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Experiencing The Arm Shallow Timing

Many golfers tighten their arms and pull the club with their shoulders to start the downswing. This movement tends to steepen the path and open the face, and set up a golfer for needed early extension and or a stall to hit a shot online. But this limits the ability to create a good path of the club after impact.

To feel the timing of when to apply force to a swinging object, try this drill. Play around with the timing of when you add the force to the club and you will quickly see that there is a zone where you will get the most bang for your buck. Try to recreate that sensation when swinging the club after you do the arm shallowing piece.

Playlists: Keys To Transition, Swing Plane Simplified - Working with steeps and shallows

Tags: Transition, Intermediate

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This concept video is experiencing the arm timing.

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So I've talked about the arms being passive and shallow in transition and the body leading

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the initial part.

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And I've referenced the image of kind of using a swing set a lot in the past.

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So basically you get the kid moving in the swing and then you push at the right time and

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you being the arms, you push in the right time and it propels the kid.

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Well, we're going to use a club to kind of experience that together.

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So I want you to take a club and you're going to grip it up at the top like so.

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So thumb up with the club, the weight of the club or the club head down at the bottom.

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So now what you're going to do is you're going to get the club swinging just like so.

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And first I want you to experience what a lot of amateurs do, which is pulling right

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from the top.

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So when it gets to the top of the swing, what I want you to do is I want you to manually or

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forceably change direction kind of like so.

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So you're going to even before it gets to the top, you're going to forcefully change direction.

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Okay, so that's option one.

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That's essentially pulling with the arms during transition.

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Now second, I'm going to let it get going and then when I feel it's right, I'm going

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to add about the same amount of speed but now the clubs already moving when I add it.

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And you'll see that it forces me or I can do it so much that it actually propels it all

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away vertically and and pulled me out of position.

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That would be what it's like when we talk about this effortless power.

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That would be what it would be like if you were to start with your lower body and then

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apply the force from the arms at the right time.

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So this was inspired by a student of mine who talked to me about how he's working on this

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arm shallowing piece and he feels like he's manipulating the club and he's been told

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or always thought that he shouldn't manipulate the club.

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And so I took him through this little illustration and then showed him just some simple little

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physics where basically if I go to the top of the swing the club is slightly behind where

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my hands are, right?

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Even if it's close to straight up and down when I go to change direction because this

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club has weight and because this shaft is shallowing and the weight is no longer directly

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over my hands as I start down that weight.

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If I just relax my arms would fall down like this.

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So if my arms are truly relaxed then that shallowing is going to be very passive where

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just the weight of the club is going to cause it to shallow as long as I let it.

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So what he was interpreting as manipulating the club and what you may feel as manipulating

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the club to drop it down is actually not manipulating the club and his baseline and perhaps

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your baseline is built around arm tension and manipulating the club.

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So what you feel is manipulating the club is actually not and what you think is not manipulating

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the club actually is.

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So if you're struggling with this arm shallowing see if you can relax your arms and really

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focus on no tension and let the weight of the club aid with this shallowing piece.

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And so then all you have to do is work on that timing and you can use the timing of kind

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of this swinging because it's going to be very very similar or basically I'm going to get

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it going down and then somewhere around in there I'm going to add the arms just like I was

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doing in this.

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So if you're struggling with the feeling like you're manipulating the club in order

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to get the arm shallowing piece, that gravity help you, that relaxation help you and it may

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help you overcome that hurdle.