Mike Austin Golf Swing Analysis
Mike Austin Golf Swing Analysis
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Description
In the Mike Austin golf swing analysis video below, you’ll find out: 1) How squatting in your downswing sets up so many other good moves, 2) How elevation in your backswing affects your swing speed, and 3) Why quiet hips are the key for a truly powerful—and controlled—swing.
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Mike Austin Golf Swing Analysis: Get Legendary Distance
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Alright, a lot of members have asked us
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for a review of Mike Austin's swing. For
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those of you who don't know who Mike
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Austin is,
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he holds the Guinness Book of World
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Records for the longest drive in
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competition play at 515 yards.
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That's never been equaled today, even
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with our massive long drive hitters on
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the long drive tour, but I'm going to
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show you some things in his swing that
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actually are very, very congruent and
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consistent with what RST teaches. So
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you're going to see a lot of great
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qualities in Mike's swings that you would
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want to look at as a good model. If you
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like Mike's swing, you're going to see a
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lot of things that RST really likes in
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Mike's swing. So, I'm going to start with
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the face-on view here, and a couple
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things I'm going to point out. And these
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are things that I do a lot of my lessons
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that, you know, don't come across in the
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website because they're like tiny little
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one-off things. But one of the things I'm
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going to mention here that a lot of
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people struggle with is just getting
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comfortable. Shifting their weight to the
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right a little bit and loading up that
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right side properly. And so one of the
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things I get asked quite a bit is, can I
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just start with my weight more on the
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right side? And of course, the answer is
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yes.
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With a lot of golf instruction, It's
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confusing because you have a lot of golf
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swing models these days. Or having your
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people keep their weight on the lead leg
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and not shift back. And of course, if
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you've watched a lot of the videos, you
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see, you know, how detrimental that can
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be to power.
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And so with RST, we focus on teaching
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people to shift the weight back and
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forth, of course. And so just like you
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would in any athletic motion, throwing a
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ball or hitting a ball in any other
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sport. So what Mike does here is he
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actually sets up with his weight
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predisposed on the right side. I've got a
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line coming down from basically the top
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of his sternum roughly. And you can see
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that it's, his weight is basically
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centered more over his right foot, which
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is perfectly fine. As long as you want to
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shift back to the left, it's not a big
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deal. So that's a fine, it's a normal
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thing. It's a fine thing to do. And I do
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that with my students quite a bit, who
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just find it easier to take that little
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weight. Shift to the right. They just
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want to take it out of the swing and
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start on the right. Perfectly okay.
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So as we go back to the top, the one of
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the things that you'll notice, of course,
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he's going to be really into that right
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size and get a little deeper into it.
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And from here, it's pretty much a
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conventional looking RST nearly textbook
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golf swing. If you look at the RST
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necktie video, that's a great drill for
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you guys, that if he had a necktie on,
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it'd be hanging straight down just to the
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inside of his right knee. So all of these
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things you've seen in the video, Here's a
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perfect real world application of that
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from one of the longest hitters in the
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history of the game.
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The only thing that you might notice is
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you're lifting up the left heel here,
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just a rhythm and balance thing. It's
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nothing necessarily wrong with it, it
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just adds a little bit of extra movement.
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But if you practice a lot, not a big
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deal, but of course we want to minimize
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that stuff. So we keep the heel down and
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it minimizes the hip turn a little bit.
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Just more of a more conventional modern
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thing that we do in golf, we just try to
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take out a lot of excess movement. But as
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you get to the top, One thing you're
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going to notice is that he's going to get
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just a little bit more elevation from his
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hands, and we'll look at this a little
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bit more from the down the line section.
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But this is the last frame before he
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starts back.
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Starts to kind of fall back toward the
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target just a tiny, tiny bit, but it's
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minimal. He does a really, really great
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job of staying behind the ball here,
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given how high his hands are that you're
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going to see in the down the line
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section. That's where I'm going to talk
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about one of the other videos that's on
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the website about how much elevation
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should you have in the backswing? How
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high should your arms go at the top and
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why would you want them that high? When
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you look at the down the line, you're
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going to know exactly why.
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So then, this is my favorite thing about
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Mike Austin's swing here. As he starts
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down, and again, I'm going to talk about
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this in the down the line,
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this is his money move right here.
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Notice how quiet his lower body is during
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these first few frames, key frames in the
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downswing.
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Nine times out of ten, an amateur gets to
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this position, it's fully loaded up, and
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those shoulders and hips just rip open
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right away. Notice how he does that
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little tiger squat move that we talk
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about on the website, where his knees
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have a lot of spacing here, But he didn't
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just drive his right knee into the left
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and spin his hips open and create a ton
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of secondary tilt and get him dropped in
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the club way from the inside. He balances
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and poises and leverages the ground
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without spinning out of it. And that is a
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great move to copy. And one of his keys
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to power. Because now his arms are
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getting a chance to accelerate under
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control without his body ripping out of
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the way. So when you look at it down the
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line move, you're going to be able to see
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this a little more obvious, but it's a
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beautiful move where he keeps the spacing
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here, squats down. And this is a great
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example of how that squat should look in
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a different golf swing, even though this
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is from the, I believe this swing is from
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the 70s, I believe, don't hold me to
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that, but quite a while back in a perfect
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squat move, Sam Snead type squat.
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Then this position here, really, I mean,
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about as good as it gets. He's got plenty
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of lag, great right arm position, and
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he's got a lot of lag that he's getting
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ready to get rid of. And so obviously we
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talk a lot about how to release the club
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on the website. This is, you're about to
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see the release in full effect here.
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Great impact position. He gets just a
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hair outside of neutral joint alignment.
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Not much, but this is again, one of
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those, a slightly more old school thing
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where they had a little bit more of their
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classical reverse C look. He's just
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minimally outside of neutral joint
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alignment here, but head stayed behind
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the ball. You can see because he got a
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little bit outside of neutral. He's got a
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little bit of extra secondary axis tilt
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that not necessarily the ideal thing in
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the world. But when you go down the line,
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you're going to see exactly why he did
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that. The next frame is really, really
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awesome because from here he's in a great
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impact position. He just releases the
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snot out of the golf club. This is a big
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time release.
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Notice how much the club shaft is
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basically vertical here. I realize it's
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hard to see because it's old camera work
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here, but club shafts verticals wrists
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are basically already fully rehinged at
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this point in the swing. And that's of
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course, because he's really releasing the
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club. So now let's take a look at his
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down the line move here on the right, And
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you're going to see a lot of these other
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great things that I was talking about,
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just from a different perspective. So I
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want to go back through. One of the
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things you'll notice, again, A lot of
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these more old school type swings had a
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lot of kind of rhythm and flow and
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footwork, and a little bit of extra
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movement, a little extra rotation and
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those types of things. So this led to a
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few things. One, he's going to tend to
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get the club drug a little bit to the
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inside.
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Not necessarily the most efficient way to
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do things, obviously, but he gets it to a
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good enough position at the top. But
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because he drug it to the inside, going
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back with a little extra rotation and
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sweeping it back inside, he gets across
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the line at the top. Now, being across
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the line at the top, for most golfers, a
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little bit of a difficult position to
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recover from, he does a great job, again,
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because he doesn't just rip his hips open
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and rip his shoulders open, Which would
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drop the club way to the inside. For most
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better players and for the higher
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handicap players who are going to really
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overuse their shoulders, they're going to
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end up coming way over the top from here.
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But because he does that key little squat
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move from this high hands position,
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again, You're going to see, this is where
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I talk about how much elevation we want
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in the swing in that
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video on the site.
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This is a very leveraged position. He's
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got a lot of time, a lot of potential
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energy here because of the height of his
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hands. Gravity is going to give him a lot
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of ability to accelerate his hands very,
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very fast. The trick is learning how to
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control it from this high hands position,
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and the key to that
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is this squat move, the belt buckle drill
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on the website. These are all critical
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pieces for getting a lot of power out of
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your swing with a lot of control. So
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you're going to see as he starts down, he
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gets into a really high hands position,
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but this move is awesome,
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Relatively, almost no hip movement and
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shoulder movement compared to a lot of
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players that you would see getting into
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that position. His hips and shoulders are
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very quiet, his hands have moved a foot
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already, and his body is going to
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continue to remain relatively quiet into
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this delivery area. He gets into a little
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bit of a side bend position here, which
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is a good thing. He needs to do that,
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otherwise he'd come over it a bit. So
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letting that right shoulder drop down
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allows the club to work back down from
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the inside. And then again, as I
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mentioned from face on, just releasing
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the heck out of the golf club. Big time
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release there. And it gets into the
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little bit of the old school finish, but
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a great, great swing, tons of RST
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characteristics in it. So if you're
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looking for a good swing to model after,
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Mike Austin's is a great RST example in
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many, many ways.
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to a golf swing model that appears to be ideal...It's a big muscle, motor-driven swing
that's repeatable...You don't have to be a super athlete."
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