Recently I gave a lesson to an upcoming high school golfer. He is a very strong player and shows great potential. One issue we are working on is getting his arm motion to match up with his body movement.

I see many golfers who either start the forward swing with the arms or some who even delay the swinging motion with the arms and they become ‘stuck’ behind your body upon impact which then requires a hand flip at impact in an attempt to square the clubface. Each mistake presents problems and introduces inconsistent results.

What happens with most when I see this problem, is the lack of continuity ( or blending ) of arm swing and body rotation during the backswing. Many players snatch the club away from the ball during takeaway and the arms simply will never accidentally regain the position they need for impact. The muscles of the arms and hands are twitchy and fast, allowing them to move quicker than the turn of the body. Given this fact, it is important to establish the arm – body relationship from the beginning of your swing.

A key thought would be for you to check where your hands are in relation to you sternum at waist high during the backswing. Check this while swinging in front of a mirror. Are they in front of your sternum? If they are not, you need to make a takeaway that ‘connects’ the arms and pivot so your hands will remain in front of your chest to this waist high position. I had the good fortune of playing golf with the late Payne Stewart, and when I asked him what he worked on in his swing, he said keeping his arms with his body. Very simple to understand, but difficult to master.

If you check this waist high position and then feel your arms remain in front of your chest during the forward swing, I know you will create much more consistent impact alignments.