If you are a right-handed golfer, you won’t be surprised to learn that your right arm has a lot to do if you are going to produce quality shots.

That makes sense, of course – your right hand is your dominant hand, and that entire arm is responsible for much of what you do on a day to day basis. However, if the right arm does too much work in the golf swing, or gets involved at the wrong time, trouble is sure to follow. In this article, we are going to walk through the proper way to use your right arm in the golf swing, so you can take a step closer to reaching your goals on the links.

Before we get started, it is important to remember that a quality golf swing is one where all of the various parts work together in harmony. If you are too busy thinking about moving each separate piece of your body on its own during the swing, the whole thing is never going to come together as a cohesive unit. On the range, you can work on the individual components of your swing. Then, when you get out onto the course, you should be able to bring it all together nicely without much in the way of conscious thought about your technique. In other words, you shouldn’t be out on the course thinking about how your right hand is going to behave during the swing. Rather, you should have done that work ahead of time in practice, so you can focus solely on picking smart targets and making relaxed swings during your rounds.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play golf left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.

A Passive Start

When you begin to move the club back away from the ball, it will be tempting to get every part of your body involved right from the start. You want to hit a powerful shot, so you think that using your whole body from start to finish is the right way to go. Unfortunately, such an approach is sure to lead you into trouble. A better plan is to start the swing passively, using as few moving parts as possible to take the club through the takeaway phase of the swing. Once the takeaway is complete, you will gradually use more and more of your body as the swing progresses.

This is a particularly important tip when it comes to your right arm. You absolutely do not want to use your right arm actively during the takeaway phase. If you do, it’s almost certain that you will run into at least one or two of many different potential problems. What can go wrong when you use your right arm too actively at the start of the swing? Let’s take a look.

• Move the club to the inside of the line. This is the biggest problem that is likely to result when your right arm is too active at the start of the swing. Most likely, the work that your right arm does early in the swing is going to be performed by the right wrist – it will hinge back on itself and quickly swing the club to the inside of the target line. This is a huge mistake, and one which is difficult to rectify later in the swing. If you are stuck to the inside early on, it will take an impressive recovery move to get back in position. More likely, however, is that you will never recover, and you’ll hit a poor shot in the end. Many golfers who struggle with the slice start off their swing with an inside takeaway, only to push the club over the top during the transition. By keeping your right arm out of the equation in the early stages, you should be able to stay on the right path to reach the top of the backswing in good shape.
• Rush the takeaway. In addition to keeping the club on the right line, another job you have in the takeaway is to establish a good rhythm for the swing. You want to start things off smooth and slow, gradually picking up speed as you go. Unfortunately, those who let the right arm do too much work in the start may struggle to find such a nice rhythm. Using your right arm in the takeaway tends to lead to a rushed movement, with the club head speeding away from the ball. This hurried action will carry on into the rest of the backswing, and you may never manage to find a tempo that allows you to strike the ball cleanly. While keeping your right arm out of the action early on does not guarantee that you will find a good rhythm, it is a nice start. Be sure to practice the tempo of your takeaway at the driving range from time to time, as this is a key which can help you improve your ball striking dramatically.
• Slide away from the target. As you may already know, the golf swing is supposed to be a rotational action. When your swing is working properly, it should rotate away from the target and then rotate back toward the target in the downswing. There is minimal lateral movement in the swing, and what does take place should be a side effect of your turn. It is common for amateur golfers to get into trouble by sliding far too much from side to side during the swing. Excessive lateral movement not only makes it difficult to strike the ball cleanly, but it also will rob you of potential power. Using your right arm too early in the swing is going to make it more likely that you’ll wind up swaying away from the target on the way back. This is because your shoulder turn is going to take a back seat to your right arm movement, and you won’t get the desired rotation. If you can manage to turn your shoulders rather than letting your right arm take control, it’s very likely that your lateral movement problem will become a thing of the past.

The moral of the story is quite simple – you don’t want to let your right arm do much of anything early in the golf swing. It is going to be involved, of course, if only for the fact that your right hand will be holding onto the club, positioned below the left hand. Aside from just going along for the ride, however, you really don’t want to let the right hand (or right arm) have much to say about how the swing gets started. Teach yourself how to start the swing by simply rotating your shoulders away from the target. With your right hand no longer interfering with the action, you should be in a better position as you continue on with the rest of your backswing.

Finding the Right Position at the Top

It is extremely important to find the right position at the top of your golf swing. That is true with regard to your right arm position, and also for the rest of the parts of your body. Since the downswing takes only a fraction of a second to complete, there isn’t time to make corrections between the top of the swing and the moment of impact. If you are out of position at the top, it’s almost certain that you are going to be out of position when you strike the ball. Find a way to get into a good position at the top of the swing and you will find that this game immediately gets a lot easier.

So, where should your right arm be when you get up to the top? Take a look at the points listed below for guidance.

• Right elbow pointing down. One of the best ways to check on your right arm position is to monitor how your right elbow is positioned when you get up to the top. If it is pointed down toward the ground, you can feel good about what you have done. Unfortunately, many golfers have their right elbow pointed out behind them, meaning the club is most likely out of position. To check your right elbow position at the top of the swing, you can simply stop a practice swing at the top and take a look for yourself.
• Watch the angle. Another important point is establishing a less-than-90* angle between your upper arm and lower arm. At the top of the swing, you should see that your right forearm is leaning back toward your body a bit from your elbow, meaning the angle between the two halves of your arm is less than 90*. If this angle were to be more than 90*, you would have the club too far away from you at the top of the swing and it would be difficult to get into the slot on the way down. With that said, you also don’t want to let the club get too close to your body, as that would leave you without enough space to produce the downswing properly. To find this balance, you need to wind up with both arms in a good position at the top. For your right arm, we have already established that your elbow should be pointed down and you should have a less-than-90* angle between your upper arm and lower arm. For your left arm, you want to make sure that the elbow is straight, and the arm is running across your chest or shoulders. With your left arm straight and your right arm bent, the end result should be a backswing which puts the club into a great spot at the top.
• Arm supporting the club. To be honest, if you hit on the first two points, this last point should take care of itself. With that said, we still want to highlight this key, because it is a great way to think about what you are trying to accomplish in the backswing. As you swing up to the top, think about putting your arm in a position where it is under the club while transitioning from backswing to downswing. Keeping your arm directly under the club will let you start the downswing by pulling the club into the slot and down toward the ball. This is not going to happen if your arm is flying away from your body and not in its position under the club.

Golf is never easy, but it does get quite a bit easier when you use your right arm properly during the golf swing. At the top of the swing, that means keeping your right arm in relatively tight to your body, with the elbow bent to form a less-than-90* angle. Take some time during upcoming practice sessions to work on your right arm movements from address on up to the top and you should be well on your way to improved ball striking.

An Easy Drill

If you have been playing golf for very long, you are already familiar with the concept of drills. A golf drill is simply a process that you work through in practice over and over again. You can use drills to work on any part of your game, from the putter all the way up to the driver. In this case, we are going to present you with a drill that will hopefully help you learn how to use your right arm effectively during the golf swing. Don’t be intimidated by the thought of going out to the driving range to try out this drill – it’s really quite easy, and it can yield results in short order.

If you would like to try this drill for yourself, please follow the steps below.

• To get started, head to the driving range with your set of clubs and a bucket of practice balls. We need to make it clear right from the start that you aren’t actually going to be hitting any shots while performing the drill. So, why do you need to be at the range, and why have the practice balls available? Simple – it will be helpful to hit some shots immediately after finishing up with the drill. This point will make a bit more sense after you have read through the rest of the instructions.
• You are going to want to use one of your mid-irons for the drill. A seven iron works nicely, but you could use anything from a six iron up to an eight or even nine iron, if you would like. Again, you aren’t going to be hitting any balls while doing the drill, so the only thing you need is a safe place to make swings on the range. Once you have found a good place to make your swings, take your chosen club in your hands, set your bag to the side, and get ready to start.
• At first, this drill is going to proceed just like any other practice swing you would make. First, you’ll want to pick a target out in the distance in order to orient your stance. Yes, even though you aren’t going to be hitting the ball, you should still pick a target and practice aligning your stance correctly. As you settle down into your stance, set the club head down on the ground behind the imaginary golf ball and prepare to swing.
• Before you start your swing, however, there is one major change you need to make. While holding your stance in position, you are going to remove your left hand from the club and place it either in your pocket or behind your back. This drill is going to involve one-armed swings, so it will be only your right hand that remains on the grip of the club. With your left hand (and arm, by extension) out of the picture, you’ll be forced to use your right arm effectively to make a decent swing.
• Now that your left arm is out of the way, go ahead and make a practice swing using just your right arm. During the takeaway, you’ll notice that you need to make a good shoulder turn in order to move the club back properly. If you try to swing with only your arm while your shoulders stay in place, you’ll get off track almost immediately. As the backswing progresses, think about keeping your right elbow down and your arm tucked nicely below the club at the top of the swing. From there, use your lower body to turn toward the target and let your right hand and wrist fire the club through the hitting area.
• Feel free to make as many of these one-armed practice swings as you would like. When you decide that you are done with the drill, go ahead and put your left hand back on the club and hit a few shots. Hitting some two-handed shots immediately after completing the one-handed drill is going to help you transfer what you learned in the drill into your regular swing.

At first, it is sure to be quite awkward to swing the club with just one arm. As you continue to move along with your practice, however, this will get easier and easier, and you’ll start to feel more comfortable, as well. With any luck, you will see the positioning of your right arm during your normal swing improve along the way, and your game will suddenly be on track for a brighter future.

The Right Arm in the Short Game

With so much talk about how the right arm works during the full swing, it would be a mistake to ignore how it should be working in the short game. Without a good short game, even the best ball striking in the world isn’t going to do you much good. Fortunately, the role of the right arm when playing short shots is much simpler than when playing long shots from the tee or fairway.

For instance, your right arm has virtually nothing to do when putting, other than to just go along for the ride. Your putting stroke should be controlled by your shoulders, meaning you are going to rock your shoulders back and through in order to send the ball on its way. Your right arm will move, of course, since it is attached to your right hand, which is holding onto the grip of the putter. It doesn’t have an active role to play, however, so focus on keeping it quiet while your shoulders do all the work.

The story is going to be much the same when it comes to chipping. There is a little more hand and wrist involvement in a chip shot than a putt, but you still aren’t going to be doing anything notable with your right arm. The only two exceptions here are when you are hitting a flop shot from around the green, and when you are hitting a greenside bunker shot. These kinds of swings are long enough to where your right arm is going to have to get involved. We have good news, here – the right arm is going to work the same on these shots as it works in the full swing. Keeping your right elbow down and maintaining a tight angle between your upper arm and lower arm at the top of the swing are still desirable.

It can be a little tricky to understand how the right arm is supposed to work during the golf swing. We hope the discussion in this article points you in the right direction, and we encourage you to work on this important part of your swing technique during an upcoming practice session. The golfers who are willing to work hard on the little things tend to be those who come out with the best golf swings over the long haul. Good luck!

Now if you're playing golf in a right-handed fashion, you probably do because you're a right-handed person, and therefore the right hand would naturally be stronger, and probably better coordinated than the left. Yet we talk so much about the left arm position, the left hand position what it should be doing. But do you fully understand what your right arm should be doing in the swing? And likewise if you're a left-handed golfer, do you fully understand what your left arm is doing in the golf swing?

So here we'll go through a step by step analysis of exactly what that arm should be doing at points in the golf swing. Now if you take your address position to start with. As you're setting up to the golf ball, the right arm will be nicely relaxed not too much pressure through the right fingers and the elbow might be just be slightly kicked down and inwards and not locked up too high with the high shoulder position, so just a nice relaxed arm. During the one piece take away the left arm works there is a nice line on the way back; one piece on the right arm just after fold-in nice and gently, a bit of elbow bend here but not too much pulling in behind. It pretty much just follows the lead of the left arm through to here.

Now we build that swing up to the top of the back swing where we'll see the right arm from a nice 90 degree forearm to bicep movements. But also just be careful that the right arm still stays in front of your chest. We don’t want to have the right arm too far back here. It often results in a flat with quite a long over swing as well. So the right arm is flexed through here, let’s look through here to a 90 degree position but it still described as being in front of my chest. The bicep here is still quite tightened. It's not gone too high and be very clear in your back swing that your elbow does not get above your shoulder. As soon as your right elbow gets above your shoulder it will be very long slightly disconnected position.

Now during the down swing, your right elbow can actually do quite a big pulling motion down towards the golf ball which will generate a lot of power for you. So from the nice 90 degree right elbow position here, drive that elbow back down towards the head, keeping that arm nicely and behind you, pulling in towards the golf ball so it's got loads of power–it's loaded up. The wrist is angled back, the elbow is tucked in.

Now this is a very powerful position. Imagine that you are going to throw a ball and you would get to this position just before impact and then it's the release. And the release is a big extension of the right arm through the impact area to generate power. One, two, now it's ready. Let it release and extend and now it goes to its fully straight position. The shoulder under the chin, the fully extended arm, the point down the target line, there's full power. And then it relaxes again once more to a nice bent position to finish fully behind my head. So as we go ahead and take that swing at full speed from a good address position, we'll watch the elbow fold 90 degrees at the top, pull in and extend away just focusing on the right arm movement, great way to generate a lot of power on your swing. There you go.