movements of the upper body

If you wish to play very good golf it is absolutely vital that you learn to control the alignment of the club face throughout the complete golf swing, which can easily achieved by keeping the shoulders and the arms held tightly together as a very compact one piece unit so that the whole lot moves as a solid one piece unit during the back swing movement - and then using the movement of the hips and the lower back muscles to force the shoulder/arms-unit to rotate around the central core of the spine thus automatically returning the shoulders back to the parallel to the target line, which will return the club head back to the ball with the club face correctly aligned square to the target line.

It is really as simple as it sounds - it may not feel right at first, but it is very effective.

Let me explain what happens to the alignment of the club face as we go through the golf swing.

At the address position the hands and the club face are square to the target line and the shoulders are parallel to the target line, therefore at the address the club face is square to the position of the shoulders.

From this point onwards I will only refer to the alignment of the club face.

As the compact upper body unit rotates into the back swing movement, the club face remain in the same position relative to the shoulders throughout the back swing movement. To clarify, as the shoulders rotate away from the frontal facing position, the club face also begins to turn away from the square to the target line but remains square to the ball position.

In addition, whilst the compact upper body unit rotates as far as it is physically possible without allowing the heel of the left foot to lift off the ground, the right arm will completely fold thus causing the forearms to rotate in a clockwise motion and the wrists will cock to about 90 degrees to the arms, actions that will cause the club face to open even further in relation to the target line.

However the only thing that has effected the position of the club face in relation to the position of the shoulders, has been the folding of the right arm and the cocking of the wrists.
( If it was possible to straighten the right arm and uncock the wrists at the end of the back swing movement, the club face would still be square to the shoulders.)

Therefore as long as you use the movement of the hips and the lower back muscles to rotate the shoulders back to the parallel to the target line, as the shoulders rotate back to the original address position the right arm will return to the original address position of being slightly bent and the wrists will also uncock, thus returning the club face to the ball "square to the target line"

Therefore it is absolutely vital that you keep the upper body unit tightly held together throughout the complete golf swing movement.

As an exercise, take your normal stance and place the club head squarely behind the ball and whilst holding the upper body firmly together by holding the elbows as close together as is physically possible, simply rotate the compact upper body unit into a short back swing movement without rotating the forearms.

At the end of the short back swing movement you will note that although the club face is in the same position relative to the shoulders, the shoulders and the club face are now "open" to the target area.
However as you rotate the compact upper body unit back to the original address position the club face automatically returns to the ball "square to the target line"

Now repeat the first exercise but make a slightly longer back swing and notice that as long as you do not consciously rotate the forearms, the club face always returns to the ball square to the target line.

So you can see from this exercise that as long as you hold the upper body tightly together as a very compact unit throughout the golf swing movement and without rotating the forearms, you can maintain total control over the alignment of the club face.

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