Extend Your Arms In Your Golf Address Position (Video) - by Pete Styles
Extend Your Arms In Your Golf Address Position (Video) - by Pete Styles

So, if we're now clear on the importance of how the arms should be at the setup and at the impact position, we know that they should be coming down to the impact position. The front arm should be remaining straight. The rear arm should be straightening through impact and through the hitting zone. It's really important that we can establish a good address position to make sure those hands and arms have the best start throughout the golf swing to get back to that correct impact position. So, as we address the golf ball, the front arm, for myself the left arm needs to be in a straight line but not locked out, not too tight or too tense, there's no real grip pressure here, but it definitely doesn't have a bend in it. Lot of golfers saying, I'm really trying to stay relaxed, I'm trying to stay really relaxed and I've got my arms in this really relaxed position, but this is going to be quite awkward because there's so many different variations of bends. It's difficult to get it into the right position. There is only one variation of straight, that straight as I have it here, so having that front arm in that straight position is really quite important.

The next thing to consider is that athletic address position is that we have a little bit of knee flex. So I stress the knees aren't locked out but they're also not bent, we'd rather have the knees flexed. So, little softness in the knees just to get the body weight nicely balanced in the centre of the feet and feel like it's an athletic set up position, but not bending the knees into this position here, which could be a little bit awkward. And next thing to consider in that athletic setup position is good posture. Now, good posture for a lot of golfers entails, sticking the hips out, lifting the chest up and keeping the head up and I often say to golfers now, head up, come on keep your head up, keep your head up and they do this and they keep their head up. I can't see the ball anymore . Okay, so let's work on the principle of head up but eyes down. So head up, eyes down means we get this position where the back of the neck sits quite high up and the crown of the head sits quite high up, and that is different to that position which is a problem. So, also different to that position which is a problem because clearly, I can't see the golf ball here. So, we've got the back of the neck nice and high. So, it's head up, eyes down that should nicely straighten out the spine angle. We’ve got the good knee flex. We've got a positive straight left arm. We're also quite balanced. And that gives us the best opportunity to start the swing in a good position to enable hands and arms to come down into an extended straight arm position for impact. So, quality address position should be a nice quality impact position with straight arms as well. 2016-05-13

So, if we're now clear on the importance of how the arms should be at the setup and at the impact position, we know that they should be coming down to the impact position. The front arm should be remaining straight. The rear arm should be straightening through impact and through the hitting zone. It's really important that we can establish a good address position to make sure those hands and arms have the best start throughout the golf swing to get back to that correct impact position. So, as we address the golf ball, the front arm, for myself the left arm needs to be in a straight line but not locked out, not too tight or too tense, there's no real grip pressure here, but it definitely doesn't have a bend in it. Lot of golfers saying, I'm really trying to stay relaxed, I'm trying to stay really relaxed and I've got my arms in this really relaxed position, but this is going to be quite awkward because there's so many different variations of bends. It's difficult to get it into the right position. There is only one variation of straight, that straight as I have it here, so having that front arm in that straight position is really quite important.

The next thing to consider is that athletic address position is that we have a little bit of knee flex. So I stress the knees aren't locked out but they're also not bent, we'd rather have the knees flexed. So, little softness in the knees just to get the body weight nicely balanced in the centre of the feet and feel like it's an athletic set up position, but not bending the knees into this position here, which could be a little bit awkward.

And next thing to consider in that athletic setup position is good posture. Now, good posture for a lot of golfers entails, sticking the hips out, lifting the chest up and keeping the head up and I often say to golfers now, head up, come on keep your head up, keep your head up and they do this and they keep their head up. I can't see the ball anymore . Okay, so let's work on the principle of head up but eyes down. So head up, eyes down means we get this position where the back of the neck sits quite high up and the crown of the head sits quite high up, and that is different to that position which is a problem. So, also different to that position which is a problem because clearly, I can't see the golf ball here. So, we've got the back of the neck nice and high. So, it's head up, eyes down that should nicely straighten out the spine angle. We’ve got the good knee flex. We've got a positive straight left arm. We're also quite balanced. And that gives us the best opportunity to start the swing in a good position to enable hands and arms to come down into an extended straight arm position for impact. So, quality address position should be a nice quality impact position with straight arms as well.