Where should the shaft be in relationship to the lead arm during the swing?
This is a question we get quite often, usually from better players, but it relates to all golfers and having the understanding of where and why almost always helps golfers.
Where the shaft is, in relationship to the lead arm, especially in the take away (and up to second parallel) will largely be influenced by the trail hand grip.
If you have a trail hand grip that is weaker; aka ‘on top’, the club head will be outside the hands halfway back and the shaft at an angle pointing to the strong side (left for right handers and right for left handers)
If you have a trail hand grip that is neutral (like Tiger Woods) the club head and shaft will be inline with the lead arm half way back. They will be parallel to the target line.
If you have a strong trail hand grip; aka under, the club will point to the weak side (right for right handers and left for lefthanders)
To know what type of grip you should have watch our videos All about the grip below:
Lead Hand Grip – https://youtu.be/vcTlNGAqBns
Trail Hand Grip – https://youtu.be/alEz3BWvrRU?si=ZHNt_LpCTDdoGGD1
The trail hand grip will also largely influence where the shaft will be as it reaches the half way point of the swing. The key at this point, identified when the lead arms reaches parallel to the ground and begins working upwards in the swing, is the shaft being parallel to the shoulders.
As the club/shaft passes the halfway point of the swing and goes to the top the club moves from parallel to the shoulders to perpendicular to the shoulders. A golfers turn will determine if the shaft is ‘laid off’, down the line, or crosses the line. Someone with a shorter shoulder turn (Jon Rahm) will appear to have a laid off position. A golfers that turns the shoulders close to 90 degrees, in relationship to the target line, will have the club pointed parallel to the target line. And a golfer with a big shoulder turn will appear to have the club crossing the target line. BUT, all have the shaft perpendicular to the shoulders at the top.
Hey what’s up golfers Pete here from the golf Paradigm and our podcast golf 360 it’s a beautiful middle of winter day here at Old South Golf Links in the Low Country just off of Hilton Head Island and we’re very very happy to bring you another one of our videos to hopefully
Clear up some of the chatter and the noise that you hear out there in The Ether in particular on social media and clear up your mind so that you can play better golf today I want to talk a little bit about where the the difference in where your arm goes
Throughout the back swing and in the top and its relationship to the golf club because there are a lot of things that come into play uh on your takeaway halfway back top of the Swing Etc and you might be working on the right thing you might not be working on the right
Thing in fact you might be working on something that is hindering your improvement and hopefully this video will shed some light that will give you some idea of where you should be based off your physical build your B mechanics and all those fun things so one of the
Questions that we got recently was where should my arm be in relationship to the club shaft at at the halfway back and if I can just explain very quickly as you make your swing as your body rotates your left arm will move in unison with your torso okay as it moves throughout
The back swing and then event it starts to lift at some point that’s going to be a little bit different for everybody as you reach uh second parallel so as you take the club back and the left arm stays right in front of the chest the left arm you’ll notice will be either
Down the target line or slightly inside the target line depending on somebody’s physical structure and how much they turn if they have wider hips and narrower shoulders are going to turn the arms are going to look like they come in to the inside sooner if they’re more
Equal it’s going to look like it tracks down the line and if the shoulder shoulders are wider than the hips um it’s going to look like it goes a little bit outside in addition to that the club shaft in relationship to your target side arm or your lead arm is going to be
Dictated more by your Trail hand grip than it will by anything else so again there’s a there’s a difference between where your left arm goes in the back swing and where the shaft is in that back swing now let’s get in to what are the cause
Of what might dictate where a shaft goes in relationship to your lead arm one of the major influence influencers on where the shaft will be in relationship to your left arm in in the halfway back position or what is often referred to as first or second
Parallel will be your Trail hand grip so do you employ a slightly weaker grip where your palm is faced at an angle slightly to the ground to your to the Target side do you have a neutral grip where if you had a line coming out of
Your palm it would face down the target line or do you have a stronger grip where your palm would face up more towards the sky I will link the video where we go over all or how you can determine what type of grip you should
Have but for this video I want to focus on how that type of grip is going to influence where the club is and how it might be different from where your left arm is so let’s go over the first one where you have a slightly weaker grip so
Your palm is slightly facing downwards towards the ground which what most people would constitute what they would say is a weaker grip when the left arm gets across the chest if you have a weaker grip the left arm can be down the target line or slightly to the inside
And the club head will be maintain itself outside of the hands and the shaft will be kicking out that way all right that’s because the right hand is weaker and it’s staying more on top throughout the swing and then it will set itself somewhere at the the top of
The Swing if you tend to have a neutral grip where your palm would be facing a line straight down the Fairway parallel to the ground in perpetuity then when you make your back swing the as your right arm starts to fold and your right wrist hinges the
Club will have a large tendency to be directly in line with your left arm or your lead forearm and it will be straight down your target line or across your toe line and if you have a stronger grip wheel again the Palm is facing up a little towards the sky depending on how
Strong it is when you take it back as that right arm folds hinges uh this way and and the the trail arm the elbow folds that is going to fold this way where it is going to be on an angle from inside to out either in relationship to your lead arm or in
Relationship to the Target line now let me go over how once you get to the top how laid off down a line or across a line might not be as bad as you were led to believe so now that we’ve gone over where the the the lead arm is halfway back and
Then where the club is in relationship to that there are going to be some checkpoints that you can look at to dictate where your Club is going to be at the top so if you start to play in or you been trying to play in somewhat of a
Laid-off position at the top you’re trying to play in a position where the club is down the line at the top or if you’re playing or trying not to play from a club that is cross the line at the top there been great players to play from all three positions so the question
Becomes which one is right for you now when you take the club back the the shaft is whatever grip you employ I happen to have a grip that is more on top of the club so when I take the club back when I get to about halfway back
The club head is outside of my hands but then as I start to take it up and my left arm gets to parallel to the ground now the shaft becomes parallel to your shoulders so however much shoulder turn you employ that shaft is going to be in
Relationship to it that is true whether you have an ontop grip a a grip that’s parallel to the ground to where you’re going to be here so I have less shoulder turn or if you have a stronger grip and you go this way you’re going to have
More shoulder turn again so that your shoulders and the club shaft are paralleled to each other halfway back as you work yourself to the top it’s going to deter how much laid off down the line or cross the line you have is going to be dictated by how much shoulder turn you
Have so if we look at somebody like John ROM who doesn’t have a whole lot of shoulder turn where he doesn’t get his left shoulder well over his right foot John makes a shorter shoulder turn he does have the club parallel to his shoulders halfway back but when he gets
To the top because he his shoulders stop turning he’ll have the club laid off and what you’ll notice is the the position of the club at the top will be perpendicular to the shoulder turn so half halfway back they’re parallel at the top of the Swing they’re going to be
Perpendicular uh if you look at somebody like a a Matt wolf Matt wolf got a weaker grip hand more on top he’s out here as the arm gets his lead arm gets to parallel it’s the club shaft is parallel to his shoulders and then as he
Approaches the top cuz Matt has a lot of shoulder turn the club is across the target line but and here’s the key point it is perpendicular to his shoulder turn Okay and then as you look at somebody like Tiger Woods who’s very symmetrical Tiger has a neutral grip tiger is
Straight down the line with his arm and his Club halfway back he’s per perfectly parallel once he gets to to left arm parallel to the ground and when he gets to the top again his shaft is absolutely perpendicular to his shoulder line and the shaft when he reaches his top is
Pointed straight down the target line so it doesn’t matter which of those that you do whatever grip you take however much uh shoulder turn you employ but what is important is that you what is known as matchups you match up your grip type your rotation and you’re positioning at the top and throughout
The swing with what you are so I hope that helps clear up a lot of things if it doesn’t if it made it more difficult for you send us a note Post in the comments below we’ll get back to explain it as simple as we can but all in all
That should improve your ball striking hey everybody thank you for watching another one of our videos if you found this useful and use it in your game don’t forget to click that like button and let us know down in the comments below also don’t forget to
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