Shorter (Probably Better) Swing? Keep the Right Arm Straight

[anthony]

Originally Posted by bjwestner

This idea makes a lot of sense and I know that when my swing breaks down it has a lot to do with my right arm having too acute of an angle (just so we are clear, when it's said that your right arm is too flex this actually means that the angle of the arm is less than 90 degrees or at an acute angle?).

Overflexing is when your right arm bends at the elbow too much.

[nachosgrande]

Reviving this thread for 2014.

One of the most important feel tips I've ever read.  This one tip immediately got my arms/hands in sync with my chest/body and eliminated the two-way block/flip miss.  I've struggled with sucking the club back behind my body for almost 20 years and no instructor was ever able to give me a feel tip that was simple enough to consistently repeat...until now. Golf is a much easier game to play when you are swinging on plane.

Thank you so much for this nugget.

[Ernest Jones]

Yes. Great thread and great tip. I was just mentioning this thread to @MattM in his thread where he asks for tips for shortening the backswing. This is a great one Matt, give it a try. I dunno if it works for everyone but it does the trick for me.

[billchao]

Yes. Great thread and great tip. I was just mentioning this thread to @MattM in his thread where he asks for tips for shortening the backswing. This is a great one Matt, give it a try. I dunno if it works for everyone but it does the trick for me.

Thanks for digging this up. I'm trying to shorten my backswing, but I abandoned my extensor action feel a while ago because it didn't do anything for me. Apparently I've been doing it wrong (figures). I started working on the "keeping the rope taut feeling" and the early signs are positive.

[Ernest Jones]

This little piece has been working wonders for me and, along with the changes Brian has me doing on Evolvr, has pulled me out of a 3 week funk. Initially I was just trying to keep my arms ram-rod straight and elbows squeezed together as close as possible throughout the entire swing. These are, of course, just feels. My arms obviously can't stay ram-rod straight if I want to achieve any semblance of a proper A4 position.

This immediately got me:

• going back on plane instead of yanking it inside
• swinging within myself
• levelling out my shoulder pitch a bit (this is the main issue I am working on with Evolvr)
• coming into the ball from the inside
• aggressively shifting my weight
• exploding through the ball with a ton of extension

I had a few issues with the way I was doing this and the feels I was using. The ram-rod straight and elbows squeezed tightly introduced a lot of tension in my swing which at times would cause me to come off the ball too much from A3-A4 and when that happened I would either make a huge weight shift back through the ball to compensate (which gave me great shots) or I'd just spin out with no weight shift which usually caused me to hit a thinned (almost topped) ball that would just worm burn and peter out in the grass. As could be expected this also lead to some mega fats where the divot went farther than the ball...in other words very inconsistent which can be expected with any method that has you coming off the ball in the BS.

I've now settled into the feeling of taking the club back with my right arm and just feeling that arm staying as straight as it can, as soon as it feels like it has to bend I'm done my backswing and it's time to slam my hips forward while exploding my lead shoulder up and around. I haven't done any camera work since shifting to this feel so I can only go with ball flight for now. It feels like my backswing is REALLY short but I'm hitting my 4H well over 200 yards on good strikes and I'm getting a ton of height (the good kind, not ballooning flippy kind) so I'm pretty stoked. Since moving to a more right arm focused feel I've been able to get all the benefits without the tension that came with my previous feels. Mostly eliminated the thins and fats. Now if I could just get my club face to behave so I can predict where these bombs are headed...

All in all, great thread and tip that can probably help a lot of golfers with a variety of different issues.

[Grndslmhttr3]

Definitely gonna give this a go next time I hit the range. I was taking some practice swings outside earlier trying to get my right elbow straighter as well as in a better position (as explained in the following 5SK video) and it felt like I reached parallel quicker (could be a placebo but we'll find out soon). It felt a bit odd but hey, if it doesn't feel weird at first then you're not doing it correctly, right?

I think I'm hung up on too many swing thoughts/tips at the moment, though

Video I was talking about:

[Jakester23]

Thanks EJ for posting a link to this thread in your swing thread. After reading this thread Im pretty sure Im taking the club back to far.  Do you feel like you've lost any distance by shortening your back swing? I think shortening my backswing will help with my Key 2 a lot. I was having trouble timing up my hip slide with the top of my backswing.

[Ernest Jones]

Thanks EJ for posting a link to this thread in your swing thread. After reading this thread Im pretty sure Im taking the club back to far.  Do you feel like you've lost any distance by shortening your back swing? I think shortening my backswing will help with my Key 2 a lot. I was having trouble timing up my hip slide with the top of my backswing. [URL=http://thesandtrap.com/content/type/61/id/102887/] [/URL]

The opposite actually. Probably gained a club's worth of distance. More controlled swing, better impact alignments and hitting the sweet spot more consistently. There's a 95 yard par 3 on my course that I used to get pin high with my 56*. Now it's my 60*, 56* flies the green by 5-10 yards. My 60* used to always stop well short of the front apron.

[Jakester23]

The opposite actually. Probably gained a club's worth of distance. More controlled swing, better impact alignments and hitting the sweet spot more consistently. There's a 95 yard par 3 on my course that I used to get pin high with my 56*. Now it's my 60*, 56* flies the green by 5-10 yards. My 60* used to always stop well short of the front apron.

Could you post a pic of the top of your backswing on here or on your swing thread?  I looked at a couple of Rory's and Adam Scotts's swings and they are still maintaing s straight lead arm. They just have a much bigger shoulder turn than I do while maintaining that straight lead arm.

[Ernest Jones]

Could you post a pic of the top of your backswing on here or on your swing thread?  I looked at a couple of Rory's and Adam Scotts's swings and they are still maintaing s straight lead arm. They just have a much bigger shoulder turn than I do while maintaining that straight lead arm.

Done.

[2rakez]

I struggle with both my swing getting too armsy and too steep sometimes (I think both are caused by overfolding the right arm), and I just tried this and I was hitting my irons more consistently than I have any time in the past few years.  When I first read this tip it seemed like it would affect distance negatively, but I was dead wrong, I was hitting it as far as I normally do with what felt like swinging at 80% speed.  Thanks for this, real gamechanger

[joekelly]

Nor mentioning or criticizing anyone in particular but golf's new magic word seems to ' explode' or 'explosion through the ball' or somehow using that word to describe the action of striking the inert, defenseless, small white orb.

Didn't Ole Sam Snead want 'controlled anger'?  Too bad for me, my explosions and anger are highly erratic thus robbing me of control.  Maybe i'm in love with my own history.

Regardless, change ain't easy.

[2rakez]

Nor mentioning or criticizing anyone in particular but golf's new magic word seems to 'explode' or 'explosion through the ball' or somehow using that word to describe the action of striking the inert, defenseless, small white orb.

Didn't Ole Sam Snead want 'controlled anger'?  Too bad for me, my explosions and anger are highly erratic thus robbing me of control.  Maybe i'm in love with my own history.

Regardless, change ain't easy.

"Exploding through the ball" doesn't really seem relevant to this swing thought, you can still swing at whatever tempo and as hard or easy as you want to. I think the intended benefit or goal of this is to make it easier to use your body more efficiently, as it really helps keep the larger muscles in control and leading throughout the swing which, if executed correctly, allows you to swing hard or "explode" through the ball without having to rely on timing as much.  That's what I get out of it at least

[chris3putt]

Yes, I said right arm.

No, I don't mean it literally.

If you want to keep your backswing shorter - and probably 95%+ of golfers should - feel like you keep your right arm straight(er) on the backswing.

Give it a try.

Possibly the shortest and best instruction thread you have posted! Thanks.

[Lihu]

This works. I put a brace on my elbow that would make snap sound if i bend my lead arm, and am getting used to hearing it snap after my release which should be after impact. I'm going to verify with video tomorrow.

[dunlucedreams]

To answer the both of you...

Inward hand path (not too far inward, but again, the list of people who take their hands too far in is zero) is important. I prefer to keep your right elbow fairly well connected to the chest, yes.

But no, a connected elbow does not mean you can't extend. Extending is NOT lifting. LIFTING is what pulls the right elbow off the chest most of the time.

I posted another thread about the Swing Extender a long time ago. If you push with extensor action to try to keep your arm straight, you'll maintain good width, your right elbow will NOT collapse to less than 90°, and your swing will stop at the proper point.

@iacas what does 'push with extensor action' mean please?

The basic idea is called extensor action.

It sounds crazy and takes some getting used to but once you get it, it is the most structured and solid back swing you could make.

The right fore arm preferably takes the club back, the entire time the right tricep and upper arm is attempting to straighten the right arm, the left arm is passively acting as a leash and so the left arm stays nice and taut.

As soon as you run out of right arm to bend the back swing stops because the pushing right arm will not allow the left arm to bend (which is a huge problem if it does).

This also does a lot to keep your wrist alignments in good shape throughout the back swing.

Most people will actually shorten the swing, gain consistency, and gain power due to the fact that their alignments improve so dramatically with this method.

Is this describing the same feel as above?

thanks

[mvmac]

@iacas what does 'push with extensor action' mean please?

Extensor action is just the effort to straighten a bent right arm. With your right hand you can feel like you "push" the left hand away from you. Where the palm of your right hand comes into contact with the left (pressure point #1), apply pressure.

[dunlucedreams]

Extensor action is just the effort to straighten a bent right arm. With your right hand you can feel like you "push" the left hand away from you. Where the palm of your right hand comes into contact with the left (pressure point #1), apply pressure.

Thanks Mike,

struggling with the feel or thought process of this. i feel that if i apply pressure using the right palm to the top of the left hand that it creates wrist cock?

i think my brain is programmed to think of the right arm as the pulling arm in the backswing so the push thought doesn't compute

i shall keep trying this