I know as I’ve personally immersed myself in this part of my swing, and have come to a very good understanding of it, so I want to pass it on to you. I know it will help you get a better golf swing.

Watch This Golf Video To Learn How To Use Your Left Arm

At address, there should be a little pressure between your left armpit and chest. A feeling of pressing your upper left arm into your chest to feel a connection there. See image below.

Takeaway

During the early part of the golf takeaway, the pressure between your upper left arm and chest increases a bit, and at this point the upper arm should still feel below the chest.

Halfway Back

This is usually referred to as the 9 o’clock position. Your left arm should be moving across your chest, and it will be parallel to the ground.

If you were looking from above and you extended your target line back behind the ball several feet, at the halfway point, your left arm would be 30-45 degrees inside that line.

Another way to think of it is your handpath coming in, up, and around. This will ensure your left arm is staying both connected, and moving around your body.

Top Of Swing

On tour, from behind the golfer view, you see a range of left arm positions. Some will be even with the shoulder plane, many will have the arm above the shoulder plane, and very rarely will you see it below, but one of the best players in the world right now Matt Kuchar has a below the shoulder plane left arm, and he’s pretty dang good!

So there is no perfect position at the top, but one thing I don’t want you to do is to lift the arm after your shoulder turn has stopped. That is an independent move that adds another element to your swing that doesn’t need to be there.

Downswing

There is a definitely dropping (let gravity do it) of the arm from the top. Just like the halfway back position, your left arm will be at about a 45 degree angle to your target line at this point.

The average golfer has come over the top in his golf swing where the left arm has disconnected from the body, and it is more likely to be parallel to the target line at the halfway point down, and that is going to result in an outside-in golf swing, creating a glancing blow and sidespin on the golf ball.

From there, you just continuing rotating your upper body towards impact, and continue letting the left arm come down.

Impact

This is the point of the swing I’ve worked hard on, and it can make or break how well you strike the ball.

The feeling should be that your left arm has slid down your side very low by the time you reach impact (see image below).

Focus on how the left arm looks below my left pec, and the feeling as mentioned above is that it is really low. Almost think of it as by your left hip to take it to an extreme.

Post Impact Drill

I want you to get in front of a mirror with a club, and take this view point. Start at impact, and look at where your left arm is. Then come through and you should feel your arm, hands and club moving left immediately, with your left upper arm squeezing into your ribs, and the elbow starting to fold.

Key Points To Remember

• At address pressure between left upper arm and chest.
• Going back, arms stays in close and comes inside target line.
• At the top, don’t lift arm after shoulder turn has completed.
• Left arm drops from the top, but stays connected and into the body.
• Halfway down, 45 degrees to target line.
• Left arm feels low at impact.
• Everything goes left after impact (body, shoulders arm, hands and club).

Learn This Move Faster With A Training Aid

For quite some time I hit balls using the left arm connected golf swing trainer and it really sped up my results.

If you enjoyed the article, please comment below and hit the “like” buttons at the top under my name. If you have other issues you want me to cover, just let me know by commenting below.

Also, let me know if you like this format, or would like something different, as I want you to get the best learning environment possible.

+Mike Pedersen

For a right handed golfer, understanding how your elbow functions in the golf swing is something you ought to know; and that’s the goal of this article (and video).

I have spent several years now working on the correct motion of my right elbow, so I think I’m qualified to give you some good information that can help you understand this element in your swing motion.

Like every joint in the body, there is a specific movement of the right elbow that needs to take place, and you might think it’s natural, but for some (like me) I had a faulty motion and it really hurt my technique.

The lower part of your right arm is made up of 2 bones, the radius and the ulna. They externally rotate as you take the club back, and this should put your elbow in a position to be pointing more at the ground, than back behind you.

There is some leeway here, but the more the elbow points behind you at the top of your swing, the harder it is to get back in front of you at the very important point of impact.

On the way down, you want as much of a direct path with the right elbow to get it down and in front of your right hip at impact. The common mistake is to release your club at impact and your right elbow is not in front of your right hip. This will prevent you from compressing the golf ball, and will most likely result in a flip at impact.

Right Elbow Bend

This has been a huge issue for me, so I hope I can bring attention to it, to help you avoid this. The right elbow IMO (in my opinion) should NOT bend beyond 90 degrees EVER in your golf swing, especially at the top.

If you do, this will promote an early release of your arm coming down, as your brain knows that elbow is bent too much, and has a long way to go to straight just after impact.

Elbow Drill

Get in your posture, and bend your right elbow to 90 (see picture below).

Now just rotate your shoulders as if you’re making a backswing, and your right arm should be in this position (see below).

Equally as important is avoiding the premature (early) bending of the right elbow in the initial part of the takeaway, which will lift the club, robbing you of width going back, and also give you a false sense of a shoulder turn.

The next time you make a swing, take note of how bent your elbow is at the top. If it’s beyond 90, shorten it up a bit. You will soon realize you can get back to impact and it’s actually a simpler move, with less moving joints.

Right Elbow At Top Of Swing

One critical position is at the top of the swing. Your right elbow should be pointing down (see picture below).

You do not want it pointing behind you as this will create a steep downswing plane, and encourage an “over the top golf swing”. No good! The elbow pointing down puts it in a perfect position to get down and in front of the right hip much easier.

What The Elbow Does In Your Downswing

As you are coming down, your right elbow is slowing unbending, with the tip of the elbow coming right down in front of right hip (see picture below), and more importantly, the lower arm is starting to rotate counter-clockwise, which will square the clubface. This is the “screwing” motion into the ground I mentioned in the golf swing release video.

This is where some golfers don’t do it correctly. Instead they rotate the forearm clockwise opens the clubface wide open, and also promotes a “throw out” motion way too early in the downswing, making it difficult to get to impact with your hands ahead, and the forward lean of the shaft, that all the pros have.

Impact Position

This is critical to optimal ball striking!

Your right elbow needs to be “in front of your right hip” (see image below) at impact. This is a MUST. If you have more than 2-3 inches of space between your right hip and elbow, it’s too far out away from the body.

This will create a glancing blow on the ball. Your goal should be to get that right elbow back onto the hip and then extend through impact and into your follow through.

Also take not that at impact, your right arm is not completely extended, which is another common fault for high handicap golfers.

It should still be slightly bent. It does not extend fully until after you have hit the ball! Remember this. Just think of throwing a ball. The ball is gone and your elbow THEN finally releases fully. Not before. Same thing in golf.

Through impact, that “screwing” into the ground occurs even more, as the lower forearm bones rotate counter-clockwise over each other to a full release, and the elbow finally straightening, but never locking out.

I’m a huge believer in what the entire right arm and shoulder do in your golf swing for maximum power and consistency, so I hope this article gives you a better understanding of what happens with the right elbow in your golf swing.

If you enjoyed the article, please comment below and hit the “like” buttons at the top under my name. If you have other issues you want me to cover, just let me know by commenting below.

Also, let me know if you like this format, or would like something different, as I want you to get the best learning environment possible.

+Mike Pedersen

Learning how to release your hands through impact will be eye-opening to you!

How To Release Your Hands In Your Golf Swing – Watch This Video

I’m my own guinea pig, so through these articles I hope you learn from my mistakes, and save the heartache, agony and time I put in. I’ve been fortunate enough to learn from some of the best golf instructors on the net, so I will not ever profess to say these are all my ideas, but they are the ones that worked for me.

Learning how to play better golf takes a little effort, and smart training. Recognize your swing faults and fix them. I know that’s easier said then done, but that is the fastest way to playing better.

The Most Common Is The Early Release

This is referred to as casting, throwing, and a number of other terms, but it’s a premature release of your wrists too early, typically for some high handicap golfers, right from the start of the downswing.

This causes a widening of the wrist angle (lag) too early, and will result in other compensations later in the downswing, most notably flipping and coming up (which I use to do) at impact, which can produce fat, thin, chunked and even topped shots.

It depends on your timing that day as to which one of these happens, but usually it’s consistent for that day.

Fix Early Release

If you’re a right-handed golfer, the release is all about your right wrist. I have spent hundreds of hours trying to subdue my right wrist. It was over-active in the golf takeaway, and coming down. I experimented with different feels and drills given to me from local teaching pro’s, never to fix it.

Then during one practice session it hit me. My grip and wrist tension was through the roof! It was one of the major causes of this over-active right wrist. With this tension in my fingers, hands and wrist, the muscles just want to fire (release) as quick as possible.

The Answer: What I did next changed my swing immediately. I let all the tension go in my right wrist, so when I took the club back, it set back on itself naturally. I felt a lot of pressure in my trigger finger of my right hand, so I know I was on to something. Before I could never feel that.

Read on there’s more!

Now that I could feel the proper wrist cock at the top of my golf swing, I needed to restrain from the early release in the transition. What I did next might not work for you, as it is a “feel” move, but I’m confident it will if you understand it.

What I Did (Drill): I kept the fingers in my right hand very relaxed, and focused on a slight pulling motion. But the key was to pull down with the big fleshy pad under my right thumb, which helped retain the wrist cock in my right wrist. Following me?

What’s important here, is to feel your right hand bent back on itself, and staying there as you pull down. This is called “retaining lag”, and is a must if you want to hit the ball a long way.

Added Benefit: This relaxation in the right hand coming down, also enabled the club to stay on plane, whereas before, I would come down very steep, which is NO GOOD in golf. With the club resting on the fingers of your right hand, this plane is set, and not disturbed coming all the way down.

Next Tip For Pre-Release Of Hands

As you’re coming down, I want you to feel like your right hand is on top of the shaft. This feeling will also turn down the left hand (Hogan move), which will be squaring the face coming into impact. This little turn down needs to become automatic.

Believe it or not, in the pictures below, you might not be able to see it, but my right hand feels and looks right on top of the shaft, with the palm literally facing the ground.

The second picture at impact, I feel like I’m smothering the ball with my right hand. That’s the feeling you need to get to compress the ball squarely, and achieve the nirvana of smashing that golf ball!

I will bet you a hundred dollars 99% of high handicap golfers don’t get this right.

When you get this right, you will come down onto the ball squarely, and if you’re anything like me, I found the ball jumped off the clubface. It was pure heaven! All those years of hitting the ball with a slightly off-square clubface, and not to finally compress that dang golf ball!

Look at the full release in the below picture. See how the butt of the club is now disappearing? For most high handicap golfers, the entire club would still be visible, because they flipped it, and come up on it.

Drill: The Late Release

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this in golf instruction, but sometimes you need to go to an extreme to fix your fault. And this is one time I feel it is warranted.

What you’re going to do is retain your wrist cock as long as you can, late into and past impact (see image below). At first, this will not be while you hit a golf ball. This is a drill to do in front of a mirror. Keep the tension out of your right hand, wrist and fingers, and bring the club down, way into impact.

I promise you, when you hit a ball, you won’t even come close to holding this angle. There is too much  centrifugal force from the club and speed. But the point of the drill is to get you comfortable retaining this angle late into the hit.

How To Release The Hands Through Impact

This is the “money zone”.

This is where you can really compress that poor golf ball.

With your right hand still on top of the club, your left hand turning down, you now have a “green light” to push (extend) your right hand down and through the ball, and the left hand to turn over into a full release of your hands. This is not a flip or roll! This is a release of your hands through impact.

Notice the right arm fully extended. Also the right shoulder has continued to come through. This was not an independent move of my hands. It was a shoulders, arms, hands and club release for maximum power.

You could even practice this position right here in a mirror to feel what it’s like. I’ll bet you have felt your body in that position before. That’s a great drill all by itself.

What helped me the most, was using a golf release training aid. I did this move with the aid all over my house for days and days, and finally got it ingrained, and my ball striking is better than ever!

Golf Release Training Aid

This was a mammoth article, but one that I felt was needed to get you to understand how your hands release in your swing.

If you enjoyed this article, please facebook comment below, and also “like” the article by clicking on the facebook icon at the top under my name. I’d appreciate it.

+Mike Pedersen

Or, you are practicing your golf swing in front of a mirror, and you get that side view and see this big hump in your back?

No matter how hard you try to straighten it out, you just can’t get it to stay straight, especially after a couple of holes during your round. In fact, the more you try, the harder it is, and the more frustrated you get.

Check Out This Golf Video To Fix Your Posture

What Causes This Bad Posture?

Throughout the years, we’ve been sitting for 8 or more hours at our jobs, then we go home and sit for a few more hours. All the time with poor posture.

As the years go on, your muscles get both tight and weak, causing this sometimes dramatic curve (hump) in your upper back. You cannot fix this through thought.

What I mean is by trying to keep it straight. This is a “physical” issue and needs some simple, and easy exercises you can do anywhere to fix this debilitating golf swing restriction.

If you don’t read this and implement the simple exercises I’m going to show you, your golf swing will continue to lack power and consistency.

Let me explain, to help you understand the biomechanics of your golf swing.

Your golf swing is a rotary movement. Picture your spine as a rod that you have to rotate your body around, and this rod is very, very straight and rigid. Imagine a rotisserie on a barbeque. Your spine is a rotisserie.

If the rotisserie is straight, it spins perfectly, around and around. If it’s bent, it wobbles much slower and will not cook the chicken as well as it should, and it will take much longer to cook.

Let’s get back to your golf swing!

If your spine is curved, this will dramatically limit your ability to freely rotate back and through in your golf swing. Have you sometimes felt like you just can’t make a full turn no matter how hard you try?

This is the reason why!

Until you get your spine in alignment, you will continue to hit weak drives that very rarely go straight.

There are two main reasons why you can’t correct this through thought and effort. One, you have a very restricted chest and front shoulder area, which is pulling your shoulders forward causing the rounding of your upper back, and second over the years your upper back (spinal erector) muscles have weakened to the point of them being elastic and not firm.

Take a look at the picture below. The side view picture shows the accentuated curve in my upper back (white curved line you can barely see…sorry).

Now take a look below at this picture from the front. I am maintaining the incorrect curve in my back and trying to make a backswing. Notice how short and restricted it is?

Look how I can only go a little bit without coming out of my posture.

This is one of the MAIN reasons senior golfers can’t make a turn.

Now take a look at this side view (below). This is what you’re posture’s going to look like after you do the simple tips, drills and exercises that are in the video.

See the line I’ve drawn to show you how straight the spine is here? Believe it or not, I’m not having to put much effort into achieving this position, and neither will you.

Look at the turn you’ll soon make after you get this corrected. This is something you can definitely achieve, but you need to do the simple golf exercise and stretch that’s in the video.

I hope you enjoyed the article. If so, please “like” the article by hitting the buttons right under my name in the top left. I appreciate it.

And, by all means give me your feedback by commenting below in the Facebook comments

+Mike Pedersen

I don’t want you to get too overwhelmed, so what I have in here should keep it quick and easy to master.

Simple Tips To Develop Your Swing Plane

To own the perfect golf swing plane, You’ll want to first keep in mind where your hands and club are when you start your swing, because you’ll want to come back to that position, or as close as you can.

Every golfer is not the same, as some have long arms that hang lower, making a lower angle to your own shaft plane at your starting position, and the short arms produces an increasingly upright, vertical shaft plane at address.

Perhaps you have heard this before, but impact and address should be similar. There is some leeway here, so nothing to obsess over, nevertheless, if in your thoughts you will get back to impact, from your starting position, you are going to be smashing your the golf ball like you’ve never done before.

Leave the hands out of it!

You read it here! Your hands make or break your golf swing. I do know for me personally, I’ve been on completely wrong end of that stick, and wrecked my swing plane, and it took hours of researching swing videos, and drills to correct it. I’m not there yet, nonetheless the progress continues to be remarkable!

Once you start your move back, your hands should go directly back, without the need of manipulation of your hands to the club. It all extends back as a whole (hands, arms, club and shoulders). You’ve probably read, the one-piece takeaway, and that’s exactly what I’m referring to here.

Check It Halfway

When you’re midway back in your backswing, your left arm will be parallel to the ground, not to mention parallel in conjunction with your target line. At this time in your swing, you will have cocked your wrists ” up “, and simply started to flex your right arm (slightly).

At this time, the butt end of your club should really be pointing towards target line. Should you have a lazer on the end of your own club (butt end), it is going to point right towards the line, about 2-3 feet behind the ball, but directly on the target line. If you can possibly hit that line consistently, you’re on your journey to an incredible golf swing.

All you have to do now’s continue your shoulder turn, as you’re flexing your right elbow to 90 degrees. Now your’re near the top of your swing in best placement to come down on plane. This is a beautiful thing!

Mimic Backswing Plane And Path When Coming Down

This is where I know personally I screwed this up for sure! When you’ve executed your complete backswing like already mentioned, all you have to do is reverse it coming down. Deliver your hands downward on the same path you did going up.

You should not adjust your hands in the downswing, as that will immediately alter your swing plane. My fault was coming down way steeper than when I went back. It’s a killer in your own golf swing, and I labored very hard to resolve it.

Another checkpoint is midway coming down (see picture to your right).Similar to halfway back, the butt of your own club must be aiming on the target line, in essentially precisely the same spot as when you were going back.

Focus on how Hunter’s shaft is very nicely parallel on the plane line. He will come into impact specifically on the proper golf swing plane.
There are numerous other extremely effective golf swing plane drills that I’ll go over in a future article, but my intention is that this article has presented you a better comprehension of your golf swing plane.

Use A Trainer To Ingrain Swing Plane

For most golfers it is almost impossible to enable them to acquire the appropriate sense of the on-plane swing, which is when the use of a golf trainer to improve your swing plane can be a godsend.

Being in position to use this sort of trainer and strike golf balls, will let you have real time feedback. You’ll know at any instant when you strike the ball by having an on plane swing or not.

+Mike Pedersen

I shot this golf stretch video to show you an effective hip rotation stretch you can do to increase the speed of your hip turn in your golf swing. This is a huge power generator, and most of the golfers over the age of 50 have diminished rotational flexibility in their hip joints.

As with all golf stretching exercises do them exactly as I show you, but make sure to ease into them, as to not pull or strain that muscle.

For those of you who have had a hip replacement, this is still a very good stretch for you. With a little consistency, even with a replaced hip, you’ll see dramatic improvement in your ability to rotate your hips through impact resulting in more power and distance.

Golf Hip Rotation Instructions

• In a standing position, get your feet much wider than shoulder width apart.
• Rotate left foot and hip outward.
• Do a side lunge feeling a stretch in your right hip joint.
• Hold for 10 seconds.
• Repeat the same for the other leg.

 
This stretch for your hip joints can be done daily in under ONE minute! There is no longer an excuse for lack of time, when you can do effective golf stretches like this one in the privacy and convenience of your home.

Senior Tour Golfers Hip Rotation Through Impact

I wanted to give you a visual example of how much the hips turn, or rotate through impact. I picked senior tour player Freddie Couples, who… even plagued with a bad back, is my example. I did not want to show you the young guns, as that is not a good comparison for the older golfers out there.

Look at the difference in his hips from address to impact. They have rotated open significantly, and that is one reason for his power even in his 50′s.

Most amateur golfers over 50 cannot physically achieve this unless they do golf stretches like the one in the video. So there is hope for you, as you get older, as long as you slow the aging process with golf training exercises like this one.

Fred Couples - Senior Tour Player At Address

Freddie Couples Hip Rotation Through Impact

If you enjoyed this article, please give me some “link love” by hitting the Facebook, Twitter AND Google buttons at the top of this page under my name. I’d appreciate it!

+Mike Pedersen

Like many of the blog posts, articles and evening training aids on this site, it is from my personal quest for a better swing (currently play to a 7 handicap). I am an analytic so this may be too much thought for you, but maybe you can take bits and pieces of it and apply it to your golf swing.

Through trial and error, as well as a lot of video analysis, and input from some of the top instructors on the internet, I’ve nailed down a few key points you MUST do correctly if you want to fix any swing fault you have, as many of them are a result of a poor takeaway.

I don’t want to regurgitate the same information you may have read or heard before, so I’ll do my best to tell you (and show you) specific issues in the takeaway, what will be the result, and how to fix them.

I’ll use myself as the guinea pig as to what I was doing wrong, what the result was, and how I fixed it. Hopefully you will find something in this and be able to improve your golf swing.

Pay Attention To What Your Hands Do

If you look at this picture, one of many fatal flaws I had is a rolling away of my hands right from the start of the takeaway. This is death to your golf swing.

Here’s what happens when you do that:

• Hands get further away from body creating disconnection.
• The club gets off-plane almost immediately requiring a compensation in the downswing to get it back on plane.
• Incorrect cocking of the wrists, setting the club again off-plane.
• Left shoulder moves out towards the ball, putting your weight too much on the balls of your feet.

Here’s what your hands are supposed to do in your takeaway.

Take a look at the picture at the top of this page.

Notice in the picture how they are staying closer to my legs the first few feet of the takeaway? Also, pay particular attention to my “quiet hands”. There is no independent manipulation of them. They go straight back.

Also, see how I am now cocking the wrists so the club goes more up the correct plane, and not flat and too the inside like before. What I used to minimize my premature wrist cock with the golf wrist Lag aid. When you put this device on, you can’t cock your wrists early.

Golf Takeaway Shoulder Turn

Here’s where I really struggled, as I had many instructors tell me so many different things (thoughts and feelings).

What I came up to was this…

What Your Right Shoulder Should Do

If you’re a right-handed golfer, the very second you start your takeaway, your right should goes “behind you”.

Yes…you must get this right. I have struggled with this my entire golfing life. As my right shoulder move laterally to the right, which also means your head is not moving off the ball.

When you get this motion correct, you will be making an effortless, bigger turn in your backswing, which will give you more core torque, and ultimately power coming down and into the ball.

Your Left Shoulder

Okay…here again is where I struggled. I was always told the left shoulder “stretches across” during the backswing. Well, when you focus on that, it creates a massive amount of tension in the back of your left shoulder, and this tension limits, doesn’t increase your ability to make a full turn.

The feeling I now have is that the left shoulder “reacts” to the turning back of the right shoulder. When you get this right, you will feel minimal tension in the back of your left shoulder.

What Your Arms Should Do

Yet again, I struggled with this for years, and still to this day, work on it nearly every time I go to the range. During the takeaway, your arms should remain almost passive.

The first 2 feet for sure, you maintain the triangle between your hands, arms and shoulders. Nothing gets manipulated. Nothing changes independently.

This is where I use the Connected Golf Swing Trainer. Notice in the picture how this training aid allows me to keep the triangle perfectly. I try to use this at least once a week to ingrain the proper feel of the triangle going back.

My big mistake was bending my right elbow too soon. Almost right away, and what that does is eliminates any chance of getting coil in your backswing. Especially in your lead, or left lat muscle if you’re a right-handed golfer.

It also creates a very narrow backswing, and encourages more independent arm action coming down. Another added “timing element” to your swing that you don’t need.

If you enjoyed this article, and found it helpful, please hit the like button, tweet it or Google+ at the top under my picture. We really appreciate it!

+Mike Pedersen

You see…if you do not get your club on plane, you will have to make additional compensations to hit the golf ball. Most likely with your hands in the form of a flip, or handsy release. This adds a timing component to your golf swing, in which sometimes you might hit it good, and others you’ll hit it terrible.

Your swing plane is dictated mostly by your address position (see below pic of Hunter Mahan). At address, you would draw a line from the clubhead, through the shaft, continuing up through y0ur body. This is the plane you should be coming into when you impact the golf ball. There is some variance as to being a little above that initial plane, or slightly below it, but you must keep it in a tight range either way.

If you look at the 2 pictures of Hunter Mahan, who is considered one of the best ball strikers on tour, in the halfway down position, he is slightly over the plane, which is completely acceptable. And, if he where slightly under that plane, that would also be acceptable.

The problem occurs when you are dramatically over or under the plane.

What’s The Solution?

If you’ve read any other articles on this site, you’ll know I’m a big believer in the use of training aids. Especially the ones that allow you to hit balls while using them. This is the fastest way to improve your golf swing plane.

I have seen success in my own swing using the golf swing plane trainer. If you’re frustrated with your results, I’d recommend taking a look at this training tool by clicking on the Learn More button below.

+Mike Pedersen

You see…I have hyper mobile elbows and shoulders, and as that was very good for my javelin throwing days, in golf I’m finding it’s not so good. Especially in the left elbow.

After nearly 20 years of studying the golf swing, taking hundreds of lessons, buying all the instruction DVDs, etc., I recently came across a fault that I think may change my entire golf swing, so I hope by writing about it, it may help you as well.

I had my son take a quick picture (after a workout) to show you how my left elbow hyper-extends.

So what happens is, at address I basically lock it (without knowing it until now), which hyper-extends it and creates a ton of tension up into my left shoulder. Now going back, that might be okay, but coming down into impact this is a major problem.

You see…the left elbow needs to be able to bend (release) shortly after impact to achieve the proper release of your hands, as well as maintain the connection to your body with your upper arm.

I want to make perfectly clear that your left elbow should not overly bend in the takeaway, or at the top of your backswing, but it also, should not be locked (hyper-extended) like mine either.

So the best of both worlds is to feel like the elbow is soft (just slightly bent a fraction) at address; during your backswing, and definitely coming down and into impact, and beyond.

When I came upon this revelation, I realize this was causing a “jammed up” feeling at impact (see image below) with my left shoulder scrunching up into my traps, and it was actually blocking my release of the club.

At this point in the golf swing (impact), my left elbow should start to bend, and the upper left arm re-connect to my side for my club to swing back to the inside naturally. As you can see in the above picture, this will not happen with a locked, hyper-extended elbow.

When I let my left elbow bend at this point, my hands release easily and naturally, and my left upper arm comes back in close to my side with the club freely swinging left around my body.

I am quite excited to go out and work on this, as I know in my gut, improving the motion of my left arm in my golf swing will help me compress the ball, and take a nice dollar-sized divot, “after the ball”.

Want To Learn The Correct Connection For Longer Drives

Along with this swing change I’m making, I’m using the golf swing connection aid to help me learn the correct feel of my left arm staying connected to my body coming through impact.

+Mike Pedersen

Most amateurs (myself included) have never learned the very fine movements of the lower arm, wrists and hands through impact, and when you do, you’ll be amazed at how different it is from what you’re doing now.

If you look at the picture and the yellow arrow, you MUST come into impact with a bent right wrist! There is no discussion or debate on this. 99% of all amateur golfers do not do this. It is a delaying of the release of the club via the right wrist, going deep into the downswing.

We’re going to focus on the critical area of 2 feet before impact, and 2 feet after impact. As this is where all the PGA players look virtually the same, even if their backswing and start of downswing look different.

Take a look at pre-impact below. Notice how the right upper arm is connected to body, with the right elbow directly in front of the hip.

This is a position you can work on in front of a mirror in your home or office. Get in this exact position, and look at it intently in front of the mirror, then look down at it to get a different view of it.

I want you to really feel this position. Get it implanted in your brain. The more you can get this in your head, the better it will automatically happen when you swing.

Now that you have this ingrained, lets take it to the “moment of truth”…impact!

Look at the below picture and see what the right lower arm (forearm), wrist and hand has done, during a proper golf swing release.

In looking at the above picture, you first must realize this golfer has rotated (pivoted) through impact, to get to that position. This was not an independent move of just the arms.

Look at how much the hips and shoulders have rotated to get there. This is critical to know when you do this drill in front of a mirror. With that being said, one of the only changes in these 2 positions is the extension in the right elbow, which nearly straightens the right arm.

But also notice the turning down of the last three knuckles of the left hand. This is very much a Ben Hogan move (bowing of left wrist at impact) which produces amazing compression on the golf ball.

Doing this drill will “educate your hands” as to the exact motion for a powerful impact. I’m confident to say, most, if not all amateur golfers have not achieved these positions, and when done correctly will feel quite different.

Want To Speed Up Your Learning

In the above pictures, the golfer is using a unique golf swing wrist release aid that is not on any other website but this one.

+Mike Pedersen