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Should You Straighten Your Elbows?
I see some golfers trying to straighten their elbows at address. Some golfers try to turn their elbows inward in an effort to avoid slice.
But I never saw anyone who can hit the ball very far with those methods.
But I understand what they were trying to do. By turning your elbows inward at address, you can sometimes prevent your slice.
When you turn your elbows inward at address, you can restrict the movement of your arms and prevent your clubface from opening too much on the backswing.
If you are a slicer, the more you turn on the backswing, the more you open your clubface during the backswing. So you are going to have to manipulate your clubhead during the swing to hit the ball straight.
But in the process of manipulating your club, you are going to lose some of your clubhead speed.
What is Natural for Your Elbows?
Here is the easy way to check the natural position of your elbows at address.
1) Bend from your hips. Don't bend from the waist. Keep your back straight
2) Flex your knees a bit
3) Lower your right shoulder
4) Hang your arms from the shoulders
5) Now, clap your hands
6) Take your grip
See how your elbows look like when you clap your hands like above.
I think your elbows are not perfectly straight. They should have a little bit of bend. It's natural to have tiny bit of bend in your elbows.
But if you try to straighten your elbows at address or turn inward, your arms won't move as fast as they should. And you won't be able to use your arms like a whip and lose distance.
Try to straighten your arms. I think you'll notice that your arms get tense as soon as you straighten them. The tense muscle won't move as fast as the relaxed muscle.
If you find yourself hitting more slices by relaxing your arms at address, it has nothing to do with your arms.
By relaxing your arms at address, your clubhead speed increases. The faster the clubhead speed, the more you can curve the ball if your clubface isn't square at impact.
So try to change your grip. Also, check your ball position as well. The more you position your ball forward, the easier it gets to hit a slice. See the correct ball position for more information about the ball position.
Also, please see the related articles below to fix your slice.