- Welcome again.
Adam Bazalgette here in Naples, Florida.
Founder of ScratchGolfAcademy.com
and two-time PGA Teacher of the Year Award winner down here.
Wanna talk to you today about one of the really bright stars
in the game, Jason Day.
Stay tuned.
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So, Jason Day, one of the truly fine players
in the game today.
One of the handful of stars
that's really driving the game.
My purpose in looking at this video
is not so much to break it down into nauseating detail
and really, really analyze it piece by piece
but to give you an overview,
look at some of the things he does really well,
which is a lot of things as you'll see,
give you a couple of the maybe slight idiosyncrasies,
and then to come back at the end
and really the purpose is to apply some things to you
that you could work on.
Now, if you like this video please subscribe to the channel.
Would love to get you more of the free content.
So stay tuned for the Jason Day analysis
and then let's come back at the end
and see what you can learn from it.
Okay, so there he is, Jason Day.
Looks like he's hitting an Iron off a par 4 here.
Probably a 2- or 3-Iron or something like that.
The guy's had phenomenal success here for a while now.
He's been knocking on the door of a big win.
And he's gotten a number of them here in last year.
Won the PGA in great fashion at Whistling Straits.
Just record-setting fashion.
And just won the TPC this last week.
So let's see what he does that's good,
a lot of things as you'll see.
Hits the ball prodigious distances,
fabulous driver of the ball.
Now, this camera wiggles slightly.
If I put a little line on the top of that tree
and maybe on the side of that tree
you'll see it wiggle around a bit,
but basically it's stable enough for our purposes.
So let's have a look here.
See some of the things he does well.
There's the front of his hat.
There's the top of his hat.
Little bit unusual here,
you'll see with his lower body motion.
So he does a great job keeping his angles there
with his upper body,
but does, and this is slightly surprising,
just bleed forward a little bit with his hips.
That's not a lot,
but it's a little bit more than you'd see the best players.
There's been that little compression
we so often see with top players as they go back,
helps to add power.
Arms are in a great spot there.
And down he comes.
Club's on a beautiful plane looking right at the ball.
Again, a little bit unusual here,
in that his knees have bled out into this space a bit
and he's lost a little bit of angle there.
The camera's wiggling a touch,
but I think we can say that with some degree of safety.
Great delivery of the golf club there though.
Hips nice and open as he hits the ball.
That's a really dynamic look with his body.
So, he's ripping it right down the line.
Usually, if someone loses their body angles a little bit
they might go this way with their swing slightly,
but not him.
He's too talented.
He's too strong.
He just rips it right down the line there.
Very dynamic and out he comes there on the other side.
So something I think that is,
I wouldn't say this is unusual,
but I'm gonna give you a caution here,
as great as this swing is,
and obviously it's super, super functional,
if I put a little line on his knees there
his right knee almost stays right on that.
Now, typically if you're pivoting your hips
you'll see that right knee move back
a little bit more than that
and my point being, it doesn't do him any harm
but unless you are really athletic,
really strong and flexible,
you don't want to be that restricted
with your lower body motion going back.
So certainly not a criticism of him,
but I don't recommend that sort of ultra-stability
in that right knee and leg as much going back
if you're not of the kinda quality of athlete he is.
He's six feet tall.
He's listed at 195 pounds, so he's very, very strong.
And, again, I think that's too restrictive
for the average person to play well doing.
Let's have a look from another view.
There he is face-on.
He's down here in this instance.
Let me move that video up just a bit.
At Tiburón near in Naples near where I live.
Looks like a Hybrid or maybe a 5-Wood
off one of the tees here.
Little unusual here,
and these are minor things,
but a little unusual
in that his hips drift slightly, slightly in that direction.
Just a little bit there with his right leg
but very dynamic look there.
Tremendously dynamic look.
I mean just a beautiful kind of one-piece takeaway.
You can see the whole triangle intact there.
And I like how he's just slightly, slightly
softened in that left arm, and left wrist at the top.
I think that adds power.
Just a great looking coil,
and again, wonderful separation
where the lower body really gets out
in front of the upper body.
Creates a lot of lag.
Now I wouldn't say that's record breaking lag
for the PGA Tour,
so you may ask why does he hit it so far?
Well, it's just God-given talent, that's what it is.
He's six feet, 195.
He's strong as an ox.
And that extra 7 or 8% he has over the average tour player
is just his raw, natural ability.
Obviously combined with hard work.
Now lest you take offense at that statement
I tried to play professional golf as a young man
and did so
but with minimal success
and I certainly never had the kind of power
and talent he has.
So if you wanna feel slighted by that statement
you'll have to line up behind me
in the line up to shed a few tears,
but, just joking really,
but that's just the way it is.
Some people get a little bit of extra talent,
a little bit of extra genius at something
and he has it.
He's developed it, but he has it.
So great move through there.
Nice, strong look through impact.
Really good, strong drive through the ball.
Let's have a look at him hit a shot.
This would be a long-Iron shot.
Here, let me shift that video just a little bit,
obviously 'cause it's off a tee.
Looks like it might be at the British Open there, not sure.
And certainly for a long-Iron, the ball's more forward.
Same sorta look there.
Very restricted, very limited lower body motion going back.
Dynamic move.
Relatively, I would say, Jason keeps his hip a little bit
further back from his ankle than most great players.
You'll see most great players a little more lateral
than that as they come in.
Might be a little bit easier on the body,
but he's so strong, he can still power through.
He doesn't get stuck on that right foot.
You can see his glutes and his abs
just shoving through there.
Gives him great extension through the ball.
So, hey listen, all in all you can say a lot about it,
it's a generically great swing.
He's a great player.
He's a tremendous talent.
But let's have a look at a couple of things
maybe you could take away from it.
Maybe a couple of things you might wanna modify.
Okay, so that's fun to see.
That's the way you wanna swing the golf club.
Let's have a look though, at a couple of things
that maybe you should modify depending on your capabilities.
I'm gonna show you how you can judge that
and then of course how you can apply
some of the things he does to part of your game.
Now I've got a wedge here
but I'm gonna put that down for a minute
and I wanna clarify a comment I made
about the right knee in there.
I'm not a believer, by any means,
in a lot of right knee movement.
I wasn't suggesting that,
but the way the hips and the pelvis sit
if they pivot
and this right hip works up and behind you a bit
it is gonna make that right thigh move back a little bit.
So although there should be no attempt
to move your knee a lot,
to keep it as still as he keeps his is pretty restrictive
to most people to making a pivot.
Now here's how I would recommend
you check that out for yourself.
Get in the golf position, no club,
and just get your back hand underneath this lead wrist
like that, just about like so.
Now start to wind up, keep this, push this arm back,
wind your middle here
and you keep that right knee as flexed and still as you can
and keep that heel on the ground.
And just see how far back you can go.
For me, it's not gonna be a whole lot further than that
at this stage of my life.
That's a little too short for me to hit long shots with.
So, again, we want relative stability here
but I'm gonna let myself do this,
and just let my left knee
and ankle respond to this slightly.
Let my right hip wind a little bit
until I feel I can get a length backswing
that's good for me.
If you find you're really feeling tight,
you're choking off of breath like that,
release your lower body a little bit.
So as long as you start with the upper body
you need enough lower body movement, pivot,
maybe a little bit of movement in your knee and ankle
to allow you to complete a backswing
that's sufficient for you.
And that will change over the years,
and it will change according to the person's flexibility.
So that's how I'd recommend doing that.
Now, next thing I would say,
this is a Pitching Wedge.
If you're gonna hit some three quarter wedges,
for me that would be 70, 80, 90 yards.
Might be a little less or a little bit more for you.
That is a great time to adopt what he's doing
with his lower body movement.
So practice this same thing again,
nice and stable there.
Keep that left heel on the ground
and wind, so you feel some coil,
and you feel like that's about as far back as you can go
if you're about my flexibility.
That is a great habit to get into
for a little three quarter Pitching Wedge.
Ang again you can fire your lower body and get going.
So you can really learn from what he's doing
and apply it to you even if you're of medium flexibility
to help your shorter and intermediate wedge game.
Well as always I appreciate the interest you might take
in these videos of mine.
Would love to have you subscribe to the channel.
We've got lots more free content coming, we hope.
And there's a lot there already.
Take advantage of this course,
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Hope you take advantage of that.
ScratchGolfAcademy.com is my website.
Again, I appreciate your time
and I hope this helps you with your game.
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