Lower Body Power Launch. Pt2 with Jamie Zimron

the hips automatically turn. Now your belly, your belt buckle, your center is facing the target, and now your shoulders turn automatically. One of my students calls it, they get a free ride on your feet and your hips because guess what, if you're in good posture, they're right over your hips and feet. If you turn to your foot, your heel turns your hips, now your shoulders turn your hands, and your club come flying through.

What's important about BLISS is exactly every one of those letters. Let me talk a little bit about the eye part. Integrate. Integrate has to do with getting your left and your right sides working together, literally your sides of your body, your left and right hands, your left and right hemispheres of your brain. It also has to do with the lower in the upper body, getting them integrated and working together.

It has to do with the mind and body, the thought, the visualization connected to the physical execution of what you're wanting to do. And the other part, which is kind of interesting. This gets a little deeper, maybe a little more here, but it's the integration of the inner body

and the outer body. What does that mean. There's our inner body kind of that inner thought process inside and our energy, our breath, this life energy, this key that we have that is actually what we're needing to get out to our outer physical limbs and then out into our golf club and into the golf ball. So this inner body outer body thing is really it's a frontier for most people. Yogi's martial artists, people in the East know a little bit more about the inner body than

we tend to here in the West. Depak Chopra, who's quite famous, doctor d Pak Chopra, talks about becoming astronauts of inner space. So part of the training I do is to help people to get in touch, focus on the inside and to begin to feel that their energy inside their mind and their body and learn how to get that out to the outer body where we're actually performing and interacting with the world with the tools of our trade with people, with the project and the golf ball.

The thing we're trying to accomplish.

from California, so I can talk about it. But the thing is this is it's really not so out there. It's not really so esoteric. It's definitely not just wou woo and new agey. I do so just some basic exercises where everybody begins to realize oh yeah, and within a few minutes they're all right there with me, and they're going like, boy, why never never tell me this? This is makes so much common sense, and nobody talks

about it this way. I remember I had a guy who was probably know, late seventies in Florida, Boca Raton, Florida, right, and he said to me, boy, now I really wish I was twenty because I'd like to really start my life over now knowing this, and start my golf over. If someone would have taught me about my energy, that would have helped me a long time ago and how it works. And it's so obvious now that you pointed out, and it really isn't so California, and it's certainly not

wu wu. It's actually very practical, very common sensical. You know.

Golf Smarter TV Jamie Zimmern chipping tip. We've gotten over twelve almost thirteen hundred views on that thing, so obviously it's working for a lot of people.

very interesting. And then I did a ninety second little tip on the secret of the right knee and the lower body launch power. That's what I call it, lower body launch power that has over thirty one or two thousand views, So I recommend people look at that. And the one that you and I did on chipping is perfect because that's the core drill to start to understand

how to use your lower body. And what's nice is it'll give you better chipping, better short game, and that, it turns out, is the sort of microcosm of your full swing. If you can get that down, you have not only a better short game, proper use of your lower body, and you also have the true core foundation of your full swing. So I really recommend that maybe we'll get that those twelve hundred views up to twelve thousand pretty quick.

at your golf ball. And this is one part of where being disconnected from the lower body begins. So let me say this. A lot of people think that there is no footwork in golf, or if you begin to talk about there, like huh, you're just standing there. I mean there's obviously footwork in tennis, or in dancing or in football, right, but because we're just standing there, not going anywhere, people don't think there's footwork involved in golf.

But I guarantee that if you talk to any tour pro or any teacher of tour pros, they are working on their footwork in a big way. So the first thing is to actually feel your feet right, and you get kind of heavy in your belly, connects you into your legs, and that will translate right down to the soles of your feet. All of a sudden, you're feeling more present, stronger, more grounded as you're addressing the golf ball.

These are keys to what a lot of instructors say, take an athletic stance, but so many people don't even know what that means or what that feel like. So that's the first part of it, and footwork you typically in general, I would say there's controversies about this in the golf swing, but the mounern golf swing, the left foot if you're right handed, the left foot stays down

on your back swing. Now, some weight rolls into the arch of your foot, and that allows your right hip to turn, and then that lets your spine turn and your shoulders turn. But it begins down there and your foot and your left foot and your left end step. Obviously, if you're a left handed golfer, it would start in your right foot, but we try to keep that foot down on the ground, and what that enables is this

sort of dynamic tension, dynamic coil of the body. If you lift that foot, lift the heel up too much, what can happen is that you sort of sway your body. Your energy sort of goes floating up there into right up or outer space.

If your muscles are too tight, if you can't really rotate if your hips and your low back and your quadratus lumborum these things are too tight, or your hamstrings, you can't keep that foot down. So part of fitness is too in flexibility as well as strength training in the quads and the legs, but particularly flexibility enables that left foot to stay down on the backswing, and along with the left foot and the left end step. Okay, the left heel stays down pressure on the left end step.

What happens in the right leg we're talking about lower body on the back swing. I'm going to tell you what happens with the right leg is nothing in a sense. I mean when you address the ball. I always tell people toes a little out, knee a little in. Okay, you've created this kind of knees in toes are out a little bit, particularly the four toes, but they're out there, flared out just a little bit. The reason for that is anatomical. It enables the hip joints to be more

open so that you have rotational ability. A lot of people, the first thing I look at is in a person's stance is their feet. And if they're pointing straight ahead real square, that locks the the trocanner the hip. It locks the rotational ability, and then people have a hard

time turning. They strain their back and they're all they can do is try to lift the club with their shoulders in their hands, and all of a sudden they're in their upper body a little flare out of the toes and pull the knees in a little bit towards the golf club. The golf club's kind of right there in the center line. If you toes out knees in. What happens is Number one, you've got your weight on your end steps. That's helpful. That's what Jack Nicholas said.

Right golf's play between the arches of your feet. Uh. In classical golf instruction, it's referred to as pronating. When you get your weight on the end steps and the toes are flared out a little, the knees are in a little Number one, you're locked in around the center line. That's a good thing. You're not going to sway so much. Number two, you can actually push a little bit on that left end step and you're able your hips are open enough that you can make the rotational turn.

stance right, point my toes out a little bit. And I just realize that since I've been doing that, my back pain is a lot less. Is that coincidental or is that something that's help?

little bit more than the back foot. That's because as you keep your you know, your forward foot down on the back swing, and you keep that back knee flexed, but without straightening, without swaying over to the side, it just stays put where it is. Then you're able to kind of turn into that back leg load and coil up your power, and you actually want some kind of a stop on that rotation. You don't want to just rotate, rotate, rotate. That's why you turn the backfoot out a little bit,

but not a lot. Now when you're coming through, and we'll we'll talk about that part in a minute, but when you're coming through, you're coming through it. You know, seventy eighty nine dred miles an hour with a lot of power and speed and energy. That's a lot for a skeleton, muscles, for a body to handle. And so if that forward foot is flared out even a little more, it allows us to go shoom and really release and still have some some hold, some stop there so that

we can have a balance finish. But that's what takes the pressure off your back and even your knees.

But let me say something else. So the forward foot stays down. Right. Most people, not most, but a lot of people tend to lift the heel on the forward foot. Now, then they do something really interesting, which is they come down in the down swing impact phase of the swing, leading with their shoulders and their hands, and they try to hit the ball hard, kill it with their upper body right, not knowing how to engage and properly use the lower body. And then what happens is they try

to hit it with their arms and that back. For a righty, that'll be the right foot, a left would be the left foot, but the backfoot they tend to keep on the ground or to only rotate through a little bit, and it's actually sort of you know, bass ackwards. So they keep but they lift the forward foot and they keep the back foot down when they're supposed to keep the forward foot down, and as they come through.

It's just like throwing a ball. You could be throwing a baseball, you could be hitting a baseball, you could be throwing a football, you could be hitting a tennis ball. All of those throw the ball sports, which is what golf is a throw the ball sport. They all the body mechanics of throwing a ball before the arms, the shoulders, anything gets engaged. The back foot, the instep of the back foot rolls a little bit, that sort of slight pronation the d step of the foot, and then that

kicks in the back knee. Gary Player was huge on this, by the way, best example. And so right foot, right knee for a right e and then that starts to turn the hips, and then that allows the shoulders elbows

to just relax and drop into place. Then the hands come through, they release through the golf ball, okay, And so at that point you're kind of on your right end step and to finish the swing, rather than lifting with the shoulders, the elbows and hands lifting the club up, you actually keep the right foot, the back foot turning after you've launched from the end step and knee and hips, and you keep the foot turning until you're up on your toe. And here's a really really big tip. I'm

not kidding. I've had so many thanks for this one. Turn your heel, turn your right heel. If you turn your right heel, it controls your hips, So you turn the right heel, the hips automatically turn. Now your belly, your belt buckle, your center is facing the target and now your shoulders turn automatically. One of my students calls it, they get a free ride on your feet and your hips because guess what there, that's what's if you're in good posture, they're right over your hips and feet. If

you turn your foot, your heel turns your hips. Now your shoulders turn, your hands and your club come flying through. This is right there visualized on video in lower body launch power on that Golf Channel video that I did so people can see what I'm talking about. But it

is amazing. So a lot of times people are told to stand on their right toe at the in their finished position right if you're righty, But more than just being on your toe, turn your heel, because it's your heel that is like this lever that turns your hips.

And when your hips turn, that's when your center, your belly button, your belt buckle is facing down the fairway face and your target and your hips and your hands and your club have automatically just flown through with their full full speed, full club head speed, and you are facing your target after you've launched the ball down the line, and you've been able to launch the ball down the line, which is what you've done with your you know, on the downswing impact face with the back end step and

knee and hips. So you've launched the ball down the line and now you finish up completely.

If you watch people's finished position and you look at their back foot, look at where it is, not a lot of people have fully turned their foot all the way to turning the heel, and so then they haven't had a complete follow through.

down to the floor with your hand. The boards just in the way, shall we say, and then it like sort of magically splits in two because the energy's gone all the way through. Same with the golf ball. When we say the golf ball gets in the way of the swing, you're not trying to hit the ball, you're moving all the way through it and extending through it an ike do or when we try to teach people, we have these rolls forward roles, so you have to roll on your arm and body and end up standing.

A lot of people try to just like kind of get their arm down and do this role, but a lot of times and they have trouble with it. So if I tell them, you know what, here's how you should be at the end. You should be standing up all the way at the end. Just focus on being standing at the end, and when they do that, all of a sudden, they roll. The role happens because they're standing up the momentum the energy carries all the way through.

So the follow through is important partially because it means that we're just sort of swept right through the ball. But the balance and position at the end is absolutely crucial, and it's both a cause and an effect of a good golf shot. It means that the energy was contained throughout the swing, it delivered into the ball and now here you are standing in good balance. For people who try to hit the ball, you'll see it all the time, especially these guys. Women aren't as guilty of it because

they don't just use so much brute force. But these guys who are going to hit a ton or a mile, they try to hit the ball and then they do that and they get this rebound kickback effect, and so they kick back and they're standing there like I mean, and nothing that begins to resemble their initial address position or proper follow through position, you know what I'm saying. And then they're standing there going, oh my god, they're watching this like huge slice off into somebody's roof or whatever.

They're going, Gosh, I wonder what happened, how did that get offline? Or how come that didn't go anywhere?

rotational body. So in the Solar system we have to have the Sun, and the Sun is strong and steady in the middle and then all the planets go around their orbit. If you could imagine the sun looking up right, the sun starts dancing around, we wouldn't be having this conversation. We'd be flying all over the place. And same like those revolving doors and buildings, it has a really strong

center column, and then the door goes around nicely. But if that thing it wasn't bolted down and strong and in place and was moving around, we wouldn't be able to make a smooth circle through the door. Same thing

in our golf swing. We are that center column. Our trunk of our body and our legs and our feet create that strong center column that we rotate around so that we can have a good consistent circular arc of the swing that the ball then gets in the way of when we lift our head or move our eyes or sway or don't have stability and strength in our

lower body. What we've done is to destroy the orbit of the golf swing, and that means that the club is not going to come down properly or in any consistent way, or hit the sweet spot from the club to the golf ball, you know, once in a while, but not so much. That's why when we have stability, and we keep our on the ball, we keep our head down, we're able to keep the orbit of the swing intact, and therefore we can then make centered contact on the golf ball. How's that?

proper distance. It's not a nice, smooth rolling putt. So stability and putting is huge, and keeping your head down and your knees steady, and you know, having a solid foundation so that then you can just make the stroke and deliver that energy just a sweet spot just the way you want and roll the ball right up the line.

way through. So my best friend since four years old was visiting me in San Diego and she said, hey, I'm golfing. Would you give me a golf lesson now, mind you, I was being an ike Do instructor and not a golf pro at that time, and I said, yeah, sure.

I took my seven iron and my iike Do sword, and she took her golf clubs and we went to Tory Pines to the driving range, and I started showing her a few things about being just these basics that we're talking about in her stance and grounded and centered and extension and relaxed release into the golf ball. Well, she started hitting the ball within one hour, like unbelievably. She could not believe it. I was kind of surprised to it was so well tould be told. But she

literally fell on the ground. She threw her clubs at her feet up in the air. I remember she yelped and she went, oh, wow, you've got to teach us to the world. This is amazing. This she goes, this is like enlightenment. And I remember going that that was pretty cool. That really worked. It was like the golf sense sort of appeared full blown. This is like fifteen

years ago. And so I started going to the driving range quietly by myself for about a year and putting all these principles back into practice and consciously developing my golf game. And that's when I rejoined the LPGA and developed PI Golf, et cetera, et cetera. But it started from that one one hour that was just you know, just so happened to be uh and for her to go this is like enlightenment. You got to teach us

to the world. So I've been trying to do that, and I do see that it's making a difference, and that it's certainly putting some new thoughts, new practices, new perspectives into the whole approach to teaching the game better, playing the game better, and actually having people improve, because golfers don't really improve that much. You know, we pour a lot of money and ego and energy. You go to the Golf show, a couple of million square free

to golf stuff. You watch Golf Channel twenty four to seven, and the statistics on handicaps going down is one indicator of real golf improvement are really dismal. I mean, they're like, you know, they're almost down at zero percent. So most of us don't take that kind of ROI right, return on investment in anything, but we keep plodding along in golf, and I think that there's ways to make a real difference.

And I've seen that bringing these kinds of principles and practices that are actually quite accessible make a big difference for golfers at every level, begin intermediate players, advanced players, even pros really makes a difference absolutely.

about your shoulder turn. It's much more about this holistic and starting from the lower body and the core. Outside of that, it's universal principles and can be woven into other approaches.