Left Arm in Golf Swing – Straight or Relaxed?
Anytime I hear the “straight left arm” in the golf swing I cringe. Just the visual of it will put your mind in an un-dynamic position. It’s like a shortstop waiting for a ground ball with straight legs – kinda hard to be agile from that position.
I think there’s a lot of mis-understanding about keeping the right arm straight in the backswing and downswing. My GolfDash partner, John, even mentioned it in a recent article titled Golf Resolutions for 2010 mentioning:
“Keep the left arm straight from takeaway to well past impact. If I bend the arm I lose consistent contact because the width of the arc of the swing changes. This is equally important for chips as well as full shots”
Now I’m not picking on John or anyone else about this. After all, there are degrees of this. What feels and looks “straight” to you might feel “hyperextended” to the next chap – no matter, this is just something to experiment and test in practice and play for the betterment of your game.
I started to think a lot about this when I read the great golf instruction book, The 7 Laws of the Golf Swing
At the time I first read the book and hit the 4th “Law” in the book “Synchronicity”, then looked at the picture of the left arm “relaxed” versus straight something clicked for me. And, really, it was all because of the “crescent moon” image shown above.
Here’s what Mr. Bradley says about it in the book:
“One of the most common faults in the backswing stems from the belief that you must keep your left arm rigid and straight during the swing in order to create width, precision, and power. Unfortunately, this normally has exactly the opposite effect.
While it may feel powerful, attempting to keep your left arm as straight as possible as you sweep the club straight back away from the ball on a wide arc will actually limit the amount of power you can create in the swing.
The result of keeping your left arm rigid and tense is two-fold. First, the clubbed will travel on an unnaturally wide arc on the backswing and will probably cause the clubface to remain closed or hooded during the takeaway.
During the change of direction between backswing and downswing, the forces exerted on your left arm will cause your wrists to flex excessively, leading to narrow, steep arc that creates a whole array of ball-striking problems.
The second problem is that forcing your left arm to remain straight causes your body to turn too early in the backswing.
If your upper-body coil is already complete when your arms have not even reached their halfway-back position, your arms will inevitably have to complete the rest of their journey to the top on their own, resulting in poor strikes and directional problems”
You can quickly test this out on your own with your left arm. Just extend your left arm straight in front of horizontally across your chest (like you are taking a backswing) and notice how that “feels” Now just bend the elbow slightly (so it feels like a “crescent moon”) and notice how that feels.
It should feel much more soft, alive and “whip-like.” That is really the feeling your after – light, soft, free-flowing and ready to snap the club into the back of the ball.
By the way, Nick also includes a few great “crescent moon” drills to ingrain this feeling even further. But you’ll have to get the book to check them out. Pretend you paid $5000 for the book. That’s how you should treat the instruction in it. It’s that good.
I have experimented with this A LOT – in practice, during competitive tournaments and it has made tremendous amount of difference in my ball-striking and ultimately scoring.
Buy the book at Amazon – The 7 Laws of the Golf Swing
Related posts:
- Keep Your Left Arm Straight – On the Downswing
- Manage Your Left Arm For Better Contact
- Golf Tip – Flat Left Wrist at Takeaway
- Finding “The Slot” in Your Golf Swing
- Swing Keys vs Swing Thought
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Comments
IV’E BE PLAYING GOLF FOR THE LAST 18 YEARS AND THIS… A SOFT LEFT ARM IN THE BACKSWING, HAS BEEN THE BEST THING FOR MY GAME! DO IT! IM A NOW 8 HANDICAP, VS 10 YEARS STUCK AT 16.
Robert, thanks for the comment. I used to think that a predominantly straight left arm was critical for the golf swing, but a number of things have convinced me it’s not. I do believe it needs to be straight at impact. If you get the chance, look at the ’12 Nights at the Academy’ piece from the Golf Channel that features Rocco Mediate and Jimmy Ballard. The left arm doesn’t remain straight in the backswing and it seems to work well enough for Rocco!
Yes I agree, it is something that a lot of golfers believe to be correct. I have tried to do it and it is very difficult to achieve in a golf swing. A slightly bent left arm is much more comfortable and results in a better golf swing.
Cheers
Troy, the left straight arm is difficult. I believe this is because people – like me – try to turn farther than we’re physically able. The result is the left arm has to break down. Perhaps the left arm is more a symptom than a cause. There are good players who bend the arm – Rocco Mediate for one – but they have a swing style that allows it. If you’re arm breaks because you’re turning beyond your flexibility, then it’s going to work against you.
For me the left hand really needs to be relax and slightly bend so you will be more comfortable and have a better swing.
Just the opposite for me.
If I let the left arm get even remotely loose the club is simply too unpredictable and I end up making a lot of fat and thin shots. The swing path is dead on but the club face might be too high to too low because my elbow is bent slightly…but who knows by how much compared to how it was at address.
I experimented for 9 holes yesterday on a long course and every shot I kept my left elbow straight was a hell of a long dead straight shot or my natural slight draw.
But just as soon as I would try to let the left elbow relax a bit I’d get topped balls, tons of fat shots, and ball flight was all over the place.
For myself I keep the left elbow straight so its more predictable where my club face will be.
That combined with looser wrists and as light a grip as I can get and still hold the club with gives me tons of fantastic shots that I can actually rely on.
William, I tend to be in agreement with you on that one. I need to keep my left arm straight but not rigid to consistently make good contact.
I am a 9 handicap and have never really been able to keep my right arm (I am left handed) straight. This was never an issue until I started getting older and now I am seeing that my arm bends more at the top of my backswing, causing the club to cross the line. I am fairly flexible and make a big shoulder turn which compounds this problem. How should I correct this?
Todd, thanks for sharing. Keeping the lead arm straight is difficult. You’re a good enough player at 9 to know straight is better than bent. If you make a big shoulder turn then you don’t have to do a lot with your arms in the backswing, the turn and uncorking the wrists will generate plenty of power. You’ve found the hard part of golf – changing something you’ve been doing wrong. The figuring out what to do is easy in comparison. Read the recent post on ‘Neuroscience and the Golf Swing’ It may lead you to the help you need.
Todd, one more comment on the straight leading arm. The main problem is people contorting their bodies in the back swing beyond their flexibility. The mistakenly believe that the bigger the backswing the longer they will hit the ball, which of course we know is wrong. Timing, purity of hit, fluidity, ability to delay wrist release, these are what make for great shots. In pushing our bodies beyond our flexibility range all the key angles start to break down – the spine tilt straightens and the leading arm bends. Under those circumstances, recreating all those key angles at impact is nearly impossible, even for Tiger Woods.
I think both arms are equally important to swing the body perfectly. Firstly, the left works for it secondly the right. But for the left armors it may different because their left arm muscles are stronger than the right. Thanks for sharing your observation.
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Agreed. It’s not about having the arm as stiff and straight as possible. You tense up the muscles and you are going to lose a lot of power. Tense muscles move slowly, relaxed muscles move fast.