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In this video, we're going to investigate trailarm connection.

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So the connection drills are designed to help you feel kind of a more strong link through

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the shoulder.

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There's a couple different times where golfers tend to lose that link and we'll talk

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through it in this video.

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The general connection drill that a lot of players tend to use is taking a towel and place

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it up in your armpits kind of like so.

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And that forces your shoulders to be a little bit more connected.

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And we can hit whether it's 9 to 3s or 10 to 2s.

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This becomes not just a pivot drill, but a drill where you're focusing more on what's

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happening at the forearms than at the shoulders.

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There are times where I like to isolate one arm versus the other.

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Now in general, you'll see that I tend to isolate more the trailarm and as we talk

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through it, you'll understand why.

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So there's a couple different ways that I like to use it.

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I will either use an alignment stick.

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I saw this from Scott Cows.

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I think it's really good and brilliant.

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I'll use a ruler.

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There's sometimes where I like this a little bit better and a glove.

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This is kind of my least favorite, but it's also the most inconspicuous.

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So if you're working on it on the range, nobody's going to look at you funny with

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a glove stuck in your armpit.

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So first we'll talk through the alignment stick version.

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So with the alignment stick version, I'm going to place it high up in the armpit just

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like so.

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With any of these connection drills, I want to make sure that my arm is not pinned to my

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side, but rather it's pinned to the front side of my body.

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So if my body was a box, I want my arm to be on the front side of that box just on

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the corner, not on the side of the box.

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So now the beautiful thing about the alignment stick is for golfers who tend to have a

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lot of arm lift.

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This gives you a little bit more feedback.

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So when you make your backswing, you can start to feel if you're really picking up with

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the arms.

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The left arm will hit into the stick pretty early.

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So before we go through it, we should talk about the three most common times where golfers

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need to feel more of this kind of stiffer or connected shoulder.

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And the first three times you do it, it may feel stiff.

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But eventually it will start to feel connected and it will help with your rhythm and

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overall consistency usually.

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So the three times where I find golfers lose this connection would be right off the

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bat.

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Some golfers tend to pull that arm behind.

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So it will get behind that shirt team or behind that plane right through there.

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So the first place I will feel like it's restricting me or making me stiff is there in

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the takeaway.

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The second place would be in transition.

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So whether it's going up to the top of the swing and letting that arm get behind or more

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commonly, going up to the top of the swing and then really rotating that shoulder going

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into internal rotation and steepening it just like so.

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And you'd feel it kind of slip around and lose connection there.

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The third place where golfers tend to lose this trail arm connection would be through the

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release.

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So instead of getting into a position where the arms are straight and I've had that good

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Learum supination instead of getting into this follow-through position, they will tend

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to get into more of that follow-through position.

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Where I've reached more with the shoulder blade instead of just what the arm.

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Now the problem with reaching with the shoulder blade is you can see if I reach with the

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shoulder blade, that moves the club a good six inches or so away from me.

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So it starts to become really hard to have really good low point control.

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In addition to avoiding it fat, typically that movement there will be accompanied with a little

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bit too much stall and the upper body gets behind kind of like this.

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So it becomes a problem on the shorter clubs, it becomes a problem with just overall iron

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consistency of contact.

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So the connection drill, we're going to take the stick and place it into the armpit.

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It might limit me a little bit at the top of the swing but it shouldn't limit me in transition

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and it shouldn't limit me getting into that full release pattern.

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So I'm going to make a little kind of nine to three until my arm feels like it's getting

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blocked by that until my lead arm feels like it's getting blocked by that stick and then

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I'm going to do a little nine to three.

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So that was a little bigger in the back swing than a true nine to three but getting into

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that good follow-through position.

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So keeping that connection, I don't like so almost lost that one there because I was already

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thinking about the transitioning to the place where I prefer a flatter edge.

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So this is great for limiting that arm lift in the back swing but I actually prefer a ruler

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or in this case just a paint stir from Home Depot or Lowe's.

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So now I have a little bit broader and a flat edge.

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For golfers you tend to lose it in the follow-through.

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This is a little bit easier to keep the connection.

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In addition it's a little easier in transition but it doesn't give me the same, you know

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it's not sticking out quite as much so it's a little more inconspicuous but it also

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doesn't give quite the same amount of restriction.

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So you can see as I make a backswing there my left arm actually can get above the stick

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where with the alignment stick it was going to I would hit it so it was going to restrict

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my backswing movement and help me tidy up some of the forearm rotation in the backswing.

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So now with this stick it will allow me to again get a little bit more height but it

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also is easier to keep that connection in the arm pit there into the follow-through.

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In order to do this I have to have a little bit more softness in my forearms so many

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golfers who struggle with these connection drills tend to lock their forearms get those very

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stiff and then do more of the swing happening from the shoulder blades.

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I can hit it okay that way but it's limited in terms of the absolute power that I can

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create and it requires a little bit more timing so if I lock those forearms and I get it

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more happening from the shoulders.

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Again you'll see I'll tend to err on a little bit fat thin and it limits how much

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club speed or how strong my release can be.

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So the third version would be the most inconspicuous which is just taking an old glove

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folding it up and placing it in the armpit there.

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Now the good thing about this is it really doesn't restrict very much of the backswing.

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It doesn't restrict the follow-through so it's closest to kind of a natural feel so sometimes

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I'll walk through that progression. The downside is sometimes the fabric will stick to your armpit

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so I will I can lose it a little bit and it will still stay connected. It's a little more forgiving

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in how precise I am compared to the paint stir or the alignment thick is the hardest.

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So now with this I'm just going to focus on kind of that same feel.

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I got a little slide on that but overall not too bad and as you do these more and more it will

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feel less restricted in the backswing. The key here again is any of these connection drills.

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It's high up in the armpit so you're not holding your elbow into your side it's just kind of the

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shoulder you see right there and that it's more on the front so I'll often say try

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set try to cover your nipple as opposed to pin your arm on the side. You can see if I pin my arm on the

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side it will tend to work more around on the way through and I'll have a hard time getting into that

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really good follow-through position but if I pin it more on front and I get good action from the

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forearm I can get into a really solid follow-through position. So if you're struggling with too

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much shoulder activity causing you inconsistency and that's happening here in the takeaway

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top and swing into transition or on the way through working a little bit on your armpit connection

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you can sometimes create some real big breakthrough moments for you. So do a quick demo with the

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hardest version which is the alignment stick this requires the most forced to keep it pinned compared

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to the alignment stick and glove and as you work through these you're doing some kind of you'll

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start off with some just kind of nice and easy tenditudes but then what I want you to get to

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is where you can hit this quite hard hitting it hard requires that I'm getting more of the release

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from the form than the then the shoulder and it requires that I'm getting more of the speed

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from my legs and core than the shoulder. So if I now do a tend to tube but with some aggression

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I might lose it if I go a little bit too far into the follow-through but you can see you can hit

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it quite hard with this good connection if you're using a body powered pivot.