How to Fix a Flying Right Elbow in the Golf Swing

Quick answer: A flying right elbow is your trail elbow moving across and behind your body in the backswing instead of staying connected to your torso. It isn't automatically a fault - plenty of great players have one - but it adds movement you then have to time, and it often puts the club across the line at the top. The fastest fix is feedback rather than restriction: the ArmAlarm beeps the instant your arms separate, so you find out mid-swing rather than afterwards on video. (Left-handers: your trail elbow is the left one - mirror every direction here.)

In this post, WhysGuy will cover:

• What a flying right elbow is, and the consequences it can create in your swing.
• Why feedback works better than a strap that forces your arms together.
• How to set up and use the WhyGolf ArmAlarm to fix it.

What Is a Flying Right Elbow?

A flying right elbow in the golf swing happens when a golfer's trail elbow moves across and behind their body in the backswing. Though many great golfers throughout history have played from this position, a flying elbow can add unnecessary movement to the swing and ultimately make it difficult to hit the ball consistently.

We're not here to tell you that you need to fix your flying right elbow. We're here to provide some guidance for those who want to keep their arm structure consistent and more in sync with their upper body.

One of the reasons a flying elbow complicates the golf swing is that it often results in an across-the-line position at the top of the backswing. That across-the-line move tends to lead to a severe in-to-out swing path through the ball. To avoid the resulting hook, a golfer may then overcompensate and come over the top to square the path back up.

In either scenario, you're timing two errors against each other. Keeping the arms more connected and in sync with the body removes the need for both.

Should You Fix It?

Worth being honest about this: a flying elbow is a preference, not a rule. If you're striking it well and your misses are predictable, leave it alone.

It's worth working on if you recognize any of these:

• Your club points left of the target at the top (across the line) on down-the-line video.
• Your misses alternate between blocks and hooks - the signature of two compensations fighting each other.
• Your trail forearm is roughly parallel with the ground at the top.
• Your strike quality falls off sharply with the longer clubs, where there's more swing to time.

How to Fix a Flying Elbow

The ArmAlarm gives real-time auditory feedback when your arms separate, so you can identify and correct the exact point in your swing where it happens. Set it on your forearms, let your trail elbow fly in the backswing, and the tether disconnects and beeps.

1. Set the ArmAlarm on Your Forearms

Place the ArmAlarm on your forearms, splitting the middle between your wrists and elbows. Loosen the tether so you have a fair amount of slack, as shown in the picture, then attach the magnets together. If you disconnect the magnets, you'll hear an alarm.

As you take the club into your backswing, make sure the tether doesn't separate from the magnet case. If it feels like there isn't enough slack to work with, rotate the knob on the tether case counterclockwise to add length.

More detail on setup lives on our golf instruction page.

2. Hit Balls Until the Beep Stops

Work on keeping your right elbow close to your body with the ArmAlarm on - and be sure to hit balls with it.

We often see players who struggle with a flying elbow have a much harder time keeping the elbow from flying once there's a golf ball involved. Rehearsal swings are honest right up until the moment something is at stake. So we'd stress this: hit golf balls with the ArmAlarm until your flying elbow is under control, not just air swings.

Why Feedback Beats Restriction

We view the ArmAlarm as a significant step up from other devices used to build connection in the golf swing, for two reasons.

The first is that your feeling doesn't change depending on whether you're hitting golf balls. Most connection aids - straps, towels, balls under the armpit - either can't be used at full speed or change how the swing feels the moment they're removed.

The second matters more. With the ArmAlarm, you have to accomplish the correct movement on your own, as opposed to being guided or forced into a position. Most golf training aids force you into place; the moment you take them off, nothing has changed, because you never made the move yourself. Since you do all the work with the ArmAlarm, you're far better equipped to move correctly when it's time to hit a golf ball without it.

The Waiter's Tray Feel

If you want a swing thought to pair with the feedback, this is the one worth having.

When the right elbow flies, the arms tend to get stuck behind the body in the downswing. A good visual is to feel like you're holding a plate at the top of your backswing with your right hand - the way a waiter or waitress carries one. That allows the right elbow to point downward rather than horizontally, and it sets the right wrist in a position that makes for a far more efficient move into the downswing.

Use it as a rehearsal feel, not a mid-swing instruction. The ArmAlarm tells you whether it worked.

Why Your Elbow Still Flies

• You're only rehearsing. Air swings with a training aid are easy. The pattern you're trying to change shows up when there's a ball in front of you.
• You set the tether too tight. With no slack, the alarm fires on a normal backswing and you learn nothing. Start with real slack and take it out gradually.
• You're pinning your arm to your body. Connection is not compression. Squeezing the trail elbow against your ribs kills your turn and trades one fault for a shorter, armsier swing.
• It's a mobility issue, not a technique one. A tight trail shoulder will send the elbow up because there's nowhere else for it to go. If the position is unreachable at address, it won't appear at the top.
• You're going full speed too soon. Motor patterns change at slow speed and get proven at full speed. Doing it in that order is what makes it stick.

Key Takeaways

• A flying right elbow - though not necessarily a swing flaw - can hurt your ball-striking consistency by adding movement you have to time.
• It often shows up as an across-the-line position at the top, followed by an over-the-top compensation.
• Fix it with feedback rather than restriction: aids that force your arms together stop working the moment you take them off.
• The WhyGolf ArmAlarm tells you the instant your arms separate - hit real golf balls with it, not just rehearsals.

Check out our YouTube channel for drills and tips: