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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.

How to Shallow Your Arms for Better Club Position

After this video, you'll be able to:

  • Identify how your arm positioning affects your club path.
  • Visualize the differences between professional and novice golfers' arm movements.
  • Learn to adjust your elbow positions for more consistent swing angles.

In this video, we analyze arm movements and their crucial role in shallowing the club for improved golf swings. Understanding these concepts can enhance your swing plane and overall ball striking.

Video Transcript
WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600
In this analysis video, we're going to look at examples of the arm movements

2
00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:08.000
and how they relate to the shallowing of the club.

3
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.430
So over on the right, as I used in the details of the arm shallowing, we can

4
00:00:12.430 --> 00:00:14.000
see Ben Hogan demonstrating...

5
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.490
He's talking about his lower body, but you can see as he gets into this

6
00:00:17.490 --> 00:00:22.000
position, his left elbow is roughly above his right.

7
00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.910
Not exactly, but you can see that they're kind of in a similar path, similar

8
00:00:26.910 --> 00:00:28.000
plane there.

9
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000
Now, we're going to use that as a reference as far as this shallow movement.

10
00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:38.000
So the elbows do a great job of showing us what the shoulders are doing, right?

11
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.340
The hands to the elbow shows us a lot of what the forearm's doing and the

12
00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.000
elbows can help us see what the shoulders are doing.

13
00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:50.390
So here we have a kind of a novice golfer, and as he comes down, you can see

14
00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:54.000
that his elbows are roughly parallel to the ground.

15
00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000
If anything, that right elbow is actually a little bit higher.

16
00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.790
We can use that as a reference against the spine angle, and we can see that

17
00:01:02.790 --> 00:01:05.000
there's a pretty good difference between the two.

18
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.190
If we were looking at Ben Hogan here, his spine would be kind of like so, and

19
00:01:10.190 --> 00:01:13.000
his elbows are kind of like this, it would be less than an angle.

20
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.580
It'll make more sense when we take a look at some of the pros from that same

21
00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:19.000
down the line view.

22
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:26.070
So now over here on the left, we're going to have a golfer who tends to battle

23
00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:32.000
hooks because he does most of his shallowing from his body.

24
00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.260
And then over here on the right, we have Carl Pedersen, who's an awesome ball

25
00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:37.000
striker.

26
00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:42.700
So we'll use the elbow location during the backswing as kind of their, you know

27
00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:44.000
, reference.

28
00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.070
So you can see that roughly Carl's spine is kind of like this, and at this

29
00:01:49.070 --> 00:01:53.000
point his arms are more or less perpendicular to it.

30
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.300
Now, as he goes up towards the top of the swing and he starts back down, you

31
00:01:58.300 --> 00:02:04.590
can see that the spine angle pretty much stayed the same, but now instead of

32
00:02:04.590 --> 00:02:08.440
having the right elbow above, the right elbow is below, we're closer to that

33
00:02:08.440 --> 00:02:10.000
angle of the spine.

34
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000
So here we have those same two lines over on the left.

35
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.060
As he goes up, we'll see that there's a big shift as far as what his elbows

36
00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:26.240
look like, but you can also see that there was about an equal shift in what's

37
00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.000
going on with his body.

38
00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.280
So the other way to kind of look at it is he gets to a similar elbow

39
00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:38.630
orientation as Carl, but Carl did it while his posture, if anything got steeper

40
00:02:38.630 --> 00:02:42.740
by dropping slightly down, where the gentleman on the left did it by standing

41
00:02:42.740 --> 00:02:43.000
up.

42
00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:51.270
We're going to take a look at a few more tour pros to see examples of this

43
00:02:51.270 --> 00:02:58.000
elbow orientation during the transition position.

44
00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.240
Okay, so here we have two more examples, Jordan's speed on the left, Graham on

45
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:03.000
the right.

46
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.940
We're going to use the kind of elbows compared to the spine as a representation

47
00:03:07.940 --> 00:03:12.000
of what kind of shoulder rotation movements they're doing.

48
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.690
So you'll see his spine has dropped down, but now on the way down, his right

49
00:03:16.690 --> 00:03:20.000
elbow is getting slightly underneath the left.

50
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.120
Graham is going to do it a little bit more, so we'll see those elbows roughly

51
00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.000
parallel to the ground at this point.

52
00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:33.250
His spine is actually getting down, but we can see that as he comes down, now

53
00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:37.930
his right elbow is underneath the left, similar to what Ben Hogan was

54
00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:41.000
demonstrating in the early part of the video.

55
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000
Let's look at a few more.

56
00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.230
So here are two more fun examples, we've Kenny Perry on the left and Sergio on

57
00:03:47.230 --> 00:03:48.000
the right.

58
00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.500
Now Sergio will actually demonstrate that he does not do a lot of that rotation

59
00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.260
from the shoulder, so you can see that the elbows, which is going to give us a

60
00:03:57.260 --> 00:04:02.000
better indication of what's going on at the shoulders, is relatively level.

61
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.290
Now he still gets at the flatten, which means he's doing it more from his fore

62
00:04:06.290 --> 00:04:10.800
arms, because that's his only other option, but that's the only other way that

63
00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:14.910
you could have your upper body go down slightly the way that we want during

64
00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:20.000
transition, which is an indication of how well you are using the ground.

65
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.050
So here we have Kenny Perry up at the top of the swing with his slight loss of

66
00:04:24.050 --> 00:04:28.520
posture, so you'll see that upper body start working down, but you can see that

67
00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:33.000
right elbow working underneath the left and that left arm slightly rotating.

68
00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.580
That's what helps get in that appearance of the elbows more parallel to the

69
00:04:38.580 --> 00:04:44.000
spine angle as opposed to perpendicular as we saw with the amateurs.

70
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.740
Now I like to show you some of the differences between the driver and the iron,

71
00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:51.510
any time I'm doing these videos, so here we have Steve Stricker with the driver

72
00:04:51.510 --> 00:04:52.000
.

73
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:57.270
You'll see that that right elbow gets well under the left, so he's created that

74
00:04:57.270 --> 00:05:03.000
shallow movement with the shoulders, but here he's hitting just a 3/4 wedge,

75
00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000
and you'll see that as he comes down, even though the spine angle is relatively

76
00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.080
the same, you can see that he hasn't had nearly as much of the shoulder

77
00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:12.000
rotation.

78
00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:17.180
So it's not as critical for the short shots, Phil Mickelson would be another

79
00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:21.980
one who doesn't make the adjustment with his driver, and that's part of the

80
00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.000
reason why he struggles with the driver.

81
00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.540
And one more set of examples, I wanted to show you that it is possible to see

82
00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:31.430
from the face-on view, I think it's easier from the down the line, but from the

83
00:05:31.430 --> 00:05:36.010
face-on view, what you'd be looking for is the ability to see that trail arm

84
00:05:36.010 --> 00:05:41.000
underneath the lead arm as they approach delivery position.

85
00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.430
So kind of down in this area and then looking at the timing of when you start

86
00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:49.330
to see that left arm on top of the right, that's giving you an indication of

87
00:05:49.330 --> 00:05:51.000
how much those shoulders have rotated.

88
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.080
So here, the camera's a little bit higher, but you can see the point of that

89
00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:01.720
elbow. Actually, Nick Watney does it more than Graham, but you'll see a similar

90
00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:06.740
movement where we can see that right elbow just underneath the left as they

91
00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:09.000
approach delivery position.

92
00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.740
I can give you an indication of what they're doing with the shoulders, how they

93
00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:16.000
're shallowing it out, and how it relates to the rest of the swing.

94
00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.850
This shoulder movement is one of the movements that I see unlock a lot of

95
00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:25.710
things for the amateurs, but some of the coaches who use our sight have

96
00:06:25.710 --> 00:06:30.520
indicated that it's one of the key movements that they use, especially for golf

97
00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:35.510
ers who tend to get over the top, struggle with open club face, and tend to

98
00:06:35.510 --> 00:06:39.000
struggle with having enough body rotation on the way through.

99
00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:44.050
So if that fits your description, consider looking into the different videos we

100
00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:48.000
have on how to properly shallow out the club using your arms.

Have questions?

Ask Mulligan for help

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Related topics
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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.

How to Shallow Your Arms for Better Club Position

After this video, you'll be able to:

  • Identify how your arm positioning affects your club path.
  • Visualize the differences between professional and novice golfers' arm movements.
  • Learn to adjust your elbow positions for more consistent swing angles.

In this video, we analyze arm movements and their crucial role in shallowing the club for improved golf swings. Understanding these concepts can enhance your swing plane and overall ball striking.

Video Transcript
WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.600
In this analysis video, we're going to look at examples of the arm movements

2
00:00:05.600 --> 00:00:08.000
and how they relate to the shallowing of the club.

3
00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:12.430
So over on the right, as I used in the details of the arm shallowing, we can

4
00:00:12.430 --> 00:00:14.000
see Ben Hogan demonstrating...

5
00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.490
He's talking about his lower body, but you can see as he gets into this

6
00:00:17.490 --> 00:00:22.000
position, his left elbow is roughly above his right.

7
00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:26.910
Not exactly, but you can see that they're kind of in a similar path, similar

8
00:00:26.910 --> 00:00:28.000
plane there.

9
00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:32.000
Now, we're going to use that as a reference as far as this shallow movement.

10
00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:38.000
So the elbows do a great job of showing us what the shoulders are doing, right?

11
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:41.340
The hands to the elbow shows us a lot of what the forearm's doing and the

12
00:00:41.340 --> 00:00:44.000
elbows can help us see what the shoulders are doing.

13
00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:50.390
So here we have a kind of a novice golfer, and as he comes down, you can see

14
00:00:50.390 --> 00:00:54.000
that his elbows are roughly parallel to the ground.

15
00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:58.000
If anything, that right elbow is actually a little bit higher.

16
00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.790
We can use that as a reference against the spine angle, and we can see that

17
00:01:02.790 --> 00:01:05.000
there's a pretty good difference between the two.

18
00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.190
If we were looking at Ben Hogan here, his spine would be kind of like so, and

19
00:01:10.190 --> 00:01:13.000
his elbows are kind of like this, it would be less than an angle.

20
00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.580
It'll make more sense when we take a look at some of the pros from that same

21
00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:19.000
down the line view.

22
00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:26.070
So now over here on the left, we're going to have a golfer who tends to battle

23
00:01:26.070 --> 00:01:32.000
hooks because he does most of his shallowing from his body.

24
00:01:32.000 --> 00:01:36.260
And then over here on the right, we have Carl Pedersen, who's an awesome ball

25
00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:37.000
striker.

26
00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:42.700
So we'll use the elbow location during the backswing as kind of their, you know

27
00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:44.000
, reference.

28
00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:49.070
So you can see that roughly Carl's spine is kind of like this, and at this

29
00:01:49.070 --> 00:01:53.000
point his arms are more or less perpendicular to it.

30
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:58.300
Now, as he goes up towards the top of the swing and he starts back down, you

31
00:01:58.300 --> 00:02:04.590
can see that the spine angle pretty much stayed the same, but now instead of

32
00:02:04.590 --> 00:02:08.440
having the right elbow above, the right elbow is below, we're closer to that

33
00:02:08.440 --> 00:02:10.000
angle of the spine.

34
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:16.000
So here we have those same two lines over on the left.

35
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:21.060
As he goes up, we'll see that there's a big shift as far as what his elbows

36
00:02:21.060 --> 00:02:26.240
look like, but you can also see that there was about an equal shift in what's

37
00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:28.000
going on with his body.

38
00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:32.280
So the other way to kind of look at it is he gets to a similar elbow

39
00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:38.630
orientation as Carl, but Carl did it while his posture, if anything got steeper

40
00:02:38.630 --> 00:02:42.740
by dropping slightly down, where the gentleman on the left did it by standing

41
00:02:42.740 --> 00:02:43.000
up.

42
00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:51.270
We're going to take a look at a few more tour pros to see examples of this

43
00:02:51.270 --> 00:02:58.000
elbow orientation during the transition position.

44
00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:02.240
Okay, so here we have two more examples, Jordan's speed on the left, Graham on

45
00:03:02.240 --> 00:03:03.000
the right.

46
00:03:03.000 --> 00:03:07.940
We're going to use the kind of elbows compared to the spine as a representation

47
00:03:07.940 --> 00:03:12.000
of what kind of shoulder rotation movements they're doing.

48
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.690
So you'll see his spine has dropped down, but now on the way down, his right

49
00:03:16.690 --> 00:03:20.000
elbow is getting slightly underneath the left.

50
00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:26.120
Graham is going to do it a little bit more, so we'll see those elbows roughly

51
00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:29.000
parallel to the ground at this point.

52
00:03:29.000 --> 00:03:33.250
His spine is actually getting down, but we can see that as he comes down, now

53
00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:37.930
his right elbow is underneath the left, similar to what Ben Hogan was

54
00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:41.000
demonstrating in the early part of the video.

55
00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:43.000
Let's look at a few more.

56
00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.230
So here are two more fun examples, we've Kenny Perry on the left and Sergio on

57
00:03:47.230 --> 00:03:48.000
the right.

58
00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.500
Now Sergio will actually demonstrate that he does not do a lot of that rotation

59
00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.260
from the shoulder, so you can see that the elbows, which is going to give us a

60
00:03:57.260 --> 00:04:02.000
better indication of what's going on at the shoulders, is relatively level.

61
00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:06.290
Now he still gets at the flatten, which means he's doing it more from his fore

62
00:04:06.290 --> 00:04:10.800
arms, because that's his only other option, but that's the only other way that

63
00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:14.910
you could have your upper body go down slightly the way that we want during

64
00:04:14.910 --> 00:04:20.000
transition, which is an indication of how well you are using the ground.

65
00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:24.050
So here we have Kenny Perry up at the top of the swing with his slight loss of

66
00:04:24.050 --> 00:04:28.520
posture, so you'll see that upper body start working down, but you can see that

67
00:04:28.520 --> 00:04:33.000
right elbow working underneath the left and that left arm slightly rotating.

68
00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.580
That's what helps get in that appearance of the elbows more parallel to the

69
00:04:38.580 --> 00:04:44.000
spine angle as opposed to perpendicular as we saw with the amateurs.

70
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:47.740
Now I like to show you some of the differences between the driver and the iron,

71
00:04:47.740 --> 00:04:51.510
any time I'm doing these videos, so here we have Steve Stricker with the driver

72
00:04:51.510 --> 00:04:52.000
.

73
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:57.270
You'll see that that right elbow gets well under the left, so he's created that

74
00:04:57.270 --> 00:05:03.000
shallow movement with the shoulders, but here he's hitting just a 3/4 wedge,

75
00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:07.000
and you'll see that as he comes down, even though the spine angle is relatively

76
00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:11.080
the same, you can see that he hasn't had nearly as much of the shoulder

77
00:05:11.080 --> 00:05:12.000
rotation.

78
00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:17.180
So it's not as critical for the short shots, Phil Mickelson would be another

79
00:05:17.180 --> 00:05:21.980
one who doesn't make the adjustment with his driver, and that's part of the

80
00:05:21.980 --> 00:05:24.000
reason why he struggles with the driver.

81
00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.540
And one more set of examples, I wanted to show you that it is possible to see

82
00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:31.430
from the face-on view, I think it's easier from the down the line, but from the

83
00:05:31.430 --> 00:05:36.010
face-on view, what you'd be looking for is the ability to see that trail arm

84
00:05:36.010 --> 00:05:41.000
underneath the lead arm as they approach delivery position.

85
00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.430
So kind of down in this area and then looking at the timing of when you start

86
00:05:45.430 --> 00:05:49.330
to see that left arm on top of the right, that's giving you an indication of

87
00:05:49.330 --> 00:05:51.000
how much those shoulders have rotated.

88
00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:56.080
So here, the camera's a little bit higher, but you can see the point of that

89
00:05:56.080 --> 00:06:01.720
elbow. Actually, Nick Watney does it more than Graham, but you'll see a similar

90
00:06:01.720 --> 00:06:06.740
movement where we can see that right elbow just underneath the left as they

91
00:06:06.740 --> 00:06:09.000
approach delivery position.

92
00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:12.740
I can give you an indication of what they're doing with the shoulders, how they

93
00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:16.000
're shallowing it out, and how it relates to the rest of the swing.

94
00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:20.850
This shoulder movement is one of the movements that I see unlock a lot of

95
00:06:20.850 --> 00:06:25.710
things for the amateurs, but some of the coaches who use our sight have

96
00:06:25.710 --> 00:06:30.520
indicated that it's one of the key movements that they use, especially for golf

97
00:06:30.520 --> 00:06:35.510
ers who tend to get over the top, struggle with open club face, and tend to

98
00:06:35.510 --> 00:06:39.000
struggle with having enough body rotation on the way through.

99
00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:44.050
So if that fits your description, consider looking into the different videos we

100
00:06:44.050 --> 00:06:48.000
have on how to properly shallow out the club using your arms.

Have questions about this video?

Ask Mulligan for personalized guidance on technique, drills, or how to apply what you've learned.

Ask Mulligan
Related topics
This video hasn't been assigned to any topics yet. Browse all topics in the sidebar.
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