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Fix Your Chicken Wing (Bent Arm @ Impact)
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The chicken wing is a smart reaction to a body that hasn't rotated. It's the only way to get the club head moving in the direction of the target, and one of the best ways to get an open face pointed at the target (by moving the path to the left). Also, if you haven't rotated your body, it is a way of protecting your shoulder from taking too much load, since the shoulder is now in a position where it can't transfer too much speed to the rest of the body.
Tags: Poor Contact, Release, Intermediate, Beginner
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This video is connecting the dots of the chicken wing.
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So the chicken wing is one of those things that a lot of golfers have been told that they
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do and that's really bad and you need to work on it.
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I typically find that if you build these other pieces, the chicken wing goes away on its
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own because the chicken wing I see is more of a compensation than anything else.
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The chicken wing is usually described as bending this arm kind of like so.
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So on the face on view what it ends up looking like is like that so my elbow gets
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this bend it kind of looks like a chicken wing.
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Well the chicken wing is a result of not having any body rotation in impact because what
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you'll see is I'll face you so that you can easily see what I'm describing.
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In order to get this club to travel in the general direction of the target, right?
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Because that's one of my goals is to have that path somewhat close to the target.
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Well if my body hasn't turned and I was to extend my arms you could see that it would
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basically move the club way out that way.
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So if I don't turn my body and I bend my arms now the club is moving in the direction
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of the target but I didn't have a very good flat spot and I didn't have the club face
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square the way that I would really want to.
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So if I rotate and side bend then if I just extend my arms the club moves out towards
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the target.
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If I rotate and side bend and then I chicken wing you could see that that would go way
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to the left and that's actually almost impossible to do.
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So now we have to figure out if we're working on the chicken wing we know that we need
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to have a little bit more rotation and side bend to wherever just somewhere around 30 degrees
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of both of those.
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We know that we need to have a fair amount in order to have those arms straightening.
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So then what would be the biggest barriers to getting that rotation and side bend?
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Well one of the most common is going to be the motorcycle.
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So if I have this club face in a very open position the more that I rotate and side bend
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that's going to actually open the club face even more so I would hit the ball way off
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to the right.
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So motorcycleing or having a strong enough grip or having a club face that's closed enough
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is going to allow me to have this rotation and side bend which is going to help you get
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away from the chicken wing.
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So normally if I see someone who's chicken winging one of the first things I'm going
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to do is work on that motorcycle to allow that body to rotate a little bit better through
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impact.
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The second piece would be or the second most common cause of this chicken wing would
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be a very upper body dominated swing where I spin my shoulders kind of like that.
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From the down the line view it ends up looking like this and then I get this club way out
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here so then if I was to continue closing the face and have good armicannis club would really
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just travel straight down into the ground so this chicken wing holds that club face slightly
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open and gets it so that I don't slam the club into the ground it allows me to fully release
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the wrist which and stand up which kind of helps me shallow out the swing.
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So the two major solutions I have for the chicken wing are one getting that motorcycle or that
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club face closed early so that I can rotate more during the down swing and then two starting
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with that lower body having enough of this Jackson 5 side tilt so that my upper body doesn't spin
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and the chicken wing is just a result of one of those two problems it's not a problem by itself.
