golfrewind.com

I'm a righty and I try to maintain a straight left arm at the top of my backswing (like the pro's). Recently I saw a pro, in a magazine, and his left arm was bent at the elbow..not straight..at thed top of his backswing.

My question is is this an accepted form. It is much more comfortable to do this. Am I missing something here?

I have never taken any notice of my left arm at the top of te swing?!

Do you class this as a straight or a bent arm??
http://www.golfrewind.com/gallery/sh...o.php/photo/68

I believe the straight arm was commonly taught so that you maintain the same arm extension throughout the swingpath. It was to keep it simple. But nowadays, it is suggested that it is ok to have a slight bend to generate a little more power, but you still need to keep the arm straight on the downswing and through impact.

I consider myself good, and hit the ball relatively consistently.

I do not keep my left arm straight.

hmm..think I got some tweaking to do. It's just amazing the position these guys (pro's) can get into..flexibility.

those are hard angles to be able to tell whether it is straight or bent.

It is not important for the target arm to be straight.

If the body turn is correct the arm closest to the target will be natuarly straight which for most people means the arm has a slight bend.

If a person insists on a unnatural straight arm they can have elbow problems and develop tennis elbow or a stretched ulnar nerve.

Straight arm is actually the least thing to worry about. I played recently with an old guy about to retire and his left arm was bent. The thing that surprised me was he's a 3 handicapper! And I thought anyone with a single digit handicap would have a near perfect book style swing. I need to watch scratch players instead :)

-Roger

A straight left arm should be a reaction to a proper swing, but should not be an intention. Stiffening is very very bad... tension kills any swing. But if your hands are attempting to swing away from your body and maintaining their radius then your left arm has no choice but to be straight... Let the MOMENTUM of the backswing straighten it out.

Another point on this subject... you should not let your hands get too far above your shoulders as they will tend to slacken much the same way a swingset would if the swing goes too far above the suspending bar.

I think that it would be incorrect to collapse the left arm but a little bend would not hurt. If the left arm is bent too much it would be hard to meet the ball with any consistancy because you have added another moving part into the equation. I cannot keep my left arm totally straight because of a child hood injury so the slight bend I get at the top does not hurt me in any way.

A slight bend is ok, but if you collapse the arm you might as well play with the medicus because essentially that is what you are doing, adding a hinge.