The Importance of the Right Elbow in the Golf Swing

Recently, I signed up with golf instructor Chris Ryan’s golf membership where you can view his videos, lessons, and even get individual lessons from him. I’ve always enjoyed Chris Ryan’s YouTube videos and in fact, his were the only ones that have ever helped my golf game. Whenever you have an issue with your golf swing, it’s tempting to look at videos on YouTube to see how to fix those issues, but more often than not, the videos you will watch will not be applicable to your swing. I think that’s why watching YouTube golf instruction videos can really harm your game. For some reason though, Chris’ videos always seem to be super relevant.

Anyway, I had him take a look at my swing and let him know what I’m currently struggling with, which was poor contact, low shots, and misses to the right. One thing he immediately noticed was that on my down-the-line golf view, the angle of my right (trailing) elbow was parallel with my spine angle. From the front-on view, he pointed out that my right elbow was tucked to the side of my torso. He said it’s difficult to get consistent contact this way and it makes a lot of sense. It causes you to have to early extend in order to get the club head closer to the ball and leaves very little room for your hands. All in all, just not a great way to get consistent ball striking. He told me that my right elbow needs to be in front of my body, not trailing it. It also can cause you to get “stuck” on your downswing.

I’ve always kind of known this but I did not understand how to get the right elbow in front of your body without 1. having a steep angle of attack, and 2. leaving the club face wide open. I think this is where the body rotation on the downswing really comes in. I spent some time working on this swing change at the range and lo and behold, the following Saturday when I went out to play 18 holes, my ball striking was dramatically improved. I really could not believe it.

Just a swing thought. If you are currently struggling with ball striking, take a swing video and see where your trailing elbow is. It might make a huge difference for you too.