Drilling for Freedom by Danny Lee - Flying Right Elbow: Friend or Foe

One of the most controversial subjects in the golf world is the question of the flying or tucked right elbow: whether or not the leading arm in the back swing should go out away from the body like Nicklaus or stay in like Hogan.

There are many ways to get the job done as long as the sweet spot of the club face and the ball match up at impact. At Gravity Golf, our focus is on doing this with the least amount of effort and while maintaining maximum consistency.

The first thing to do is to understand what made both of their swings work? The answer is. . . the foot work. If you have good footwork and you can get equal amount of force pulling you forward and backward, your arms and hands will be free to stay on plane and ride the body's rotation (rotational equilibrium).

Some of the positives to allowing the leading elbow to fly (like Nicklaus) versus keeping it tucked (like Hogan) allows for a larger arc size, more time to move deeper into the counter-fall and more time to accelerate through impact. Another strong benefit is that if your elbow is out and up in the back swing it will help you to keep the club above plane in the back swing which is what you want. The reason is, as long as you throw it above plane, you can continue turning with your arms, tension free, until you have reached your full rotation when you can simply let your arms drop. If you keep your elbow too close to your side and then lift at the top to get the height, it will force tension into your arms and will likely pull in the down swing.

Work on the various Gravity Golf right arm drills, focusing on properly routing the leading elbow in the back swing: right elbow for right-handed players and left elbow for left-handed players.