Upper body movements.

It is absolutely vital that the elbows are held as close together throughout the complete golf swing in order to maintain the upper body unit as a very compact unit right through to the very end of th golf swing.

During the back swing movement the rotational movement of the compact upper body unit lifts the arms to the end of the back swing movement therefore it is vital that the elbows remain held as close together as is physically possible.

As you perform the down swing, the elbows must remain held as close together as is physically possible in order to maintain the upper body unit as a very compact unit but importantly the upper body unit now become totally passive to the movement of the hips.

I cannot stress too strongly how important this action is to keep the elbows held as close together as is physically possible thus holding the shoulders and arms together as very compact unit at all times.

It is absolutely vital that the shoulders and the arms move a one piece unit, as you perform the back swing, the down swing and the follow through movements whilst totally passive to the movement of the hips.

It will feel very strange at first to perform the complete golf swing back swing whilst the elbows are held close together thus forcing the upper body unit to be held in this very compact condition, but persevere and you will reap the benefits.

Exercise.
If you take your normal address position but without a golf club in your hands, hold the elbows very close together in order to keep the upper body unit firmly together and simply rotate the compact upper body unit into a short back swing movement, pause for a millisecond and then use the rotational movement of the hips to force the compact upper body unit to rotate back to the original address position and continue to rotate the hips until the compact upper body unit has rotated well past the original address position.
(Because you do not have the weight of the golf club in your hands you will notice it is easy to keep the compact upper body unit totally passive to the movement of the hips throughout the down swing and the follow through, therefore you have to teach yourself to keep the upper body unit in this passive condition whilst performing the full golf swing movement.)

With this exercise the arms and the shoulders have moved as a one piece unit until well after the hands have gone past the original address position.
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This is exactly the feeling you must develop when you perform a full golf swing, this is why practice swings are important.

It is not easy to keep the upper body unit in a totally passive and a compact condition when performing a full golf swing, but with practice it is achievable.

I have made a video which shows two exercises.
These two exercises will train you to perform the correct rotational movement of the compact upper body unit, but is vital that these exercises are practiced whilst keeping the lower part of the body in a static condition during the back swing movement.
( The way to increase the rotational movement of the upper body unit during the back swing movement whilst the lower part of the body totally resists the upper body movement, is to learn to twist the upper torso. )

You will notice from this video that it is possible to twist the torso to quite a high degree as you perform the back swing movement before the hips are forced to follow the movement of the upper body unit.

Therefore because this action creates a situation where the muscles of the upper torso are stretched to their maximum, if you can perform this action during the golf swing movement it will inject additional muscle torsion into the golf swing movement.

(When performing the down swing movement and the follow through movement the hips must remain in total control at all times thus using the movement of the hips to force the very compact upper body unit to follow the movement of the hips.)

The first exercise shown in the video is performed by holding a golf club with the butt end held into your stomach whilst the arms are stretch as far as possible down the shaft.

Therefore whilst holding the golf club in this manner, simply use your back muscles to rotate the compact upper body back and forth as far as possible both ways, whilst continuing to grip the club very firmly and also maintaining the triangular shape of the upper body unit.

This action simulates the correct way the upper body should held together as it rotates back and forth but especially as the club head swing through the contact area.
Transfer the feeling that you acquire when you perform this practice movement to the real golf swing - you will be amazed at the results.
(I had it on good authority that some of the top pros practice this movement for hours on end to ensure that the action of holding the upper body and the arms as a one piece unit right through the contact area remains embedded into the conscious mind.)

The second swing exercise is basically a baseball swing, this teaches you to use the movement of the hips to initiate and control the upper body unit during the down swing/follow through movement.

Both are good exercises to carry out before you attempt to perform a full golf swing.

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