3 Functions of Right Arm in Backswing

If you've been struggling with maybe getting your golf club on that perfect looking swing plane at the top of your swing, or maybe you've even been battling with that flying right elbow, well, I've got great news for you. Because we're gonna be discussing the three key functions of your right arm from your take away position into the top of your backswing.

                This is going to allow you to get the golf club on plane every single time. It's also gonna help you correct that deep right elbow position.

                Okay guys, so I'm pretty sure you've heard us talk over and over about the three key components that can prize club head speed. We talk a lot about width, leverage and rotation. And obviously we know that leverage is going to be our biggest source for fishing club head speed. And I'm not gonna argue that at all. I think that's a great way to get the golf club really moving without having to do a whole lot of work.

                But what I want you to think about here to day is that we still need to have a good balance of rotation width available to us in our swing for a couple different reasons here. Is that, if we built our golf swing primarily around leverage.

                Okay. So, if I had my golf swing where I wasn't really rotating my body at all. My arms were really close to my body. Yeah. And I released this angle, I could get that club head really really moving through the hitting area. But I'd have to work pretty hard, number one, with my hands and my arms. And number two, I'd be relying more on timing in my golf swing. And timing is one of those things that can make your shots fluctuate from one to the next. It can actually make your rounds really fluctuate and that's really one of the things that a lot of our golfers struggle with is being consistent.

                So, in order to balance the golf swing out properly, we still have to have those other two ingredients. And that's where we are going to be focusing today. Is we are going to be focusing on training proper within your golf swing so you can have a well balanced equation. And than you can also stop feeling like you having to work so hard with your hands and arms.

                So I want you to think about your right arm and your golf swing as the governor of width. It's an extremely important part for you to really grab a hold of. We're gonna call it the governor of width in the video.

                Okay, so now that you've heard me talk about the importance of having rotation and width in your golf swing, I wanna go ahead and give you two perfect examples of why width is going to be a variable in your golf swing.

                Now, let's start off by looking at player like Davis Love III who goes into this really really tall position with his hands and arms us to the top of the swing. He's got a ton of width available to him. What is he gonna have to take out of his equation in order to be able to have a good balance? Well, he's gonna have to take out rotation. Because if we get our hands and arms up into this really tall position, we're gonna have to be much more patient for the hands and arms to get down in front of us. So again, that's not a bad way to create a lot of efficiency in the golf swing.

                Now looking at things from a flip side there. If I went to a very low position here with my hands and arms so you can see my hands much lower than my right shoulder. You can see my arms kinda pulled back into my body here. What am I gonna have to rely on to help produce that speed and make up for width? Well I'm gonna rely more on rotation and more on leverage.

                Now rotation is one of those areas you gotta be really careful with in your down swing because that could start to put a lot of sheer force on your spine. And over time, that could leave you injured.

                So, now that you understand that we can use width in the golf swing as a variable, I'm going to teach you how to keep things kinda down the middle.

                All right. I'm going to give you a couple of key check points in the next part of this video. I'm going to talk to you about how to train it properly.

                Okay guys. So now that we have talked a little bit about the importance of having a good amount of balance between rotation and width in your golf swing, let's go ahead and get into today's drill so you can start to train your right arm properly in your golf swing. In turn, get yourself into a really good back swing position that's gonna allow you to become way more efficient.

                So, what I want you to do is I want you to go ahead and stand up. Okay. Get into proper stance width here. About two inches outside of neutral. Okay. Your just gonna stand vertically for now. Keep your shoulders back at a good neutral position. And I want you to just lift your right arm straight up right in front of you here. Okay. So lift it up to where your elbow is now the base of your chest. 

                Now this next point that I'm about to make is extremely important for those players that battle with their arms being a little too deep in their golf swing.

                When you lift your arm up, and your elbow is now the base of your chest. Okay. What I want you to make sure that your maintaining is the very, the connection between the very top of your bicep and the very top of your chest. Don't allow your arm to separate away from your body.

                Okay. So, when you left your arm up here. Okay this is what we call arm elevation or shoulder elevation around the sight, you wanna have your right elbow right at the base of your chest. We use this as a check point here to make sure we have a good balance between rotation width.

                Okay. So elbow gonna be right up at the base of the chest. Now the second function of our right arm is just going to be flexion. Okay. And this is happening once we've completed take away position. We are starting to flex our arm. And we really only going to flex it to about 80 or 90 degrees or so. Okay. So you can see my arms got about 80 or 90 degrees of flexion, my elbow is still at the base of my chest.

                Those two factors are gonna help give your golf club lift into the vertical plane.

                Now the third function is going to be a variable and what I mean by it being a variable is that some people just don't have the mobility in their shoulder to be able to do this. And this is what we call external humorous rotation.

                So if I've maintained the connection. I've got my arm flexed here to about 80 or 90 degrees, you can check how my extra external humorous rotation you have available to you by rotating your arm away from your face, or rotating your had away from your face.

                So you can see, I've got quite a bit here. Where some players can't rotate it past this position that I'm showing you now. That's not a big deal. It's not going to make or break your back swing. All it is is if you have some external humorous rotation it allows you to set the club a little bit more on plane at the top. Again, it's not going to make or break you.

                So, those are the three functions that are actually going on with your right arm through the entire take away and back swing. Obviously, the arms, the right arm, we don't really want to flex it at all very early one. We want to make sure we're maintaining as much width at possible through the take away position.

                So all the arm, all the right arm is doing is just a little bit of elevation. So you wanna train that in a gradual process. And we've got a video on the website called The Pool Noodle Short Elevation Video. That's got two check points to help you gradually help to build that in.

                But once we get through a take away position, then we're slowly starting to flex that right arm. And than the external humorous rotation helping us get the club really on that good plane position at the top of the swing.

                So, the reason why I wanted to show you these functions is, is that now we can tie this into a drill that's gonna help you get into that good spot at the top. And we're going to go ahead and add the club back into the mix. I wanna show you this from down the line. Okay.

                So we are still gonna stand up right here. Okay. I want you to go ahead and lift your right arm out in front of you. The clubs gonna feel pretty heavy at this point. Elbows gonna be right at the base of the chest. I'm gonna flex my arm, maintaining the connection between the top of my bicep and the top of my chest. I'm gonna flex it to about 80 to 90 degrees here. Okay and I'm going to externally rotate.

                Now, because the club head is going to feel really heavy at this point, you're gonna notice that your right wrist is gonna start to get some natural cocking and some natural hinging to it. Okay. Allow that to happen. Don't grip the club really tight and get the club, let, just feel like you're holding the club very lightly in the right hand and let the club kinda feel like it's sagging down here. Okay. It's almost gonna look like your right hand is like a support brace for your left arm at the top of the swing.

                So again, let's walk through this. Okay. Elbow right at the base of the chest, flex my arm, allow the club to just kinda rest in the right hand. Now what I'm going to do is I'm gonna grab it with my left hand. Okay. Keep my left arm fairly straight and relaxed. I'm gonna go into my golf posture. And than what I'm going to do is hold my arms, don't allow your arms to fall or sag, hold your arms where they are. Okay. And than just turn your body and your gonna notice that hey I've got a pretty good looking back swing position that's got a good amount of elevation in it.  I don't have my arms deep behind my body. I don't have my right elbow flying. And I certainly don't have my arms buried to my chest. Okay.

                So again, flexion, elbow at the base of the chest, let the club rest in the right hand, grab it with the left hand, and than turn your body, and you're gonna bet the club into that really good spot.

                Now how do you progress past this? Well, what you're gonna do from that new spot at the top is you're gonna swing down to impact and you're gonna go right back up to the top of your swing. That way is what it's gonna do is it's gonna start to train you to what it feels like to have your hands in a more elevated position.

                So, what I want you to do is I want you to start out without a golf club. I want you to do several reps, going through the processes. Than add the club back to the mix, go up to the top of your swing, hold your hands and arms there in a static position and than go ahead and work down to the bottom and right back up to the top. And your gonna see that you get that perfect on plane back swing position.