Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Discussing The Elbow Pattern

I typically use this breakdown for some of my higher handicap students, but it can be useful to any player that is struggling with both consistency & power. Often times, these issues will arise due to excess tension, poor wrist mechanics, or a lack of involvement from the larger muscles. Ultimately, when facing more than one swing "difficulty", it is often best to adopt a multi-pronged approach. However, we must remember to stay mindful of the strengths/weaknesses for each possible "fix".

Playlists: Fix Your Cast, Train Your Release, Stop Standing Up In Your Backswing, Fix Your Flip, Start Here, Beginner Program, Fix Your Chicken Wing (Bent Arm @ Impact), Get More Distance

Tags: Fundamentals, Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Not Enough Distance, Standing Up, Chicken Wing, Cast, Backswing, Release, Concept, Beginner

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,000
This concept video is discussing the elbow pattern.

00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,000
So the elbow pattern is a phrase that I use.

00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:09,000
It's really elbow shoulders.

00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:16,000
But I tend to use this for a certain population of golfers who tend to complain about

00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,000
not hitting it consistent or far.

00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:22,000
So tend to be more in this 20-25 handicap zone.

00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000
And basically what's happening is in this pattern, they will take a grip and they'll basically

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:30,000
lock their wrists and their forearms in place.

00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000
And then they'll almost lock their posture so they won't have a whole lot of rotation

00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:37,000
or extension.

00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:42,000
And so all the movement is going to happen more with the arms and the shoulders on both sides

00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:43,000
of the golf ball.

00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:50,000
So you can see I've got very little wrist movement and all my body movement is more vertical.

00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:57,000
I'm basically pulling the club around my body just like so.

00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:01,000
They will tend to have the club look really wide, early in transition.

00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:06,000
So if you're looking at your video and you're seeing that it gets out there, that could

00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,000
be part of your pattern is that you're just controlling this swing too much with your elbows

00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,000
and your shoulders, not enough with your wrists and your body or your core.

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:23,000
So oftentimes in that pattern, you'll have success with working on either trying to get

00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:26,000
the arms to say more connected more in front of your body.

00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:31,000
And therefore forcing more body motion, that will help you ultimately hit the ball much

00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:35,000
more solidly, sometimes further but definitely more solidly.

00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:39,000
If you're mangle, if you have that pattern in your mangle as distance, then we have to

00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:43,000
risk getting some wrist movement involved.

00:01:43,000 --> 00:01:49,000
And so working on some of the release drills, specifically working on some of the loading

00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:54,000
and unloading or working on some of the supination drills to get a little bit more

00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:00,000
hand action but ultimately get some hand action that helps you control low point.

00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:05,000
That tends to have one of the bigger impacts as far as creating speed.

00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:12,000
So this can be a challenging pattern to break because you're so used to having the arms

00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:17,000
as a locked to control face and solid contact.

00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:26,000
When you start adding speed, oftentimes, if I'm still doing my elbows, it will, while

00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,000
I add some wrist speed, it's unlikely that you'll make really solid contact like I did

00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:34,000
on that demonstration there.

00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000
And so there's potential for a little bit of growing pains while going through it.

00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:43,000
I would recommend in that pattern to work more on getting the arms to be a little bit

00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:49,000
more connected and control it more with the body and then adding a little bit better

00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:52,000
wrist action on the way through.

00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:57,000
I've had it work both ways but ultimately what you'll have to do is you'll have to coordinate

00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:03,000
or learn to control your arms and your shoulders, your elbows and your shoulders from dominating

00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:07,000
the movement, get more action from the hips and more action from the wrist.

00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:13,000
And that combination will ultimately give you a lot more distance and more consistency

00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:20,000
as well once you get past the initial growing pains of losing what feels comfortable.

00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:27,000
So one of the last pieces of this pattern is the rhythm and the tempo tends to be a

00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:28,000
big piece for this.

00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:33,000
Oftentimes when you feel like your elbows and your shoulders are doing a lot, the swing tends

00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:39,000
to feel very quick when you are tending to use more of your body.

00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:47,000
The swing tends to feel slow but when you add your wrist what will end up happening is

00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:54,000
it will feel slow and transition and very fast or quick in terms of the feeling of the club

00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000
head down to the bottom and you may feel more speed after the golf ball.

00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:05,000
So if you see it on video and you have more of this action here, the good news is there's

00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:10,000
a really big ceiling and we've got drills that will help you both get your lower body

00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,000
more involved as well as get your wrist them all and that's going to totally change the

00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:17,000
way that you're experiencing ground contact and speed creation for your golf swing.