Eliminate Baseball Arms in your Golf Swing and Hit More Home Runs!

If your arms have the shape of a baseball player (at bat) at the top of your backswing or they resemble the shape of “home plate” after impact you are more than likely hitting lots of foul balls on the course.  I would simply say you are losing your arm structure in your golf swing.  Proper arm structure can be explained easily.  For a right handed golfer, on the backswing, the left arm remains comfortably extended and the right arm folds with the elbow pointed downward.  At impact, the left arm is still extended and the right arm remains folded and under the left.  After impact, the left arm begins to fold and the right arm extends toward the target.

The following is a great drill which will help you feel proper arm structure and you can perform this drill at home and on the practice tee.  Take your set up and place a book between your hands with the binder facing away from you.  Allow your arms to hang freely from your shoulders.  Now take a backswing and stop when your left arm is parallel to the ground.  At this point the left arm is extended and the right arm folded.  The book binder will be facing up to the sky.  This indicates you have not rolled your hands which would cause the club face to be either open or closed.

Now swing your arms to the impact position.  This position is much different than the set up position.  These are three key differences between the the set up and impact position:

A.  The left hand is more forward and the right arm more tucked to the side.

B.  The hips are open or facing the target and the shoulders are square to slightly open.

C.  The right knee is moving toward the left knee and the right foot is positioned more on the tip toe and the heel is released from the ground.

D.  There is more weight on the left leg than the right.

Now swing past impact to a position in which the right arm is parallel to the ground.  At this point the right arm is extended toward the target and the left arm is beginning to fold.  The book binder is again facing up to the sky just as in the backswing.  This indicates there has not been an opening or closing of the club face.  There will be more weight on the left leg and the right foot will be almost entirely on the tip toe.

Practice this motion many times pausing at the pictured key positions.  Now try it with a short iron in your hands.  Place your hands on the club just as you did the book and try the same motion.  You may have to grip down on the shaft so the club doesn’t feel so heavy.

After a few practice swings you may grip the club normally.  If you are at the practice tee now it’s time to hit a few balls.  I recommend hitting the ball from a tee and you should clip the ball from the tee with no divot.

After working on these drills you should have much better arm structure and hit the ball solid and straight.  The next step is to add a little wrist hinge on both sides of the swing while maintaining the same arm structure.

As you progress to a bigger swing you should have more home runs and not as many foul balls!