Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro

With this golf swing video tip, we are going to look at a chicken wing slice. So first of all, we are going to talk about what a chicken wing action is during your golf swing and then why it’s causing you to hit that slice. And once you understand those two things, we can move on to addressing the issue and getting you to improve the swing, so you are hitting a lot straighter and more successfully. So a chicken wing action occurs on your follow through, it will swing club back. But on your follow through, we will see that the left elbow wants to bend and pull upwards with the elbow pointing up to the sky. The correct way to move would be that at the impact, you have got a straight left arm and then the right arm fires through straight, the left elbow rotates, so the elbow is pointing downwards and stays quite close in to your body, so your forearms are closed together.

But the chicken wing sees the left elbow pulling up, the elbow is pulling apart, the distance between the arm is getting greater and moving into this type of position, if you swing through. Now if we look at why that’s an issue, the alignment pole is going to represent our target line here. If we are moving correctly on the follow through, we will find that the club head swings along that target line and with the clubface pointing down the target line, you are going to hit a straight shot. The chicken wing action though, because the left elbow is pulling up at bending, it will get the – or result in the club head being pulled onto the inside of that target line.

And because you have got your clubface pointing at the target, because it’s a divergent between where the clubface is pointing and where the club head is traveling, this will impart a tilted axis spin on to the golf ball. So it will result in a curve, so the club as it’s coming through, as you strike in making that movement, the clubface will actually be pointing to the left of target, which is why the ball starts on the left of the target. But it’s not pointing down the line that the club head is moving on, it’s slightly to the right of that line. So it’s left of target, but to the right of where the club head is moving, this stops the ball on the left, but it impart spin, so the ball then swings to the right.

And the issue is all from the elbow pulling up with this action and the effect it’s having on that club head, you can’t swing the club head down the target line. So now we know that, we can start to work on how to improve it. One of the best drills I would recommend you do, if you set up ready to hit your golf shot, is look at how you are swinging on your down swing. If you are making this action through the ball, this could be a response to how you are swinging on your downswing. So what I want you to do is put an alignment pole or take one of your golf clubs, point it from the ball to where you want the ball to fly. And if we know that the club head moves on the inside on to your side of that pole, as you strike the ball, there is a good chance that it was on the outside of that pole, before you have struck the ball. So I want you to take your head cover from your driver and just place it onto the outside of that target line, about a foot to the right and about four inches onto the far side of that target line.

So now, when you make your golf swing, you should find that you can take the club head away from the ball and you know, you are not hitting that club head cover that’s on the floor and then as you swing down, if you notice that you are then collecting that head cover, because the club head is on the far side of that target line, that will force you to pull here and into this chicken wing position. So to improve that position, work on swinging back down, inside that head cover. Once you swing the club inside that head cover, then rotate your arms, keeping your forearms very close together and that will give you the correct movement through the shot and into the follow-through, you will get rid of your chicken wing action and the club head will travel much straighter down the target line.

So let's just work on that, we are going to swing back, swing back down inside that head cover and then extend the arms down the target lines, so they are close together. So making that movement will really help you with that chicken wing, you will go away from this position on the follow through and much more into this position as you swing through, arms together rather than pulling apart, the club head is going to travel much straighter down the target line, and you will be getting straighter shots in no time.