Let right arm bend at set to improve backswing rotation, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Let right arm bend at set to improve backswing rotation, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

I would think that most people are confident with the concept and the address position. Your left arm should be nice and strong, and straight for the right-handed golfer. It's a pretty much a [balance] so let me keep the shaft to the left arm in a nice strong straight line and then strong and straight in the backswing as well. But I often get asked about the right arm. Where should the right arm be? Should I lock my right arm out? Should I straighten it like my left arm? It feels like the shoulders are going to be in the wrong position, or do I bend it and sit it down under here?

I guess the answer is somewhere in between the two. It's flexed. The right arm in the address position is not as straight as the left arm, but it's not sort of bent in either. It's just soft and flat. And the reason for that is it needs to be allowed to bend in the backswing. We wouldn’t really want to see the right arm coming back lopped out like this. It would encourage a very closed clubface and possibly an outside the line takeaway. So if from down the line you're feeling that the club is travelling outside the line and shutting, and that’s your fault, maybe that’s the right arm locking out too much, if it's too strong and too straight.

We actually like the right arm to soften a little bit as the club comes back. So my left arm there is straight, but my right arm has a little bend into it. And if I can just set up with a softness in the right arm, that’s easier to get the club back in a good position because then at the top, this is 90 degrees bent, this is dead straight. So your arms don’t have to do exactly the same thing from set up. Again, looking from front arm, straight here, flexed with the right elbow, the right arm can then bend and release to the top. Take the pressure out of your right hand at set up for a better turn and coil into your backswing.

 2013-01-15

I would think that most people are confident with the concept and the address position. Your left arm should be nice and strong, and straight for the right-handed golfer. It's a pretty much a [balance] so let me keep the shaft to the left arm in a nice strong straight line and then strong and straight in the backswing as well. But I often get asked about the right arm. Where should the right arm be? Should I lock my right arm out? Should I straighten it like my left arm? It feels like the shoulders are going to be in the wrong position, or do I bend it and sit it down under here?

I guess the answer is somewhere in between the two. It's flexed. The right arm in the address position is not as straight as the left arm, but it's not sort of bent in either. It's just soft and flat. And the reason for that is it needs to be allowed to bend in the backswing. We wouldn’t really want to see the right arm coming back lopped out like this. It would encourage a very closed clubface and possibly an outside the line takeaway. So if from down the line you're feeling that the club is travelling outside the line and shutting, and that’s your fault, maybe that’s the right arm locking out too much, if it's too strong and too straight.

We actually like the right arm to soften a little bit as the club comes back. So my left arm there is straight, but my right arm has a little bend into it. And if I can just set up with a softness in the right arm, that’s easier to get the club back in a good position because then at the top, this is 90 degrees bent, this is dead straight. So your arms don’t have to do exactly the same thing from set up. Again, looking from front arm, straight here, flexed with the right elbow, the right arm can then bend and release to the top. Take the pressure out of your right hand at set up for a better turn and coil into your backswing.