chicken wing

I have been taking golf lessons for the past three years. I have been golfing for thirty years. I have developed some bad habits I can't seem to correct. I have the dreaded chicken wing. My left arm is bent at impact and stays bent on the follow through. With my driver the arm is bent even more at impact. If my timing is on I will have a good round. But if my timing is off my game is very inconsistent. What are some good drills for getting rid of the chicken wing and obtaining a straight left arm at impact. Any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

thanks Mike

Hi,
New to golf on line.
Your cure. Keep head behind ball during downswing. This will allow yours arms to straighten out at impact.
Hope this helps
jimw
Australia

sounds like you need to rotate the left forearm

Put a towel or golf ball under your left armpit. If you hit with a chicken wing it will fall out

Think EXTEND at impact so your arms are going out to the right of the target line. There's no way you can "wing-it" if you do that.

extension should be about a foot or more after impact

You're right of course. The extension ACTUALLY only should happen after impact.

But what you FEEL is never what you actually do in FACT. For instance your arms ACTUALLY go back farther than they FEEL they do on the back swing.

If you think/feel "extend" you'll probably more likely to get your arms "out" there.

if you try to feel that you extend at impact you may flip or release too soon, that is my thinking

agree with arch 11. However practive at home with just the left arm. you need to get the feeling of the left arm folding up on the follow through. the left arm maintain the extension till after impact and them folds up. or try this drill
First, grip the club with your left arm if you are right handed. Next, place your right hand on your left bicep, holding your left arm against your side. Now make a short practice swing keeping constant pressure with your hand on your arm. As you swing to impact, feel your left arm fold and release as you make your follow through. If you have had a chronic chicken wing you are now on your way to a better swing and hopefully fewer doses of pain reliever for your sore chicken-wing elbow! **Note: This drill is to be performed with short or ½ swings only. refernce to:
http://www.mikeweir.sympatico.msn.ca...CategoryID=621

I never realized I had the chicken wing until seeing video of my swing. For me, the fix is to work on swinging through the ball and down the target line, to a high finish. That not only fixes the chicken wing but also helps to complete the weight shift and hip turn. As james.welsh pointed out, what you feel isn't necessarily what's happening, and you can't really swing along the target line very far, but just trying to prolong that movment results in a more extended "big circle" swing.

Hi all!

Just to put my own 10 pence worth in, what can also cause the ol' chicken wings in dipping in the downswing.

Lee Westwood suffered from it (even when he was in the Ryder Cup, so you can play with a chicken wing!). He'd swing to the top and lose a bit of height, then lose even more height on the downswing leading to him trying to keep the club head on a path to meet the ball by bending his arm, otherwise he was in danger of fat-dumping it.

Have someone stand with a club handle in the middle of your forehead when you swing. You'll soon find out if you're losing height in your swing.

N18