it better. In fact, I would have to say that this is one of the best swings I have worked with. By the time Derek left to head up to the Traveler’s 4-spot qualifier (in which, by the way, he shot 64 to lead the qualifiers by 2 shots) I was shaking my head at how good this swing looked. The neat thing about it when you are close is the speed Derek produces with such a smooth, controlled backswing. When he uncoils into the ball he hits it quite hard. As you will see in the video I noted that in his first swings he was setting up with his lower body closed and then over-turned his entire right side, which in turn caused the club to swing up off plane across the line. No matter what anybody says, it is more difficult to move a club from off plane to on plane than it is to keep it on plane. To simplify an already relatively simple move I wanted to get Derek to feel counter-rotated with his lower body at address, open the face on the backswing while feeling like he was still facing the ball as he got to the top, and deepen the hips by pushing back both sides of the pelvis. One of the big keys that clicked for him was understanding that the right upper arm and shoulder do nothing to increase the amount of upper trunk rotation in the backswing. When he felt like he actually turned his chest less and resisted the lower his right arm stayed nicely in front of him. Another key was recognizing that the hips were going to try to move straight back instead of rotating. The idea was to start with the hips feeling twisted to the left and then feel that the upper trunk movement was going to pull the hips into motion. When they moved he was to push the right side straight back and to try to push the left side back with it. This got the hips deeper without overturning. This is a very athletic move and may be too restricted for the non-tour player, but almost every player I’ve seen could use some of this to make their swings more efficient. (scroll down to the bottom for the video).
The Travelers Monday Qualifier Results (click to open a new window with full results):
Also big congratulations for Derek’s recent win on the Canada Pro Tour (click to open a window with full results):
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