Straight Left Arm

[Gopher]

Just looking at Rory's swing as he is doing fairly well at the moment... his left arm is as straight as a ruler and gets to about the 1130 position. Other pro swings vary between the 10 o'clock and the extreme eg. Fred Couples and John Daly, well past the 12 o'clock.

I can barely keep my left arm straight beyond about shoulder height before it starts to bend at the elbow. So my (rather vague) questions are.. how important is it to follow the old tradition of keeping a straight left arm? Does accuracy diminish as the arm bends in the backswing? Does distance increase at the cost of accuracy if you bend your left arm a little? How much is acceptable to bend the arm?. Obviously age, strength and flexibility have a large effect, so should I shorten my backswing as I lose suppleness? Just some thoughts..

 

[the_coach]

Pretty impossible for most, to have the same kind of left arm position, real straight, as the top golfers that have been playing that way a lot as a kid, most putting hours in. nearly all train, if not strength almost all flexibility of some kind.

Club golfer unless it's natural is not going to have that range of mobility in the shoulder joints, muscles across the back, the abdomen to support that big a turn, or the flexibility in the hamstrings.

Having a left arm that collapses at the left elbow so very bent is a no no, having a relaxed left arm that is soft but virtually straight is fine, can be a slight, very slight give so it's nearly straight all the ways through the motion is okay as it still gives you a 'fixed' radius for the hand path.

Important the wrists/hands set in the right ways as that still gives you a 90º angle between left arm & shaft when the left arm is 1st horizontal to the ground, then as long as the arms & really connected to the body turn & they all stop together even if thats a 3/4 length swing, out can still move it out there.

What confuses the issue some if folks lift their arms away from the body turn in an attempt to get a bigger swing, may feel more powerful but in actuality it isn't, as the lift away at top of the arms, or the collapse of the elbows to make the swing longer, or both just disconnect the arms from the body turn so you have a power leak & not as much speed through impact. Also either of these things or both will give you real timing issues trying to re-connect the arms to body turn on the way down to impact, so lots of contact issues too.

If flexibility an issue try to keep as straight a left arm as possible, make sure the wrists set so you have that 90º arm shaft angle when the left arm is horizontal but only turn as far as you can keep arms & body turn properly connected.

You can always to just move the trail foot back away from the ball target line a little, so you are a little closed & make sure the right hip turns some & doesn't sway laterally to the right, as that will make it a little easier to load the turn to the top, as long as you then have the left arm shaft angle at 90º & your connected to the body turn you won't really lose too much distance, might even find you've gained some.

 

[stevelev]

Pretty impossible for most, to have the same kind of left arm position, real straight, as the top golfers that have been playing that way a lot as a kid, most putting hours in. nearly all train, if not strength almost all flexibility of some kind.

Club golfer unless it's natural is not going to have that range of mobility in the shoulder joints, muscles across the back, the abdomen to support that big a turn, or the flexibility in the hamstrings.

Having a left arm that collapses at the left elbow so very bent is a no no, having a relaxed left arm that is soft but virtually straight is fine, can be a slight, very slight give so it's nearly straight all the ways through the motion is okay as it still gives you a 'fixed' radius for the hand path.

Important the wrists/hands set in the right ways as that still gives you a 90º angle between left arm & shaft when the left arm is 1st horizontal to the ground, then as long as the arms & really connected to the body turn & they all stop together even if thats a 3/4 length swing, out can still move it out there.

What confuses the issue some if folks lift their arms away from the body turn in an attempt to get a bigger swing, may feel more powerful but in actuality it isn't, as the lift away at top of the arms, or the collapse of the elbows to make the swing longer, or both just disconnect the arms from the body turn so you have a power leak & not as much speed through impact. Also either of these things or both will give you real timing issues trying to re-connect the arms to body turn on the way down to impact, so lots of contact issues too.

If flexibility an issue try to keep as straight a left arm as possible, make sure the wrists set so you have that 90º arm shaft angle when the left arm is horizontal but only turn as far as you can keep arms & body turn properly connected.

You can always to just move the trail foot back away from the ball target line a little, so you are a little closed & make sure the right hip turns some & doesn't sway laterally to the right, as that will make it a little easier to load the turn to the top, as long as you then have the left arm shaft angle at 90º & your connected to the body turn you won't really lose too much distance, might even find you've gained some.

This guy hits it pretty straight and long, and rarely has a straight left arm. I'm no pro, far from it, but is it not the moment of impact only that matters. As long as a person can consistently reach the same point of impact and swing path each swing they have a repeatable shot shape. For most having a straight arm throughout amkes this easier to repeat as there are less movements in each swing.

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000yNgJkgfU_1M/s/750/750/Golf-Live-2012-041.jpg

 

[srixon 1]

Jordan Spieth does not have a dead straight left arm but he is a fairly straight hitter. Not the longest (by tour standards) but would probably still be longer than most scratch amateur golfers.

 

[the_coach]

This guy hits it pretty straight and long, and rarely has a straight left arm. I'm no pro, far from it, but is it not the moment of impact only that matters. As long as a person can consistently reach the same point of impact and swing path each swing they have a repeatable shot shape. For most having a straight arm throughout amkes this easier to repeat as there are less movements in each swing.

http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-get/I0000yNgJkgfU_1M/s/750/750/Golf-Live-2012-041.jpg

yep, which was what I was speaking to here. as a better way to get consistent strike if you can get to keep a constant radius as possible, best ways to do that is with a constant left arm radius, which can be from straight to curved left arm, but not one that collapses at the left elbow.

"Having a left arm that collapses at the left elbow so very bent is a no no, having a relaxed left arm that is soft but virtually straight is fine, can be a slight, very slight give so it's nearly straight all the ways through the motion is okay as it still gives you a 'fixed' radius for the hand path."

as in approaching a collapsed 90º angle in the left arm, or worse, at the top of the backswing, which is most often what you see in a good bunch of club golfers who can't find a consistent impact because they are not able to keep any sort of consistent radius to stand any real chance of decent solid contact from a centered strike.

some golfers can, Calvin Peete, Lee Westwood both bent left arms due to injuries they pretty much learnt to play & keep the best constant radius to impact their left arm allowed. always exceptions, but not what you'd really want.

always going to be some exceptions, lots of good players who do keep a soft curved consistent radius with the left arm. but a real bent collapsed left arm isn't going to be good for the majority which was my meaning in what folks would generally be better looking to do through a swing motion, by keeping the left arm as straight as they can, slightly curved if constant they'll still find a reasonable strike.

better for most to stop at a shorter connected swing they'd play consistently a deal better for doing so.

than to collapse the left arm at the top looking for a longer swing length, so no stable radius in that & most never get the arm body turn connection back before impact & that will result in a loss of swing speed & a poor strike consistently. all of this is a very common sight across many golf clubs worldwide every week.

 

[Gopher]

Thanks for the replies... and Coach, I can see your explanation of the 'soft' left arm in the swing. That clears things up.