Right now, I'm struggling with two things that seem to go against each other. I find that I hit the ball most consistently when I keep my swing nice and relaxed and let my shoulders turn more. I've struggled in the past with having too much wrist snap(mainly to compensate for my former slice-biased grip), so my swing thoughts of "swing with the shoulders" and "nice and easy" has really helped with this. The problem is that when I try to keep my swing relaxed and tension free, I find that I'm bending my left arm on my backswing. Not a ton, but maybe 20 to 30 degrees. If I focus on keeping the arm straight, I feel like there is too much tension in the swing. I know that this is probably making it harder for me to keep my shots consistently straight.
So what I want to know is really, how bad is it to have some bend in the elbow. Should I focus more on keeping the arm straight or is it more important to keep the tension out of the swing?
YMMV, but an instructor once told me to think of it has reaching out (on the back swing) as if you were reaching to shake hands; relaxed, neither locked up or bent more than a few degrees.
I had the exact same problem. I've found the best thing to do is keep the arm as straight as possible and shorten up your back swing a little. This releases a lot of the tension in the arm when keeping it straight.
Keep it relaxed, some bend is a good thing as long as you do not over-cook it. Locking the left arm is a sure way to a slice because it causes a delay in the release.
YMMV, but an instructor once told me to think of it has reaching out (on the back swing) as if you were reaching to shake hands; relaxed, neither locked up or bent more than a few degrees.
I like that idea. It seems like thinking about it that way instead of focusing on the elbow, would make it easier to minimize the elbow bend without creating tension.
I prefer a straight left arm but not through rigid or tension.
Without getting scientific and technical it should straighten itself out so long as you stay relaxed and swing AWAY from the ball. Most people who end up bending it either over-swing or lift up on the backswing. Overswinging isn't really all that bad a deal and isn't really in need of fixing. Lifting up though is a serious problem.
July 11th, 2007, 12:55 PM
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