we've got a lot to cover in this video

so we're going to dive right into it get

started the best place to start a

shallowing discussion is to look at how

the clubs move in really good golf

swings the Pro Data we're going to look

at in this video comes from players

who've won over 35 Majors over 400 wins

on tour including 28 wins this year

alone

the clubs you're seeing here on the

screen are from as many of those winners

as we could allegedly fit in we included

all the outliers meaning the steepest

and the most shallow clubs then we

filled in the Middle with as many clubs

as I think shallow for most people just

refers to the angle of the shaft

relative to the ground here at left arm

parallel in the downswing this is the

most common Landmark used for

determining if a shaft is shallow or

steep it's shallow if it's pointing at

or just beyond the golf ball it's steep

if it's pointing inside the golf ball

but there are two potential downsides

with using this as the basis for being

Shell One it doesn't account for what

the hands are doing which we'll go into

in a minute and two it often gives a

misleading perspective of what needs to

happen to the club in three dimensions

meaning from this perspective players

are used to seeing the clubs at the top

of their swings looking steep so they

feel they have to do something to

shallow it to lay it down or flatten it

at the beginning of their downswings the

problem is that's not really the case at

all because when we bring in the face on

view of these clubs you can see that

what looks steep from down the line is

actually quite shallow in fact when we

roll the left side down to what would be

left arm parallel you can see for these

pros and most likely for you too the

club is its shallowest its flattest or

it's most laid off however you like to

describe it at the top of the swing I

know this seems obvious looking at it

here but a lot of golfers have told us

their entire perception of what they

need to do with the shaft comes solely

from how the club looks at the top from

this down the line view that's awesome

that we can find videos of great players

really anywhere online but it also can

make it easy to forget that everything

in the golf swing happens in 3D a simple

little reminder like the club is most

shallow at the top has been a game

changer for a lot of guys

just so we're all on the same page and

we're talking about the same things we

figured now is a good time to Define

some terms that we're going to use

throughout the rest of the video

internal and external rotation these are

the big ones you hear a lot about in

golf instruction we'll talk more about

these as the video goes along especially

about the potential misuse of external

rotation

next is horizontal shoulder adduction

and abduction

moving the elbow in towards the body is

adduction and then moving it out and

away from the body is abduction too much

abduction creates a lot of shallowing

problems for a lot of golfers

then we've got elbow bin a pretty

straightforward movement but it can

create some anxiety if you're a player

that's linked holding that elbow bin

with holding lag

next is the arm lifting and lowering

this is just the raising and lowering of

the upper arm pretty straightforward but

believe it or not the simple move is

often misinterpreted these two movements

are not examples of arm lifting and

lowering these are squatting and bending

now they move the entire torso and the

arm does lower and lift relative to the

ground but the arm itself is not lifting

and lowering relative to the body that's

a key point to make arm lifting and

lowering is relative to the body not the

ground

and then lastly we have forearm

pronation and supination and these are

actually four arm movements not wrist

movements but as long as you know which

one happens when that's what matters and

we know there's a lot of different golf

terms out there and you may have a

different name for all these movements

that's not the important part the

important part is that you understand

what we're talking about what we're

referencing when we talk about when they

happen in the swing

so what we've learned over the years

both recording offers on video and in 3D

is that there are primarily two Club

movements that cause golfers a lot of

grief in regards to shallow the first

one we call steep out of the top if you

don't do this yourself you most

certainly know someone who does you can

see how the club steepens right out of

the top and at left arm parallel the

club is pointing well inside the golf

ball and the bad shots you can hit from

here will cover the gamut you may have

also heard this call the arm wrestling

move or the pull down

so this is when the arm stays up the

elbow stays bent and all you have left

to get the club down is this internal

rotation to start your downswing a big

contributor to that is when golfers

overtly have ducked their arm which is

just pulling it back here behind them

rather than keeping it somewhere out

here in front of them the second problem

move is the arms up Club out move we're

going to use one of our Pros here to

help show why this move creates trouble

for so many golfers at first glance

these players are fairly similar at the

top and to show the full scope of this

move we're defining the top here as when

each player reaches their maximum hip

turn in the backswing from here forward

the hips will be in their downswing

opening rotation notice how the amateurs

hips are quite a bit more turned here

this is often what we see with golfers

trying to get maximum hip turn in the

backswing so let's stack these guys on

top of one another and fade the bodies

out again to highlight the club

movements again these guys have very

similar clubs here at this point in the

swing as we get them moving pay

attention to the opposite movements

these players make to get the club

started down the amateurs left his arms

up which causes his turn to carry his

hands out towards the ball line while

the pro does the opposite

then here at left arm parallel the

result is the AMS grip has moved twice

as close to the ball line compared to

the pros

taking the hands too far out too soon

loads of shank in the chamber unless you

make several compensations late in the

downswing this player told us he had

been working hard to do three things

number one get more shallow and lay the

club down number two get more rotation

in the downswing now despite being 31

years older than the pro you're seeing

here our Am rotates his hips a hundred

degrees in the downswing compared to the

pros 85 Degrees who by the way is one of

the most rotated players on tour and

number three lower his chest to get rid

of early extension both guys are in the

normal range here at the tops of their

swing but an impact notice the

differences here the am moved in the

opposite direction as what we see

professionals do this player is doing

everything he believes happens in good

swings and hitting it worse for his

efforts and it is a lot of effort

because he's doing loads more work than

what we're seeing from the pro this is

what we mean when we say amateur swings

are often physically more difficult to

do than what we see with tour swings

this is all caused when the player's

idea is to leave the arms up externally

rotate the shoulder that typically

overly abducts the shoulder in as well

those move movements jackknife the club

down then when you add in the body turn

you get everything working out too far

towards the ball line

to be fair we've never met anyone who

sets out to make bad movements in their

swings yet we see bad movements all the

time and one of the biggest hurdles in

trying to learn the swing is we're all

forced to see things through a third

person perspective and without real 3D

which you probably don't have access to

the look of a swing is entirely

dependent on the camera angle which

makes trying to interpret what you're

seeing highly subjective as well as

impossible to accurately see and

differentiate individual movements from

one another so it makes deciphering what

you're seeing literally a moving Target

but even if we all had cameras in our

eyes to give us that first person

perspective it really wouldn't help much

because we'd see even less

so what we have found helpful and most

importantly what our players have found

helpful is what our AMG 3D software

calls for the player perspective which

just means frame of reference of the

player for example this is one of the

tour winners from the group of players

we've referenced at the beginning of the

video we're looking at him because he's

right in the middle range of all that

tour data he makes a very solid highly

repeatable highly consistent normal

looking golf swing that's very

representative of the database as a

whole instead of trying to decipher what

he does from this view this normal third

person perspective let's freeze what we

want to look at then reposition him into

a familiar perspective we can more

easily relate to in this case we'll

freeze his Club his hands his arms and

his shoulders then we'll just move the

rest of him to a neutral standing

position and while we're at it let's go

ahead and pull his left arm out of the

way so we can really see what's

happening with his right arm

now we've got something that I don't

think anyone's ever seen before a PGA

Tour winner standing in front of you

with his right shoulder his arm his hand

and his Club oriented exactly as it is

at the top of his golf swing

now when we look at him making his

shallowing move it's much easier to see

what's happening and how simple this

movement actually is

this perspective is going to help us

highlight the differences between how

you might be trying to shallow the club

and how these great players do it so

with that in mind let's look at another

amateur example this is Blake who came

to see us this past summer they told us

he'd been working since the lockdown on

trying to be more shallow and more open

he's also another example of the arms up

Club out move and it came in to see us

because he developed Wicked cases of

both the blocks and Shanks but all the

credit to him because he was actually

doing what he told us he had been trying

to do and what he'd been working so hard

to do which was rotate go external and

lay the club down he called it

pro-shallowing and he listed five Pros

he likes who also did the same things in

their swings we actually had those same

five players in our database but the

problem is none of those five players or

any of the other tour winners we have

data on externally rotate their Trail

shoulders in the downswing we've yet to

find a single one who does they're all

externally rotating their Trail

shoulders in the backswing but not in

the downswing Now understand we haven't

measured every golfer who's ever played

so we can't say no one has ever done it

but several players in our database are

often used as examples of players who go

external in the downswing when they

actually don't do it at all so we can

say that going external definitely is

not required to shallow the club and

because it's the opposite of what we see

good players do it's not something we

recommend

and you can see the DraStic differences

here when we compare Blake side by side

with our Pro as Blake mentioned earlier

his goal was to create more shallowing

early in his downswing and to get the

club the jackknife behind them like

you're seeing here it actually created

more work for himself to do in a very

small amount of time work that he's

going to eventually have to try to undo

later in the downswing when there's even

less time

by stark contrast the pro is doing way

less work and way less manipulation of

the club as Blake put it he's just

lowering the shell he's not making any

movements to lay the club down at all

now let's take a look at Jerry he's

another good example of the arm

wrestling pull down move a very

instinctual move for a lot of golfers to

make especially golfers who played other

sports where they're used to taking

their hands towards the ball Jerry told

us a big swing key for him was making

sure he got a lot of depth at the top of

his swing for him depth meant overly

abducting his Trail shoulder in the

backswing this pulled the arm behind him

making it very difficult to do anything

but arm wrestle to start his downswing

when that arm gets pulled out and behind

you there's just not much time to get it

back in place to move the shaft

correctly the arm can't lower properly

so the elbow stays up while internal

rotation kicks into high gear to try to

generate some speed coming down or in

other words the pull down move

no surprise here that he's really

steepening his Club compared to our Pro

also notice how far away from his body

his Trail arm stays this is a big reason

why golfers also struggle to get their

hands in front of their Trail leg later

in the downswing

now let's take a look at what the body's

role is helping you hurting you from

shallowing the club we work with a lot

of golfers who've told us they're trying

to be passive with the arms the goal

being they want a body-dominated swing

so fair enough so let's take a look at

what a tour-winning body move looks like

with passive Arms This is a world-class

pivot with passive arms now I can see

how this may take the timing out of the

golf swing but it's a swing you probably

wouldn't be happy with so clearly the

arms cannot be passive they have to do

something and this is how much the arms

do in the backswing independent of the

pivot and every good player that we've

ever seen who lifts their arms in the

backswing also do the opposite in the

downswing they lower and as we mentioned

earlier squatting or bending isn't what

that means they actually lower their

arms here are three of the most common

Body Concepts players tell us they try

to use as shallowers in their swings

we're going to show you all these with

passive Trail arms so you can see the

direct influence the body has on the

shallowing of the club so looking from

left to right we've got the keep your

back to the Target while shifting

concept next is the exact opposite this

is the rotate without any lateral

shifting concept then there's the early

side tilt with shift concept and lastly

we'll include the pros pivot for

comparison after seeing all these body

pivots from both face on and Down the

Line This is why you may have heard us

in the past say the body is a steepener

without good arm movements none of these

body movements shallow the shaft or even

move the club properly and that's what

that body dominant mindset misses if you

don't move the club properly you will

not make good body movements because

you'll hit it worse so it's not an

either or proposition it's both the body

is extremely important in the golf swing

but so are the arms

so in the past whenever we've talked

about Pro moves or movements that pros

make we always get comments or hear

comments uh golfers telling us that you

know they just don't have the

flexibility or agility to make these Pro

level moves the idea being that the

elements that we're talking about in

these tour swings are just physically

Out Of Reach for most normal golfers so

on that note we put together a quick

little Mobility test to see if you have

the physical ability to make a pro level

shallowing move in your swing you can

test yourself in golf posture or in

standing posture do whichever one is

easiest for you put your Trail arm and

Club at the top of the swing like you

see here the first thing we're going to

test is your ability to abduct your arm

at a tour level now fair warning this

will be the most difficult test to pass

see if you can move your arm inward 10

degrees like you're seeing here for

reference that's less than two minutes

on a clock fix

Ed up is the internal rotation test see

if you can internally rotate your arm

five degrees like this now if you want

to see what it's like at impact take it

all the way to 38 degrees but for

shallowing 5 is all you need

for screening number three we're going

to test you for tour level elbow Bend

start with your elbow bent 90 degrees

now take a big deep breath slowly exhale

and unbend your arm 10 degrees like

you're seeing here

so that's three down two more to go next

is the forearm supination test we only

need 20 degrees here and 20 degrees

looks like this

and finally we've saved the biggest move

for last start with your arm raise like

you're seeing here without bending

forward or squatting down lower your arm

20 to 25 degrees like this

that's it if you passed all these tests

you possess the physical ability

mobility and dexterity to shallow the

club like a major champion this answers

the can you do it question now let's

dive into how to do it if you have

trouble shallowing the shaft or you're

trying to make shallowing the shaft much

easier we recommend starting here put

your Trail arm in the same position you

see Jerry hear it this will give you a

really nice and neutral top of the

backswing position to start from make

sure your elbow doesn't stray too far

away from your side let your Club is

close to horizontal and that your elbow

Bend is right around 90 degrees

the key move from here is to lower your

arm as you straighten it this should

look like what Jerry is doing the

biggest difference we see in Pros versus

Ams for shallowing and we're only

talking about the window from the top of

the Swing to left arm parallel as Pros

lower their Trail arms twice as much as

Amps do and that tiny window of time

Pros are anything but passive with their

arms so get that arm moving down your

arms should fall pretty much right back

in front of you like you see here look

to have your Club nearly level with the

ground or basically just copy what you

see Jerry here doing own this movement

there's nothing complex or complicated

about it so you shouldn't have any

excuses for not being able to move your

arm at an expert level from this

position and stick with it until you can

own it and you can Master it because if

you can't do it here it's not suddenly

going to appear in the golf swing once

you can't mess it up in the standing

posture put yourself in golf posture at

the top of your backswing like you see

Blake here do now you're first going to

do this without any body movements to

get the same feel you had when standing

what Blake did in his first few attempts

is what you want to try to avoid he

lowered his arm but he did it while

taking his hands out towards the ball he

was doing this without realizing it I

mean after all that's what he had been

practicing the past couple of years

trying to do but that's the body's job

to bring the hands around we just want

to focus on the arm right now and if we

put him back in his standing posture

this is what the hands out move would

look like if you see yourself doing this

just stand up start over

once you get the hang of it it should

start to look like this

now because your body's tilted forward

lowering the club like you were when you

were standing is going to feel quite a

bit different at first but that's a good

sign what you got to understand is

you're going to be penalized for turning

your body when your arms are working

poorly but training your arms to move

correctly you're actually creating a

necessity to turn your body better

and that's the next step start blending

the body with the arm motion once you

get the hang of it and once you add back

in your left arm you should start to see

it look a lot like this and this is the

origin of our blender drill which we did

in our off season practice video

follow these steps with the goal being

to make the right movements before

trying to make them fast you'll have the

right amount of all those separate arm

movements without having to think about

each one we've never had to tell a

player to internally rotate their

shoulder in the downswing that's

something that happens naturally as you

lower your arm but we have had to show a

lot of golfers while trying to go

external isn't the magic move they're

searching for it's like everything else

in the downswing you're just reversing

what you did in the backswing I know

we've thrown a lot at you in this video

but shallowing gives a lot of golfers

trouble we want to be as thorough as

possible remember the club is the

shallowest at the top of the Swing so

all you have to do is get used to

lowering that shallow as you start down

there's just really no reason or benefit

of trying to add more shallow on top of

that it's not something we see the best

players in the world do probably not a

good idea for you to do either when you

practice make sure to record yourself

doing it it's a great way to to confirm

that you're doing what it is you

actually think you're doing a good local

Pro can help you with this as well if

you'd like to work with Sean and myself

directly the easiest way to do that is

online through our AMG plus membership

and form we'll put a link in the

description below if you're interested

in hearing more about that and like

always if you need any clarification

from something you've heard in the video

or just have a general golf question

you'd like answered make sure to use the

comments section below let us know what

that is and while you're at it make sure

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to help the channel out a bunch I hope

this video helps and we really

appreciate you taking the time to watch