Lead elbow pain when it comes to the golf swing can be caused for a multitude of reasons, but their are three main reasons that we see when dealing with this issue with students. Those three reasons being:
- A pre existing condition or injury
- Going into hyper extension in the lead elbow throughout the entire golf swing
- The lead elbow in the wrong position at the point of contact
Pre Existing Condition
Unfortunately, as humans, we get injured. But that does not mean we must be sidelined from playing or practicing one of our favorite sports just because of a pre-existing injury. If you know that you have injured yourself in the past due to an outside golf influence, then rather than compounding on the issue, please seek help from a medical professional before taking on the golf swing. There is no reason that as a golfer, you should have to play in pain. If that pain is avoidable, then we should try our best to avoid it or remedy it as fast as possible
Lead Arm Hyper Extension
Now, when it comes to lead elbow/arm pain from the golf swing, one of the main causes would be putting your right arm into a hyper-extended state throughout the swing. Yes, I know you want to keep your lead arm straight throughout the swing, but it is a passively straight position that you should not be trying to force yourself to maintain. If you are to come into the impact area with a lead arm that is hyper extended, when you make contact with the ground, this could compress your elbow, resulting in the pain that you may be feeling
The Wrong Lead Elbow Position at Impact
The most common issue we see with golfers who experience lead elbow pain in the golf swing is having their lead elbow pointing in the wrong direction at impact. In a perfect world, your lead elbow would be pointed down the target line or as close to the target line as possible. What we see many amateurs do that experience pain and discomfort is the lead elbow is rotated in toward the ribcage at the impact position. When making contact with the ball at this point, it causes a lot of compression to go throughout your elbow and arm, which can result in pain that we do not want.
The Fix
The fix for elbow pain is quite simple. All we need to do is understand that the clubface squaring mechanism will be the wrists in the golf swing and the arms or elbows. If we allow our arm to stay passive and our elbow to remain pointed at the target, the wrists can work independently of our arms and square the club without putting ourselves in a compromised position. If you want a more in depth explanation then please check out our video linked below!
