Your Right Arm in the Golf Swing: Is It Sabotaging Your Distance?

right arm in golf swing
The basic throwing motion you have likely done thousands of times already will make learning RST much easier.

One of the things that I talk about a lot in my golf clinics and on the website is how the right arm works to provide speed in the golf swing.

Several years ago I wanted to demonstrate the difference in speed between the left and right arms in the golf swing, and so I researched it and set up a test (see the results here).

In the end, the empirical data demonstrated that the right arm produced significantly more club head speed than the left.

The reason for this is the same reason that you’ve never seen a pitcher in baseball setup to throw the ball with his trailing arm and then switch and throw with his lead arm (please, post links in the comments section below to your videos trying this!).

There’s just no speed there!

Sequencing Is the Key to the Golf Swing

The reason that the right arm is so critical in the golf swing is the same reason it’s so critical in the throwing motion.

The proper sequencing and accumulation of speed of all the moving parts is what separates an average golfer from one who swings the golf club at Tour-level speeds.

Let’s look at the basic, high level sequencing of a throwing motion.

These aren’t necessarily in precise order as many of these things are happening simultaneously, but you’ll get the idea:

  1. Weight is shifted onto the rear leg.
  2. Right arm begins to extend back and the lead leg extends in the opposite direction.
  3. Weight is planted on the lead leg.
  4. The hips begin to open as the trailing arm externally rotates, and the wrist is set by force of the change of direction.
  5. The hips rotating toward the target rotate the upper torso.
  6. As the weight stabilizes on the lead leg, the trailing arm is accelerated by the rotating torso.
  7. Finally, the trailing arm releases by internally rotating and the wrist releases.

Does any of this sound familiar???

The Golf Swing Is Very Similar to the Throwing Motion in Baseball

Again, this is simply the most efficient way man has figured out how to accelerate an object.

That’s what we’re trying to do in the golf swing: accelerate the golf club from 0-100+ mph in less than 2 seconds.

It’s such a short span of time to properly sequence your swing.

And the throwing motion, as you’ll see in this video, is at the foundation of the RST in many ways.

 

Watch This New Premium Video Now for Big Distance!

Find out how to fire your right arm for a much more powerful and more natural golf swing with this new Premium video.

throw with right arm in golf swing

 

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Chuck Quinton

is the founder of the RotarySwing Tour online golf instruction learning system. He played golf professionally for 8 years and has been teaching golf since 1995 and has worked with more than 100 playing professionals who have played on the PGA, Web.com and other major tours around the world.

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