Your lead arm bends at impact. Your elbow folds. Your wrist cups. You’re scooping instead of compressing. The so-called “chicken wing” isn’t a swing flaw you can fix by trying harder. It’s a compensation for something else that’s wrong in your swing. Fix the root cause and the chicken wing disappears.
What’s a “chicken wing” in golf?
A chicken wing happens when your lead arm bends and your lead elbow pulls away from your body through impact. Your lead arm collapses instead of extending. Your hands slow down. Your clubhead passes your hands. You’re adding loft and losing compression.
The chicken wing is a compensation. Your body is trying to avoid something worse. Until you fix what’s causing it, you can’t stop it.
Cause 1: Your path is too far from the inside
The most common cause of a chicken wing is an inside-out swing path that’s too extreme. You’re swinging so far to the right that you can’t square the face without manipulating something. Your body compensates by bending your lead arm to pull the club back to the left.
The fix is to shallow your path. Work on your downswing sequence. Let your arms drop before your body rotates. This shallows the club naturally without forcing it so far inside that you have to chicken wing to recover.
Cause 2: Your grip is too weak
A weak grip makes it hard to square the clubface. If your hands are rotated too far to the left on the club, the face wants to stay open through impact. Your body compensates by flipping your wrists or bending your lead arm.
Check your grip. You should see at least two knuckles on your lead hand at address. If you only see one or none, rotate your hands slightly to the right on the club. This stronger grip makes it easier to square the face without manipulating it. Give the new grip time to feel normal. Once it does, the chicken wing goes away.
Cause 3: You’re hanging back on your rear foot
If your weight stays on your back foot through impact, you can’t rotate properly. The only way to make contact is to scoop at it. Your lead arm bends. Your wrists flip.
The fix is to feel like you’re covering the ball with your chest through impact. Your upper body should be over the ball or slightly in front of it at impact. This requires you to shift your weight forward and rotate your hips through the shot. When you do this, your arms can extend naturally because your body is in position to support that extension.
Practice hitting balls with 70 percent of your weight on your front foot. Make swings where you feel like you’re trapping the ball against the ground, not helping it up.
Cause 4: You’re trying to hold your lag too long
Some golfers chicken wing because they’ve been told to maintain lag and hold their wrist angles deep into the downswing. They hold it, hold it, hold it, and then at the last second, they have to do something to get the clubhead to the ball. That something is a chicken wing.
Lag is good but it’s not something you hold. It’s something that happens naturally when you sequence your downswing correctly. Your wrists unhinge automatically as you rotate through impact. If you’re trying to maintain lag consciously, stop. Focus on rotating your body through impact and let your arms and wrists respond naturally.
The drill that fixes it
Take your setup with a mid-iron. Make a backswing, then stop at the top. From there, feel like you’re pulling the grip end of the club down toward the ball with your lead arm while your body rotates. Your lead arm should feel like it’s extending down and through, not bending and pulling away.
Hit balls with this feeling. Focus on extension through impact. Extension happens when your path is good, your grip is right, your weight is forward, and you’re rotating through the ball.
The simple truth
You can’t fix a chicken wing by trying to keep your arm straight. It’s a compensation for something else. Fix your path if it’s too inside. Strengthen your grip if it’s too weak. Get your weight forward if you’re hanging back. Stop trying to hold lag if you’re over-controlling your release. Address the root cause and the chicken wing disappears.
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