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Moe Norman - Arm Drill

Moe Norman is undoubtedly one of the greatest ball-strikes to ever live; his eccentric nature and ability to drive the ball straighter than arguably any other player in the history of the game has earned him an almost mythical status. His records include 17 aces, 33 course records, and having shot 59 on three separate occasions. In his playing days, Moe would often put on clinics in which he would describe some of his swing-thoughts and "feels"; this drill is inspired by one of Moe's favorite thoughts and it is excellent for tying together some of the "tour release" mechanics, especially for players who struggle with steep arms in transition.

Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Early Extension, Chicken Wing, Release, Drill, Intermediate

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This is the Moneorman Arm Drill.

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Now it's very similar to a drill that I use on here called Don't Break My Arms,

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but we're going to continue that motion and we're going to exaggerate it all the way through the downswing and even into the follow-through.

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So the reason I call it the Moneorman Arm Drill is there's a classic old video with him in the sweater,

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and he talks about how if he had club in his arms, it would always fall this way,

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because that right arm would be underneath the left, as opposed to this way if that right arm got on top of the left.

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So if I was to get my right arm on top of my left, that would provide a really big steepening.

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So then I'd probably have to be more shallow with my body and balance it by chicken winging and flipping the wrist a little bit more.

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So if this arm gets up, I can still hit it straight, but it takes a little bit of extra work.

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And I'm probably going to limit myself on speed, and if I did that a lot, watch out for my lead arm or lead shoulder or left side of the neck getting a little bit abused from that movement.

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So we're going to work on the rotational arm-shallowing piece.

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So what I normally have golfers do is if they need this, they're going to hold their arms out in front just like this,

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and then they're going to try to get the left elbow above the right, but while staying vertical with my shoulders or my posture.

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So this is still staying level, and I'm trying to get my right elbow underneath my left, so that my arms are parallel to my spine instead of right now they're perpendicular.

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So I can do it this way as well, going just like this.

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So that feeling there, now I'm going to try and keep that feeling all the way through until the club is in follow through position.

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So now, so I'm going to preset that rotation just like this, and then this would feel like, wow, if I keep that, that club is going to go way out over there, unless my body rotates through.

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So one way that I can kind of check it is if I'm doing a simple 9-3 drill, if I then turn my body back and stand up, just made it.

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That right arm is still slightly below the left, and the club is still behind.

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Instead of, if it's more like this, where that right arm is on top, and the club has passed my body, that would look like the club went way around here to the left.

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That level of steepness is typically going to cause a lot of problems with the longer clubs.

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So, I'm going to do the monorment arm drill one more time, so I'm going to bring it back.

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I'm going to get that right elbow underneath that left. I may feel like the left is going up, or I might feel like the right is going down.

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I might feel a little bit of both, but that left arm is getting in line with my spine and above that right arm.

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So bring it back, crease that shallow move, and then turn my body while keeping the arms in that shallow position.

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As with virtually all those shallow moves, this will typically open the club base.

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So if you're not already comfortable doing the motorcycle, you may hit a lot of shots off to the right.

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If you're used to squaring the club like this, then if I just get under it, it would start to look like that.

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So even though I hit that solid, it went a good 40 degrees off line to the right.

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I've never seen someone working on this movement hit it way left, but you could hit it fat, you could hit it thin,

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and you could hit it right very easily. If you're not complimenting it with a little bit of wrist motorcycle,

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not getting that motorcycle from that trail shoulder, or if your body is stalling or early extending,

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and basically if that body is not continuing to rotate on the way through.

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So we're going to get that right elbow under the left. We'll do this one dynamically.

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So stage one, you would preset that movement, you might even preset it at setup,

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and then check it here in the follow-through.

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So stage one, we'll do it completely extreme, preset it at setup, and then just turn the body,

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and check it, that's pretty good. So that right shoulder is well under the left, left shoulder is more up.

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Now we'll do it dynamically. So I'm going to bring it back,

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and I'm going to check that follow-through position to make sure that that right side is a little bit under the left, and it is.

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Okay, once I have a feeling, now I can start to take some bigger swings, tend to choose up to full swings,

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because what will happen is once I get past that point, and the club goes flying, now my right arm is going to get over the left,

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but I want that pattern, where I want that to happen as late as possible,

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especially if I have more of a body stall, or if I have a lot of trail arm activity in that right elbow pointing at the camera,

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really quickly after impact.

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So this can, I've had a number of students, both in person and online, where this movement really helps tie a lot of the release elements together,

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especially if you're struggling with just a little bit of steepness coming from the arms.