WEBVTT

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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the white versus the

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chicken wing.

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So we're going to basically look at the lead arm and the timing of when it's

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bending and

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how it relates to the mechanics of the swing.

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So we've got Jordan Spieth on the left, Lee Westwood on the right, two of the

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guys who

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are classically used as having a chicken wing at impact or having a bent arm.

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Now I'm going to show some 3D graphs at the end of this where you'll see that

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most golfers

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are going to have a slightly more bent arm than they did at setup when we're

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looking

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at impact.

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So the question is not if the arm is bent, but rather in my mind whether it's

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bending

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and a chicken wing or whether it's bent and just part of the natural ways that

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you can

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use your lead arm to direct the force into the golf ball.

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So if we're looking at the timing of when Jordan's arm bends, you'll see that

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there's

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a little pumping action.

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So it's bent at the top as he starts down, it's straightening, and then as he

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gets into

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when he would do the wipe, so right about now that lead arm is going to start

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bending

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a little bit more.

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And then it kind of maintains that bend or slightly straightens through impact.

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And then once the club is now dead in line with his body, now the force is

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going to start

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working around him, and he has to stabilize that.

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Now he could either do that with arm rotation, or what he does is now he

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absorbs that force

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more with that lead arm bend kind of like a shrug-type movement.

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We'll see a similar pattern if we look over here on the right at Lee Westwood.

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So he's straightening his lead arm during that transition phase, and then now

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he starts

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that wipe a little early, or earlier the Jordan kind of in this movement, so

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you'll see that

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arm bending, and it's reaching its maximum amount of bend right about here, and

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then

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it'll slightly straighten from about a couple frames before impact until just

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through impact.

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And then again, once it gets to where everything is in line with its chest, now

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everything is

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starting to work past his body.

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So he could either let that arm rotate, or he's going to allow that arm to bend

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.

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He has to absorb the force and transfer it up to his body some way, otherwise

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he tend

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to struggle with injury.

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So now as it passes his body, you'll see that lead arm bend.

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This is very different than what we're going to see when we look at some

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amateur examples

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of golfers who are actually doing a chicken wing.

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So now we have two more examples of golfers who are frequently mentioned when

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talking

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about the lead arm bending.

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That's Retif-Gusen on the left, and Chad Campbell on the right.

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So here we'll see a Retif-Gusen kind of straighten that arm during transition

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to pump a little

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energy.

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And then as he starts getting into that delivery position and starts initiating

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the release,

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you'll see that lead arm bend as he's executing the wipe more from that lead

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elbow.

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So you'll see that that elbow is bending, and now when he starts getting real

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close

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to impact, that next frame.

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So he's not quite at impact yet, and that arm is starting, starting, so he's

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not quite

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at impact yet, and his lead arm is going to start straightening right through

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there.

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So what you'll see on, and you'll see that it's reached a fairly straight

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position there.

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So Retif-Gusen just has an exaggeration on this wipe movement, which makes it

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look like

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that lead arm is bending through impact, but what you'll see is it's bending

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just before

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impact and then straightening through impact.

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It's actually a common pattern with a lot of really good ball strikers and a

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lot of

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really long hitters.

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Not everyone does it, some just gradually straighten the arm straight from the

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top of

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the swing, but a lot of them have this kind of change direction when they

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initiate the

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wipe more from the lead arm than the trail arm.

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So now over here on the right we have Chad Campbell.

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He's another person who's frequently used as an example of someone who has a

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bent arm.

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And this is an interesting camera angle, so we can see his lead arm is fairly

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straight

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there, and then it's bending as he initiates that wipe, and then as he comes

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through we'll

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really be able to get a good look at how that elbow is straightening as it's

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working past

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his body.

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And then now when the club reaches in front of his body and starts working

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around, that's

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when we'll see that elbow bending a little bit more.

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So similar to what we were seeing, just a more subtle version of what we were

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seeing

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with Retif Goose and Lee Westwood and Jordan Speed.

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Next we're going to take a look at a few amateurs to see the difference of what

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a real chicken

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wing is.

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So now we're going to take a look at two amateurs who are a higher handicap and

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demonstrating

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using that lead arm bending to help square the face.

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This is very different than the timing of when those tour pros were

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demonstrating their

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arm bending, and it serves a completely different purpose.

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So the tour pros would have been bending their arms through here and then

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letting it straighten

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through there.

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You'll see he's doing the opposite, that arm is straightening through here, and

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then

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now that he gets to just before the golf ball, that lead arm is going to start

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bending to

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help get the shaft more vertical or have less lean, because remember, the more

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shaft lean

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that you have, the more that opens the face.

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So bending the arms, getting less shaft lean, is going to help close the face.

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Here's another version over here on the right, where the club face is in a

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fairly open position.

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The arm is straightening through here, and now as he goes through impact, you

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'll see

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that he's using that arm bending to help get the shaft to release and line up

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and square

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the face.

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So both of these golfers have shown on 3D that their elbows are actually

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bending through

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impact, where the golfers who are using earlier, the tour pros, are going to

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show a slightly

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different pattern.

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So let's take a look at a couple graphs just so you can envision the timing of

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when these

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arms are bending and how that's going to relate to the overall swing.

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Okay, so now we're going to take a look at some graphs of the lead arm bend.

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So just to help you read this graph, if you look at the y-axis, the y-axis is

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looking

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at the amount of straightness in their arm.

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If it's at 180 degrees, it's a straight line.

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If it were at zero degrees, the bones would be right on top, so it would be

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like bending

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your arm more than humanly possible.

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This is a timeline, so there's a couple black vertical lines running through it

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.

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The first one, where it says ADR represents address, the second one saying TOP

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is the

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top of the swing, third one IMP is impact, and then the fourth one FIN is

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finish.

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So you can see how much the arm is bending as we look through these four

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different timelines

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of the golfer swings.

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What you'll tend to see is that as they approach the top of the swing and they

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start their

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downswing, the arm is typically going to start bending, and then once they get

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into that

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midway of the downswing, you'll see that that lead arm starts to bend as the

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line is going

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down, but then just before impact in every one of the cases, you will see that

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the arm

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starts straightening as the line goes up until at least a little bit after

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impact in some

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cases well after impact.

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That's a classic pattern that we're going to see with most tour pros, even the

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ones you

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look like their lead arm is bending.

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Now let's take a look at those two amateurs, and basically what you'll see is

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as they approach

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impact, you'll see that the backswing looks fairly similar, but there's no

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little white

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movement.

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What you see is that arm is just straightening the entire downswing, and then

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as they approach

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impact, in both cases, the arm is going to start bending either right at impact

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or just

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after impact, but there's no clear straightening through impact the way that we

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saw with each

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of the tour pros.

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But hopefully this helps you understand how to look at the lead arm bending,

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and whether

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it's a chicken wing or whether it's actually a good movement which we refer to

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as the wipe,

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and by looking at some of the other videos, you'll be able to understand how

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this movement

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relates to the overall mechanics of powering the swing, squaring the club face

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and organizing

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the path.

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Because straightening the arm through impact moves the path of the club out to

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the right,

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and delays the closing of the club face, so you'd have to close the club face

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with something

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like the motorcycle beforehand, where bending the arm through impact is going

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to help move

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the path to the left, as well as close the club face by moving the handle

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backward.

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So looking at the chicken wing from a holistic point of view and the timing of

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when the bending

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is happening and how it relates to the other movements of the swing will help

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you understand

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and eventually own your overall pattern.