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Your elbows are a crucial part of the golf swing. Watch any tour player swinging from down the line and you’ll see that before they make impact, their right elbow is flexed. After impact, that elbow is straight again.

Let me explain. From the backswing right through to striking the ball, the left arm is never bent and the right arm is never straight right. That changes just after impact.

But when you come into the back of the ball and that moment of contact happens, you will get to a position roughly one yard past impact where both arms are straight. That is the moment where you should get good release of body rotation.

The right elbow – how it works in the golf swing

If the right arm straightens before impact, you’ll run out of right arm in the sense that there’s nothing else to give. So you’re effectively casting at the ball, which is a common amateur mistake and big no-no for consistency and ball striking.

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Look at all tour players’ swings down the line: their right arm is flexed at impact, forming a straight line down from the elbow down the shaft to the ball. Once you see that, you can’t unsee it.

What can you learn?

So, how does this help? If you focus on getting both those arms straight after the strike, other things take care of themselves and it will massively improve your ball striking.

That way, you’re not thinking about your ball striking – it just happens. Instead, focus on getting through the ball, using that forward momentum with shaft lean, those straight arms and body rotation – that will go a long way to really improving your quality of ball striking.

Steve Johnston is a long-time member of the bunkered Performance Panel and is Scotland’s leading golf YouTube star. He is also the founder of Loft and Lie | Premium Golf Gloves – find out more here.

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