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Think of the best ball
strikers in golf history.

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Chances are you're thinking of
the likes of Tiger Woods and Sam

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Snead.

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But did you know your favorite
ball striker's favorite ball

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striker is probably Moe Norman.

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It's frightening how
straight he hits it.

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Never off-line.

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His swing can't hit it crooked.

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It's like Iron Byron.

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The ball doesn't move.

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Moe Norman's golf swing
is a strange series

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of unconventional quirks.

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It's a move unlike most
golfers have ever seen.

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But look closely, and
you'll find genius

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in this move, the kind
of genius that may even

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help you play better golf.

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And to understand
that genius, you

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need to start exactly where
Moe Norman's golf swing begins,

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right here.

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So let's dive in.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Few players in golf history
have received such high praise

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from the greats of the game,
legends like Sam Snead, Tiger

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Woods, and Vijay Singh, and
even the great Lee Trevino.

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When you talk about Moe Norman,
you're talking about a legend.

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If you ask any
golf professional,

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whether you're in Australia,
or whether you're in the US,

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or whether you're in Great
Britain, and you say,

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that's the Canadian guy that
hits it so damn good, isn't it?

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And I say, that's him.

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He's a legend with
the professionals.

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As well as being lauded
for his ball striking,

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Norman had an amazing
career as a player.

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He won 54 events on his
native Canadian tour

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and is credited with
33 course records.

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He made an incredible
17 holes in one

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and shot 59 in competition
three different times.

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In 1966 alone, Norman finished
either first or second

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in 10 of the 12
events he played.

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And the myth of
Moe Norman features

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some incredible
individual stories,

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like the time he hit
more than 1,500 drives

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at a 7-hour exhibition,
all of them finishing

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within a 30-yard-wide
area over 230 yards away,

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or the story about Moe Norman
being the only player Titleist

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has ever tested to hit
back-to-back shots with exactly

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0 degrees of side spin, a
mind-bendingly impossible task

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to achieve.

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Norman attributed
his legendary ball

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striking to one specific
moment, the moment of impact.

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Everything Moe Norman
did in his golf swing

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was to match his setup
and impact positions,

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to organize his
body in a way where

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he could return to a
perfect impact position

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as simply and as
easily as possible,

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removing every variable
he could along the way,

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stripping away every
piece of excess movement

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wherever he could find it.

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Anything Moe didn't need,
he just wouldn't use.

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This isn't really something
you hear as much from teachers

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these days.

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Modern coaches will often
talk about matching up

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different motions and creating a
different sequence of movements

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to gain little bits of speed.

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But Moe Norman, he wasn't really
interested in any of this.

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He wanted to turn his swing
into a consistent, pure-hitting,

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accuracy machine, and it worked.

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Look closely, and you'll see.

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It showed in his golf swing in
all sorts of interesting ways.

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The easiest place to
start is with his stance.

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Moe Norman's stance was wide,
like really, really wide.

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He stood so wide
that it effectively

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locked his lower body in place
on the backswing, ultra stable.

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He just couldn't
move around a lot.

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Then, if you look at
Moe Norman's upper body,

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it was tilted
pretty severely away

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from the target, which
is very different to what

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most pros do nowadays.

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Most pros set up with
almost no tilt at setup.

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In other words, their spine
is straight up and down.

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But then, as we discussed
in our last film study video

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about Will Zalatoris, as
players shift their hips forward

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and push off their left side,
it bends their upper body back,

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which gives them the tilt they
need to hit up on the ball.

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But again, moving your
lower body forward,

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while moving your
upper body back

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is exactly the kind of
moving parts thing that Moe

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Norman wanted to avoid.

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What if your lower body
moved too far forward?

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Or your upper body
didn't move back enough?

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So instead, Moe Norman preset
this kind of reverse C shape.

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He locked his
lower body in place

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on the backswing
with his wide stance

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and then tried to maintain
this shape as he swung.

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When Moe shifted
into his left side

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on the downswing, which golfers
need to do to generate power,

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instead of shifting one part
forward and another part back,

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he moved both his upper
and lower bodies together

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towards the target.

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Todd Graves was a
Golf Digest's Best

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in State Teacher in Oklahoma
and studied directly

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under Moe Norman.

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He was the model in this Golf
Digest cover story about Moe

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right here.

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Todd had spent years using 3D
to decode the secrets of Moe

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Norman's golf swing.

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He even enlisted the help of
golf biomechanist Dr. Rob Neal

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to compare a Moe Norman style
swing to a modern-day version.

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And they found that Moe set up
with about 10 degrees of spine

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angle tilt at setup.

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And then, he hit the ball with
about 13 degrees of spine angle

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tilt. So virtually identical.

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But modern tour players,
someone like JT,

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they go from close to 0
degrees to spine angle tilt

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to about 15 degrees at impact.

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Powerful, yes, but also a lot
more potential margin for error.

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And it's why lots
of teachers nowadays

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tell amateur golfers
to learn from this,

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to set up with more tilt,
especially with their driver,

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to give their body a
little bit of a head start.

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Moe Norman's unique
arm structure

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was an integral
part of all of this.

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The way he saw it,
pros didn't set up

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with enough room between
themselves and the golf ball,

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so they needed to create
this space somewhere else

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during their swing.

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So some parts of their
body moved forward

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while others moved back.

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Some went around while
others went up and down.

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And that created problems
because as golfers lifted

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their arms, for example,
it would do things

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like open the clubface,
which would mean they needed

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to time it with their hands.

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Again, moving parts.

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Moe Norman really did
not like moving parts.

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So Moe set up with
his arms straight.

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He wanted both arms
straight at impact.

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So why wouldn't he
set them up that way?

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Moe's left arm was crucially
important in all of this.

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He used big grips
and gripped the club

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with a traditionally
weak left-hand grip

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with his left thumb
running straight

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down the middle of the
club, similar to what

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Bryson does today.

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Moe kept his left arm directly
in line with the club itself,

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which formed a kind
of relationship

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between the clubface, the
back of his left hand,

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and his left shoulder.

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He used this relationship
for clubface awareness

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and consistent spacing between
himself and the golf ball

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as he swung.

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His right arm bent
on the backswing

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because it had to, which is why
he placed his right hand very

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far under the grip.

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That placed his trail
shoulder in a position

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where his right arm would
fold and tuck into his body

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on the backswing and
then return to straight

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without much twisting.

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It all made for a
very simple route

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to return everything from setup
to impact, which Moe Norman made

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all the more simple by
starting his backswing about

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2 feet behind the ball.

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This preset part of
his shoulder turn.

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Again, just one less
thing to worry about.

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It all made for a
fascinatingly simple move

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and one that gave Moe the
feeling that his impact zone was

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3 feet long, that the club
stayed square for an eternity

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either side of the ball.

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This, he said, was
his money zone.

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Until there.

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I'm really going to
arrive alive there.

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It was these moves and an
obsession with the golf swing

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that created the legend
that is Moe Norman.

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Would he have experienced the
same success if he stuck it out

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on the PGA TOUR?

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It's one of the great
what-ifs in golf history,

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but there's no denying that
Moe Norman figured things

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out his own way.

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No one has ever
perfected the golf swing,

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but it seems Moe Norman came
pretty close to perfecting

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his own version.

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He went to bed every night
thinking of the golf swing.

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And then--

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He woke up every day knowing
he was going to hit it well.

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He just knew he was
going to hit it well.

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Moe Norman, your favorite ball
striker's favorite ball striker.

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