Not getting arm extension after impact

[AbsoluteTruths]

Went to the driving range today and I have a bad habit I am trying to break. My instructor has been trying to get me to extend my arms after impact. I instead yank them around my body to the left and product a low short hook with my driver.

My instructor says think low to high meaning low back swing high finish.

Is there a drill or an aid like an alignment stick in the ground that can help me ingrain this?

[EverythingGolf]

Do you have an up to date face on and down the line swing you can post in your swing thread? Things that happen in your swing are a result of correct or incorrect sequencing in your swing. The only way to now for sure what is wrong is to post an up to date swing to see whats going on.

Edited December 6, 2016 by EverythingGolf

[Rainmaker]

I've been working on this same thing . .not directly . .but I've been taking extra notice of my extension after impact.  All this info is relative to me . .might not pertain to you . . anyway . .the first key to is a straight left arm going back.  My right arm in the follow through, ideally, is going to mirror my left arm in backswing.  2nd key is arms close together.  I'm trying to keep my right and left arms as close together as I can through the whole swing.  The next key is the club path . .without the correct path, it's not gonna happen.  Finally . .and most importantly for getting that last nth of extension . .is my hand/forearm rotation through impact.  It has to be forceful yet in-synch with the rest of my swing.  If it's not forceful enough, I don't get that last bit of extension.  Another consideration - keep that left elbow close to your body just a fraction longer.   

So - do all those things and there you go . .Bob's yer Uncle.  

edit . .I forgot another key . .the "tug of war" . . .as you go past impact you should almost feel like you're in a mini tug-of-war with the club . .you should feel it pulling away from you . .your body slightly pulling back against it.  This is highly related to clubpath and could be highly specific to me .. I used to have a bad forward lunge so I had to feel like I was actually going backwards a bit in the follow-through . .just to not be going forwards.  

 

Edited December 6, 2016 by Rainmaker

[Piz]

That happens to me when my upper body dominates the pass.  The less level the lie the more apt this is to occur.

[Rainmaker]

41 minutes ago, Piz said:

That happens to me when my upper body dominates the pass.  The less level the lie the more apt this is to occur.

I've been playing this practice game where I make 10 swings and see how many are good ones.  Usually 2-3 will be ones where my upper body dominates.  These are my nemesis.  If I ever get permanently injured this will be the reason.  When my upper body dominates I'm slamming it into the turf or coming down right on top of the ball or skulling it . . .not to mention the awful torque put on my arms, wrists, elbows, etc . .from fighting against my ungainly body-mass.  If I do manage to connect with it .. look out gallery-left.  

[Piz]

What is your take on the good passes?  For myself, I feel less stressful, or more balanced, or generally less concerned about one aspect.

[Rainmaker]

Yeah - that's the million dollar question, right?  If I can do it 6 times out of 10, why not 10 times out of 10?  

Part of it is mechanics - has to be.  The better we get, the better our percentage of good shots gets.  My teacher says it's literally because our hands become more educated - better at correcting for the increasingly smaller mishaps that happen along the way. 

Many of us are going to run into range of motion issues if we're going to have the mechanics that have a chance of producing 10 out of 10 good swings.  This is something I definitely struggle with . .if I shorten my swing to where I can keep my left arm straight then I can approach 8 out of 10 good swings ..or even better. ... but it's like a half-swing compared to tour pros.  

[Piz]

What I figured out...belatedly...was that I really didn't know what to concentrate on.  I'd been told that I needed to concentrate (be the ball...be the club...be the inside of your left elbow...imagine your arms are elephant trunks...think of the flag as a fruit basket...sit on the barstool while not disturbing the parrot, etc...)  Missing in all that was the simple task before me:  the ball is here and it needs to be over there.  My good passes accomplish the modicum and my poor passes do not.  Everything else is window-dressing.  Focus is unintelligible minus an understanding of what, precisely, to focus on.  I made great strides when I stopped thinking about what I was supposed to do...(imagine that the back of your lead hand is the club face...) and just hit the ball in a manner the particular circumstances appeared to warrant.  Does that work all the time?  Of course not...it's golf.

[AbsoluteTruths]

14 hours ago, EverythingGolf said:

Do you have an up to date face on and down the line swing you can post in your swing thread? Things that happen in your swing are a result of correct or incorrect sequencing in your swing. The only way to now for sure what is wrong is to post an up to date swing to see whats going on.

No I do not have any current videos up. I usually bring my camera to the range but not yesterday. I go to the range once a week I'll put some up next time I go.

Thanks everyone else for chiming in.

[Marty2019]

On 12/5/2016 at 7:53 PM, AbsoluteTruths said:

Went to the driving range today and I have a bad habit I am trying to break. My instructor has been trying to get me to extend my arms after impact. I instead yank them around my body to the left and product a low short hook with my driver.

My instructor says think low to high meaning low back swing high finish.

Is there a drill or an aid like an alignment stick in the ground that can help me ingrain this?

I hesitate to comment as I am just a clueless hacker, but could it be that your arms are decelerating at impact?  

[CarlSpackler]

21 hours ago, AbsoluteTruths said:

No I do not have any current videos up. I usually bring my camera to the range but not yesterday. I go to the range once a week I'll put some up next time I go.

Thanks everyone else for chiming in.

My guess would be that your hips are not open at impact and the momentum of the club is whipping it around. Purely a guess though.

[GolfLug]

@AbsoluteTruths, everything that happens past impact including extension is for most parts a RESULT of all that happened before. To a great extent you cannot extend arms deliberately just because you want to as an unrelated/independent piece, well, at least not in a meaningful way.

I breezed through videos on your My Swing thread and I noted that one of the pieces you are working on is not letting your left arm collapse so much at the top of your BS. My guess is if you stay mindful of keeping the left arm relatively straight (not stiff), you will have a much easier time 'extending' past impact. Lot of folks think 'WIDE' to do this during BS. In short, a bigger overall arc helps. 

[Jackal66]

4 hours ago, GolfLug said:

, everything that happens past impact including extension is for most parts a RESULT of all that happened before. To a great extent you cannot extend arms deliberately just because you want to as an unrelated/independent piece, well, at least not in a meaningful way.

I breezed through videos on your My Swing thread and I noted that one of the pieces you are working on is not letting your left arm collapse so much at the top of your BS. My guess is if you stay mindful of keeping the left arm relatively straight (not stiff), you will have a much easier time 'extending' past impact. Lot of folks think 'WIDE' to do this during BS. In short, a bigger overall arc helps. 

Thanks,

I'm gonna try this.

After an injury to my right shioulder a few years ago, I quit extending my arms. This should get me back to an extension.

Edited December 7, 2016 by Jackal66

[iacas]

@AbsoluteTruths, you're probably doing something else that's almost CAUSING you to have to bend your arms in the follow-through. Bad Key #2 is my educated guess. Without the weight properly forward, you'll flip (or else crash into the ground well behind the ball) and thus you bend your elbows and flip to shallow the descent into the ball/ground.

[AbsoluteTruths]

I have been practicing in front of a mirror at home and I do hit the ground behind the ball with a driver sometimes and I noticed it was either I was moving my head back through impact or I was picking up my right heel and bending my right knee before impact.

The bending the right knee thing is something I have been fighting for a while. It is me "getting into positions" instead of letting the positions happen.

I regards to posting a video on My Swing the last time I did I got no replies. I was smelling my arm pits to see if I smelled

[iacas]

1 hour ago, AbsoluteTruths said:

I regards to posting a video on My Swing the last time I did I got no replies. I was smelling my arm pits to see if I smelled

The post before your last one was just a quick down-the-line video (from a not-great camera angle).

People are sometimes reluctant to comment on video like that.

[Marigold_Sparkle]

Do you worry about purposefully squaring the clubhead with your hands?

[Buckeyebowman]

On 12/7/2016 at 4:01 PM, iacas said:

@AbsoluteTruths, you're probably doing something else that's almost CAUSING you to have to bend your arms in the follow-through. Bad Key #2 is my educated guess. Without the weight properly forward, you'll flip (or else crash into the ground well behind the ball) and thus you bend your elbows and flip to shallow the descent into the ball/ground.

Good assessment! I was guessing that you didn't keep your body moving through the shot. When you stop your body your arms keep moving, the wrists "flip", and you get a quacker, or you burrow into the ground behind the ball!

When you keep your body moving, and this is just as important on chips and pitches as well as full shots, this "creates" the room for your arms to swing through and strike the ball! It gets the body out of the way!

Start working with short shots and half swings, then work it on up into full swings.

Edited December 17, 2016 by Buckeyebowman