Left Elbow Position at Impact
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Find out a simple trick to hit straighter shots while also virtually eliminating your chances of developing "golfer's elbow." As a bonus, you'll find your shots flying on a more penetrating trajectory.
- Golf commentators are often WRONG about the golf swing!
- Some pundits claim the arm should be externally rotated at impact - this is incorrect
- If your elbow pit points down the line, your arm can simply bend to absorb unexpected or repetitive stresses
- With external rotation, the elbow can't bend to absorb impact and suffers stress with every shot
- With your elbow pit pointing down the line and wrist at full range of motion, the club face is naturally squared up
- With external rotation, you need to learn wrist position and timing to avoid hooking left
One of the most unfortunate things for a lot of golfers is they listen to what the TV pundits say when they're watching a golf telecast, and unfortunately, 99% of the time, if they're talking about the golf swing, they're wrong.
I know that sounds a pretty bold statement to say, but we have the reasons for all that.
One of the things that we hear pretty often, and I heard a golf pundit say recently, is that your left elbow at impact should be pointing back this way or your arm externally rotated.
Now, there's a couple reasons you don't want to do this, and I'll give you an example in just a moment, but let's talk about what we do want to do first.
That's a lot easier.
Your elbow needs to be pointing down the target line or close to it at impact.
Now, I can just say that and say, oh, that's the way it is, but it's not how we do things with RST.
Everything has a reason and a justification and a very logical answer for that.
I'm going to give you two of them.
So, Next time you hear this on TV and you hear some pundit talking about how your arms should be like this, I'm going to tell you why that's wrong.
So, first of all, one of the big key central themes to RST is injury prevention.
That's why we have orthopedic surgeons on our medical panel.
They help us understand these things.
That's a primary motivator for everything that we do in the swing.
So, we're always worried about whether or not this is going to create injury in the long term.
And, of course, if your elbow is like this, where your pit's pointing out away from you at impact, you are going to get injured.
In fact, at one of the last clinics, I had somebody who was doing that at impact and said, oh, my elbow is really sore doing this drill.
And I'm like, it's because you're not doing it correctly.
And it was because of the way that he had his elbow at impact.
So, let's look at this.
So, I'm going to put my elbow where I want it.
So, it's externally rotated, or excuse me, internally rotated, my elbow is pointing more or less down the target line.
Here's what's going to happen.
If I come into impact and I come in a little heavy, let's say I catch it just a little chunky or the ground is really hard, or I just hit lots and lots of balls and it's creating a lot of stress on here.
I come in heavy, my elbow is going to bend this way.
There's no trauma in that.
Your elbow is designed to do that.
So, let's say I come in a little heavy, I hit it a little steep on some heavy, hard ground.
And I come in, my elbow is just going to bend.
It's going to absorb all the energy.
Zero injury.
Your arm does this all the time.
It's not ever going to get hurt doing that.
Now, let's hit that same shot and have our arm externally rotated.
And guess what happens when you hit that fat shot, or that steep shot, or you just hit lots of balls.
You hit balls off mats, especially this is where a lot of people get golfer's elbow on the left arm hitting off mats, especially during the winter, because your elbow, the bone is crushing up into the humerus bone and smashing this every time.
And you're just crushing that cartilage and you run into all kinds of injury issues.
So, because your elbow, your arm can't bend this way.
It only bends this way.
So, when it's externally rotated, All you're doing is just jamming those bones together at impact, thousands and thousands of times, as you hit thousands and thousands of balls.
So, of course, you're going to get some issues there.
So, it's a terrible, terrible piece of advice.
For that reason alone and nothing else, if I didn't say anything else, why you wouldn't want to do that.
You need to have your arm externally, excuse me, internally rotated.
So, the elbow is down the target line, so that from hitting thousands of balls, your arm, if you come in a little steep, no injury problems whatsoever.
So, that's problem, that's reason number one.
Number two is squaring the club face at impact.
So, we've got two reasons for this that are really, really big.
So, once my arm is externally rotated, my hand, to get the club face back squared impact, basically moves through close to its full range of movement here.
I can't rotate these wrist bones with my elbow in this position any further.
I can't.
So, I'm just twisting my wrist bones here like this.
That's as far as I can turn them.
Well, guess what? That club face is square.
Now, if I go any further than that, which I can't, that's the whole thing.
My swing is done.
I know where impact is.
I have a point, a checkpoint here.
My elbow's pointed down the target line.
My hand's at near max range of motion.
I've taken out all this excess movement here versus if I allow my arm to be like this, and now I move through external rotation.
Well, now my club face is slung completely shut.
So, Now it becomes a training issue to learn how much.
To rotate all of that through impact, where everything's moving super fast versus everything just going to square and being at its range of motion.
I don't have to guess about where my hands and arms and elbows should be at impact.
I just move them as far as they'll go, and keep releasing it as hard as they want.
Ball's never going to go left.
When I see a lot of golfers who hook it quite a bit, It's typically because they're in a position with this elbow that allows them to really shut the face down really hard, and so they can flip it over really quick, and that's what allows them to hit a lot of quick hooks.
So, They have to really time everything really well versus just getting your joints aligned where they can't really move any further, and now all of a sudden, I can't hit it left because my club face, if I get into that position, it's as square as it's going to be, and so all I do is just keep moving into that position.
So, it's easy to check.
I'm just at my full range of motion or close to it.
Piece of cake.
So, for those two very important reasons alone, squaring the club face, it's kind of important to golf, and not breaking your arm every time you hit off a hard surface or hitting just lots of balls, you don't want to take that advice that says, oh, your elbow should be tucked into your side here, and then all of a sudden, you're going to start having elbow issues.
So, if your elbow hurts and you're hitting flip hooks, check your position of your left elbow at impact.
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