Lead Arm Bend?

[bcjim]

Help me out here.  It's this normal or unique to Clark? Or an illusion? Just tinkering in my office, it would seem difficult to hit a ball effectively with this level of bend in the arm at impact. 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by bcjim

[tthomasgolfer605]

It's just the way his arm works. I highly doubt he thinks about it. 

[bcjim]

No doubt,  but is that the way everyone's arm is supposed to work? Or does he have an unusual move?

Edited September 6, 2023 by bcjim

[Shoemaker77]

At my best I was scratch about ten years ago and this was my exact left arm angle at impact. Haven’t played much the last few years but trying to get back into it. My swing is nothing like it was and my contact is really suffering. After many videos trying to fix many things I think I’ll just try to go back to this left elbow move and screw what everyone says about it being bad.

[Chunkitgood]

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

Keeping the left arm straight is nonsense.  Forcing your elbow to bend this much on purpose is harmful.  It’s a result of other things.  Westwood, Spieth, Hovland, etc.

[tthomasgolfer605]

1 hour ago, bcjim said:

No doubt,  but is that the way everyone's arm is supposed to work? Or does he have an unusual move?

No. You’ll see some straighter arms and some bent. Don’t think it’s something you can control. 

[Chunkitgood]

I’ll take a wild guess that bending the arm facilitates parametric acceleration.

[PhillipG78]

Forcing your arm to stay ramrod straight isn't a smooth natural swing, but don't deliberatly try to bend it a ton either. Good grip, good posture, good shoulder tilt, good weight shift  and the arms will naturally go where they want to, to maximize centripedal force. 

[Fuscinator]

1 hour ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Keeping the left arm straight is nonsense. 

Haha! I'm glad I gave up on that early.🤣

[fjk]

I’ve noticed this on several elite ballstrikers too - I do give some clues as to their power source and focus. Vs a lot of Ams with straight left arm at impact and left shoulder high. 
 

how does this bent left arm at impact influence the left arm being the radius and low point ideas of the swing? @iteachgolf hopefully might comment?

[dap]

One of the things I notice about the great players who have a lot of lead arm bend is that they tend to release wrist c0ck a bit earlier and bending the lead arm helps preserve a proper p6 to get a solid downward ball then turf strike. If lead arm was straight with an early release then fat and thin shots come into play.

 

A player with a sweepy release might do better with a bent lead arm and a player with a late snap release can keep lead arm straight. Not sure how you could teach a bent lead arm if it doesn’t come naturally though.

[TheDeanAbides]

10 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Keeping the left arm straight is nonsense.  Forcing your elbow to bend this much on purpose is harmful.  It’s a result of other things.  Westwood, Spieth, Hovland, etc.

Remember what happened to Westy when Lead tried to change his impact position to a straight left arm? Literally dropped off the planet.

[EagleAteBirdie]

I feel that I have no control over the clubface with a straight left arm at impact.  Maintaining some bend gives me so much more control.

[TLUBulldogGolf]

Hovland is also quite bent. Mine has always been more bent at impact, I don't really worry about it at this point. I assume it's just a reaction to other parts of my swing. 

[Chunkitgood]

From some random site called “Golf WRX” from some years ago I found by searching “bent left arm” and “parametric acceleration”:

 

“Parametric Acceleration

Parametric acceleration in the golf swing basically means that in the downswing, prior to and through impact, you provide an upward pulling force to the club, and this can then give the club a bit extra whip through impact.

You can do this in several ways. For example, you might pull with your lead arm so that it’s bent at impact. It generates sort of a chicken wing look like you see with two-time World Long Drive Champion Jamie Sadlowski. Another way is the two-foot “jump” through impact that is professed by some, and you’ll see that a bit in long drive when golfers are literally off the ground with both feet. On force plates, the pressure measurements go dark because the guys are airborne.”

[getitdaily]

I prefer @Zitlow swing. I've been watching him from the fairway for a few months now. Here's a video I captured recently 

[airjammer]

I started a tread about this a while ago. 

Here’s a pretty cool post that pertains to this tread. 
 

 

http://www.instagram.com/reel/Cw702vFtFYs/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
 

This is a cool video of Martin. You can see his lead arm never straightens and his lead arm doesn’t seem to be going into external on the thru swing either dur to using the throw release pattern die to his strong grip.
 

This pretty much busts any myths about needing the lead arm straight for speed. 

[Soloman1]

When you look at bones and not flesh, the Humerus (top) and Radius (lower) are not naturally inline in a resting pose. You have to really extend the elbow to align them.

 

With a rotated lead hand grip to a stronger position (clockwise with a RH golfer), pronation puts them more out of line and “bent.”

 

I think the straight arm teaching came from the concept of a simplified rigid pendulum to illustrate arm and hand speed. But, our arms are not built like that. We have an elbow.

 

 

 

A compound pendulum creates more speed.

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by Soloman1

[aggiegolfer21]

See hovland and lee westwood.  If it works it's correct.

[KNOWMOREDOUBLES]

Both arms extend after impact. This is far more important.

[Hidraw]

I used to think this was "parametric accelleration".  But my view has changed.  The lead arm bent is to allow the full hands range of motion relative to the torso.  In the backswing, it is the trail arm bent yielding to the lead arm straight.  Im the down swing right around impact and beyond, it is the lead arm bent yielding to the straightening trail arm.  This allows the hands to move more than 90 degrees relative to the torso.  Now the lead arm can bend in two ways depending whether the lead arm is internally or externally rotated.  I prefer external rotation, but I will happy to have the golf swing of those elites with internally rotated lead arm any time.

[launcher]

Didn't seem to bother Calvin Peete. I too have about a 20d. bend in my left arm. 

[KNOWMOREDOUBLES]