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Across The Line And Flying Right Elbow

Two of the common complaints golfers have about their backswing is that they are "across the line" and that they have a "flying right elbow". In this video, we discuss how the top of the backswing issues reveal what is going on in the transition and why the top of the backswing should not be looked at in isolation. 

Tags: Concept, Intermediate

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This video is discussing across the line and the flying right elbow.

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So I'm going to group these two together because frequently they show up with pretty much the same swings.

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You can get the flying elbow and be laid off or even on plane, but frequently they kind of go together.

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So it's quick definition.

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If we go to the top of the swing across the line,

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it's typically going to be pointed right of the target or target line.

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I should say on plane is typically referred to as parallel and across the line would be left of it.

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Now the problem is that's given some arbitrary back swing position.

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So what I would challenge you to do is don't get so obsessed with how it looks at the top of the swing as far as where it's pointing compared to the target.

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But recognize what that means and what it's going to do for you in transition.

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So if you're going to have more of this body driven swing,

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then you need to get your arms to work into more of a shallow position or more of a horizontal position during the downswing,

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kind of working more around your body as opposed to vertical straight up and down.

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So the problem is with the across the line or flying elbow.

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So if I get to the top of the swing, kind of like so if I was to stand up and bring my arms where they are kind of down in front of me,

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you can see that it's going to take a pretty major shallow movement and a major right arm movement in order to get from this position to that position.

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So what'll typically happen is instead of getting to here, I'll pull down and I'll be more in this vertical position.

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So when I get across the line, I'll tend to pull down this way, which means I have to stall my body pivot and release those arms.

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Now, if I power the swing by pulling down with your arms, getting across the line and having that flying right elbow actually makes me more powerful.

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It's one of the reason why you'll see a lot of long drive golfers and some senior tour players gravitating towards that more across the line position,

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because it allows them to pull down harder and not really mess up that arm pull kind of down swing sequencing.

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Now, what I normally like to do is I like to build what you're going to do on the down swing and then make the backswing corrections.

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So I would work on, if I'm trying to get out of across the line, I'm trying to get more of that body pull.

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I would work on the impact position and the follow-through and the release and the body sequencing and some down swing stuff and see what kind of natural changes happen to my backswing.

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Or once I've put in six weeks, a couple of months working on some down swing stuff, then I would go after working on the backswing position.

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Because if I get into kind of a tour classic kind of backswing position, this is going to be very weak for pulling down.

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So as long as you stay in more of that arm pull model, if you get into a better backswing, it's going to tend to make you hit the ball just a little bit shorter.

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Some of the golfers are okay with that. Most golfers are not.

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So that's why the brain keeps gravitating towards more of that flying elbow across the line position.

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So if you decide that you don't want to use more of the body driven swing and you want to basically pull with your arms and just kind of work with that pattern, then I would highly recommend that you get a little bit more upright and a little bit more across the line.

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Because that'll make it so that when you pull, you're actually going to have a little bit more power.

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If you're worried about the way it looks at the top of this wing, make sure you understand how it's connected to what you're trying to do in transition.

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Similarly, by working on the downswing first, I've seen have bigger effects in then being able to change the top of the backswing rather than just trying to change the top of the backswing to some arbitrary position so that you can have a swing that, quote, unquote, looks pretty.

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So if I'm doing more that arm pull model, I can go across the line, kind of like so, and then I'll basically pull down vertically and then fully release the arms and just let my upper body kind of drift.

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This involves a lot less body speed, but a lot more kind of arm speed, kind of like that.

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The opposite would be instead of using more of that arm pull, I'm going to use more of the body turn, more of the motorcycle, kind of the pattern that we teach more in this program.

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So you'll see that both of them can work, but they require very different downswing mechanics.

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So if you're going to try to work on the overall downswing pattern to be a little bit more body driven, then ultimately you can do that.

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If you're trying to work on the overall downswing pattern to be a little bit more body driven, then ultimately you will want to get out of across the line.

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I just like to build the downswing before I go after the flying elbow or across the line at the top of the swing.

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Tends the work better in my experience.

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