early release

[phils]

I have a golfing buddy who wont listen when I tell him he is stuck on his back foot at impact. He brakes his left arm early and the right hand takes over. What can I tell him to get away from the early bending (chicken wing ) left arm? What drills encourage a straighter right arm extending after impact?

[ubizmo]

Re: early release

I have the same problem your friend has; it's one of the many flaws in my swing. I don't know about drills but here's something that helps me, when I can manage to do it. Tell your friend to hold his finish position and look at it. Chances are his hands are just slightly over his left shoulder, with the club draped over his back. Tell him to try for a "high finish", with his hands as high as the top of his head, at least. It's not as easy as it sounds, but when I can do this it has the effect of keeping my swing arc as wide as possible through the whole swing and I get a better shot.

The collapsing of the arms on the backswing AND the finish is a terrible thing, and to fight it I try to hold the thought of a BIG smooth circle when I swing, and a high finish, which feels very unnatural to me, always helps.

I find I can achieve this big smooth circle more readily on the practice range than on the golf course, for reasons that are purely mental. On the course, people are watching, and this causes a kind of contraction of my swing, resulting in skulls and pushes. It's not that I don't know what I'm doing wrong...