Fix a Chicken Wing: 4 Aids I Tested, $15-$120

Your lead arm is not weak. A chicken wing happens when your arms disconnect from your body, and no amount of yelling at your elbow fixes that. I spent six months being told I had one, and not once did anyone hand me something to fix it. Instructors named the fault, told me to keep my arm straight, and sent me home. I stood in front of a mirror for weeks forcing my elbow flat. It never worked.

The Tour Striker Smart Ball at $39 fixes the root cause for most golfers, and a $25 Impact Bag fixes the impact position that finishes the job. Everything else on this list builds on those two.

How to Tell If You Actually Have a Chicken Wing

Before you spend a dollar, confirm the fault. Three tests, all doable at the range in ten minutes.

Test 1: The finish freeze. Take a slow practice swing and freeze at your follow-through. Look at your lead arm (left arm for righties). If your elbow is bent and the forearm points out away from your body, like a wing, you have it. If the arm stays extended and folds naturally against your body, you do not.

Test 2: The ball flight. The chicken wing produces one signature miss: high, weak, and right for right-handed golfers. The collapsing lead arm adds loft at impact and opens the face. If your driver spins up into the wind and leaks right with no power, that is the chicken wing talking.

Test 3: The divot. Hit a few iron shots and check your divot. If it starts behind the ball and stays shallow, you are scooping. Scooping is the cause of the chicken wing, the body’s attempt to lift the ball into the air instead of hitting down and through it.

If you pass all three, you do not have a chicken wing and you do not need these products. If you failed one or more, start with the Smart Ball and the Impact Bag.

1. Tour Striker Smart Ball $39: Fix the Root Cause

When to use this: You failed Test 1. Your arms outrace your body turn, and the lead elbow folds because it has nothing left to stay connected to.

An inflatable ball the size of a softball that you wedge between your forearms. You inflate it, pinch it, and swing. If your arms stay synced to your turn, the ball stays put. The moment your arms disconnect, the ball drops to the ground. That drop is the entire product, and it is the right feedback, because the chicken wing is a disconnection fault before it is anything else. I covered the full lineup of connection aids in my arm-body connection guide, and the Smart Ball is the one I keep coming back to.

What does not work. It only fixes connection. If your chicken wing comes from a wrist breakdown or a stalled body turn, the ball will not catch it. The included pump is flimsy; a soccer ball pump is a better replacement.

Buy this if your arms run away from your body on the downswing. Skip it if your connection is already solid and the fault lives in your wrists.

2. Impact Bag by Dr. Gary Wiren $25: Fix the Impact Position

When to use this: You failed Test 3. You scoop at the ball, and the chicken wing is your body’s way of adding loft to compensate.

A reinforced fabric bag you fill with towels or old shirts and hit with a club. There is no ball to chase, so all that is left is the position. You swing into the bag and stop at impact, holding a straight lead arm and forward shaft lean. This is the exact opposite of the scooping motion that causes the chicken wing. Invented by PGA legend Dr. Gary Wiren as a safe replacement for Henry Cotton’s old drill of hitting a car tire, and it is still the cheapest impact trainer you can buy.

What does not work. It is a stationary object, so you get the position without the follow-through. It will not train you to release through the ball, only to arrive at impact correctly. It also works your trail-arm structure but does nothing for the lead-arm connection that causes the fault in the first place.

Buy this if you scoop or flip at impact. Skip it if your impact position is already sound and the fault is purely in the lead arm folding after contact.

3. ProSENDR PlaneMate $119.99: Fix the Trail-Arm Side

When to use this: You failed Tests 1 and 2 together. Your trail elbow flies, your body stalls, and your lead arm folds to catch up.

Formerly the Tour Striker PlaneMate 2.0, now sold under the ProSENDR name. A belt around your waist connects via resistance band to a clamp on the club shaft. Swing on plane and the band stays taut. Swing over the top and the band goes slack or yanks awkwardly, which you feel instantly. When your trail elbow stays connected and your body keeps rotating, your lead arm has no reason to fold. Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose have used versions of this tool, and it has sold more than 30,000 units. I wrote a full review of the ProSENDR rebrand if you want the deeper dive.

What does not work. At $120 to $150 it is the priciest tool on this list, and Reddit users report tennis elbow from overdoing the resistance-band protocol. It fixes the trail-arm and path side of the fault, but if your problem is purely a lead-arm fold after impact, it is indirect.

Buy this if you come over the top and stall through impact. Skip it if your trail arm is already well-behaved and this is a lead-arm-only problem.

4. SuperStroke Alignment Sticks $15-$20: Diagnose and Verify

When to use this: After you have bought one of the fixes above, to prove the fix is working.

Two fiberglass rods you lay on the ground. Put one down your target line and use the second to check that your path is traveling through impact instead of across it. The chicken wing is often a compensation for a path that is out of whack, and sticks give you the fixed reference line that lets you see whether the correction is actually taking. They are the cheapest verification tool in the game. If you want the full path-focused breakdown, my swing path training aids guide covers the whole category.

What does not work. Sticks are a visual reference, not a corrector. They tell you what is happening; they do not fix it. If you buy only sticks and nothing else, you will diagnose the fault perfectly and still have it next month.

Buy this as the $15 add-on to whatever else you pick. Skip it only if you already own a set.

What I Would Actually Buy

If you failed Test 1, buy the Smart Ball for $39. It fixes the disconnection that causes eight out of ten chicken wings.

If you failed Test 3, buy the Impact Bag for $25. It trains the straight-arm, forward-shaft-lean position that kills the scoop.

If you failed both, buy both. The Smart Ball plus the Impact Bag runs you about $64, which is less than half the price of a single lesson, and it fixes the fault at both ends. Add the PlaneMate only if your trail arm is the thing flying out of position.

The industry wants you to believe the chicken wing needs a swing overhaul and a $600 driver. It needs a $39 ball and a $25 bag. I spent six months fighting my elbow in a mirror and fixed it in three weeks with the Smart Ball. Do not be me.

Where to Buy

• Tour Striker Smart Ball $39 at Amazon
• Impact Bag by Dr. Gary Wiren $25 at Amazon
• ProSENDR PlaneMate $119.99 at Amazon
• SuperStroke Alignment Sticks $15-$20 at Amazon

Prices verified September 2026. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.