How and Why: Tuck Right Elbow in the Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
How and Why: Tuck Right Elbow in the Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

I always think one of the most underrated parts but actually quite important parts of a golfer anatomy when they are swing the club. Are these things, their elbows nobody ever seems to know what the elbow are meant to be doing or where they are meant to be going, but they cause an awful lot of problems if they are not well managed and nicely under control. Now watching a lot of the good players out there on tour you will often see a fairly inconsistent position for their elbows most famously Jack Nicklaus had the very high flying right elbow, sort of pointing it up there to the sky somewhere. Not a position many golfers could actually work well with. Actually the right elbow should be quite well in control and quite near to the body and this disconnection that Nicklaus showed for a lot of golfers would cause quite a few problems. So here is a great tip to see whether you’ve got control of your elbows. So we are going to start off focusing on the right elbow, in the addressed position it just has a very light flex to it. Maybe the left elbow will be a little bit straighter for the right handed golfer, the right elbow it’s got a very light flex. During the back swing it maintains that flex it hasn’t bent in too much yet then into the second part of the back swing that’s when it’s going to bend and it really folds, it folds to about 90 degrees and stays quite tight to your body. For a lot of golfers we might see the elbow coming up in the back swing position or even flying at the top particularly golfers will then come over the top and slice the golf ball.

So once this elbow gets up it’s quite difficult to then get it back under control, clubs open and it flies too much. Great little exercise here for you. Take a glove, just fold it and pop it under your armpit quite high up into your armpit to start with, it can move lower down eventually and you’ll feel it squeeze there and it’s not going to fall out at this stage or certainly it shouldn’t fall out at this stage. Then during the back swing it’s going to stay nicely tucked into here winding up to the top it stays top 10 and then we can swing back down and hit the ball. If it was to fly out during the back swing face we would have got too much disconnection right elbow coming around or up too much. And you should actually be able to hit a few shots maybe not full powered swing just yet but just pitching the ball away feeling that folded glove just stay nicely underneath the top of your armpit. Now it will fall out during the follow through phase and that’s to be expected so from here it’s probably going to fall out and land on the ground in front of me. It’s the back swing I want to be careful of, and if you’re not used to this feeling, you will feel quite restricted unlike quite a shot swing. So as I make my back swing back now it feel tight then comes out and it drops out in the follow through. But during my back swing phase it can be nice and short and compact and avoid it getting too high and flighty in the back swing. So if you’re struggling with the flying right elbow and casting coming over the top, the glove under the armpit is a great little practice drill for you to work on. 2015-03-25

I always think one of the most underrated parts but actually quite important parts of a golfer anatomy when they are swing the club. Are these things, their elbows nobody ever seems to know what the elbow are meant to be doing or where they are meant to be going, but they cause an awful lot of problems if they are not well managed and nicely under control. Now watching a lot of the good players out there on tour you will often see a fairly inconsistent position for their elbows most famously Jack Nicklaus had the very high flying right elbow, sort of pointing it up there to the sky somewhere. Not a position many golfers could actually work well with. Actually the right elbow should be quite well in control and quite near to the body and this disconnection that Nicklaus showed for a lot of golfers would cause quite a few problems. So here is a great tip to see whether you’ve got control of your elbows. So we are going to start off focusing on the right elbow, in the addressed position it just has a very light flex to it. Maybe the left elbow will be a little bit straighter for the right handed golfer, the right elbow it’s got a very light flex. During the back swing it maintains that flex it hasn’t bent in too much yet then into the second part of the back swing that’s when it’s going to bend and it really folds, it folds to about 90 degrees and stays quite tight to your body. For a lot of golfers we might see the elbow coming up in the back swing position or even flying at the top particularly golfers will then come over the top and slice the golf ball.

So once this elbow gets up it’s quite difficult to then get it back under control, clubs open and it flies too much. Great little exercise here for you. Take a glove, just fold it and pop it under your armpit quite high up into your armpit to start with, it can move lower down eventually and you’ll feel it squeeze there and it’s not going to fall out at this stage or certainly it shouldn’t fall out at this stage. Then during the back swing it’s going to stay nicely tucked into here winding up to the top it stays top 10 and then we can swing back down and hit the ball. If it was to fly out during the back swing face we would have got too much disconnection right elbow coming around or up too much. And you should actually be able to hit a few shots maybe not full powered swing just yet but just pitching the ball away feeling that folded glove just stay nicely underneath the top of your armpit. Now it will fall out during the follow through phase and that’s to be expected so from here it’s probably going to fall out and land on the ground in front of me. It’s the back swing I want to be careful of, and if you’re not used to this feeling, you will feel quite restricted unlike quite a shot swing. So as I make my back swing back now it feel tight then comes out and it drops out in the follow through. But during my back swing phase it can be nice and short and compact and avoid it getting too high and flighty in the back swing. So if you’re struggling with the flying right elbow and casting coming over the top, the glove under the armpit is a great little practice drill for you to work on.