That frustrating chicken wing finish on your golf swing, where your lead elbow bends and awkwardly flies out after impact, is one of the most common power-sappers in the game. If you see it in your swing, you're not alone, but it's a sign that you're losing serious distance and consistency. This guide will walk you through exactly what the chicken wing is, why it happens, and most importantly, how to fix it for good with practical, on-range drills.
The term "chicken wing" is a spot-on description of what happens to the lead arm - the left arm for a right-handed golfer - during and after impact. Instead of staying relatively straight and extending through the shot, the lead elbow bends sharply and points away from the body, pulling the arm in close. This creates a collapsed, V-shape that looks just like a chicken's wing.
In a powerful and efficient golf swing, the arms extend through the impact zone, propelled by the rotation of the body. The "chicken wing" is the opposite of this. It's a sign of disconnection, where the arms break down and stop working in sync with your torso's rotation. This isn't just a cosmetic issue, it's a major flaw that creates a cascade of problems, from weak slices to inconsistent strikes.
Seeing your elbow pop out is a symptom of deeper swing issues. Correcting it isn't just about looking better on camera, it's about addressing the root causes that are robbing you of your best golf. Here’s how it hurts your game:
Power in the golf swing comes from transferring energy from your body's rotation out to the clubhead. Think of a coiled spring unwinding. When your lead arm collapses, that energy transfer system breaks down. Instead of a powerful release where the clubhead accelerates through the ball, the chicken wing acts like a brake. You're essentially pulling the handle of the club in towards you, decelerating the clubhead right when it matters most. It's an arm-driven, "hitting at it" motion rather than a free-flowing, powerful swing.
Consistency is built on maintaining a stable swing radius. When your lead arm stays extended, the clubhead moves on a predictable arc, meeting the ball at the same low point swing after swing. The moment you "chicken wing," that arm pulls in, dramatically shortening your swing radius. Your body now has to make a last-second compensation. If you don't compensate perfectly, you’ll either hit the ground before the ball (a fat shot) or catch the ball on the upswing with the leading edge (a thin shot). This constant need for manipulation is the enemy of consistent ball-striking.
A "chicken wing" often goes hand-in-hand with an open clubface and a dreaded slice. This happens because the root cause is frequently a stall in your body's rotation. When your hips and torso stop turning through the shot, your arms are left with nowhere to go. To avoid slamming into your own body, the lead arm folds up. This stalling motion prevents the clubface from rotating shut naturally through impact, leaving it wide open and sending the ball curving weakly to the right (for a righty). Conversely, some players try to save the shot by aggressively flipping their hands, which can lead to a nasty pull or pull-hook.
To fix this flaw, you need to understand why it’s happening. It’s almost never about the arm itself, but a reaction to another error in your swing. Here are the most common culprits:
This is by far the biggest contributor. An "over-the-top" swing is where your first move in the downswing is to throw your hands and the club outside the proper swing plane. The club travels on a steep, outside-to-in path toward the ball. Your brain knows this path will cause you to either slam the club deep into the ground or pull the ball way left. As a protective measure, your body stalls its rotation and your lead elbow bends sharply to "pull" the club back inward and shallow out the path at the last second. The chicken wing is your body's attempt to save a shot that was doomed from the first move down.
A good golf swing is a sequence of motion. The lower body initiates the downswing, followed by the torso, then the arms, and finally the club. Many amateur golfers stop turning their hips and chest through the impact zone. When the body stops, the arms have to take over. With no space to swing freely, they have no choice but to collapse and fold up. You need to keep your body rotating all the way to a full finish to give your arms the room to extend properly.
Many golfers, especially with irons, fundamentally misunderstand how to get the ball airborne. They believe they need to scoop or lift the ball into the air. This scooping instinct causes them to pull the club handle up and back through impact, which directly forces the lead elbow to bend and the "chicken wing" to appear. Remember: you hit down on the golf ball to make it go up. The loft of the club does the work. Trying to help it into the air is a guaranteed path to poor contact and the chicken wing.
Reading about the flaw is one thing, fixing it requires dedicated practice with the right feelings. Here are four highly effective drills you can use at the range.
This is a an old-school favorite because it provides instant feedback and trains the core feeling of connection.
This drill ingrains the correct impact and post-impact dynamics, forcing you to stay down and extend through the ball rather than lifting and collapsing.
This drill makes it physically difficult to have a chicken wing and teaches you what a proper release feels like.
Isolating the problem arm is a direct way to retrain its movement. This drill helps the lead arm learn to work with the body, not against it.
The chicken wing may be a common swing fault, but it's not a life sentence. It’s almost always a reaction to a poor downswing path or stalled body rotation. By practicing connection drills, focusing on rotating your body completely through the shot, and learning the feel of true extension, you can replace that weak, collapsed finish with a powerful, tour-quality move.
Fixing long-standing habits like the chicken wing is hard when you can't see your own motion clearly. Turning feels into reals requires good feedback. That's why at Caddie AI, we built an AI coach right into your phone. The app's swing analysis can analyze a video of your swing and instantly spot flaws like a steep path or disconnection, giving you the objective feedback you need to see if these drills are making a real difference. It’s like having a coach in your pocket, guiding you toward a more powerful and connected swing.
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