00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
This golf smart insight, we're going to take a look at the member question, keeping the

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:09,000
left arm straight throughout the whole swing. So I know that it's a commonly discussed

00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:13,000
swing thought of trying to keep that left arm straight in the entire swing. In this video,

00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:17,000
I'm going to give you some of the numbers of what 3D actually shows and talk to you about

00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:23,000
when I think it's helpful to try to keep it straight and when it might be problematic to try

00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:29,000
to keep it straight. So the the tour average, or if you look at any of these arm band graphs,

00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:34,000
you'll see that nobody keeps it perfectly straight. The closest that I have

00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:41,000
bends the arm about 10 degrees during the backswing and then it strains a bit in transition

00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:46,000
and bends a little bit. But stays within kind of like a 10 degree window. The tour average is

00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:52,000
compared to where they are at setup. They're going to be bent, let's say, 5 to 8 degrees more

00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:57,000
at impact. But the arm is going to bend that that left arm, that lead arm is going to bend

00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000
about 30 degrees up towards the top of the swing. Now it doesn't often look that way because there's

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:08,000
also going to be some rotations. So when you get towards the top of the swing, the arm is bent,

00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:14,000
but there's been some shoulder rotations. Now you're looking more kind of in the plane of the bend.

00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:21,000
So it looks fairly straight as opposed to if it stayed perfectly in plane with the camera kind of

00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:26,000
like this instead of rotating, then you would be able to see more of the bend. But because there's

00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:32,000
some rotation, you won't see nearly as much of the bend. But it does tend to soften as it gets

00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:38,000
towards the top of the swing. So when are the times, if we know that it doesn't stay perfectly

00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:46,000
straight, when are the key times to try to actually keep it straight? The two or three major times that

00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:53,000
I think are helpful for training, trying to keep that left arm straight, would be during take away

00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:00,000
because most torque offers actually increase their the straightness of their arms during take away.

00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000
So just between that phase, there that helps them power it more with the core and make more

00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:11,000
of kind of a one piece move. But then as you go to set, I actually think trying to keep that

00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
right arm to have a little bit with is going to be more helpful to trying to keep the left arm

00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:20,000
straight. What tends to happen when golfers try to keep the left arm straight up towards the top of the

00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:25,000
swing is they tend to get a little bit more of this look where they bend that right arm

00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000
and bring it around and the left arm just kind of comes very close across their chest. As opposed

00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:36,000
to having some of that rotation and keeping the hands a little bit more out in front, I think

00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:41,000
trying to keep that right arm straight helps create better width at the top rather than the left arm.

00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:46,000
The time where I see a huge problem with trying to keep the left arm straight is in transition.

00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:54,000
So many golfers that try to keep that left arm straight through transition will actually end up

00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
doing more of a cast pattern and they'll tend to kind of steep in the arms a little bit more

00:03:00,000 --> 00:03:07,000
like that. That's a very effective lat or shoulder pole which creates some speed in the handle

00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:13,000
but it's more of a vertical motion where what I tend to like to see is in transition if you're going

00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:18,000
to use more of your lower body against the ground you're going to use more of your core to pull

00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:22,000
through your arms that's going to tend to cause a little bit more of this lag and you're going to

00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:29,000
see those shoulders and the elbows actually narrow a bit or bend. But then one of the last places where

00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:35,000
it's really helpful to try to keep the arm straight is not it impact but through past follow through.

00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:41,000
So if you take a look at many twig offers especially when they're hitting drivers you'll

00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:47,000
tend to see that the arms stay straight all the way until the club is well past here. I see

00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,000
amateurs frequently when they're trying to keep the arm straight they just worry about it trying to

00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:58,000
stay straight through there and then it bends very quickly kind of like this. When you start to

00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,000
add speed to that it'll start moving earlier and earlier or closer and closer to impact.

00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:10,000
So if you're trying to keep that arm straight through impact which we know that it's not actually

00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:15,000
going to be straight. I already told you it's going to be a little bit more bent but the key is that

00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:22,000
it's actually straightening and in order to get it to straighten long enough it's helpful to do

00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:29,000
little shots where you train it staying straight as you kind of turn that corner there. If you can

00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000
keep it or get it to stay straight during that phase there then you're going to have a good

00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:41,000
while wide look at impact you're going to avoid that look of the chicken wing. So quick recap

00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:48,000
the places where it's helpful are in take away possibly at the top of swing definitely not during

00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:55,000
transition and then again helpful during the release and even past the release for trying to keep

00:04:55,000 --> 00:04:59,000
that arms straight but if you're trying to keep that arms straight the entire swing I think is probably

00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:09,000
going to do more firm than good especially during transition.