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In this analyisis video we look at how some tour pros appear to have a bent arm at impact. In reality, almost all tour pros have an arm that is more bent at impact than it was at set up, so using a "bent arm" is a poor way of describing a swing pattern. In this video, we discuss the difference between a bent arm and a bending arm and how that reveals a lot about your swing tendencies.
Tags: Poor Contact, Analysis, Member Question, Intermediate
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In this analysis video, we're going to take a look at the white first is the chicken wing.
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So we're going to use, we're going to basically look at the lead arm and the timing of when it's bending and how it relates to the mechanics of this wing.
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So we've got Jordan's bath on the left, Lee Westwood on the right, two of the guys who are classically used as having a chicken wing at impact.
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We're having a bent arm. Now, I'm going to show some 3D graphs at the end of this where you'll see that most golfers are going to have a slightly more bent arm than they did.
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At setup, when we're looking at impact.
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So the question is not if the arm is bent, but rather in my mind, whether it's bending and a chicken wing or whether it's bent and just part of the natural ways that you can use your lead arm to direct the force into the golf ball.
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So if we're looking at the timing of when Jordan's arm bends, you'll see that there's a little pumping action.
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So it's bent at the top as he starts down it's straightening and then as he gets into when he would do the wife. So right about now that lead arm is going to start bending a little bit more.
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And then it kind of maintains that bend or slightly straightens through impact.
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And then once the club is now dead in line with his body, now the force is going to start working around him.
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And he has to stabilize that. Now he could either do that with arm rotation or what he does is now he absorbs that force more with that lead arm bend kind of like a shrug type movement.
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We'll see a similar pattern if we look over here on the right at Lee Westwood.
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So he's straightening his lead arm during that transition phase and then now he starts that white a little early or earlier the Jordan kind of in this movement.
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So you'll see that arm bending and it's reaching its maximum amount of bend for right about here.
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And then it'll slightly straighten from about a couple frames before impact until just through impact.
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And then again once it gets to where everything is in line with his chest, now everything is starting to work past his body.
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So we could either let that arm rotate or he's going to allow that arm to bend. He has to absorb the force and transfer it up to his body some way otherwise he tend to struggle with injury.
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So now as it passes his body, you'll see that lead arm bend. This is very different than what we're going to see when we look at some amateur examples of golfers who are actually doing a chicken wing.
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So now we have two more examples of golfers who are frequently mentioned when talking about the lead arm bending. This is a routine goose and on the left and Chad Campbell and the right.
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So here we'll see a routine goose and kind of straighten that arm during transition to pump a little energy.
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And then as he starts getting into that delivery position and starts initiating the release, you'll see that lead arm bend as he's executing the white more from that lead elbow.
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So you'll see that that elbow is bending and now when he starts getting real close to impact that next frame.
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So he's not quite an impact yet and that arm is starting starting.
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So he's not quite an impact yet and his lead arm is going to start straightening right through there.
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So what you'll see on and you'll see that it's reached a fairly straight position there.
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So, receive goose and just has an exaggeration on this white movement which makes it look like that lead arm is bending through impacts.
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But what you'll see is it's bending just before impact and then straightening through impact.
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It's actually a common pattern with a lot of really good ball strikers and a lot of really long hitters.
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Not everyone does it. Some just gradually straighten the arm straight from the top of the swing.
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But a lot of them have this kind of change direction when they initiate the white more from the lead arm than the trail arm.
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So now over here on the right we have Chad Campbell. He's another person who's frequently used as an example of someone who has a bent arm.
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And this is an interesting camera angle. So we can see his lead arm is fairly straight there and then it's bending as he initiates that white.
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And then as he comes through we'll really be able to get a good look at how that elbow is straightening as it's working past his body.
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And then now when the club reaches in front of his body and starts working around.
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That's when we'll see that elbow bending a little bit more.
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So similar to what we were seeing just a more subtle version of what we were seeing with.
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Retief goose and lee westwood and Jordan speed.
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Next we're going to take a look at a few amateurs to see the difference of what a real chicken wing is.
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So now we're going to take a look at two amateurs who are higher handicap and demonstrating using that lead arm bending to help square the face.
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This is very different than when the timing of when those two or pros were demonstrating their arm bending in it and it serves a completely different purpose.
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So the torque rose would have been bending their arms through here and then letting it straighten through there.
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You'll see he's doing the opposite that arm is straightening through here.
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And then now that he gets to just before the golf ball that lead arm is going to start bending to help get the shaft more vertical or have less lean.
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Because remember the more shaft lean that you have the more that opens the face.
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So bending the arms getting less shaft lean is going to help close the face.
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There's another version over here on the right where the club faces in a fairly open position.
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The arm is straightening through here and now as he goes through impact you'll see that he's using that arm bending to help get the shaft to release and line up and square the face.
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So both of these golfers have shown on 3D that their elbows are actually bending through impact.
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Where the golfers who are used using earlier the torporos are going to show a slightly different pattern.
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So let's take a look at a couple of graphs just so you can envision the timing of when these arms are bending and how that's going to relate to the overall swing.
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Okay, so now we're going to take a look at some some graphs of the lead arm bend.
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So just to help you read this graph.
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If you look at the y-axis the y-axis is looking at the amount of straightness in their arm.
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If it's at 180 degrees it's a straight line if it were zero degrees the bones will be right on top.
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So it would be like bending your arm more than humanly possible.
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This is a timeline. So there's a couple black vertical lines running through it.
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The first one where it says ADR represents address.
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The second one saying TOP is the top of the swing.
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Third one IMP is impact and then fourth one FIN is finished.
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So you can see how much the arm is bending as we look through these four different timelines of the golfer swings.
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What you'll tend to see is that as they approach the top of the swing and they start through downswing the arm is typically going to start bending.
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And then once they get into that midway of the downswing you'll see that that lead arm starts to bend as the line is going down.
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But then just before impact and every one of the cases you will see that the arm starts straightening as the line goes up until at least a little bit after impact in some cases well after impact.
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That's a classic pattern that we're going to see with most torporos even the ones you look like their lead arm is bending.
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Now let's take a look at those two amateurs.
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And basically what you'll see is as they approach impact you'll see that the backswing looks fairly similar but there's no little white movement.
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What you see is that arm is just straightening the entire downswing and then as they approach impact in both cases the arm is going to start bending either right at impact or just after impact.
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But there's no clear straightening through impact the way that we saw with each of the torporos.
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Hopefully this helps you understand how to look at the lead arm bending and whether it's a chicken wing or whether it's actually a good movement which we refer to as the white.
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And by looking at some of the other videos you'll be able to understand how this movement relates to the overall mechanics of powering the swing, squaring the club base and organizing the path.
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Because straightening the arm through impact moves the path of the club out to the right and delays the closing of club base.
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So you'd have to close the club base with something like the motorcycle beforehand.
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Where bending the arm through impact is going to help move the path to the left as well as close the club base by moving the handle backward.
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So looking at the chicken wing from a holistic point of view and the timing of when the bending is happening and how it relates to the other movements of the swing will help you understand.
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And eventually own your overall pattern.
