Stiff Left Arm

Thu, 06/11/2009 - 11:00 -- Don Trahan

A local PGA Club Professional, '€œCM,'€ whom I play 9 holes in the late afternoon with fairly regularly when I am home, ask me to take a look at his swing to see if I could help with his poor ball striking. He is a relatively good player, and hitting fairways and greens is his strong point. Putting is his nemesis. He was hitting a lot of thin iron shots to the right and weak blocks with his woods, especially his driver. So I took a look at his setup and swing. I came up with one glaring problem for each.

CM and I have talked quite regularly about the golf swing. He is always open to hearing about and reading about my thoughts and beliefs on the setup and swing. (He checks PPGS.COM site regularly.) We have even done some work on his swing on the course and occasionally on the range. But this time, he was hurting and we were heading straight to the range for a good check-up to get him back on course (pun intended).

His setup overall got a good solid Grade A. The A would also stand for athletically ready posture and for pretty good Alignment. He had the narrow stance and flared feet, good ball position and correct arm extension. But his left arm was rather arched up and looked really straight and tight and tense. He had a good spine angle tilt and was pre-loaded heavy right. His head position was correct, in line with his spine, and his nose was pointing straight at the ball. He had a good palms perpendicular grip, and looked like he held the club with a firm grip.

His swing began with a problem in his takeaway, with the hands leading and pushing the club away too low and with a closed clubface. He was slow lifting the club into the mitt, and once there, his lift up the tree was more of a flipping of the club up, with a big rotation of his arms. This caused the club to over rotate to flat and lay off at around 10:00 0'€™clock. As we all know, this is in the heavy position and deep or inside the Sacred Burial Ground (SBG.) Many golfers, when they feel stress in the elbow, allow it to break down and they over swing, going past parallel.

So, in my diagnosis, even though I start with the setup evaluation and then the swing, my number 1 priority is to determine the swing problem, the effect of the setup. Once I determine the effect, then I backtrack to the setup to determine what is incorrect and thus causing the swing problem. That is what I fix by adjusting the setup to correct and dynamically balanced positions.

With a low push away and shut clubface takeaway, followed by an over rotation or flip of the arms and club at 9:00 o'€™clock, to laid off and deep in the Sacred Burial Ground. The culprit causing this was without doubt his '€œStraight Left Arm.'€ His left was so straight, that it was actually hyper-extended at the elbow. This means that the elbow was arched up and locked.

To see and feel this, hold your left arm out naturally like you are holding a club in your hand. Notice your left elbow has a little flex or bend in it. If you had an arrow coming out of the inside, it would point up toward around 1 on a clock facing in front of you. Now, hyper extend you left elbow by arching or snapping it straight up to where it actually locks up. Watch closely, You will see that as the arm rises, and elbow locks, and the arrow moves up to point at 12, the left shoulder also rises up and tightens. Your arm rotates up and to the left. And, notice that this also causes the left had to rotate to the left, with the palm turning a little skyward. As for the muscles and feel, the shoulder, left pecks, biceps and forearm all tighten up quite a bit. Some golfers believe that this tightness is good and feels powerful.

The truth is actually quite the opposite in that, first and foremost, the shoulder girdle and arm are out of dynamic balance and cannot rotate and lift the club toe up and into the catcher'€™s mitt, then lift the club vertical up the tree to 12:00 o'€™clock and the light club position. This also places extreme stress on the elbow and can lead to golf or tennis elbow problems and shoulder and neck stress and strain.

As for the takeaway, all the arm can do is push the club away low, with the hands leading. The right arm on top of the left forces the left shoulder down and right shoulder up into a slight reverse tilt. This makes lifting the club up vertical at 9:00 o'€™clock impossible until the left arm can rotate up to being level with the right arm, and also re-adjusts the shoulders to get the right shoulder tilted below the left as it needs to lift the arms and club up. The problem with this move is that the left arm, in raising up, actually flips over the left, aided by the weight and momentum of the club pulling it, as it rotates from shut and the rotation goes too far. The club goes past vertical to laid off to 10:00 o'€™clock or more, and inside and deep behind the toe line in the SBG. You can feel all of this even without a club. But you really feel the full extent of it when you try it with a club. You'€™ll feel the rotation and the club getting heavy, and the muscles straining to have to work more to support the club.

The cure is that the left arm must remain in the natural extended position, just like you would extend it out to shake hands with someone. When we shake hands, the arm is extended but NEVER LOCKED at the elbow. The inside of the elbow points up toward 1 on the clock and will have a slight crack or bend and the palm will be perpendicular to the ground.

Now, to get the correct firm grip pressure, all you have to do is squeeze the last three fingers of your left hand upward toward your palm. (Note: you use the same squeeze up of the last three fingers and have the same grip pressure and muscles activation in your right hand and arm.) With your left arm extended, squeeze your last three fingers and look at the underside of your forearm. When you squeeze your fingers upward, the under arm muscles activate from the wrist to just below the elbow stretching and pulling upward.

The key here is that the activation does not reach the elbow, which still remains in its natural extended position. The grip and forearm are firm and ready to hold the club and lift it in the takeaway and backswing, with the club leading the hands in a proper toe rotation up into the mitt and vertical lift up the tree, to 12:00 o'€™clock and light ‚¾ backswing. The key here is that the left arm can have a little flex at the top of the backswing, it just cannot bend or break to where you lose grip pressure. Proper setup positions and muscle activation made this all happen easily, efficiently and correctly.
This is swinging proof that the setup determines the motion.

The Surge!

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