The first technique to learn is a simple, one-armed swing. Many other techniques build on this motion, and it is helpful to understand some of the hows and whys in a bit of detail before we start to add more complications.
One of the best things we can do with clubs is to identify when one side of the body does things differently from the other side. This is often due to having such comfort and familiarity with the dominant hand that we feel able to skip steps and “muscle through”. It can also be due to having a muscular imbalance between the arms or shoulders, or having pains or injuries that inhibit movement on one side.
It is ideal to do this first exercise in front of a mirror or other reflective surface if you possibly can. You will begin to notice where the two sides of your body act a little differently, and you can begin to investigate why. This is useful information for many aspects of life, beyond merely swinging clubs!
With the dominant arm
It is probably best to start with your dominant arm. For most people this will be the right arm, but if you are left-handed, please do start with your left. It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference in the grand scheme of things, but it is almost always easier to learn a new motion with the dominant arm first!
Bring the club up in front of you, let it circle behind the head, and send it upward and out to the side. Let it continue the motion in a natural fashion and the club will move quite easily into the next repetition.
Here is a brief video showing what the movement looks like. Yes, it is a bit too fast for you to learn it from this clip – don’t worry, we will break down the technique soon! This video is just to show what the movement should look like when done properly.
With the other arm
Using the other arm, just mirror what you did with the dominant arm.
There should be no differences at all between the swings on the right and on the left. If you observe any differences, then it means you are doing something different with each arm. Run through the technique slowly and work out what that difference is, decide which version is more correct, and then work to be able to do that version consistently on both sides.
Here is a short video showing it on the other side, so that you can see that it looks just the same as with the dominant arm.
How the elbow should orbit the shoulder
Alright, now that you have seen what the movement should look like on both sides, we can start to look at the technique in more detail.
Although what you are doing with the club looks quite flashy and showy, it is important to ignore the club at first. let your attention go to your elbow and how it orbits around the shoulder. If you pay attention to the club then you will be focusing on the wrong thing and you will probably waste your time practising wrong and unhelpful motions.
As you watch the video, observe that the elbow comes up in front of your chest as you raise the club – then orbit the elbow so that the elbow is higher than the shoulder. There should be no movement in the shoulder other than the rotation required to bring the elbow to its new position.
Then, without moving the shoulder or elbow anywhere else, straighten the arm. This motion will look like it is sending the club upward and outward.
Then, maintaining this straight arm, allow the club to descend towards the ground.
You can stop the swing there or allow it to move comfortably upward again into the next repetition.
Watch the video below to see three slow-motion repetitions, showcasing the details of this technique.
Doing it incorrectly
A common mistake is for the shoulder to “wander around” and not remain fixed in position – this is problematic, because it means you are not working the shoulder properly and you are trying to compensate for something. The correction is to work on keeping the shoulder stationary.
Another common mistake is for the elbow to remain at shoulder height or lower, which stifles the whole motion, and renders the exercise almost useless (in terms of trying to open up and loosen off the shoulder joint). The correction is to make sure the elbow ends up above shoulder height during its orbit.
Yet another common mistake is to try to move the club around, rather than focusing on what the body is doing. The correction is to ignore the club and make sure the elbow orbits the shoulder properly.
In the video below, observe the errors in the first few repetitions and see just how awkward the techniques looks as a result. In the second half of the video, observe how much better the technique looks when all the corrections are applied, even as the speed increases.
View from the side
In the following video, showing the movement from the side, it is quite clear that the shoulder is being taken through its range of motion by this technique. That is the purpose of this swing.
You can see that the shoulder does need to move and rotate in place, in order to facilitate the orbit of the elbow, but it doesn’t move anywhere else.
You can also see that the elbow comes above shoulder height at the end of the orbit and before the arm straightens.
Don’t worry about what the club is doing. If you move the elbow correctly and simply keep hold of the club, it will end up in the right place for the arm to straighten successfully. It will only end up out of place if you do anything else other than a simple orbit of the elbow.
Putting it all together
Once you can do the technique smoothly on both sides, try and achieve 10 repetitions with the right arm and 10 repetitions with the left arm. These repetitions should all be consistent with each other; none of them should look any different from the rest.
Once you can do your 10 repetitions on each side in a consistent fashion, time to make it a bit more difficult: do one on the right, one on the left, and back and forth like this. Again, keep your focus on the elbow and make sure the elbow orbits the shoulder properly. Try and make every repetition consistent with all the others.
This is an important step in becoming able to coordinate the use of both arms together at the same time.
The video below shows the alternation of right and left with these one-armed swings.
Once you can do all of this quite comfortably, you are ready for the next lesson!