Hi Tom
In your most recent videos, you seem to keep your arms straight as long as you can.
In the older videos like the hogan magic elbow, the folding of the trail arm happens almost instantly.
When i keep my arms straight and maintain the wedge i get a huge body turn and seem to return the club the exact same route to the ball without even thinking about hip slide or anything. I also feel the swing circle better and feel that the club is perfectly on plane all the time.
When i try the hogan magic elbow, i get early trail arm fold. It feels very compact and effortless and i feel i have and maintain lag better, but i start to have little contact issues occasionally
Do you advocate now to keep the arms straight as long as possible?
@Jari Hissa - I advocate adhering to the primary principles of this swing and figuring out what works best for you in terms achieving consistently crispy impact, repeatable ball flight, and power. In other words, there is plenty of room for individualism in this swing. Compare and contrast, for example, Charlie Wi and Mike Bennett. Charlie keeps his arms straight for quite a distance off the ball on the backswing, whereas Mike's wrist hinge and trail arm fold begin almost immediately in the takeaway. Both are maintaining their connections - though Mike keeps his trail arm connected all the way down to just above the elbow, while Charlie's connection is much higher up the arm - and yet both are "feeling" straight arms In neither case is the lead arm - their swing radius - anything but straight.
So relish in the fact that you have some leeway, and figure out what works best for you! Based on your comment, it seems as though you may tend more towards the "Wi" side of the spectrum if that is producing desirable results for you.