Late last year, one of the of the most biggest names in golf bought the Downshift Board and helped one of Youtube's biggest names. Like most amateur players, Rick wanted more consistency and power in his golf swing and went to see Claude to work out the kinks.

Yep that's the Downshift Board in the background.

I started the video where it is relevant to show what the Downshift Board did for Rick in such a short amount of time.  Rick was lacking some power, consistency, had okay face control and it all came back to his pressure shift timing and amount of pressure in his lead leg. 

Lead Side Pressure

If you watch the clip, you'll see that with a few reps on the Downshift Pressure Board, Rick is able to increase his lead foot pressure from 57% to 66% at impact. Typically, elite players get this percentage up to around 70-80% which allows them to really push into the ground at the right time, rotate, utilize vertical forces which straightens the lead leg, allows the player to post up on that lead leg, and hit the brakes so the club can sling through (I know that's a lot of things in such a short amount of time).

The proper kinetic (not kinematic) sequence is as follows:

• Lateral (shifting left to right right to left)

• Rotational

• Vertical

I went through thirty hours Dr. Kwon's Biomechanics Level 1 and 2 as well as Swing Catalyst Level 1 and 2 as well as reading multiple other papers and seminars and they all have reiterate the same sequence above.  If you get these out of order or don't do them at the right time, you'll have to compensate somewhere.

So back to the case study, Rick cleaned up his pressure trace:

Before: Rick moved toward his toes and back around (notice the size of the space between the dolphin shaped trace)

After: far less space in the trace, which indicates he is not going way out on his toes. 

Why is pressure trace important?  Better transfer of energy, more consistency, less effort due to more efficiency. 

Head Position

Another positive effect of getting to his lead side earlier is his head position.

Much closer to the Scott Cowx  M line on the after swing (left)

Left Image: After Before Image: Right

In Rick's case he did not fully get in to his lead side early enough which caused his head to lag behind and the only way to square the face was with his hands. 

Left (After) : You can see the massive change in club face position

You often hear the term square the face with your body not your hands, and this is a prime example of that.  No need to flip if the swing is sequencing better from the ground up.  Wouldn't you rather have that face squared earlier so you can just fire through without worrying about an open or closed face?

As Claude says:

 "You're not doing what you're doing because you want to, you're doing what you're doing because you have to"

Like Claude, I'm a big believer in starting from the ground up with the golf swing:

Educated Feet + Legs > Educated Hand

If your lower body is interacting with the ground correctly in a proper sequence, you hands are just coming along for the ride and don't need that PhD to save your swing. Back before force plates like Swing Catalyst, Smart 2 Move or GASP, we couldn't see or measure the kinetic sequence like we can now.

Part II

Originally when this video released, I hadn't thought about this piece of the puzzle to training Ground Reaction Forces at home.  I had originally begun created Project Redline to work on general golf fitness, strength, and mobility but realized what a great tool it is for teaching and improving ground reaction forces at home.  I've used this at home myself because I can use the door anchor and don't need anyone pulling the band.  This is the easiest way to train and improve the swing from the ground up.  While the Downshift Board is training horizontal and vertical forces, Project Redline can help with torque (rotational), vertical, and to a lesser extent horizontal.

Claude learned this drill from Dr. Scott Lynn of Swing Catalyst

 

 As Claude directly tells Rick, his predominant force is lateral (horizontal) which by looking at the graph, is well above tour average and has a beautiful clean spike (we want mountain peaks not hills). while his torque is below tour average and his vertical is pretty far below tour average.  By using RNT Drills (Reactive Neuromuscular Training), athletes can ramp up their Ground Reaction Forces quickly by creating new motor patterns and learning how to use the ground properly and in sequence.  Using Project Redline on a daily basis with the included door anchor allows anyone to train anywhere to improve how they swing the club. More information and education to come about RNT's!

In the meantime, purchase your Downshift Board and Project Redline now!