Top 3 Things You Need to Do to Cover the Golf Ball

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covering the ball it's one of those key

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moves that the professional golfer does

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that most recreational golfers could do

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with a little bit more

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in their golf swings if you feel like

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you're coming up and out of it through

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impact stay tuned

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this video is really going to help let's

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get into it

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[Music]

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welcome back to the channel guys cara

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gray here at the beautiful juneau resort

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before we get stuck in

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as always please go down below click

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in the year ahead alrighty in today's

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lesson we're going to be talking about

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covering the ball it's a principle that

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you'll often hear

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announces on the tv talk about and also

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something that you'll see the

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professional golfer does

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on a regular basis it's also something

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that you'll see a lot of amateur golfers

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really struggle to do so let's talk

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about exactly

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what covering the golf ball is and then

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how you at home can implement that to

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help you

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with your ball striking alrighty so if i

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set up to this golf ball and we were to

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imagine that i swing to the top of my

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backswing

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covering the ball would mean that as we

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move down into the golf ball

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by the time that we were striking the

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golf ball our hips would be

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slightly ahead of the golf ball and the

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center of my sternum

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would be slightly behind we create this

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sort of window from the center of my

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pelvis

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to the center of my sternum where the

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golf ball would lie between and that's

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generally

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what we see with the professional golfer

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that leads to a lot of compression

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and distance now generally on the other

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hand with amateur golfers and

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recreational golfers

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we would see a slight difference to that

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we would see the bottom

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of their golf swing behind we would tend

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to see the mass of their body too far

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behind this point

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and sometimes even their hips and

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that'll lead to these sort of back foot

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shots

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where you'll see the players hanging

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well back through the moment of impact

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and not really finishing forward and up

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on their foot

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so first of all let's talk about some of

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the reasons why this may be happening

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well first of all

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it could be conceptual could be for the

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fact that you as a golfer

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don't have an understanding that the

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golf swing is an athletic dynamic

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movement

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towards our target out in front of you

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and in doing so

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we need to shift our pressure and our

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mass towards the target

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so everything finishes in the direction

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we want to send the golf ball

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a lot of players are under the

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perception that they need to simply just

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swing down and hit a golf ball down on

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the ground and when you do that

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your body's not moving towards the

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target and that's going to cause you to

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not cover the ball

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as well secondary a lot of the time

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players in an attempt to get more of a

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downward strike on the golf ball

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in an attempt to get this compression

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that they hear about this shaft lean

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this angle getting a divot in front

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they tend to place the ball too far back

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in your stance and this is one of the

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big

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issues that we see of a lot of

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recreational golfers and it causes them

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to actually do the opposite to what

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they're trying to do

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so in this video here we're going to

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elaborate a little bit more on that

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and show you where the ball position

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should be so you have an optimal chance

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of actually covering that golf ball so

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if i for example was to set up with this

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stick in the center of my stance

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let's assume that this was beneath the

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center of my pelvis and also beneath the

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center

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of my sternum now covering the ball as

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we discussed earlier

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would be when the hips are slightly

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forward or the center of the hips are

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slightly forward at the ball

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and the sternum is slightly behind

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however if we start with the ball

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position too far

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back what happens is impact in reality

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if we look at all the best golfers in

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the world

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is actually further in front so what

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happens with the player

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who positions their golf ball too far

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back in their stance

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they'll shift forward thinking they're

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doing the correct thing but you can see

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the actual center of my pelvis in the

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center of my sternum is too far in front

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and that gets the golf club moving on

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too steep over a downward attack the

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shaft will tend to get too steep and as

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a result what happens

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is the body then reacts by jumping up

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you'll find the upper body backs up and

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out of it

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and will lose these angles coming into

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the ball leading to that bunched up look

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and a lot of thin shots down the fairway

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that kind of look like this through the

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ball not much power through the golf

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ball and as you can see

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definitely no divot as a result so when

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we're looking to get this

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optimal covering of the golf ball if

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you're a player who's struggling to take

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divots well this is key here

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we need to get ball position correct

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first of all

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so general sense of reference if we can

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get a short to mid iron so let's say

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i've got an 8 iron in my hand now

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i want a comfortable club head distance

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between my lead foot

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and where that ball would be positioned

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and we're using this yellow stick down

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on the ground as a reference for that

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from there as i set up to it ideally

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what we would like to see

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is our left ear on top of that point the

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reason we use our left ear

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is that as a reference for our upper

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body and generally by this stage here we

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can see that we've got

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a little bit more weight on the lead

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side that helps with the dynamic

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movement of the swing

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but is also going to encourage you to

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compress the golf ball

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what we see with the best players in the

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world as we were discussing before

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is they have this movement from the top

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of the swing down into the ball

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and if we have that ball too far back

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you've got nowhere to go

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your body's going to react and jump out

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of it and you get that bunched up look

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so starting with the ball position a

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little bit further forward is going to

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be an imperative step to help you

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get a little bit more of that

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compression so once we get

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this ball position a little bit further

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forward in the address position we want

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to keep our head

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relatively stable to the top if you drew

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a circle

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around my head and it's a dress position

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as i swing and turn to the top we want

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to keep that head

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relatively centered as we move down into

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the golf ball

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the lower body would shift the head

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would move down and forward slightly

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and as we make impact we would want to

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get the center of that pelvis slightly

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in front and the center of the sternum

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slightly behind we create this little

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window

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where the golf ball would be situated in

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and that right there that is covering

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the ball

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so what we want to do is we want to

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start off with a couple of small swings

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just getting a sense

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starting off with checking the ball

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position wait a little bit further

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forward let's do some little half swings

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down there

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so that one as you can see ball contact

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first divot second

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my hips and everything was moving

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forward my upper body was extending and

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finished nice

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and once you get a feeling at a slow

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speed what you want to do is you want to

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gradually

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build that up if you're someone who has

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had this ball position too far back

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you've been jumping out and away from it

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you've been trying to scoop well this is

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going to feel a little bit different

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after we've done that once again check

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your ball position wait for it

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from here we're going to add a little

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bit more speed let's see how we go

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so that one there that was a full 8 iron

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came off with a lot of power and you can

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see once again

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relative to where the ball was situated

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at address we took a nice little divot

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after that right there that is

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compression and that is covering the

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golf ball

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so if you're a player who is struggling

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to get this sort of divot after the golf

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ball

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you feel like your body's jumping out

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there's a good chance you're doing one

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of two errors you're either

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got too much of an intentional hit down

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at the golf ball and you're not moving

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towards the target

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or secondary your ball position is too

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far back in your stance and if it's too

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far back

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you're going to lose the angles because

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your brain is going to work overtime

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to try and make sure you're not going to

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dig that golf club into the ground

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so try these principles out let's get

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that golf ball a little bit further

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forward at address

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and get the feeling of the hips and

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upper body moving towards the target

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and finishing tall when you finish so i

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hope you've enjoyed today's video if you

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got any questions as always please ask

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me below

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but until next time i'm cara gray thanks

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for watching