Straight Golf Shots Require Fully Extended Arms at Impact (Video) - by Pete Styles
Straight Golf Shots Require Fully Extended Arms at Impact (Video) - by Pete Styles

One of the common facets that you’d see with a lot of good players, when you really slow their swings down into slow motion, is at through the impact area they are very consistently straight in this phase here. I can only think of one golfer Lee West Wood at the top of his game, who has quite bent left arm, right forearm through impact. He pulls in every other golf you’ll see in slow motion, very, very stretched out and straight. It’s a key to getting good distance, good accuracy and good club face rotation. As an exercise, I’d like to try here is just grip down on a little three. I’m going to three; I’m going to grip down just to make the club feel a little bit more under control. Make a little half back swing and then push through. But as I push through I actually let go with my right hand hold on with my left. So I push through and let go with my right hand. Push through and extend my arms. And you’ll notice there that it’s difficult to pull your arms in, if you are only holding it with one hand. But if you are holding it with two hands it might feel like you got more power to pull in. And now I’m going to go ahead and pitch a few balls.

So here is my three wood just pitching the ball out there gently. But as I hit it, I let go straight away. My right hand is completely off the club and I can feel my arms a little bit more naturally extending down the target line. Because my hands feel less powerful, I don’t feel I can pull that club back in towards my body. You often see golfers hitting the ball really getting tense and tight they have too much of a hit reflex. The arms pull in and they get into an awkward position. So its pitch the ball forward, hitting and extending so the right hand comes off. Then take that through to your full swing. We are not necessarily going to let go of the club with the right hand. But we’re definitely not going to strangle it either.

So as I make my full swing now, the right hand is relaxed and fairly passive in the follow through. That allows the weight of the golf club to stretch out and pull down the target line so rather than my hands fighting it and pulling it in, I’ll let the club stretch down the target. My right hand is quite passive. It’s a great way of feeling more power, more accuracy, more extension down the target line and you look more like the pros.

 2013-04-02

One of the common facets that you’d see with a lot of good players, when you really slow their swings down into slow motion, is at through the impact area they are very consistently straight in this phase here. I can only think of one golfer Lee West Wood at the top of his game, who has quite bent left arm, right forearm through impact. He pulls in every other golf you’ll see in slow motion, very, very stretched out and straight. It’s a key to getting good distance, good accuracy and good club face rotation. As an exercise, I’d like to try here is just grip down on a little three. I’m going to three; I’m going to grip down just to make the club feel a little bit more under control. Make a little half back swing and then push through. But as I push through I actually let go with my right hand hold on with my left. So I push through and let go with my right hand. Push through and extend my arms. And you’ll notice there that it’s difficult to pull your arms in, if you are only holding it with one hand. But if you are holding it with two hands it might feel like you got more power to pull in. And now I’m going to go ahead and pitch a few balls.

So here is my three wood just pitching the ball out there gently. But as I hit it, I let go straight away. My right hand is completely off the club and I can feel my arms a little bit more naturally extending down the target line. Because my hands feel less powerful, I don’t feel I can pull that club back in towards my body. You often see golfers hitting the ball really getting tense and tight they have too much of a hit reflex. The arms pull in and they get into an awkward position. So its pitch the ball forward, hitting and extending so the right hand comes off. Then take that through to your full swing. We are not necessarily going to let go of the club with the right hand. But we’re definitely not going to strangle it either.

So as I make my full swing now, the right hand is relaxed and fairly passive in the follow through. That allows the weight of the golf club to stretch out and pull down the target line so rather than my hands fighting it and pulling it in, I’ll let the club stretch down the target. My right hand is quite passive. It’s a great way of feeling more power, more accuracy, more extension down the target line and you look more like the pros.