Movement of the upper right arm
 

How does the upper right arm move most efficiently in relation to the turning of the torso on the backswing and downswing?

Recently I've noticed that I've gotten into a bad habit of getting the upper right arm "back" behind the torso quite a lot on the backswing. Ernie Els's swing is one I like to study ...
http://www.golfswing.com/proswings/els.htm
... if you look at the position of Ernie's right elbow related to his right hip, from address, backswing and to impact the elbow and hip stay pretty much in the same relative position to each other, the upper arm just moves the elbow "out" from the rotating torso on the backswing, it nevers moves the elbow "behind" the torso.

Wondering how TGM students might comment on this ... thanks.

DG, thanks, Chapter VI Alignments was very helpful.

Part of my confusion is I'm starting to read Jim Hardy's "The Plane Truth for Golfers", his theories are everyone either has a "one plane" or "two plane" swing, excerpts:

pg. 4 about Tour players: "... Ernie Els is a "pure" one planer ..."

pg. 35 about one plane arm movement on the backswing: "...as for your right or rear arm, it should be folding up and behind you ..."

The video of Ernie's swing doesn't seem to endorse this, or maybe I'm missing something?

IMO Hardy's book is not about 'plane' but about the differences between a setup with a lot of forward lean at address, and one with little and the differences and adjustments/compensations that each represent.

Focus on what the hands do. IMO you don't want them getting 'behind' you.

I don't agree with Hardy that Els is a "one plane" swinger. By Hardy's own definitions, he looks a lot more like a "two planer." (At least from the pictures of Els that I've seen.)

high hands
 

Agree that Els is a single plane swinger but Ernie has high hands at the top of his backswing, so the hands must start first, as do all high hand golfers. If he had low hands at the top like Hogan or Campbell or uses a Hitters stroke- starting with the hands first would be a disaster. Chad and Ben and all low hands at the top of the backswing golfers need to move the hips first.

Everyone moves their hips first....the hip slide is what pulls both the shoulder and the arms DOWNPLANE.

Swingers slide parallel to their target line and hitters slide across their target line, or cross-line as we say.

DG...imo opinion its semantics, some say they move their hips and that will bring their shoulder down on plane.

Some say they use a pulling of their arms and then their hips respond....either way there needs to be some sort of a hip slide, however you do it i don't care, u just have to do it!

Re: Zero shift No Shift Nada Shift
 

Please explain why Els' swing is Zero Shift. I drew a line from ball the right shoulder at Top of backswing (Turned Shoulder Plane). Els doesn't look like he sets up to that Turned Shoulder Plane Line at setup. Instead, it looks like the Elbow Plane. Therefore, he must have Shifted there during the backswing. However, he does stay on the same plane on the downswing- hence Single Shift. I may well have got this all wrong! Enlighten me!

Re: Zero shift No Shift Nada Shift
 

I agree, anything I have seen of Els lately is single shift.

Is Els single shift Yoda?