Justin Thomas Swing Analysis Slow Motion Iron
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About Ross Eves Golf
Ross Eves Golf is all about improving your golf. From golf fitness, to golf biomechanics to beginner’s golf tips!
So, what’s my background?
Well, as most professional golfers my dream was to play professionally. However, that dream was a little lofty for someone with my talent. So, I decided to take a different route. This route was to investigate the science behind getting better, specially how to hit the ball further! After all, who doesn’t want to hit the ball further.
This desire to learn how to increase swing speed lead me to investigate the body in terms of golf fitness and golf biomechanics. This interest in golf fitness lead me to complete TPI Level 1 and 2; become a qualified massage therapist and then extend that knowledge by completing a Masters degree.
During my Masters, I focused my research solely on increasing club head speed through golf fitness interventions. This line of scientific enquiry provided me with first evidence and golf fitness routines which would increase swing speed and hence increase club head speed. Personally, I found this research to be extremely helpful, and I increased club head speed by 15mph (from 100mph to 115mph) within 1 year.
After this I have turned my attention to the biomechanics of the golf swing. This combination of golf biomechanics and golf fitness knowledge allows me to provide coaching to all levels to help increase club head speed.
Justin Thomas is Justin Thomas is one of the greatest players in the game right now however he has struggled in the 2023 season with his form and with his swing so we’re going to do an in-depth analysis on Justin Thomas swing what he does really well what causes some issues for Justin
We’re going to go over that and have a look today so let’s have a look firstly at setup so as most PJ to players very neutral setup neutral grip not a whole lot wrong here now I think where Justin does come into some issues is the takeaway so I want us to specifically
Watch the face on view so watch his head now he gets a little bit of tilt there I don’t mind that Nicholas did it I think Hogan did it tiger did it just helping him rotate his vehicle spine and it just helps Aid rotation in the back swing not
Got an issue with that however Watch What Happens his head’s going to move down and away from the target can you see that move down and away so where I think this causes issues is later on in just in swing because he does get his hands very
High and has to re-root the club in order to shallow it he doesn’t like that position at the top but I think a lot of it comes from this takeaway position so if we look at it from down the line You’ll see how that head’s moving down
Don’t mind it rotating but it moves down which puts his hands behind him he gets little bit steeper in the shoulder plane and then what that’ll do is get him picking up his hands and he gets his hands very very high at the top of his swing now I personally like that
Position however he has to rroo it which then causes some issues in his swing so you’ll see if I just clear those lines he’ll then start to move that handle up and he gets the club quite upright for a lot of guys you see very common for guys
To be more sort of here with that shaft plane don’t mind it at all but you’ll see as he works up to the top of his swing how high his hands actually do get compared to most guys on tour you’ll see from similar position from face on not a
Whole lot of wrist set look at how much width these got I love that that right elbow is higher than his left again that will help with getting those High hands which is great for Speed but again we’ll show some issues that it can create for
Justin so bring it up a couple more frames you’ll see how he moves nicely into that trail side and then top of the back swing lovely High hands here very very WI wi very very powerful however Justin doesn’t like this position and I will show you why so his
Hands get quite High here but watch what he has to do now to shallow the club because his hands are so high and look at the but position of that club like most guys like Rory or like Max Homer their hand position at the top would be
More over here sort of behind that left heel so if Justin would to bring the hands sort of down on the same plane that he started on he’d get very very steep so he has to create a move to avoid that steepness and what Justin does is he drives the right knee and
Right hip forward which as a sort of counterbalance will then drop the club out behind him so watch this moving transition there so can you see how the right knee right hip drive forward and then it drops that club into a lovely shallow position now I love that move as
A matchup he’s probably a little bit steeper than some guys would sort of suggest it’s trendy right now but I mean as a matchup it’s a great move but it can also create some issues coming into impact so we’ll look from face on you’ll see how that right hip starts to drive
Forward right knee starts to drive forward see that I mean he does a great job of really rotating maintaining that lag I mean I’m being being very very critical but for his ability not winning on tour in 2023 was a little bit of a disaster for
Him so you’ll see as he keeps coming down look how that knee is still driving that hips driving forward and we got what we’ve got to remember here it’s a very very powerful action very powerful but when he comes into impact you’ll see how little room he actually has which
Then can cause some issues with strike so let’s bring him into impact and you can see there how close those hands are to the body and now he has to early extend a little bit now early extension has gotten a bad rep a lot of guys do early extend Nicholas
Being one of the most famous early extenders it’s a it can be a very powerful move but when you lose that amount of space you then can provide present the huzzle to the ball I’ve seen Justin hit a few Shanks in PJ tour events famously he hit a shank on his
Way to winning the PJ Championship so it’s a little bit of a contentious issue should we say in golf early extension do I think it causes an issue for Justin probably and I I think that’s probably due to the way he moves that initial portion in back swing of that head
Moving down and those shoulders getting steep making the club work more up and getting those hands high the problem is is if we change it so those hands go a little bit deeper he would then have to change the way he he transitions in order to match up
Correctly so he’s doing the correct matchup so it’s more of a case for him at his level we’re not going to really see changes in that motion because it’s so ingrained so he’s kind of just got to manage it and manage that he doesn’t get too high with those hands and move too
Aggressively with that knee out towards the ball now the other thing with Justin’s move that you’ll see with guys that have that move is you’ll also see a big drive down into the ground and then pushing off and you seen any of the ground force data with Justin what
Happens is as he approaches impact let me clear those lines I want you to look at that left foot how it’ll jump off the ground can you see that it jumps off the ground so his Center of pressure will move back towards that right foot now it’s a very powerful way of swinging
You’ll see a lot of long drive guys do it and I would suggest that Justin does that because he’s not the biggest guy in the world he’s probably 51 5 11 and he’s also quite light so if he maybe put on a little bit of weight bit of muscle I
Think he could sort of negate that action a little bit better and maintain that space a little bit more you saw tiger do that in the early 2000s put on a bit of muscle put on a bit of size and he was able to be a little stronger
Through the ball and have less of a pronounced jump so that could be a route that Justin does go down and I you’ve got to remember as well this guy’s won two major championships with this action so I think it’s more of a case of just
Managing the action and when it gets a little bit too drastic those hands get a little bit too high and that hip Drive gets a little bit too much and that knee Drive gets a little bit too much then I think that’s where his issues are going
To come from now it’s still a fantastic swing he’s still what top 30 in the world and I’m sure he will get back to being world number one or the definitely top five in the world he just needs to manage that aspect of his game and ultimately if you look at his Instagram
He’s been practicing hard and working on that you’ll see Justin work a lot on this motion where he’s he’ll have a shaft on this sort of position which will just what that enables him to do is make sure that when he does get a little bit more drive through the knee his bad
Habit will be that his Club drops to inside just because he’s not got the space there so by putting that alignment stick or shaft out here he’s able to keep the club more outside his hand so he can get on top of it and get that hit
Back and avoid early extending as much so it’s not a case of changing his swing drastically because when you’re dealing with a guy that is a multi-million pound dollar winner on the PJ tour trying to change something so drastic that’s so ingrained can cause a lot of issues
That’s why you see guys that have won Majors or won multiple tournaments change the swing and then they lose the game completely and you never hear of them again so it’s not a case of changing it it’s a case of managing it now I love Justin swing and I am
Confident that with his coach Mike Thomas who’s also his dad that he’ll get back in track and get back into winning ways in 2024
