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Right elbow is the key


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After viewing some instructional sites and taking the "real information" needed, I found the key to a consistant takeaway and swing plane. Its all to do with the right elbow. If you were to watch all the classical swings on all the tours, you will find that the pros have one action in their swing that all amature golfers can replicate.

 

The right elbow stays close to the body.

 

For that to happen though, you also need to do one more thing, rotate and use your spine as an axis. To understand this better, visit you tube and look up your favorite golfer and watch with intent. It could be the key to all your dramas

 

Yuors Sincearly

 

Aussiespud

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After viewing some instructional sites and taking the "real information" needed, I found the key to a consistent takeaway and swing plane. Its all to do with the right elbow. If you were to watch all the classical swings on all the tours, you will find that the pros have one action in their swing that all amateur golfers can replicate.

 

The right elbow stays close to the body.

 

For that to happen though, you also need to do one more thing, rotate and use your spine as an axis. To understand this better, visit you tube and look up your favorite golfer and watch with intent. It could be the key to all your dramas

 

Yours Sincerely

 

Aussiespud

 

Well this is true that all tour players have one position from address in the finish of the takeaway that is very close to each other. However, the line "right elbow stays close to the body" is not exactly worded well and can be taken the wrong way espesually in Amateur golfers that haven;t studied the golf swing much.

 

1) If you keep the right elbow literally "close to the body" and read that as the right elbow coming closer to the ribs in the backswing then you start to see issues. Here are the two major ones that can happen from taking that sentence literally.

--> coming too far inside off the ball in the start of the takeaway almost always gets the hands very deep behind the player at the top makes it hard to time the down swing and give a better chance of getting stuck behind the hip rotation and flipping the club over into impact, causing big pushes or snap hooks

--> not having any width in the arms and body at the top of the back swing almost always results in a cast of the club their is not an effective way to generate power through lag.

 

 

All three of the major swing models that have been successful over the years get you into a different spot in the top of the backswing. However, almost all of them have a position where they look really close to one another and that is when the shaft gets parallel to the ground.

 

If you cut off the hands of all great and good golfers when the shoulders have turned about 45* away from the ball the shoulders and arms form a perfect triangle. The right elbow pit is slightly higher then the left and has not folded any or come closer to the body then what it was originally at address. Now how they get into this position depends on their source of motion away from the ball, may it be the shoulders only or a little shoulders and arm lift early.

 

Once they player gets into that position then it gets depends on their source of motion to get to the top of the backswing. One-planers tended to just rotate the shoulders all the way off the ball up to the top of the swing (Zach Johnson, Johnathan Byrd, Matt Kuchar, Ben Hogan). Hybrid swingers tend to get a little extra rotation but more lift then rotation in the arms (think Tiger Woods 2000 or Adam Scott 2012). The Two Plane is pretty much done with shoulder rotation and it becomes all arm lift and arm swing into the top of the backswing (Think Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods in 1996, Dustin Johnson).

 

The easiest way I have found to get a repeatable takeaway is to feel like you are pulling the trialling shoulder blade (right shoulder on RH golfers) back behind your head allowing the arms to come along for the ride and not do anything. You can get an early wrist set with you want doing this, or a late one that is personally preference. Thus why I said from the wrists down don't really matter in as to what they do.

 

Compare any of the greats in history and pause the video on the DTL view when the shoulders have rotated roughly 45* you will notice all of them have the triangle at that point between their chest and arms regardless of lift of the arms or rotation only. If the left arm looks higher then the right arm at a 45* shoulder turn then likely that person has come away inside and very flat.

 

So it is more about arms and chest working away from the ball as a single unit not really the right elbow staying close to the body, if you look at a face on view you will see most golfers that right elbow when the shoulders get turned 45* is actually a pretty good distance from the body.

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In short pinning the right elbow to your chest in the backswing will create two major problems

1) no space to generate lag at the top of the backswing and thus will cause a cast motion to straighten the trailing arm early in the downswing

2) it is easy and very likely to come WAY inside off the ball and get deep / trapped behind the body at the top of the swing causing inconsistent timing on the way into impact.

 

Over rotation in the hips / coming off the ball to the inside will cause a poor position at the top of the backswing with the hands deep behind the player and the tendency is to get stuck on the way down into impact. The only way to hit a ball in a stuck position is to flip the shaft causing snap hooks or even big pushes when not timed well.

 

Over rotation is something that I am correcting in my swing currently thus why i know the conciseness of the mistake.

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Callaway Epic Speed 18.0* @ 42.75" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ-8 Stiff

Callaway Mavrik Pro 23.0* @ 40.00" w/ Graphite Design Tour AD IZ 95 HYB Stiff

Sub-70 639 Combo (5-P) w/ Nippon Modus 3 125 Stiff, Standard Length, Weak Lofts (27-47, 4* gaps)

Callaway MD5 Raw 51-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 55-13 X-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 59-11 S-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Callaway MD5 Raw 63-09 C-Grind w/ Nippon Modus 125 Wedge

Golf Swing & Putting -- Bruce Rearick (Burnt Edges Consulting)

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Aussie, as JM says you can not focus too much on one thing. However, one thing, swing thought, is helpful. For a while I focused on keeping my elbow close and starting the swing with the hip slide, elbow down move. The last couple of weeks I have really been striking the irons well, and I am focusing now on keeping the head of the club outside the hands on the back swing and hitting from the inside of the ball with a straight left side.

 

My biggest problem now is hitting the ball too well and getting more distance. This is a pretty good problem to have as far as problems go. It is allowing me to swing easier and the ball go straighter, and just a bit farther.

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I try really hard not to think about this stuff - at 55 my swing is my swing - the last thing I need to worry about is any one part of it. When I was younger I used to do this sort of thing all the time - perhaps why I don't have to worry about it now - I'm much more concerned about things like full turn, swing path, ball flight, the bigger picture stuff.

 

With all due respect there was no way I was reading all of jmiller's reply lest I start to worrry about it when I play tomorrow. :) I'm sure it's an outstanding explanation about why what you're saying is close but not quite right.

 

As for me, if I know how I want the ball to fly and focus on that my body pretty much co-operates at this point.

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There was a time where understanding the right elbow in the golf swing was a pretty big breakthrough for me. It is not the be-all end-all of the golf swing, but I do think it is very important to understand its' proper motion.

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