How To Correct The Chicken Wing In The Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles
How To Correct The Chicken Wing In The Golf Swing (Video) - by Pete Styles

As a golfer is trying to improve their chicken wing follow-through, this issue of the left arm sticking up in the air here, it’s quite important we're able to provide that golfer with plenty of feedback to help them understand whether they are doing the right thing with that elbow and that arm. And because this part of the swing happen so quickly, it’s very difficult just to ask the golfer to feel it or to look for it. You know it happens so quickly, as they are hitting the golf ball they get through that. Did I do it, did I do it? What did I do with my arm?

So here's a great little drill that you can go ahead and work on the driving range. That will actually tell you whether you are doing things right. It will show you whether you are doing things right, and also help improve the feel of whether you're doing things correctly. So we’re just going to simply take a head cover or you can use a small towel or glove, but a head cover works brilliantly. And place it on to the lower part of your lead arm. Now I must stress this is only a drill. You are not going to hit many shots with this. You are certainly not going to hit many full-powered shots. But keeping this under the lower part of your lead elbow, we can then go ahead and make ourselves a setup. Then quite a short backswing, and then hit through the ball. And at this point here, we want to feel like we haven't dropped the head cover. If during the swing the elbow comes up too early, too quickly, the head cover is going to fall out and fly forwards. So again we keep that under the lower part of the lead arm, and then backswing, through to the ball, backswing, through to the ball. Now you’ll feel very restricted. There's no doubt here. This is not full backswings. This is not full follow-throughs. But at this point here because my elbows are together, my lead arm has started to rotate downwards towards my body. It will then have a follow-through. But at no point does my lead elbow stick up, because as soon as that happens that head cover releases. Now I can then take that effort into a bigger swing, a fuller swing on the driving range. And I can start to feel what this arm should be doing. So although it doesn't stay perfectly tight to my chest, it's tight-ish. And as I come through here, it's quite tight and then it will release late on in the swing. It certainly doesn't pull away with a big bend. It isn't away from my body at impact, and it isn't very high in the follow-through. It's a lot tighter. And because I’ve done the head cover exercise, the head cover drill I can feel that pulling into my body a little bit more. So that’s simple, a head cover or a small towel underneath that lead arm is going to help you feel a lot more connected, and a much better release through the ball instead of the big chicken wings. 2016-07-08

As a golfer is trying to improve their chicken wing follow-through, this issue of the left arm sticking up in the air here, it’s quite important we're able to provide that golfer with plenty of feedback to help them understand whether they are doing the right thing with that elbow and that arm. And because this part of the swing happen so quickly, it’s very difficult just to ask the golfer to feel it or to look for it. You know it happens so quickly, as they are hitting the golf ball they get through that. Did I do it, did I do it? What did I do with my arm?

So here's a great little drill that you can go ahead and work on the driving range. That will actually tell you whether you are doing things right. It will show you whether you are doing things right, and also help improve the feel of whether you're doing things correctly. So we’re just going to simply take a head cover or you can use a small towel or glove, but a head cover works brilliantly. And place it on to the lower part of your lead arm. Now I must stress this is only a drill. You are not going to hit many shots with this. You are certainly not going to hit many full-powered shots.

But keeping this under the lower part of your lead elbow, we can then go ahead and make ourselves a setup. Then quite a short backswing, and then hit through the ball. And at this point here, we want to feel like we haven't dropped the head cover. If during the swing the elbow comes up too early, too quickly, the head cover is going to fall out and fly forwards. So again we keep that under the lower part of the lead arm, and then backswing, through to the ball, backswing, through to the ball. Now you’ll feel very restricted. There's no doubt here. This is not full backswings. This is not full follow-throughs.

But at this point here because my elbows are together, my lead arm has started to rotate downwards towards my body. It will then have a follow-through. But at no point does my lead elbow stick up, because as soon as that happens that head cover releases. Now I can then take that effort into a bigger swing, a fuller swing on the driving range. And I can start to feel what this arm should be doing. So although it doesn't stay perfectly tight to my chest, it's tight-ish. And as I come through here, it's quite tight and then it will release late on in the swing. It certainly doesn't pull away with a big bend.

It isn't away from my body at impact, and it isn't very high in the follow-through. It's a lot tighter. And because I’ve done the head cover exercise, the head cover drill I can feel that pulling into my body a little bit more. So that’s simple, a head cover or a small towel underneath that lead arm is going to help you feel a lot more connected, and a much better release through the ball instead of the big chicken wings.