What is “Chicken Winging in the Golf Swing”?
Chicken Winging is the inability to keep the lead elbow extended through the impact area. This swing characteristic makes it difficult to develop speed or power and tends to put excessive force on the outside of the elbow joint. It is quite common for golfers with chicken winging to hit high, weak shots or they tend to develop ‘tennis elbow’ on the lead side.
Several physical characteristics must be developed in order to fully extend your lead arm and maintain good width into the hitting zone:
– Lead arm strength and lead side shoulder flexibility are vital for a strong and fully extended lead arm at impact. If muscular or joint restrictions result in the inability for the arm to rotate around the shoulder then chicken winging is likely to dominate the pattern.
– If the downswing is out of sequence and the club is travelling on an over-the-top path, the lead arm is almost always forced to chicken wing due to the direction of the forces that are applied upon it.
If you think you may chicken wing in your golf swing then this is best evaluated by our TPI Physical Golf Screening. So come and see Bonnie (TPI certified) at Bend + Mend in Sydney’s CBD for a Golf Physiotherapy Assessment and TPI Physical Screen.
