How And Why You Should Soften Your Left Arm At Address - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
How And Why You Should Soften Your Left Arm At Address - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now I’m going to start to analyze the position that it’s quite often difficult to see in a golfer because it doesn’t actually look any different, but as an experienced coach, I often can sort of tell when someone’s got this position wrong. And I’ll show you, I’ll tell you my address position – that’s a normal address position. Now I’m doing it wrong, now I’m doing it right, now I’m doing it wrong, now I’m doing it right. And it’s this left arm and it’s the tension within that left arm. It’s almost impossible to tell when someone is doing it, golf coaches look for things like wide knuckles or little veins popping out of the neck or just look too rigid.

But actually having that left arm too tight, too straight is not actually a good thing for you. You often hear me talking about keeping a long straight left arm set up and a long straight left arm on the back swing. But that doesn’t mean the arm is locked out. If we create tension through the arm and particularly through the hand, it’s actually going to break down the feel that you have and the speed that you have during your swing. So as you address the golf ball, left arm is straight for the right handed golfer obviously. That arm is straight, but it isn’t locked or tense. And I can check that by just playing my fingers across the grip. So you see here I just play my fingers across the grip. If I can play my fingers across the grip it generally is going to put my arm in a more relaxed state. If I lock my arm out here, I can feel my fingers tense up at the back. So also as I take the club back, here arm is straight, but I can still play my fingers across the grip there’s a difference between straight and locked. Locked is never a good thing in a golf swing, tense is never really a good thing in your golf swing either. So in the address position play the fingers on the left hand, swing it back to the top, play the fingers on the left hand. As you come down to impact, that left arm will remain in a straight position that will give you the height for a good contact. And again remain in a straight position here, but at no point does it ever want to feel tight. My grip pressure shouldn’t be squeezing onto the golf club too much. So if you can play the fingers of your left hand to keep your left arm nice and relaxed that should help you have a smooth and better tempo to your golf swing. 2014-03-26

Now I’m going to start to analyze the position that it’s quite often difficult to see in a golfer because it doesn’t actually look any different, but as an experienced coach, I often can sort of tell when someone’s got this position wrong. And I’ll show you, I’ll tell you my address position – that’s a normal address position. Now I’m doing it wrong, now I’m doing it right, now I’m doing it wrong, now I’m doing it right. And it’s this left arm and it’s the tension within that left arm. It’s almost impossible to tell when someone is doing it, golf coaches look for things like wide knuckles or little veins popping out of the neck or just look too rigid.

But actually having that left arm too tight, too straight is not actually a good thing for you. You often hear me talking about keeping a long straight left arm set up and a long straight left arm on the back swing. But that doesn’t mean the arm is locked out. If we create tension through the arm and particularly through the hand, it’s actually going to break down the feel that you have and the speed that you have during your swing. So as you address the golf ball, left arm is straight for the right handed golfer obviously. That arm is straight, but it isn’t locked or tense. And I can check that by just playing my fingers across the grip.

So you see here I just play my fingers across the grip. If I can play my fingers across the grip it generally is going to put my arm in a more relaxed state. If I lock my arm out here, I can feel my fingers tense up at the back. So also as I take the club back, here arm is straight, but I can still play my fingers across the grip there’s a difference between straight and locked. Locked is never a good thing in a golf swing, tense is never really a good thing in your golf swing either. So in the address position play the fingers on the left hand, swing it back to the top, play the fingers on the left hand.

As you come down to impact, that left arm will remain in a straight position that will give you the height for a good contact. And again remain in a straight position here, but at no point does it ever want to feel tight. My grip pressure shouldn’t be squeezing onto the golf club too much. So if you can play the fingers of your left hand to keep your left arm nice and relaxed that should help you have a smooth and better tempo to your golf swing.