Eliminate the Chicken Wing and Add Some Beef to Your Swing
One of the most common and damaging swing faults with average to high handicap golfers is the 'chicken wing' follow-through. Essentially, this is where the golfer's elbows separate at waist height on follow-through causing a 'chicken wing' like appearance of the lead arm. Hitting powerful consistent shots is simply not possible if this occurs during your swing. When we watch touring professionals on television each week, we see all kinds of idiosyncrasies and variations in their swing angles, grips, set-ups, etc.; but one thing most of them have in common is they rotate their arms in a similar fashion during their swing. With a few rare exceptions, they keep their arms spaced consistently throughout their swing and the rotate their arms so the club swings around - not over - their shoulders on a consistent path. This is one of the major producers of consistency with the swing arc, club path and clubface alignment at impact. If you happen to have a 'chicken wing' or arm separation on the follow through of your swing, you can fix it in a relatively short period of time.
Try this and see if it helps:
Simulate the proper arm swing rotation with a baseball-like swing first. Take your normal stance, stand erect and swing the club horizontally around your chest. Rotate your hips and shoulders back and through and as you swing the club on a horizontal plane similar to a baseball swing. Feel your lead arm rotate over your back arm on the back swing - sense the back arm folding and do the reverse on the follow-through. Get your hands and wrists to cross over near the point of impact or where the ball might be positioned. Sense how your back elbow folds and is under your lead arm on the backswing and the reverse on the follow through. Now bend forward into our normal set-up and swing the club down to the ground, using the same arm rotation. Relax your arms and hands using short swishing swings at first, then build up to fuller swings.
The next time you get a chance, notice the arm rotation of a better player's swing. Incorporating this swing fundamental into your swing will improve your ball striking and bring you a great deal more satisfaction and enjoyment from this wonderful game.
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