Leading arm during takeaway?

[KimboSlice]

Just a couple of questions concerning your lead arm during takeway (your left arm if you are a righty and right arm if you are a lefty).

1. How important is it to keep it super taut with no bend at all? Does it affect distance and accuracy?

2. I taped my swing and I noticed that at the top of my swing, my club points left of the target line (I'm a lefty). Is this caused because my leading arm (right arm) is breaking down during my takeaway?

[iacas]

1) taught, eh... you never want it to feel rigid. It's somewhat important to keep it fairly straight, but even pros bend it a little sometimes. It depends on why you're bending it, though, and most amateurs bend it way too much and just get sloppy with the right elbow.

2) Perhaps. Could be other things too. Where's a good video of your swing? We could tell you if we saw it.

[mtsalmela80]

I was at the range today and ran into a friend who is a pretty good golfer. He basically gave me a lesson on stance, and also this leading arm. My leading arm was bending big time, and he said that this would lead to more fat shots because on the downswing, if it has to straighten out, it can actually lengthen a bit (the tendons I suppose) and that can lead to mishits. He also had me try to keep my bicep as close to my peck as I could so my arm didnt drift.


Make sense to any experts on here?

[DavidFehertysBike]

I got a little bend too, its not that big of a deal. I think its more important to stay loose than to tighten up your arm like a board. For me, i like to roll my arm up my chest so i can better prevent shutting the face at the top, and its hard to get that rotation with a tight arm. Keeping your biceps close to your chest as said in the post above is a good key.

[The Recreational Golfer]

1. Your leading arm, or any arm, should never be taut to any degree. If you let your arm hang down by your side, you see that there is a natural bend in it. This, therefore, is a "straight" arm given the way we are built. That is the shape in which your leading arm should be maintained until just after impact, when that arm begins to fold in the follow-through. If your leading arm is geometrically straight, it has been overextended and is tense. Tension leads to bad things. If your arm bends too much, then you have introduced a third pivot point into your swing (1=shoulders, 2=wrists) and it will be hard to keep all that in concert.

Ben Hogan kept his leading arm ramrod straight, and Lorena Ochoa lets her leading arm bend a lot on her backswing, but we are not them.

2. It could be the result of taking the club back inside.

[iacas]

1. Your leading arm, or any arm, should never be taut to any degree. If you let your arm hang down by your side, you see that there is a natural bend in it. This, therefore, is a "straight" arm given the way we are built. That is the shape in which your leading arm should be maintained until just after impact,

No, your left arm should not have a bend in it. I can straighten my left arm (and my right) without any "tension" and the speed of the golf swing is going to straighten it even if you don't. Trying to maintain "the right amount of bend" is the fastest way to inconsistent results as your swing radius will change on every swing.

Relaxed, but straight. If it bends a little on the backswing that's fine, but I like to feel as though I'm pushing away with my right arm so that it doesn't fold more than 90°.