The Loop

How one of Padraig Harrington's crazy training aids actually kind of helped him

At the 2013 PGA Show, I walked past a tent full of people trying to swing in what looked like a straight jacket and found myself intrigued. I was quickly introduced to a guy -- the inventor -- Raymond Rapcavage, who described how he came up with the idea.

"I was so angry...I put my arms in my sweater and ripped one of the sleeves off," Rapcavage said. "I jammed both by arms in one of the sleeves and almost immediately I started thinking: 'hey, this actually feels kind of good.'"

The product that came out of that semi-destructive process is called the Golf Swing Shirt, which is essentially just a spandex golf shirt with one sleeve. Rapcavage managed to get it into the hands of a few different tour pros, and one of them -- Padraig Harrington -- liked it so much that he agreed to become the face of the product.

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"I changed my shoulder turn. I used to try and clear my shoulders under my chin," Harrington said in 2011. "I'm trying to swing my shoulder into my chin now so I'm trying to tuck my chin in more at the top of my backswing."

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