Best drill for getting trail elbow out in front - swing posted in replies

[wolvverine]

I’ve done some work with the smart ball but find I can still get my elbow trapped behind me somehow without dropping the ball

Edited October 20, 2021 by wolvverine
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[TurnDog69]

Yeah the smart ball drill is imperfect for me too. It still allows me to spin my shoulders and leave my arms/elbow behind.

 

Trail elbow getting trapped for me is either 

1. Elbow moving in the wrong direction

2. Sequencing issue and arms aren't firing first. 

 

For me, it's usually a little bit of both. The most common drill posted here is one arm swings with your right arm and holding the elbow "forward" with your left hand. In many of my swings my elbows get FURTHER apart in transition and the trail elbow goes back and behind instead of driving forward.

 

One thing that's been helpful for me is to feel that the right elbow is going to your left pocket (For a righty).

 

A lot of drills try to connect your trail elbow to your trail hip but that to me doesn't give the exaggeration we need. Swing at the ball but disconnect from how you hit it/where it goes and just fire elbow to lead pocket. 

 

(Caveat to all this- This is just the move that has helped me a LITTLE recently. That's why I'm sharing it. There could surely be some people in this thread that say this is a terrible idea or have better ones. I'm a 14 hcp, and  not in any way shape or form a swing expert. There's my disclaimer

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by TurnDog69

[Snarkesor]

Post a video of your swing. The big question is what's going on with your pivot that's getting your arms stuck. There's multiple ways for this to happen, thus there's not just one drill that will fix it for everyone.

[wolvverine]

[Golfbeat]

I think that it is important to include the left arm as well in the release pattern. If the left arm stalls, the right will as well.

 

This video might help.

 

 

[airjammer]

14 hours ago, wolvverine said:

 

The elbow doesn’t look trapped to me. Looks like that was a pull..it wasn’t because of your elbow being trapped imo

[thed0n]

Yeah, it doesn’t look trapped to me either. If you don’t like the “throw” at the ball at impact, I think it’s a result of a pivot stall.  I’m not sure what’s causing it.

 

Try getting deeper in the trail hip in the backswing and deeper in the front hip in the downswing, that should open your chest up some at impact which would get you the look of having a more bent trail arm at impact that you want.

 

Dochety Golf posted a video on YouTube recently on Knees and Hips, you might want to check it out.

 

From the looks of it, I bet you hit the ball pretty well.

Edited October 20, 2021 by thed0n

[wolvverine]

12 minutes ago, thed0n said:

Yeah, it doesn’t look trapped to me either. If you don’t like the “throw” at the ball at impact, I think it’s a result of a pivot stall.  I’m not sure what’s causing it.

 

Try getting deeper in the trail hip in the backswing and deeper in the front hip in the downswing, that should open your chest up some at impact which would get you the look of having a more bent trail arm at impact that you want.

 

Dochety Golf posted a video on YouTube recently on Knees and Hips, you might want to check it out.

 

From the looks of it, I bet you hit the ball pretty well.

yeah now that I’m looking at some videos of pros more closely I think my elbow looks trapped to me more due to the fact that my body isn’t as open at impact

[thed0n]

There’s also a lesson that Gankas gave Riggs from Fore Play Golf that might be useful to check out too.  It’s also on YouTube.

[Shushwap]

8 hours ago, thed0n said:

There’s also a lesson that Gankas gave Riggs from Fore Play Golf that might be useful to check out too.  It’s also on YouTube.

That was a good video 

[Wasted_Talent]

22 hours ago, thed0n said:

There’s also a lesson that Gankas gave Riggs from Fore Play Golf that might be useful to check out too.  It’s also on YouTube.

 

If that video played with only sound I would swear it was me he was giving the lesson to.  

[Zitlow]

You can overdue elbow out in front which will inhibit the clubhead's release through the ball. 

[thed0n]

Something like this is good, an actual drill.  Gankas does something similar.  The goal is for the alignment sticks to touch before the club hits the ball.   But it’s all explained in the post.

 

The part in the post about getting down is key.  From a practical standpoint if the trail side is closer to the ball at impact the more the trail elbow will have to stay bent to hit it.  At least that’s the way it looks to me.

 

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CVYAranACOX/?utm_medium=copy_link

Edited October 23, 2021 by thed0n

[RichieHunt]

I can't see your swing, but I would struggle with the elbow getting too far behind me.  Now it doesn't get too far behind me, but the hands still travel too far inside in the backswing.  It's fine if you want to hit a decent sized cut ala Lietzke, but I've never been able to consistently hit a sizeable cut.

 

For me, I got rid of the elbow getting too far behind me by not getting left tilt early on in the swing.  The 'drill' that I worked on most was to simply try and keep the relationship of my right arm/elbow  under my left arm/elbow for as long as I could in the backswing as I turned my shoulders.  

 

As you continue to turn, along with your arms starting to rise, you shouldn't see ripples on the left side of your shirt until before the very end of your backswing.  

 

Basically, you really don't want to left tilt in the backswing as much as you want to have forward tilt (towards the ball).  As you turn and raise the arms, your body will naturally forward tilt towards the ball.  All that left tilt does is shut off your pviot action eventually.

 

So I would just work on turning the shoulders, keeping the right arm vs. left arm relationship.  If the right arm gets too hgih, you're going to left tilt.  

 

As far as preventing the hands from going too far inside, now I'm working on the same thing except in the takeaway I'm focusing on what I call the 'push out.'  That is pushing out the butt of the club away from the body as I turn my shoulders/torso in the takeaway.  The key is to do it without straightening the right arm.  My key is to get the right elbow to most out and away from the body.

 

Another key is to limit the pelvis rotation from p1 to p2.  There shouldn't be much of it from p1 to p2.  It should be the torso/shoulders turning and the pelvis either doesn't turn or turns just a hair.  If you turn the pelvis, you're likely going to left tilt and suck the arms in and get the right elbow behind you.

 

The toughest part for me has been to turn what feels pretty flat too me and to push out the butt of the club away from the body.  

 

But I have learned a lot better of what the one piece takeaway really is and more accurately what 'width' in the backswing really is as well.

 

 

 

 

RH

 

 

 

[mmakowski]

I'd make sure you are getting a full/proper turn relative to the length of your swing. Start there then you can work on downswing