Golf, a break from Trump & the Power of the Trail Arm.

“The man who chases two rabbits catches neither.” Confucius.

Chamberlain Park

So today I choose to chase only one rabbit, golf. A nice break from thinking and reading about the man who causes so much turmoil in the world, Trump.

Check out Phil Khor’s recent blog, “Golf Tips for Beginners, by a Beginner.” This is a great article for newbies to the great game of golf. You will learn much from Phil about etiquette, club selection, basic swing motion, practice, the importance of lessons from a coach and just the fun of it all.

The Power of the Trail Arm

Many golf commentators, content creators, discuss the power of the right arm for right-handed golfers. I choose to use the term trail arm because it includes both left and right golfers. Pete Cowan, Mike Malaska and Danny Maude amongst others discus the power and importance of the trail arm in the golf swing.

A Proviso

Keep in mind this is only one element of the golf swing. For any element to be successful, all other fundamentals of the golf swing, must be part of the overall motion of the swing.

Danny Maude and Pete Cowan (PC)

YouTube, Worlds #1 Coach Shares Right Arm Secrets With Me – Live Golf Lesson, Danny Maude.

In this video Pete Cowan talks about getting the trail arm in the right position before spinning down to compress the ball. My experience in watching YT videos is the use of terminology. “Spinning the arm down without losing the right wrist,” got me in trouble. Spinning meant something entirely different to PC from what I understood it to be. I literally spun my trail forearm, my interpretation of ‘spinning’ was obviously wrong because after a time my elbow hurt badly.

Despite the injury, what PC tried to communicate I finally understood. The power gained from the correct hinge of the trail arm and the setting of the trail wrist cannot be underestimated. Now when I use my trail arm on the downswing, assuming I have set everything correctly on the takeaway, there is no “spinning down.” Rather there is just an un-leveraging of the angles. What I mean by that, is when I am at the top of my swing, my first downswing move is to release the angle of the trail arm. It is the trail forearm that makes the first downward movement.

Andy Carter Golf

YouTube, Pete Cowan’s Spinning Right Arm Explained.

This drill is nothing like I have come across before, but it explains perfectly what Pete Cowan had in mind when he was discussing it with Danny Maude.

The Drill.

Trail arm straight at address, with hands and fingers spread and at right angle to your trail arm. Fingers point away from your body.

Take the trail arm away, part way your fingers point away from you. At the top, your palm is pointing toward the sky.

As you come down from the top to impact your fingers are still pointing away from you.

SidLinx.com

This drill changes my swing. For those who are keen to get good impact on the ball try the drill after viewing the videos above. I prefer to keep my swing the way it is, at least for now. I’ve worked hard to figure out my physical strengths and weaknesses, I do not want to backtrack because I’ve found this video explaining what Pete Cowan means by spinning the ball down. My recent results from finding the power in the trail arm, adapted to what suits my body, are promising. I will continue to embed this promise into my swing. In a future blog post I’ll report back on my progress. For others following Pete Cowan’s methods or those of others, I wish you well in your golf journey.