Question about "twistaway"

[Matt 4-L]

I don't twistaway per say but I don't roll my hands open very much so I guess it would pretty much be the same thing. A couple of my swing faults have always been a left arm collapsing a little at the top and some pick up or loss of spine tilt at the top. I have been experimenting with rotating (or I guess it is called pronation) my arms and hands more in the backswing and trying to shorten my swing a bit and have found that by rotating my forearms more on the backswing that my left arm is alot easier to keep straight and that I don't need the pick up to complete my swing.

So my question is does doing the twistaway or just not rotating the forearms enough make it hard to keep left arm straight and complete a full turn without coming up out of my tilt? Is it something anatomical or just my lack of flexibility?

 

[GPM1985]

Funny that you post this, as I've been coming to the conclusion that my tendency to over-rotate my left forearm has caused my arms to collapse. I'm not saying that I'm correct, but I've also noticed that my left forearm is less likely to over-rotate when I make a conscious effort to increase the angle in my right elbow. I think that's called extensor action. When I combine that extensor action with twist-away I get a nice, full turn with lots of extension. Anyways, from my experience I don't think that twist-away is causing you to get narrow or make an insufficient turn. That said, let's see what the pros have to say.

 

[Matt 4-L]

That’s kind of what I was wondering....Is there a "slot" that your forearms need to be in for being able to keep the arm straight. If we under or over rotate is that causing the collapsing?

 

[RicoSuave]

With the twistaway you keep your right ellbow way longer above the left.

With forearm-rotation in the backswing yor right ellbow is soon under your left, folds sooner and the swing gets narrower.

 

[Kevin Shields]

The twistaway is a wrist condition separate from what you do with your forearms or elbows.

 

[Matt 4-L]

I have always been a little fuzzy on whats going on there. With 3 joints; shoulder, elbow and wrist there is a lot of moving parts. I am wondering if there are anatomical no no's or combinations that can cause a "soft" left arm and make it hard to do a full shoulder turn?

 

[Kevin Shields]

Well, for starters, if your arms aren't being moved by your pivot in the takeaway and the left arm lifts alot independently of right arm bend and momentum, you could end up with too much bend in the arms at the top. Basically, I think its usually an over-acceleration issue in the arms.

 

[pm4610]

The twistaway is a wrist condition separate from what you do with your forearms or elbows.

From the man himself:

Quote:
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Originally Posted by Brian Manzella
The "Twistaway" is NOT a wrist-only motion, it is NOT a backswing only motion, it will not produce a top of the backswing position like the "Square-to-Square" Method picture, and is NOT what Homer Kelley is talking about with the flat left wrist.

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.brianmanzella.com/forum/golfing-discussions/11369-holy-grail-golf-swings-3.html#post132692

Then what IS it?

 

[Kevin Shields]

Interesting. Per this conversation, I see it as a wrist only backswing move. Of course you can do it in the downswing as well.

 

[Matt 4-L]

I probably shouldn't have used the word twistaway. All I really want to know is what causes the left arm to break down? Is there an anatomical reason for it other than flexibility? Kevin did touch on the arms out racing the body and that may be part of my problem, I may not be "sequencing" very well. When my swing starts going awry this is where it starts with a bent left arm and a little bit of coming out of my posture at the top. I would like to understand what causes this so I can watch out for it this coming season.

 

[pm4610]

Interesting. Per this conversation, I see it as a wrist only backswing move. Of course you can do it in the downswing as well.

Kevin,
I agree. It can be done during backswing, downswing, at the top, etc., but I still see it as a "wrist only" move, no matter where it's done. Brian specifically states it is NOT a wrist only motion.