Swing help needed - flying right elbow

[NC Golfer]

Can you please help me get rid of my flying right elbow and backswing sway?

 

 

 

 

Thanks! NCGOLFER

[RoverRick]

Obviously, if you wanted professional advice you would have gone to your club pro, but since you did not, I will spare you the standard b.s. about that.  I did not like going to a pro either and have studied different things on my own.  So here is my advice.  Remember, you get what ya pay for. 

 

Before reading this, keep in mind that all, none, or only a small part of what I say is good for you.  I will describe what I feel I am doing during my swing.  I can not share a video with you simply because I do not have one.  I am an advocate of using video and believe the greatest golf training aid is the iPhone allowing just about everyone access to viewing their swings.  However, when I started swinging my best, was during a round and it felt a certain way and I was hitting the ball long, high, and straight.  I fear that if I were to video it now, I may find that I am not really doing what I think I am and screw up my swing.  So no video as long as I am swinging well.

 

First off, I love your tempo.  That's it.

 

Your head, however, is at least 6" higher at the top of your back swing than at address.  So in addition to swaying and flying right elbow, you are also raising up and loosing your posture and are barely using your lower body at all.  I could probably list more things wrong, but why?

 

The golf swing is very hard to learn.  What helped me was to dived the swing into 5 parts.  Instead of trying to remember to do all these things at once.  Initially, you can even put a pause between them.  One of the best ball strikers I have played with uses the early wrist set, pause, turn to the top, pause, then fires in the sequence I list.  I swear, he looks like he fell asleep twice during his swing.

 

So where do we begin.  First is address. 

The Grip.  I can't tell anything about this from the video, but I feel as though the club face is square with the back of the left hand and the palm of the right hand.  And I generally have a pretty neutral grip.  Based on ball flight you may need to strengthen or weaken your grip but once that is established you should still have the same sense of where the club face is pointed by where the back of the left or palm of the right is pointed.

The Ball Position:  It looks like you may be just a tad too close but there are certainly more blatant flaws.  The ball should in line with your left ear or logo on your shirt.

The Posture.  In this video, your shoulders and back look too rounded.  Straighten your back and hold your head a bit higher.  It should feel like you are sticking your butt out a little.

The feet:  Your feet look to be more fairly square, this tends to limit the body turn in both directions.  Try turning your toes out, flaring your feet.  I do this intentionally sometimes.  By flaring my left and not my right this promotes less back swing and more follow through, and, of course, the opposite is true,

 

Now for the swing.

Move 1 is to turn my wrist 90* and move the club parallel with the ground toe of the club is pointed up.

Move 2 is to lift the club and turn to until I feel like the club head is behind my head, toe of the club pointing in the general direction of the target or at the ground short of the target.  I find that if I start the upswing with an early wrist set, and then turn and lift to the top, this keeps me from swaying backwards.  Turn to the top, not sway to the top.  This may not be the way it is taught on in most places but this is what I feel keeps me from swaying, and I make a better turn to the top.  I also feel like I am starting turning to the top with the club head first and the rest of the body follows.  The turn to the top stops when I can no longer keep my left arm straight.  Any more turn and the collapse of the left arm defeats all the other good things.  Not perfectly straight but no serious bending of the left elbow.  The right elbow, however, bends almost immediately and is planted against my right side when I make the early wrist set.  It stay against my body during most of the turn lift and never gets very far from my side at the top.

Move 3 is to start the down swing by unwinding the body starting with lower body first with a weight shift and a small sliding of the hips forward.  This gets the hips to turning.

Move 4 is that once the hips have moved out of the way, I drop the arms while turning the shoulders.  My right elbow again touches my side during the downswing and stays there until the hands are once again about elbow height.  Then the straightening of the right arm does move the elbow off my side but not much.

Move 5 is that once the hands get to waist high again I then begin to release the club.  I feel as though the right arm is almost straight again before I release the club with the wrist. 

 

By having the ball a bit further up in stance I feel I am more behind the ball.  I also feel like I am hitting the ball with my right shoulder.

 

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

[NC Golfer]

Obviously, if you wanted professional advice you would have gone to your club pro, but since you did not, I will spare you the standard b.s. about that.  I did not like going to a pro either and have studied different things on my own.  So here is my advice.  Remember, you get what ya pay for. 

 

Before reading this, keep in mind that all, none, or only a small part of what I say is good for you.  I will describe what I feel I am doing during my swing.  I can not share a video with you simply because I do not have one.  I am an advocate of using video and believe the greatest golf training aid is the iPhone allowing just about everyone access to viewing their swings.  However, when I started swinging my best, was during a round and it felt a certain way and I was hitting the ball long, high, and straight.  I fear that if I were to video it now, I may find that I am not really doing what I think I am and screw up my swing.  So no video as long as I am swinging well.

 

First off, I love your tempo.  That's it.

 

Your head, however, is at least 6" higher at the top of your back swing than at address.  So in addition to swaying and flying right elbow, you are also raising up and loosing your posture and are barely using your lower body at all.  I could probably list more things wrong, but why?

 

The golf swing is very hard to learn.  What helped me was to dived the swing into 5 parts.  Instead of trying to remember to do all these things at once.  Initially, you can even put a pause between them.  One of the best ball strikers I have played with uses the early wrist set, pause, turn to the top, pause, then fires in the sequence I list.  I swear, he looks like he fell asleep twice during his swing.

 

So where do we begin.  First is address. 

The Grip.  I can't tell anything about this from the video, but I feel as though the club face is square with the back of the left hand and the palm of the right hand.  And I generally have a pretty neutral grip.  Based on ball flight you may need to strengthen or weaken your grip but once that is established you should still have the same sense of where the club face is pointed by where the back of the left or palm of the right is pointed.

The Ball Position:  It looks like you may be just a tad too close but there are certainly more blatant flaws.  The ball should in line with your left ear or logo on your shirt.

The Posture.  In this video, your shoulders and back look too rounded.  Straighten your back and hold your head a bit higher.  It should feel like you are sticking your butt out a little.

The feet:  Your feet look to be more fairly square, this tends to limit the body turn in both directions.  Try turning your toes out, flaring your feet.  I do this intentionally sometimes.  By flaring my left and not my right this promotes less back swing and more follow through, and, of course, the opposite is true,

 

Now for the swing.

Move 1 is to turn my wrist 90* and move the club parallel with the ground toe of the club is pointed up.

Move 2 is to lift the club and turn to until I feel like the club head is behind my head, toe of the club pointing in the general direction of the target or at the ground short of the target.  I find that if I start the upswing with an early wrist set, and then turn and lift to the top, this keeps me from swaying backwards.  Turn to the top, not sway to the top.  This may not be the way it is taught on in most places but this is what I feel keeps me from swaying, and I make a better turn to the top.  I also feel like I am starting turning to the top with the club head first and the rest of the body follows.  The turn to the top stops when I can no longer keep my left arm straight.  Any more turn and the collapse of the left arm defeats all the other good things.  Not perfectly straight but no serious bending of the left elbow.  The right elbow, however, bends almost immediately and is planted against my right side when I make the early wrist set.  It stay against my body during most of the turn lift and never gets very far from my side at the top.

Move 3 is to start the down swing by unwinding the body starting with lower body first with a weight shift and a small sliding of the hips forward.  This gets the hips to turning.

Move 4 is that once the hips have moved out of the way, I drop the arms while turning the shoulders.  My right elbow again touches my side during the downswing and stays there until the hands are once again about elbow height.  Then the straightening of the right arm does move the elbow off my side but not much.

Move 5 is that once the hands get to waist high again I then begin to release the club.  I feel as though the right arm is almost straight again before I release the club with the wrist. 

 

By having the ball a bit further up in stance I feel I am more behind the ball.  I also feel like I am hitting the ball with my right shoulder.

 

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum.

Thanks, Rover Rick. Lots of work to be done here. I appreciate the critique but also letting me know how you do it. Thanks, for sparing me of the, ""go get some lessons reply", ha! NCGOLFER

[JBones]

I would work on the stuff that RR pointed out, but a flying elbow isn't a bad thing.......some hack named Jack Nicklaus used to do that.

[NC Golfer]

I would work on the stuff that RR pointed out, but a flying elbow isn't a bad thing.......some hack named Jack Nicklaus used to do that.

 

Fred Couples, too

[NC Golfer]

Any other tips? I think a big problem is a lack of turn and out of sync backswing.

[fozcycle]

Do you have an imagination?

 

If so, then "Duct Tape" your right arm from shoulder to the elbow to your torso.......then swing the club.  This has always helped me.