Your arms play a crucial role in your golf swing by ensuring the ball moves squarely forward toward the target. While many amateur golfers hold the misconception that the arms power a golf shot, their actual role is one of balancing the club and keeping it on a single plane as it impacts the ball.
Significance
Your arms largely remain passive during a golf swing, while your legs, waist and back provide the power to your shot. What your arms do is hold the club in the proper position while those larger muscles propel it forward through hip rotation. Therefore, when analyzing your arms during a swing, you should be thinking more about positioning than you do tension.
Function
Your arms do not play an equal role throughout your golf shot. They actually serve a cross-purpose, with the leading arm functioning mostly in the backswing and the trailing arm controlling the club in the follow-through. Each arm is used to rotate the club face during the shot, so it is 90-degrees facing away from the ball at the peak of the backswing, square at impact and 90-degrees in the opposite direction and the end of the follow through. This is done simply by rotating the arms at the shoulders when they are at full extension.
Time Frame
Golf swings happen very quickly and it can be difficult to see exactly what the arms are doing when watching someone at full speed. The arms hang loose when you address the ball and remain passive during the first quarter of the backswing. After the first quarter of the swing, the leading arm rotates the club face away from the ball. For the remainder of the swing, the coiled club is released on the downswing so it crosses the ball square and then repeats the motion in the opposite direction in the same amount of time going forward.
Features
A proper golf swing can be checked by ensuring the leading arm is in the correct position at key points of the swing. The Golf Channel notes that the leading arm should form a straight line with the club at the address. During the entire backswing, your leading arm is kept straight to ensure that the club remains equidistant from your chest. At the point of impact your arm should form a straight line with the club again, and on the follow through your leading arm will fold to accommodate your other arm being straight.
Effects
If your arms do not follow their necessary role in the golf swing, you are likely to impact the ball poorly. If you fold your leading arm in your backswing, you are more likely to strike the ground behind the ball. This will result in the ball either being rolled along the turf or popped high into the air without much distance. If you do not follow through properly with your back arm during a swing, you increase your chances of the club drifting out of the rotary plane, which in turn creates a hook or slice.
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