Bent left elbow

[ellissmith]

Someone playing with me told me I was bending my left elbow before the top of the backswing and that it would lead to a loss of power and inconsistency. I've tried to practice keeping my left arm straight in the garden but am finding it difficult to do a full shoulder turn whilst keeping it straight. Would it be better to do a three quarter swing and keep my arm straight or do a full swing and bend it a little?

 

[need_my_wedge]

I suffer the same issue with the elbow bending. On occasion, it can bend quite significantly, which causes a massive overswing and often lose power trying to get the club face square at impact. It's totally destructive, and a constant battle for me trying to keep the arm straight. It's worse with a driver and woods/ hybrids, not so much an issue with irons. I haven't fathomed out a trigger to keep it straight all the time. I understand that a slight bend is fine, it doesn't need to be a stiff, straight arm, but sometimes seems impossible to stop it bending too much. Ironically, the practice swing always seems fine, but put a ball down, and no matter how much I tell myself to just hit it like a practice swing, I've got to nail that ball....... Going back to a 3/4 swing (just like my practice swing) will help, and probably be better, but not always so easy to do. I'm always being told to that I should just do a 3/4 swing, no one seems to realize that in my head that's exactly what I was trying to do...


I don't think there is much correlation between the arm bending and shoulder rotation - I just tried it out of curiosity, and my max shoulder rotation didn't move further round when I bent the arm. Having said that, I very have good shoulder rotation, my pro is always telling me that I have too much flexibity in my upper body rotation - I can turn my shoulders past 90 degrees, both standing and sitting.

The trigger I try and work on, is when taking the club back, keep the arm straight, and when it gets right chest high, or the left shoulder/ top of the arm touches my chin, that's the time to start moving back to hit the ball.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I could have written the post above, great reply by need my wedge. Huge issue for me. I stop at 3/4 swing as beyond that the arm bends and all power is lost. I hit it better at 3/4 with a straight arm then full with a bent one.

Again as above, I concentrate on left shoulder under the chin and then start the downswing.

Just a thought, get someone to video your swing and hit full, half and 3/4 swings. You will be amazed at how big your half and 3/4 swings are still. You swing more than you realise, in most cases anyway.

The best shots I hit are where I keep the arm straight, I can feel the difference massively (I only don't do it now through lack of concentration, tiredness etc which unfortunately is more often than it should)

 

[need_my_wedge]

I could have written the post above, great reply by need my wedge. Huge issue for me. I stop at 3/4 swing as beyond that the arm bends and all power is lost. I hit it better at 3/4 with a straight arm then full with a bent one.

Again as above, I concentrate on left shoulder under the chin and then start the downswing.

Just a thought, get someone to video your swing and hit full, half and 3/4 swings. You will be amazed at how big your half and 3/4 swings are still. You swing more than you realise, in most cases anyway.

The best shots I hit are where I keep the arm straight, I can feel the difference massively (I only don't do it now through lack of concentration, tiredness etc which unfortunately is more often than it should)

Gonna ditto this addendum too...

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I was going to say two things that have already been said!

1) bending your arm probably doesn't alter shoulder turn, it just feels like your shoulders have turned more when in actual fact it's arm swing. My view on the golf swing is that the single most important thing is connection of arms with the torso (I realise that can be misinterpreted, but I mean keeping your arms in front of the body rather than consciously keeping arms stuck to it!).

and

2) your 3/4 swing probably is a full swing. Everyone has a maximum amount of shoulder turn that they can physically do, there's no point then having your arms overrun that amount of turn. It might feel powerful, but all it does in reality is make the swing harder to control and make it hard to get your arms back in the right place on the downswing. Things that feel powerful are often actually wasted movement that is robbing the swing of power!

So to answer the question, do what feels like a 3/4 swing with your left arm straight, that probably is in actuality what a full swing should feel like. If you're getting the sequencing / connection right, it should add power rather than reduce it.

I'm not an expert by any means, and any advice you receive on here will be pretty generic. Post a video up on here and the resident experts (BobMac and the coach) will be happy to help I'm sure. Or have a lesson, of course, from someone that can take a look and check you're on the right track.

 

[SGC001]

Someone playing with me told me I was bending my left elbow before the top of the backswing and that it would lead to a loss of power and inconsistency. I've tried to practice keeping my left arm straight in the garden but am finding it difficult to do a full shoulder turn whilst keeping it straight. Would it be better to do a three quarter swing and keep my arm straight or do a full swing and bend it a little?

Your left arm will bend if your right arm bends too much. Some people benefit by thinking of not overflexing the right arm.

Penick does suggest it might be ok for seasoned citizens with backswing restrictions to allow some bend if the extra length of backswing helps generate force and is not offset by control issues.

 

[chrisd]

I'm not sure it'll help but I don't think so much about keeping the arm straight in the backswing but more about my hands pulling as far as is comfortable away from me. It has the same effect but just a different way of achieving the required position

 

[ellissmith]

Thanks for the great replies. I'm 63 so probably 3/4 swing is my maximum?

 

[Orikoru]

I have shortened my backswing in the last year, and generally keep my left elbow straight. I find that I didn't lose any distance by shortening it slightly, probably because the contact is slightly better more often.

 

[Dan2501]

Doesn't seem to affect this bloke too much.

 

[Hobbit]

When ever I see posts about swings that aren't quite classic swings it triggers memories of Calvin Peete. I guess most people won't recognise the name, as he was from a previous generation.

He had so tour leading stats, e.g. driver accuracy, for 10 years consecutively. A very un-classic swing, with a permanently bent left arm.

And you could probably put a list together of top golfers with un-classic swings, e.g. Jim Furyk, Lee Trevino immediately spring to mind. Equally, perhaps more, you could list many more perfect swings that have never amounted to much when it comes to winning. Golf is a results driven sport, and the swing doesn't have to look like classic.

If the end result is a good score, why worry. My swing has never been a thing of beauty but having been a Cat 1 golfer for many, many years until recently, I'll accept it... and my left arm, courtesy of an accident, is also bent.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Hobbit, there is a difference between a slight bend, manageable if you are good enough, and a full bend which ruins the swing. When I am describing my bent arm it is more like a full collapse. I don't know if it is the same with the OP but that is my case.

Your point about classic swings is 100% valid but I don't think that the OP is looking for a perfect swing in this case, I know I'm not. It is more a case of not losing as much distance, keeping direction etc.

 

[r0wly86]

bent left arm is fine.

collapsed left arm is an issue.

So it depends what you have. If it is collapsing then go with 3/4 swing would be my suggestion until it becomes more ingrained in your swing then you can try to extend it

 

[chrisd]

Thanks for the great replies. I'm 63 so probably 3/4 swing is my maximum?

Not necessarily, I'm 65 and can certainly do a full swing. Unless you have a medical problem just swing a club in the garden and you'll probably get more extension the more you do it.

 

[Hobbit]

Hobbit, there is a difference between a slight bend, manageable if you are good enough, and a full bend which ruins the swing. When I am describing my bent arm it is more like a full collapse. I don't know if it is the same with the OP but that is my case.

Your point about classic swings is 100% valid but I don't think that the OP is looking for a perfect swing in this case, I know I'm not. It is more a case of not losing as much distance, keeping direction etc.

It doesn’t matter how much of a bend you have providing the club head is returned on plane. And a late release from the bend could actually generate more power. Conversely, you could have a straight arm but an early release and hit the ball nowhere.

 

[r0wly86]

It doesn’t matter how much of a bend you have providing the club head is returned on plane. And a late release from the bend could actually generate more power. Conversely, you could have a straight arm but an early release and hit the ball nowhere.

Whilst true of course, that could be said about anything. I could swing hopping on one leg, blindfolded and holding a the club back to front. As long as I get the club face square and on a good plane it will go straight.

Of course to do that I will have to do all sort of strange things, as with the collapsing left arm, to increase your swing arc to produce the power and get the club face consistently square your body is going to have to work so hard to do it consistently will be nigh on impossible.

So of course you are right, I am not challenging you on that, but we do try and swing in such a way that means getting on a good plane and square is a lot easier and so we can do it more consistently. Not collapsing your left arm would be one of the things we shouldn't encourage as it makes what you said harder to do. Not impossible but bloody difficult

 

[ellissmith]

I've videod myself in the garden swinging with no club and can get my shoulder under my chin and keep my arm fairly straight, but when swinging a club the arm bends quite a lot, unless I do about 1/2 swing. Must be something to do with how I'm gripping the club presumably?

 

[BornSlippy1994]

Try leading your shoulder turn with your right, not left, shoulder. Imagine pulling your shoulders and left arm around with the right shoulder, instead of leading with the left.

This helped me sort out the issue. My left arm went from feeling incredibly tight so having to bend a bit, to feeling relaxed whilst straight