Why is bending the right elbow by more than 90 deg a bad habit?

[jfrain2004]

I think Iacas started this thread and the Swing Extender seems to be a big hit with a lot of you guys.
What I don't understand fully is why is bending the right elbow by more than 90 dega bad idea?
See thread ....
http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthr...195#post369195

[Clambake]

Hold your right arm out like it is at the top of a backswing, with about a 90 degree bend. Now bend it more than 90. Notice how your hand moves a lot closer to your head? This is significantly reducing the radius of your swing at this crucial time. As you move into a downswing, you either maintain this radius or increase it during the down swing. To maintain it, you have to do a lot of manipulations with your arms and spine angle to avoid hitting fat or thin, and you're losing power. If you increase that radius, you're losing a lot of swing speed (aka power). Think of a figure skater doing a spin - hold the arms out and spin slower, pull them in and spin faster. Either way you're making the swing more difficult and losing power.

[Dub]

Yup....you are killin your swing width.

[jfrain2004]

I tried this last night at the range. Huge increase in distance when I eventually mastered lifting my right elbow up to avoid over bending it. Tooka while to get consistent striking but seemed to get easier after a few dozen balls. Defo will try to stick with it and make this swing change work.
With my old way, I could put a golf ball under my right arm pit ( I kept my right elbow so close to my body during the entire swing ..... old school ) and take a full back swing without the ball dropping out until I had hit the ball and almost completed my through swing

[KimboSlice]

I also read in one of my old Golf magazines that by not bending your elbow more than 90 degrees prevents you from overswinging. I guess this promotes the idea that to get distance, you should coil more in your hips, rather than taking a bigger swing.