Golf Video

The Secret of the RIght Arm

Posted on by Joshua Masters

Now Available! My treatise on golf’s dreaded mishit — the shank. This revolutionary golf primer incorporates numerous multimedia features, including: (1) video explanations and drills, (2) interactive photo galleries and diagrams, and (3) self-test diagnostics. Get your copy at https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/shank!/id911092112?mt=11

For your own personal swing analysis from me, please visit http://zachallengolf.com/swing-analysis/ A video detailing the magic of the right arm, with drills and video analysis of Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, and Dustin Johnson. How training your right arm can enhance your accuracy and distance

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39 thoughts on “The Secret of the RIght Arm”

  5. You’re trying to teach the result of an action and hope that it will
    somehow create the cause. It doesn’t work like that. This is why so many
    people struggle with golf. Strapping your arm to your chest isn’t going to
    teach anyone how to do what should have caused that to happen naturally.
    Luckily, you do show the cause at 4:47. John Daly performs an action that
    he, Dustin Johnson, Rory and most of the Korean women golfers do that is
    the key to golf. The club head remains behind and below the right shoulder
    and the shoulder plane and approaches the ball almost upside-down. This is
    the action that is the cause of the effects you’re trying to teach. Teach
    the cause and the effects all happen naturally. In order to keep that
    clubhead behind and below the right shoulder you have to let it drop
    backward and down in what feels like the absolute opposite direction it
    needs to be moving but when you turn the body through the ball this brings
    the clubhead directly to the ball and squares the face without effort or
    timing. It’s the same way a child swings the club – there can be no
    attempt to control the face of the club and the ball is struck off the
    right shoulder not in front of the chest. Look at John Daly, is he facing
    the ball? No, he’s next to it, facing the target and he hasn’t even hit it
    yet. When you perform this move in slow motion it will feel like you’d
    arrive at the ball with your right palm facing the sky and the clubface
    parallel to the target line, but the engineering of the club prevents that
    and squares it up like magic when done at full speed. The crazy thing is
    that it takes almost no effort to do this move. From the top of the back
    swing if you let gravity and inertia power the club instead of your
    forearms this move is easy. Graham does this at 5:40 – watch the club at
    the top move away from his head and downward flattening the shaft plane.
    This feels like screwing in a light bulb on a wall near your right
    shoulder with your right hand. We’ve all tried to manipulate the club for
    so long that relinquishing this control is very difficult at first. The
    only action the golfer has to do is relax and turn the body toward the
    target. Relaxing the wrists and forearms allows the clubhead to drop
    straight down flattening the shaft plane (as all great ball strikers do)
    and turning the body toward the target yanks the clubhead forward, which is
    already moving downward and therefore speeds it’s motion and the turning of
    the body brings the clubhead to the ball. All of this is happening behind
    your right shoulder. This is how John, Dustin, Rory, Mo Norman, and Hogan
    all have that effortless and confident strike while they’re facing the
    target. Facing the ball in order to hit it, just because that’s the way
    you addressed it, is a horrible idea. The hardest part of this move is
    having no concern about the clubface and just allowing it to do what it
    needs to and what it was engineered to do.
    Think about this, you can’t possibly teach someone to have a full and
    extended release through the ball that hasn’t approached the ball
    correctly. It just can’t happen. If you focus on fixing the results
    instead of the cause you’ll never make a change and chances are the person
    will be so frustrated they’ll want to quit golf. More mops doesn’t fix the
    leak. Fix the leak and you don’t need a mop.
    I used to think your videos were great because they talked about what I’d
    been trying to learn, until I learned this move and everything I was trying
    to do happened as a result. I had to create the cause to get the result.
    As hard as I tried to achieve the results without having the cause, I just
    couldn’t do it, and as a matter of fact I hurt myself trying.
    There are a few teachers attempting to teach this move but it’s so
    misunderstood that it’s mostly disregarded. Hogan told us about this move
    and we all thought we understood but we didn’t and continued to ask what
    his secret was. He told us several times. It’s not easy to explain and
    so many people say, “yeah, yeah, I get it,” but clearly don’t. It’s no
    wonder Hogan quit talking about it. 

  8. Right arm close to the body is a must for each golf swing.
    This does not imply that the right arm must be “attached” to the body, this
    occurs to golfers who use to drop the club at the top of the backswing (see
    Andy Garcia slowmo clips) or to golfers who use to squat a lot (see Rory
    clips).
    Other players, like for example Ernie Els or Luke Donalds, who dont drop
    the club and dont squat a lot, keep their right arm of course very “close”
    to the body, but not so “attached” to the body as we see in the above Zach
    tip.
    So this video is very useful, drill well worth to try and repeat, but it
    is not a bible.
    Concept is right arm close, to what extent “close” to the body depends on
    your swing.
    My 2 cents here…

  16. I have played golf for about 35 years now. I taught myself from Ben Hogans
    book the 5 fundamentals of the modern golf swing. I was a 2 handicap at
    one point. Zach is exactly right. What I do is take the club back with my
    upper right arm glued to my body. Its very difficult when you first try it
    because its so restrictive and you feel like there is no power in the
    swing. However it is exactly the opposite. Zach is right because he
    explains that your body powers the right arm through the swing. It is
    impossible to fade or slice the ball with this swing unless you are an
    advanced golfer unlike me. Keeping your right upper arm glued or close to
    your body restricts your backswing which makes this swing very simple
    especially for seniors like me at 62 years old. The only thing I think of
    is extending my arms, especially my right arm at impact. You will not
    believe how well this also works out of the rough. It powers the club
    right through tall grass. I love his drill with the belt. I’m going to
    try it.

  17. Moe Norman, said to be one of the best ball strikers of all time; did this
    too perfection. This video and the one about dropping the club at the
    beginning of the downswing…he called it “the vertical drop and the
    horizontal tug”.

  19. Luckily you were not the coach for Jack, Phil, Bubba , Tom Watson etc.
    Don’t you know how to differentiate the two types of swings, and have
    lessons and tips for both of them? You seem to suggest that there is only
    one way to swing the club.

  22. this method is what the great Ben Hogan did. It helps to keep the upper
    body in sink with the lower body where all the power comes from. When
    practicing this just don’t forget that the left arm is still the main
    pivot. Right hand should be relaxed but the right elbow comes down.

  26. Excellent piece of instruction Zach.One little adjustment and I am no
    longer slicing and losing yards. The game is so much more enjoyable these
    days. Thank you

  29. Excellent video. I sprayed a little foot powder on my driver face to
    examine impact on the face. Too many towards the heel (club getting
    further away during down swing). Another example of the need to keep the
    right arm in close.

  32. The secret dosen’t lie in my right arm. I am a left handed golfer. No big
    deal to most, but saying “front” and “back” would make more sense.

  35. When I am swinging my best , both arms are getting past the ball without
    tension, post impact. Add to that a flat left wrist, bingo you’re swinging
    at an elite level of golf. The swing you’re teaching is from the 1970-80
    were players having to flip at impact because they were so stuck. Modern
    day golfers are covering the ball, Nick Faldo the forefather of today’s
    elite swingers & teachers. 

  39. im no golf pro or coach but it seems that his student just has a problem
    rotating through, his hips look like they stop rotating and he gets really
    “armsy” through impact, thats just what it looked like tome bc if he
    cleared his hips and through his arms like that i dont even think hed make
    contact with the ball. PLEASE NOONE THINK IM 100% RIGHT ABOUT THIS, ITS
    JUST AN EDUCATED GUESS, IM NOT A PRO OR A COACH

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