Folding trailing arm early

[Rfordeagle]

(lefty)  At my last range session, instead of trying to hold the triangle, I started to fold my left arm earlier.  Even a little bit before p2.  For whatever reason it really helped me draw the ball, especially with my longer clubs.  Felt like my elbow was staying tighter to my body, ensuring a more compact swing.  Some web sites advocate keeping the triangle for as long as possible, not me though!  Anybody else have an opinion on this??

[Tom Shanks]

If you hold it too long your trailing arm will disconnect from your body. Some people can manage to get it back into position on the way down......but not me. Whatever works for you. Take a look at Ernie Els current swing sequence. His club is horizontal to the ground before his hands clear his hip.

[billchao]

(lefty)  At my last range session, instead of trying to hold the triangle, I started to fold my left arm earlier.  Even a little bit before p2.  For whatever reason it really helped me draw the ball, especially with my longer clubs.  Felt like my elbow was staying tighter to my body, ensuring a more compact swing.  Some web sites advocate keeping the triangle for as long as possible, not me though!  Anybody else have an opinion on this??

This is something I'm working on now, the right forearm takeaway (or left, in your case). From address, just fold the trail arm back and up and hinge (it's obviously not as simple as that). I find that this move causes me to tuck my elbow in and keeps the swing compact, exactly as you mentioned. Whenever I do the one piece takeaway I tend to push my trail arm away from my body and the separation leads to all sorts of problems.

[cooke119]

Hmm, next time I'm at the range I will have to try this.

[Rfordeagle]

Originally Posted by billchao

This is something I'm working on now, the right forearm takeaway (or left, in your case). From address, just fold the trail arm back and up and hinge (it's obviously not as simple as that). I find that this move causes me to tuck my elbow in and keeps the swing compact, exactly as you mentioned. Whenever I do the one piece takeaway I tend to push my trail arm away from my body and the separation leads to all sorts of problems.

Bingo.  This is the exact feel.   I couldn't believe how well I was push drawing the ball, and I rarely do that with my longer clubs.

[Ernest Jones]

This is what I'm working on right now. It was brought to my attention (thanks Beach) that I was getting to P2 a little late. Trail elbow drifting too far off of my body and wrist hinging a little late. It's a very similar feeling to what I use with Utley's chipping technique. Going to work on it this week and see what my camera has to say about it.

[onephenom]

I like folding it early because I like having a back swing that mirrors the downswing in many ways. In this instance, I want to keep my trailing arm from extending to early on the downswing so I fold it early in the backswing