Todd starts the video at the beautiful Lone Tree Golf Club in the Phoenix area. He highlights that the ‘chicken wing’ swing, while humorously named, can be disastrous for your golf game. It’s a swing flaw that might be causing you to lose clubhead speed, slice the golf ball, or even lead to soreness in your lead arm.
To demonstrate the chicken wing swing, Todd positions himself for a shot, keeping a bit of weight on his lead foot. As he swings, he finishes with his elbows apart, a key characteristic of the ‘chicken wing’ swing, causing the ball to fly high and veer to the right.
The key to fixing this swing issue is to allow your arms to rotate and release. Todd demonstrates the correct swing, resulting in a more solid strike, sending the ball up in the air with a draw to it.
One simple tip Todd offers is to focus on rotating the logo of your golf glove towards the ground during your swing. This rotation helps promote the necessary arm rotation and release.
Todd further suggests a fun drill to reinforce this motion: tossing a golf ball with the motion you want to replicate in your swing. This action helps emphasize the feeling of the arm rotation and release.
Next, Todd shares another drill to tackle the chicken wing swing, focusing on keeping your elbows close as you follow through. The idea is to squeeze and rotate your elbows together, instead of letting them separate.
Todd’s favorite drill to tie together these concepts and promote a continuous motion is the “continuation drill”. This drill includes three slow, rhythmic motions that encourage continuous movement, helping the club to naturally rotate as it should.
However, even with these drills and techniques, it’s essential to understand what causes the chicken wing swing. Todd believes improper weight shift or pressure shifts might be the culprit. Golfers often keep their weight on their back foot on the downswing, causing the club to swing out and across, leading to the chicken wing.
To address this, Todd recommends adding some weight shift to the continuation drill. This entails raising the heel on the side of the swing as part of the continuous motion to promote weight shift.
With these tips and drills from the video, you should be well on your way to correcting your chicken wing swing and increasing your distance on the golf course. Remember, practice is key in mastering these new techniques and incorporating them into your game. Happy golfing!