The towel under arms drill is one of the oldest, simplest, and most effective drills for golfers who lose contact in the downswing — that thin, weak, slicing miss that comes when the arms run away from the chest. In this guide you will learn what the drill teaches, who it is and is not for, three setups for different fault patterns, how to integrate it into a range session, and how it pairs with mainstream swing drills like the L-to-L drill and the impact bag drill.
What the Towel Under Arms Drill Teaches
The drill is built around a single piece of feedback: a small towel held lightly between the upper arms and the chest. If the arms stay connected to the rotation of the torso, the towel stays put. If the trail arm flies away in the takeaway, or the lead arm separates from the chest at the top, or the arms run ahead of the body through impact, the towel drops. The drill makes a fault that is normally invisible into something the golfer can feel and see on every rep.
The Concept of Connection
Modern instruction calls this idea connection — the synchronisation of the arms and torso so the bigger muscles of the core control the smaller muscles of the hands and arms. Connection is what produces compression, a square club face at impact, and the consistent low-point control that good ball-strikers seem to have on every swing. Disconnection is one of the most common diagnoses tour-level coaches make on amateurs, even those with decent grip, stance, and posture.
Why a Towel Is the Ideal Tool
A folded hand towel, a head cover, or even a foam alignment stick can be used. The reason a towel is so well-suited to the job is that it provides immediate, binary feedback. There is no ambiguity in the cue: the towel is either still pressed against your sides, or it has fallen on the ground. That clarity is what makes the drill stick. There is no need for a launch monitor or a swing coach to tell you whether you did it correctly — you can hear and feel the answer on every swing.
Faults the Drill Fixes
The towel drill is a connection drill, so it directly attacks any fault that comes from the arms separating from the body. That is a surprisingly broad list.
Over-The-Top Move
Coming over the top — the most common cause of a slice — is fundamentally a connection problem. The trail elbow flies away from the rib cage at the top of the backswing, which forces the arms to throw the club outward in the downswing. With a towel pinned under the trail arm, that flying-elbow position becomes physically impossible, and the swing has to find a more inside path.
Thin and Fat Strikes
Low-point inconsistency — the alternation between fat and thin shots that frustrates so many mid-handicappers — is often a connection problem in disguise. If the arms outrun the body coming into impact, the swing arc moves forward of where it should and the club bottoms out behind the ball. If the body outruns the arms, the opposite happens. Holding the towel forces the two systems to move together, which steadies the low point.
Chicken Wing Through Impact
The classic chicken-wing release — lead elbow bending and flying out past impact — is a separation fault. The towel under the lead arm makes it almost impossible to chicken-wing without dropping the cloth, which builds an extended, connected follow-through.
Loss of Width in the Backswing
Some golfers collapse the trail arm too early in the takeaway, narrowing the swing arc and robbing themselves of speed. A towel under both arms encourages the chest to turn the arms back as a unit, preserving width and creating a more powerful position at the top.
Three Setups for Different Faults
The drill is most often taught as a single setup, but there are three useful variations. Match the variation to the fault you actually have.
Setup 1 — Both Arms (Default)
Fold a hand towel into a long, narrow strip. Place one end under each upper arm so the towel spans across the front of your chest. Take your normal address position and make slow, three-quarter swings, focusing on keeping the towel in place from takeaway to finish. This is the right starting point for any golfer who is not sure which connection fault they have, and for anyone whose ball striking is generally inconsistent.
Setup 2 — Trail Arm Only
For slicers and over-the-top players, tuck the towel only under the trail arm (right arm for right-handed golfers). This isolates the flying-trail-elbow fault and gives the kinaesthetic feel of the trail elbow staying in front of the rib cage all the way to the top. Stop the swing at the top and check: if the towel has dropped, the elbow has flown.
Setup 3 — Lead Arm Only
For golfers who chicken-wing through impact or finish in a short, broken follow-through, place the towel only under the lead arm. The cue is to keep the lead arm extended and connected through the strike. This setup feels strange at first — most amateurs are used to their lead arm separating shortly after impact — but the resulting feeling is the long, full release that good ball-strikers describe.
How to Run the Drill on the Range
The drill is small and portable, so it works well as part of a normal practice session. A simple range protocol is below.
Start with five rehearsal swings without a ball, focusing only on keeping the towel in place. Then hit ten balls with a short iron (pitching wedge or 9-iron) using three-quarter swings. Keep the towel tucked the entire time. If it falls, stop and reset. The goal is not to hit big shots, it is to groove the synchronisation. Step away, remove the towel, and hit five normal-tempo balls without it, trying to keep the same feeling. Then return to the towel for ten more reps, this time with a mid-iron and a fuller swing.
A useful test is to alternate towel and no-towel swings every five balls. If your strike quality is noticeably better with the towel in place, your fault is a connection fault and the drill is the right one for you. If your strike is identical with and without the towel, your problem is somewhere else — likely in the kinematic sequence or grip and posture.
Tempo, Length, and Speed
One mistake that ruins the drill is trying to hit full-speed driver shots with the towel in place. At full speed the body will always win the race against a soft towel, and the towel will drop even on technically correct swings. The drill is designed to be done at no more than 80 percent effort with short and mid-irons. The connection feel built at slower speed transfers to faster swings naturally, the same way that slow takeaway work transfers to a full-speed swing.
Backswing Length
Begin with half-swings, then progress to three-quarter swings. Full swings are unnecessary and tend to encourage the very over-rotation the drill is supposed to fix. A nine-to-three drill is an ideal companion: in fact, the towel under arms drill stacks very well with the swing plane work covered in our broader plane drill guide.
Frequency
Build the drill into the warm-up phase of every range session for four to six weeks. Connection is a feel that is learned through repetition rather than understood through theory. Doing the drill three times a week for a month produces results that no amount of one-off effort can match.
Who Should Not Use the Drill
The towel drill is widely applicable, but it is not the right starting point for every fault. If your problem is primarily a grip or set-up issue, you need to address that before connection. Trying to fix a chronic strong grip with the towel drill will just bake the strong grip deeper into a more connected swing. Likewise, if your fault is in the lower body — for example, a reverse pivot — the towel drill will not address it. The arms cannot organise the swing properly if the legs and pelvis are working against them.
Golfers with very upright, tall postures may also find the drill awkward because there is less surface area for the towel to grip against the chest. For those players, a slightly thicker towel or a small head cover works better than a folded hand towel.
Combining the Towel Drill With Other Drills
The towel drill is a foundation drill, and it pairs well with several mainstream drills to build a full practice routine. Three useful pairings are worth highlighting.
Towel Drill + L-to-L Drill
Run the towel drill for the first half of your session to groove connection, then switch to the L-to-L drill to refine tempo and path. The two drills attack different layers of the same problem: the towel manages the relationship between arms and torso, while the L-to-L manages the relationship between hands and shaft.
Towel Drill + Impact Bag Drill
A particularly useful combination is to do five rehearsal swings into an impact bag with the towel still tucked under your arms. The impact bag teaches you what a compressed strike feels like at the bottom of the arc, while the towel keeps the arms and chest from separating to deliver that compression. The two work in concert: connection produces compression.
Towel Drill + Mirror Work
Stand in front of a full-length mirror at home and rehearse the drill in slow motion, focusing on the position of the trail elbow at the top of the backswing and the lead arm through the release. Mirror work is unglamorous, but it is the cheapest and most effective way to make sure the feel you have in the drill matches the actual position your body is in.
Key Takeaways
The towel under arms drill is a connection drill that fixes a wide range of faults by tying the arms to the rotation of the torso. Use both arms for general inconsistency, the trail arm only for slicing and over-the-top moves, and the lead arm only for chicken wings and weak releases. Keep the speed at 80 percent or less, the swing length at three-quarters, and build it into the warm-up of every range session for four to six weeks. Pair it with the L-to-L and impact bag drills for a complete short-game and ball-striking practice block, and use a mirror to verify that the feel you have matches the position you are actually in.
