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Fix Your Chicken Wing (Bent Arm @ Impact)
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One of the biggest differences between elite level players and amateurs is that professionals tend to square the face relatively early in transition. From this position, they will use their body rotation and larger muscles to consistently deliver the club. Lower level players will tend to do the opposite. That is, the club face will be more open in transition, forcing them to rely on timing and hand manipulation at impact. If you are a player who struggles with a slice or has a hard time hitting a draw, you may be falling into this pattern of an open face and overactive hands & arms. To get a feeling for a more neutral path and face combination, simply place a tissue box or yoga block slightly ahead of the ball and at about 20 degrees to the right of your target line. From here, you will want to rehearse a swing where the toe of the club hits the box/block right after impact. You will then want to push the box/block and finish the release. This may feel strange at first, but if done properly, will almost guarantee an in-to-out path and a club face that is more square prior to impact. You can then work on adding speed and power to this pattern through body rotation, which will help further neutralize the path and face. If you successfully combine these two moves, you should get rid of your slice and noticeably straighten out your ball flight.
Tags: Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Not Enough Distance, Draw vs Fade, Impact, Follow Through, Release, Drill, Beginner
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This drill is pushed the tissue box with the toe.
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So this is a very similar drill to the right path with the impact bag drill.
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But I know that not everyone has an impact bag.
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And some people need to feel more the path after impact as far as where the club is
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going to go.
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And the impact bag does stop the club so you can't really keep going past there.
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So here I have a tissue box.
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And if you're doing inside, you should have no problem.
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It's a little windy here so hopefully it doesn't blow away on me.
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But I've got it set out.
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So if this is my target line, I'll put a golf ball inside of it which should keep it
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weighed down.
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So if this is my target line right about here, I've got this on about a 20 degree angle or
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15 degree angle out to the right.
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And now what I'm going to try and do is in my mind's eye, I'm trying to hit the box with
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the toe and then I'm going to push the toe which will flip because there's a golf ball
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in it.
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But normally it just slides.
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So I'm going to push the tissue box with the toe of the club.
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This is a great combination of getting the face to close by hitting it more with the toe
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and getting the path out to the right which is both helpful for golfers who tend to have
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a more of an outside in sliced pattern.
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Because if you tend to have more of an outside in sliced pattern, you would either hit
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the tissue box more with the heel or you'd miss the tissue box because the tissue box
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is out to the right of the golf ball.
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You could also do this with the yoga block.
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But if you are practicing at home, sometimes the tissue box is a little bit more forgiving.
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You can if you're really trying to exaggerate it, you can actually do the same impact
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bag drill of basically trying to make contact and then hit the toe.
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Now if you are truly hitting the toe, you'll see that the club is significantly more
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close.
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You can monitor ball flight to see how much you're actually getting that club face close.
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But for many golfers, especially if you're used to having more of a fade or sliced
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pattern, feeling like you're hitting that with the toe is will produce a straight ball
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flight not a big hook.
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If you actually did hit it with the toe, it would tend to start well to the left and
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then curve off to the left.
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So as a little 9 to 3 drill, I'm basically trying to hit the toe to get good arm extension
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as well as called face rotation.
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If I then keep that image of, okay, right about here is where that tissue box was.
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If I then keep that image, you could see that the club face got close enough to actually
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hit it straight and we actually have a tiny little draw to it.
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Because I was going out towards the tissue box, the path was right enough that it got
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it to start far enough to the right.
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So if you're working on your path down at the bottom, you can use the tissue box to give
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you a little bit better imagery or feedback as far as the ultimate direction of where
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you want the club to swing.
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It's better to exaggerate it in these drills because what will happen is the second
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you start to swing hard, you will add body speed, which then when I try to extend it out
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towards the toe, towards that box, gets it extending more just slightly right of the target
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not dramatically right, like we're exaggerating in these drills.
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So that was at a little bit more normal speed and you'll see trying to hit that box out
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there to the right.
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Ultimately, gave me a handpath that was going a little bit more neutral once I added
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my body speed.
