Right Elbow Golf Swing Position Drills (Video) - by Pete Styles
Right Elbow Golf Swing Position Drills (Video) - by Pete Styles

So in the previous video to this one, we just talked about the importance of the role the right arm and elbow can play in the golf swing. But the thing I struggle to convey to a lot of golfers is how that should actually feel. So when we struggle with feel, it’s often important we back it up with a couple of drills. That way the golfer can take something away to work on and actually ingrain the right feeling as well as the right technical thought process. So if I can now give you a couple of drills to help with this right elbow position. The first one is simply what I class as a pumping drill. So we set ourselves up into a good position, load the club up to the top, and then just bring the club down, up, down, up in a sort of pumping motion; I’m specifically focused here on the role of the right arm and the right elbow. So as I take my set up down the target line here, bringing the club back up to the top, I then drag my right elbow into the side of my body, hold it quite tight to the side of my body, which is a good position, and then I’m going to pump the club from there up and down a few times and feel how it’s connected.

A lot of golfers through this position have got the right arm out here and they’re hitting and scooping with their right hand away from their body. We want to establish this connected pumping motion. So it’s into the side of the body a few times and then extending it to the time we want to actually hit the ball. So I would suggest you tee the ball up a few times, maybe do two or three pumps and then hit. So in with the elbow, two or three goes, and then hit; and feel how a right elbow stays tight to the body. Warmer exercise just to encourage us to stay right really tight – take your glove and place it through the lower part of your bicep muscle and into the side of your elbow turn it to the top. And if I start to get this elbow too high in the back swing, the glove will normally fall out unless the Velcro attaches to the side of your jumper as a lesson for everybody. So the elbow now in, up to the top, and if I let my arm come out, the glove will drop out as my elbow rises. If I keep that glove in, it’s going to keep my elbow really tight, really pulled in, and then extending through. Now the glove should fall out in the follow through. It’s important you don’t try and keep hold of that glove the whole way through that exercise. That’s not going to work too well in the follow through. But as you can see my back swing now, my elbow stays tighter to my body as I rise to the top and it stops me getting too high. So if you got the flying elbow, that glove exercise is great. Then in the downswing, drop in, couple of pumping motions and then go ahead and release the glove in that follow through as you extend through the golf ball. And those two little exercises should really help you control your right elbow motion in the golf swing. 2016-04-19

So in the previous video to this one, we just talked about the importance of the role the right arm and elbow can play in the golf swing. But the thing I struggle to convey to a lot of golfers is how that should actually feel. So when we struggle with feel, it’s often important we back it up with a couple of drills. That way the golfer can take something away to work on and actually ingrain the right feeling as well as the right technical thought process. So if I can now give you a couple of drills to help with this right elbow position. The first one is simply what I class as a pumping drill. So we set ourselves up into a good position, load the club up to the top, and then just bring the club down, up, down, up in a sort of pumping motion; I’m specifically focused here on the role of the right arm and the right elbow. So as I take my set up down the target line here, bringing the club back up to the top, I then drag my right elbow into the side of my body, hold it quite tight to the side of my body, which is a good position, and then I’m going to pump the club from there up and down a few times and feel how it’s connected.

A lot of golfers through this position have got the right arm out here and they’re hitting and scooping with their right hand away from their body. We want to establish this connected pumping motion. So it’s into the side of the body a few times and then extending it to the time we want to actually hit the ball. So I would suggest you tee the ball up a few times, maybe do two or three pumps and then hit. So in with the elbow, two or three goes, and then hit; and feel how a right elbow stays tight to the body.

Warmer exercise just to encourage us to stay right really tight – take your glove and place it through the lower part of your bicep muscle and into the side of your elbow turn it to the top. And if I start to get this elbow too high in the back swing, the glove will normally fall out unless the Velcro attaches to the side of your jumper as a lesson for everybody. So the elbow now in, up to the top, and if I let my arm come out, the glove will drop out as my elbow rises. If I keep that glove in, it’s going to keep my elbow really tight, really pulled in, and then extending through. Now the glove should fall out in the follow through.

It’s important you don’t try and keep hold of that glove the whole way through that exercise. That’s not going to work too well in the follow through. But as you can see my back swing now, my elbow stays tighter to my body as I rise to the top and it stops me getting too high. So if you got the flying elbow, that glove exercise is great. Then in the downswing, drop in, couple of pumping motions and then go ahead and release the glove in that follow through as you extend through the golf ball. And those two little exercises should really help you control your right elbow motion in the golf swing.