When you implement this trail elbow in
the downswing move you'll shallow it, get more lag, and play better golf. Let's dive
in! All right this trail elbow move in the downswing what am I talking about? So
i'll set up on a down the line view for you and i'll show this from a few
different angles so you get a better look at it. When you get to the top of
your backswing here what i'm recommending you look at doing is this
trail elbow for me it's my right elbow as it comes down I want you to feel like
it traces along your rib cage and moves down the side of your body
here. Now why is that such a good thing in the golf swing? Well if I can do that get that right or trail elbow to trace
down my ribs there not the whole way of the downswing at least that first part
of the downswing. What it does helps you shallow the golf
club, helps you get more lag and improves your rotation making it
easier to hit from the inside meaning you'll be able to hit draws
and a lot more consistent strikes on the ball.
Now the opposite to that what I see
most golfers doing, that trail elbow instead of tracing down like this
it tends to go out. You can see what happens when the elbow
goes out, club gets steep hands go out the right shoulder goes out as well everything
goes out forcing the club down steep cutting across the golf ball
and that's where you get your big slices your big pulls. A whole host
of problems in your golf swing.
All right so from face on what
does it look like? So as we get to the top of our back
swing we want that right or that trail elbow tracing down there and you'll see
if i'm if you're doing this right you should see the gap close fairly quickly
between this trail elbow and your ribs here
so look something like this hopefully you can see that on camera
i'll just turn a bit this way you can see i'm not out here like this
i've closed that gap there so i'm here
and i'm closing that gap to there extremely important let's you probably
won't see it too well from this angle towards the camera
i don't think you're going to be able to see it very well there at all but again
from here keeping it nice and close
this angle here nice and close to that rib cage here now
if you're having trouble doing this it could be some reasons why
first one could be lack of rotation if you're starting your downswing you're
not rotating enough what you'll find your body will stall here
your hands and arms and tape will take over now if your hands and arms take
over and you stop rotating it's impossible for that trail elbow
to stay bent and close to your body it will come away arms will extend
and you'll have to flip through at the golf ball now the other common
one is early extension again this is tied into other problems
as well but if you're someone that stands up taller in the downswing you
get further from the ball you'll have no choice
but to extend those arms the elbow will go straight very quickly
it'll come away from the body again
you have to be flipping at the golf ball
so those are two very common ones the other
one will be a lack of weight shift if you're someone that
gets to the top here leaves all your weight on the back foot
naturally that right elbow will straighten because you're further
away from the golf ball the only way of hitting it
is to extend those arms all right those are the three reasons
why you're having trouble with that trail elbow so let's look at how we can
fix it for you all right the first thing you need to do to get this trail elbow
in the right spot on the downswing is you need right side bend so let's have a
look now the opposite of right side bend
would be standing up tall getting further from
the ball elbow
shoots out arms extend so what i want you to do
when we start our downswing we get down lower now this next part as
we rotate we get right side bend this right
shoulder gets lower towards the ground i'll do that again we go here
see that right elbows tracing down my ribs then we're getting right side bend
and you'll see i'll turn around here
when you get that right side bend to here
you'll see i get shaft lane i get lag
to here to here
i get lag i'm going to hit the ball a lot more
solid i'm going to compress it with my irons but this is also going to work for
your driver and your hybrids and your woods as well but that right side bend
move there that right shoulder a bit lower
going to help you get that right elbow more tucked into your ribs
and in that great impact position a really powerful move
have a look at these pro golf swings on the screen now you'll see from down the
line that trail elbow traces down that rib cage it shallows out the club and
they get into a great impact position now
the club doesn't won't stay against the ribs the whole way obviously it will
come off but it traces down for that first part of the downswing getting into
them a great spot and you can also see from face on how they close that gap
between the trail elbow and their ribs
enabling them to get lag that's how they're getting more power that's how
they're hitting the ball so much further and they get that great
consistency here's a drill i want you to practice grab yourself an alignment
stick or something very similar to this and place it under your right elbow pit
you don't even have to be holding a club to do this but i'm going to show you
this in this example so just going to hold it there just with a sort of a
reasonably light to medium sort of pressure under your armpit
now if you're doing this correctly as we get to the top of the backswing
here this alignment stick should stay
on top of my lead arm here as i rotate
all the way through okay it's just fractionally come off
there but it should stay fairly close to it
all the way through that helps keep your arm structure in
place if i was doing this incorrectly you can see here it comes right off that
lead arm but what you want to do is just keep everything on
in a nice structure all the way through to impact there just
comes off right at the end there but most of the way down in this downswing
got that elbow tracing down my ribcage through to impact there in a great spot
there that is a a great drill to practice you don't have to hit shots
doing that but it gives you a great feel of that trail elbow in the downswing all
right the favorite way of mine of practicing this is just to get over a
ball here again initially you don't need to be
hitting shots to do this but you're just going to take the club
up to the top and all you're going to do is feel like this trail elbow
just sort of bangs into your side of your ribs here and you'll see as soon as you do that as
long as you've got some good good wrist angles
to here that's the move as long as you've got
decent wrist angles with a bit of cupping in that
trail wrist and the downswing you'll find
that club will shallow automatically you don't even have to think about it that's
going to be the feel for you if you've ever ever looked at your golf swing on
video which i encourage you to do and you're just
finding as you start your downswing there's a
really big gap here between your trailer by your ribs you're just finding you're
you're casting it a bit your elbow's coming away you're losing
power i want you to practice this this will be
a real game changer for you you're going to get to the top
elbow's going to hit the ribs to here and you're just going to stop
and that's what you're going to practice you can see here the club shallow
i'm going to hit from the inside happy days on the golf course that's
what you're going to do top
hit the ribs impact
practice that at least 10 20 times a day and once you're feeling really confident
with it you've done it so many times bang
bang here
bang bang
that sequence is going to be an absolute game changer
in your golf swing so from face on go to the top
bang bang
those moves are going to make a huge difference in the way you strike the
golf ball so let's hit one here i'm not too concerned
how i hit it it's more about getting
that sequence right and the flow and effect it's going to
have in your golf game so let's get over one
all i'm going to do is go to here to here
and through like that that's going to be the sequence
do this right you will rotate better get better lag come from the inside
so many good things are going to happen in your golf game
so let's get over one slowly to here
here and through
that's going to be how you practice let me know if you have any questions
about that i want to know after you've tried this has it made a
difference to your golf game have you
found that working on this trail elbow has got you
shallowing the club much better i've got an important video coming up that i want
you to watch because this talks about how to stop
standing up in the downswing which ties right in with this video so make sure
you watch it it's coming up.