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3 Functions of Right Arm in Backswing
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In this video, I'll show you the 3 functions of the right arm in creating the perfect backswing position. You'll find out: 1) How to properly use your core muscles for an efficient and under control backswing, 2) How to eliminate a shallow arc in the backswing by freeing up your right arm, and 3) Why the famous "towel under arm" drill can destroy your swing.
- Elevation and flexion will give the club lift into your backswing
- You need elevation and flexion to create width in your backswing
- Stop losing width in your swing arc by keeping the arms tucked into the body
Hey Rotary Swing Golfers, welcome back.
I'm your instructor, Chris Tyler.
And 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 I got great news for you because we're going to be discussing the three key functions of your right arm from your takeaway 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 going to 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 comprise 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 efficient club head speed.
And I'm not going to argue that at all.
I 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 today is that.
We still need to have a good balance of rotation and width available to us in our golf 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 are really close to my body, yeah and I release 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 would 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're going to be focusing today is we're going to be focusing on training.
Proper width into your golf swing so that you can have a well-balanced equation.
And then you can also stop feeling like you're having to work so hard with your hands and arms.
So I want you to think about your right arm in your golf swing as the governor of width.
It's an extremely important part for you to really grab ahold of.
We're going to call it the governor of width in this video.
Okay, so now that you've heard me talk about the importance of having rotation and width in your golf swing, I want to 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 a player like Davis Love III who goes into this really, really tall position with his hands and arms up to the top of the swing.
He's got a ton of width available to him.
What is he going to have to take out of his equation in order to be able to have a good balance?
Well, he's going to have to take out rotation, okay?
Because if we get our hands and arms up into this really tall position, we're going to 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 kind of pulled back into my body here.
What am I going to have to rely on to help produce that speed and make up for width?
Well I'm going to rely more on rotation and more on leverage.
Now, rotation is one of those areas that you've got to be really careful with in your downswing.
Because that can start to put a lot of sheer force on your spine and over time, that can 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 kind of down the middle.
All right, I'm going to give you a couple of key checkpoints 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've 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 that you can start to train your right arm properly in your golf swing and in turn, get yourself into a really good backswing position.
That's going to 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, you're just going to stand vertically for now.
Keep your shoulders back in a good, neutral position, and I want you just to lift your right arm straight up in front of you here.
Okay, so lift it up to where your elbow is now at 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 bit too deep in their golf swing.
When you lift your arm up and your elbow is now at the base of your chest, okay, What I want you to make sure that you're maintaining is 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 site, you want to have your right elbow right at the base of your chest.
And we use this as a checkpoint here to make sure that we have a good balance between rotation and width.
Okay, so elbow is going to 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 complete a takeaway position.
We're starting to flex our arm, and we're really only going to flex it to about 80 or 90 degrees or so.
Okay, so you can see that my arms got about 80 or 90 degrees of flexion.
My elbow is still at the base of my chest.
Those two factors are going to 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.
This is what we call external humerus rotation.
So if I maintain the connection, I've got my arm flexed here about 80 to 90 degrees.
You can check how much external humerus rotation you have available to you by rotating your arm away from your face or rotating your hand away from your face.
So you can see that 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 backswing.
All it is is if you have some external humerus 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 takeaway and backswing.
Obviously the arms, the right arm, we don't really want to flex it at all very early on.
We want to make sure we're maintaining as much width as possible through the takeaway position.
So all the right arm is doing just a little bit of elevation.
So you want to train that as a gradual process.
And we've got a video on the website called The Pool Noodle Shoulder Elevation Video.
That's got two checkpoints to help you start to gradually build that in.
But once we get through a takeaway position, Then we're slowly starting to flex that right arm and then the external humerus rotations, helping us get the club really on that good planed position at the top of the swing.
So the reason why I wanted to show you these functions is that now we can tie this into a drill that's going to help you get into that good spot at the top.
And we're going to go ahead and add the club back to the mix.
And I want to show you this from down the line, okay.
So we're still going to stand upright here, okay.
I want you to go ahead and lift your right arm out in front of you.
The club's going to feel pretty heavy at this point.
Elbow is going to be right at the base of the chest.
I'm going to flex my arm, maintaining the connection between the top of my bicep and the top of my chest.
I'm going to flex it to about 80 to 90 degrees here.
Okay, and I'm going to externally rotate.
Now, because the club head's going to feel really heavy at this point, You're going to notice that your right wrist is going to 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 kind of feel like it's sagging down here, okay.
It's almost going to 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 kind of rest in the right hand.
Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to grab it with my left hand, okay.
Keep my left arm fairly straight and relaxed.
I'm going to go into my golf posture and then 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 then just turn your body and you're going to notice that, hey, I've got a pretty good looking backswing 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 then turn your body and you're going to get the club into that really good spot.
Now how do you progress past this?
Well, What you're going to do from that new spot at the top is you're going to swing down to impact.
And then you're going to go right back up to the top of your swing.
That way, what it's going to do is it's going to start to train you 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 with a golf club.
I want you to do several reps going through the processes.
Then 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 then go ahead and work down to the bottom and then right back up to the top.
And you're going to see that you get that perfectly on plane backswing position.
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