How to Fix a Chicken Wing in Golf

That frustrating chicken wing in your follow-through - where your lead elbow awkwardly bends and flares out - is one of the most common power-sappers in golf. It feels weak because it is weak, robbing you of distance and consistency. This guide will walk you through exactly what causes this issue and provide you with concrete, actionable drills to eliminate it from your swing for good.

What Exactly Is a "Chicken Wing" and Why Is It So Bad?

The "chicken wing" describes the look of your lead arm (your left arm, for a right-handed golfer) immediately after striking the golf ball. Instead of staying relatively straight and rotating with your body through impact, the elbow bends sharply and points away from your body, separating from your torso. The a arm looks like a chicken's wing - hence the unflattering name.

While it might just look a bit awkward, the consequences for your game are significant:

• Massive Power Loss: To create speed, the golf swing needs to feel like a whip. The body rotates and "unravels," sending energy through your arms, down the shaft, and into the clubhead. When your lead elbow bends prematurely, you are effectively breaking that chain. You lose structure, the whipping action disappears, and your clubhead speed plummets. Instead of compressing the ball, you end up weakly scooping at it.
• Severe Inconsistency: A chicken wing is often a compensation for other swing faults, usually a steep, over-the-top path. Your body intuitively knows the club is on a path to slam into the ground, so you bend your elbow to avoid taking a huge divot and to try and guide the face back to the ball. This last-second manipulation is incredibly difficult to time, leading to wild shots - fat shots, thin shots, nasty pull-hooks, and the all-too-common slice.
• Poor Ball Striking: A proper impact position involves rotating through the ball with your chest while maintaining a flat lead wrist. A chicken wing follow-through is almost always paired with a "scooping" or "flipping" motion of the hands through impact. This adds loft to the club, creating weak, high shots that fall short of your target.

The Root Causes: Why Is This Happening to Me?

Fixing the chicken wing isn't about simply forcing your arm to stay straight. It’s about understanding and correcting the underlying swing flaw that causes it. For most golfers, it's a symptom, not the disease itself. Here are the most common culprits.

1. An "Over-the-Top" Swing Path

This is offender number one. An over-the-top move is when your hands and club move out and away from your body at the start of the downswing, coming down on a steep, outside-to-in path. From this position, if you were to keep a straight left arm, you would slam the club into the ground left of your target. Your brain takes over and tells your arm, "Pull in to save the shot!" The elbow bends, the wrists flip, and you cut across the ball, producing a weak slice or a pull.

2. Limited Body Rotation

The golf swing is a rotational action, powered by your torso and hips. Many amateur golfers, however, rely almost entirely on their arms. Instead of unwinding their body powerfully through the shot, they stop turning their chest and hips at impact and try to "hit" the ball with their hands and arms alone. When your body stops turning but your arms keep going, they have nowhere to go but up and away from your body. The only way to complete the motion is to fold that lead elbow.

3. A Misguided Attempt to "Lift" the Ball

The design of the golf club - its loft - is what makes the ball go up in the air. You don't need to help it. But a common instinct among golfers is to try and "scoop" or "lift" the ball off the turf. This involves flipping the wrists and bending the lead elbow to get under it. This action breaks the structure of the left arm and is a direct cause of the chicken wing.

4. Poor Setup and Ball Position

Sometimes the problem starts before you even move the club. If your shoulders are aimed way left of the target (an "open" setup) or if the ball position is too far forward for a particular club, it can encourage a cutting, outside-in swing path. From there, the chicken wing becomes an almost inevitable compensation to get the club back to the ball.

Drills to Fix Your Chicken Wing for Good

Now for the good part: the fixes. These drills are designed to retrain your body and give you the proper feeling of a connected, rotational swing that extends through the golf ball. Remember to start slow, even with no ball, to internalize the correct movements.

Drill #1: The Headcover/Towel Tuck Drill

This is a classic for a reason. It teaches the vital skill of keeping your lead arm connected to your torso's rotation.

1. Take a headcover or a small towel and tuck it into your left armpit (for a right-handed player).
2. Your goal is to make swings without letting the headcover fall out. Start with half-swings, from waist-high to waist-high (a "9 to 3" drill).
3. To keep the headcover in place, you cannot let your left arm separate from your chest. You will be forced to rotate your chest and hips to move the club, rather than just swinging your arms independently.
4. As you swing through the impact area, you'll feel how your body rotation naturally pulls the club through, allowing your arms to extend toward the target without breaking down.
5. Hitting balls with this drill provides immediate feedback. If the headcover drops, you know your arm became disconnected.

Drill #2: The Split-Hand Release Drill

This drill is exceptional for feeling how the hands and arms should properly release through the ball, eliminating the "scoop" that contributes to the chicken wing.

1. Grip the club normally with your left hand at the top. Now, slide your right hand down the shaft about 6-8 inches, leaving a significant gap between your hands.
2. Take a few easy, half-swings. As you come through the impact zone, you will feel a powerful rotation or "crossover" of your right arm over your left arm. It’s an incredibly clear sensation with this grip.
3. This crossover is the feeling of a proper release. It keeps the clubhead accelerating and naturally allows your lead arm to stay extended. A chicken wing swing has the opposite feeling - the lead elbow pulls up and in, preventing this crossover.
4. Focus on the feeling of your right palm facing downward post-impact. This ensures your left arm is extending flat and straight, not folding up and away.

Drill #3: The "Handshake" Finish Drill

This drill helps you focus on the result: a full, connected extension and rotation through the ball.

1. Set up to a golf ball (or imagine one).
2. Make a slow motion half-swing. As you move through the impact area, focus solely on extending your arms and the club directly towards the target, as if you're trying to shake hands with the target.
3. After the "handshake," allow your body's continued rotation to naturally fold the club up over your left shoulder into a balanced finish.
4. The key feeling here is extension toward the target. The chicken wing is a pulling-in motion. This drill forces you to feel the opposite - a pushing-out and extending motion. Your chest should be up and facing the target at the finish, with your lead arm feeling long and free.

Drill #4: The Impact Bag Drill

Using an impact bag is one of the best ways to get instant, physical feedback on your striking dynamics.

1. Place an impact bag where your golf ball would be.
2. Take a three-quarter swing. Your goal is not just to hit the bag, but to rotate your body through the bag.
3. When a player with a chicken wing hits the bag, they typically "stall." Their body stop rotating, their arms collapse, and they bounce weakly off the bag.
4. A correct strike involves driving into the bag with your lead hip and torso rotating open toward the target. At the moment of impact, your lead arm should be straight, and your right arm still has some bend. You should feel pressure from your chest moving forward that pushes the club into the bag.
5. This drill ingrains the feeling of a body-led, dynamic impact, which is the direct antidote to a stalled, handsy, collapsing impact.

Final Thoughts

Eliminating the chicken wing is a game-changer. It's not about forcing your arm straight but about correcting your swing sequence to be powered by body rotation, which allows your arms to naturally extend and release. Consistently practicing these drills will rebuild your swing on a more powerful and repeatable foundation, replacing weak cuts with compressed, powerful shots.

Drills are fantastic for building the right feelings, but getting a clear, unbiased look at what's actually happening in your swing provides a massive advantage. We built our app, Caddie AI, to be that expert second opinion you can consult anytime. You can get instant, AI-driven analysis of your swing to see if your practice is truly ingraining the right movements. If you’re ever stuck on the course - feeling that chicken wing re-emerging under pressure - you can ask for simple advice right then and there to get you through the round with confidence.