Takeaway Drills?

I took a lesson today and the instructor showed me how I was taking the club back way too inside. He grabbed some contraption called the "path pro", which is basically a foam stick which he puts behind you and if you take the club back properly, you won't hit it. This was very helpful, but is there anything I can do to achieve the same results without this device?

We also did a drill where you put a 2nd ball about inches behind the target ball and you try and knock the ball away with your takeawy. This was also helpful and I can do that one at the range.

I have been hitting fat and thin shots and the instructed said the main culprit was the poor position of my right elbow at the top of the swing, which was caused by my bad/too inside takeaway. He also said I wasn't rotating thru impact with my hips enough and we did a drill where I keep my feet together, take the club halfway back and drive thru impact using the hips, not the hands. This was also very effective.

can anyone help?

Try the "early backward wrist break" Jack, it has helped me immensely as I used to take the club way too far to the inside. First, hold your right hand in front of you, fingers together and extended, thumb up and the palm squarely facing the left. From that position bend the hand to the right, trying to make the fingers come back toward the outside of the wrist. You can't get them anywhere near the wrist, of course, but a person with supple wrists can bend the hand back until hand and wrist form a right angle. This motion of the hand, straight back, is the backward wrist break. The way the right hand should move from the wrist in the early backward break-straight back toward the outside of the forearm, with no turning or rolling. The conventional wrist break is quite different. Hold your hand again as you held it before. Now, instead of bending it backward, bend it up, so that the thumb comes toward you. That is the orthodox, accepted wrist break. Forget it. You will no longer need it. To make the backward wrist break we merely push the heel of the right hand down against the big knuckle of the left thumb. This is a downward pressure of the heel on the thumb. When it is done, without moving the hands otherwise, the right hand breaks backward at the wrist and the left hand breaks forward or inward, the back of the left hand going under and facing, in a general way, toward the ground. How the backward break is made, with the heel of the right hand pressing down on the knuckle of the left thumb. The back of the left hand begins to turn down and under. How not to make the break. Wrists and hands have rolled, the back of the left hand has turned upward. The right hand is rolling too, instead of bending straight back. At this point the club will have come back only slightly inside the projected line of flight but the club face will not have opened. The face will be at about a 45-degree angle with the ground and, as you stand there, you will not be able to see any of it. We have not put this into the actual swing yet, remember. We are still working on the biomechanics of the wrist break. At this fundamental stage in your backswing you may refuse to believe that you can hit the ball with such a break. So make this test.... "Go To The Practice Tee, Or To A Range Or An Indoor Net. Address The Ball. Make The Backward Break And Do Nothing Else!” Don't shift your weight, move your hips, or turn your shoulders. Just make the backward break. Hold it a couple of seconds. Now simply turn your shoulders, letting the shoulders swing your arms and the club up to the top, and then go right on through with the swing and hit the ball. You’ll be amazed at what happens after you try this a few times. You will find, if you keep the wrist position, you not only hit the ball, but that you hit it solidly, hit it straight, and hit it a surprisingly long distance. You will also discover the more you permit the turning shoulders to swing the club up, the better you will hit the ball and the farther you will hit it. Make no effort to swing the arms, just let the shoulders move them and the club. The more the arms are swung independently of the shoulders, the less likely you are to reach a good position at the top. So picture the shoulders as the motivating force, the "motor." Here is what you should see when you make the backward break perfectly - only one knuckle of the left hand but two knuckles of the right. The closer you bring this motivating force to the axis of the swing (the spinal column) the better the swing will be. Give it a chance...I believe this is the holy grail in learning the golf swing!

Please review in its entirety, this excellent take away video.

Here's another video where Sean talks about eventually allowing momentum to carry the club up to the top, and not your muscles.

Shawn Humphries has a book out on the L position you want to reach at 3o'clock in the back swing which gets the club set on line toe up. Basically, the back swing is an early wrist set, (right wrist bends backward, as stated above) with the hands and then just turn the shoulders back. Pure Hogan, hands, arms shoulders, then hips. The sequence is critical. If the shoulders turn too soon in the back swing, a one piece takeaway, overcooked, the shoulders turn too early and the club is in a laid off position at 3 o'clock and then the arms raise the club to a too steep, over swing position with a loss of the coil. The last movement in the back swing must be the shoulder turn preceded by an early wrist brake./ This preserves the coil so that the downswing move is automatic. Just take bend the right wrist backwards, and then turn the shoulders/chest backwards. Do not let the arms swing independently of the shoulder turn. You don't need a drill. Its easy, set the club on line toe up with the right wrist brake and then turn the shoulders, turn the shoulders, turn the shoulders. Forgive me if I harp, but this is so easy and no seems to be able to teach it, from all the arm raising I see with no shoulder turn. The correct position at the top of the swing has the left wrist flat and the right hand under the club, the tray position Leadbettor talks about. Bending the right wrist early in the back swing gets the right arm folding early in the backswing so it ends up under the club at the top. This is the stuff you can practice at home in front of a mirror, everyday.

IMO this is the simplest, most repeatable way to get the club to the correct position at the top because you can set the club/arm orientation early, where you can see it, instead of at the the top, where you can't see it. It should be taught as the gold standard. There is no reason to lengthen the backswing - keep the right arm and elbow connected to the body in the backswing. Extension (swing radius) is created by the left arm, not the right. Extending the right arm in the backswing can lead to inconsistency is getting the club to the correct position at the top.

Oddly enough, the image of hogan's "proper waggle" in 5 Lessons, is exactly the same as the early backward wrist break. It promotes a flat left wrist and a square path through impact (instead of the open - square - closed of the classic release). Further, there is a picture in another book about the making of 5 lessons, where Hogan is demonstrating his proper follow-through. He hated the idea of rolling the arms over, and instead shows the same position that, surprise surprise, Tiger Woods is using today (the bowed under, wrist facing the target release). Byron nelson also used this wrist hinge, and was known as one of the greatest iron players ever. This hinging is also featured in the little known book "Square to Square". Short book, but it describes the modern swing in a no manipulation method designed for consistency. Very interesting.

I'm going to work on this at the range tomorrow. I was taught the classic "open on the way back, close on the way through" method, and quite frankly, for anything but short irons...

...it sucks.

This comes from Dave Powell and I always found it useful.