The most important observation, from a beginner's standpoint, is not so much that the left arm must be straight on the backswing, it's that the arms should be fully extended on release of the club. I was fighting the reverse pivot, coming off plane by not maintaining hip flexion through the swing, and not extending the arms on the follow through.
really? i thought that the most important thing is keeping your arm straight.
I try to keep it straight, but I try to stay relaxed at the same time. If I make my arm straight, I tend to tense everything else up. The key is to not get too tense. Fred Couples, one of my golf heroes, has his arm slightly bent at the top. He didn't get the nickname "Boom Boom" for nothing. I've seen him hit a 350 yd cut shot. So I think there is too much emphasis on keeping the left arm straight at the top.
A relatively straight left arm is important...but you really need to avoid thinking stiff, rigid,...and other like terms. That does cause tension, which kills distance and accuracy. The quest for the perfectly straight left arm causes tension in a lot of golfers, a kind of paralysis.
I think about "being firm" on my left side while having good posture. This works for me.
The most important observation, from a beginner's standpoint, is not so much that the left arm must be straight on the backswing, it's that the arms should be fully extended on release of the club. I was fighting the reverse pivot, coming off plane by not maintaining hip flexion through the swing, and not extending the arms on the follow through.
I agree, before impact or by the time the arms reach the hips it should be fully extended to get that consistent piercing trajectory.
October 6th, 2006, 12:31 AM
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