Michael Breed, The Golf FIX guru on the Golf Channel preaches straight arms in the backswing (YES, both arms are STRAIGHT) for a WIDE takeaway to build more torque and power. He talks about “swinging with your chest”. His focus is on forming a triangle with your straight arms during the takeaway to force your chest to rotate more than your hips. BINGO, this builds up the latent power in your backswing.
Wide Takeaway [Shown by Rory McIlroy (blue shirt)]
The lines across your shoulder and arms form a triangle. Keeping both arms straight during the takeaway until your club is parallel with the ground will force a wide swing arc and chest rotation.
Rory McIlroy (on the right) showing a Wide Straight Arm Takeaway. Jason Day (on the left) is showing his bent trailing arm creating wrist lag.
Wrist Lag [ Shown by Jason Day (red shirt)]
1/ Complete your backswing by lift your straight leading arm across your chest.
2/ Use the 90 degree bend of your trailing elbow to cock your leading wrist to 90 degrees for the perfect lag position.
PREFERRED SETUP: GOLFSTR helps you feel when your trailing arm is bent 90 degrees to force a 90 degree lag in your leading wrist.
Takeaway Lag Trainer: Using this swing we developed an improved use for GOLFSTR+ as a lag trainer to gain over 30 yards on drives. Bend your trailing elbow 90 degrees and strap GOLFSTR+ on your upper arm and resting on the lower arm. It helps you feel when your arm is bent to 90 degrees (forcing your leading wrist to bend 90 degrees).
Note: There are 3 ways to use GOLFSTR+ as a Lag Trainer: PREFERRED SETUP: On the trailing upper arm and point to your lower arm, Option 2/ On the inside flat of your trailing arm and pointing to your upper arm or Option 3/ On your leading arm and pointing to the back of your thumb.
Lag Trainer Assembly OPTION 2: On the flat surface of your trailing arm pointing to your upper arm
Always start with a loose grip and relaxed arms. Your trailing hand is just guiding the hinge of your lagging wrist. Bending the trailing elbow to 90 degrees in the backswing will pull your club down to create the 90 degree wrist lag (while you keep your leading arm straight).
Lag Trainer Option 3: On your leading arm pointing to your thumb.
At the top of your backswing you can feel the black rubber extender press against your upper arm. At this point, you know that your elbow is bent 90 and your wrist lag is 90 degrees.
To start your forward swing, shift your weight forward while holding the wrist lag and release from the inside to out as you swing through the ball to a balanced finish.
Check out this video for the complete story.
Check out the GOLFSTR+ website for all 6 of the swing fixes at www.golfstr.com
