Taking the club too inside on the takeaway

[Leftygolfer]

My big swing flaw is in my take away I pull the club to the inside or the club gets behind me. This causes me come over the top. I miss hit alot of shots on the toe and hit big pull/hooks to the right. The only way I know how to help this or practice a better take away is hitting small shots and really feeling the club head outside the hands on the take away.

Any suggestions on how to cure this problem? Drills?

[umpiremark]

Here is something I read somewhere, that helped me with both the inside backswing and the over the top move. I hope it helps you:

At the range, tee your ball (driver, obviously) like normal. Place a foot directly behind the tee/ball and down the intended swing path. Place one tee behind your heel, in-line with the swing-line and one tee off your ankle inside that first tee (closer to your set-up, feet). Take the club back over the heel tee and swing 7'oclock to 1'oclock over the ankle tee.

Also, do the entire drill at 75-80% until you feel you can consistently swing over the first tee and inside the second tee. It helped me; I hope it can help you.

[Leftygolfer]

thanks, I will try that.

[billm408]

Here's another-

From your normal set-up, place a ball off your right foot in line with the original ball. Now sweep the second ball away on your take-away. You'll miss it completely if you're too far inside.

Edit: You're lefty... switch that!

[Leftygolfer]

another great tip. Thanks alot. This is the plague of my golf game. If I don't do this, I can be a good solid 8 handicap, if I do, I am closer to a 15.

[Eeryck]

To fix my outside / over the top swing what my pro did was have me focus quite a bit on the 9 o'clock position. The keys were to have hands in the center of the chest (when viewed from down the line), full wrist cock, club on plane.

The next move was to rotate the club slightly flat and make the swing, this exageration gave a good feeling of coming at the ball from the inside.

Furthermore, if you place a smash bag, or a folded up towel about 1/4 to 1/2 inch on the outside of your swing plane and avoid hitting it, it is a good check to see if you are getting the desired results. Make sure when placing the towel or smash bag down that when you swing through the ball the club can release slightly outside the swing path without hitting your obstruction.

FWIW,
-E

[iacas]

My teacher told me that the clubhead gets inside when the hands go too far to the outside. His fix for letting the clubhead get behind you is to force your hands more to the inside on the takeaway, which - he says - will leave the clubhead outside more.

It doesn't quite work that way for me - my body tends to take the clubhead where my hands go - but I understand what he's thinking and I'm sure it works for some other people.

[dagoos]

hi lefty to avoid the inside thing ,,,,think of two positions the end of the take away and the delivery which are the 9 oclock position in the backswing and the 9 oclock positionin the downswing, I replace the 9 Oclock with the "right pocket" position ,,,,seems easier . At these two positions the clubshaft must horiznatal to the ground and most important parrellel to the target line . perhaps not so much in the backswing but a MUST in the downswing EG Jim Furic . if you get to this positon in the domwswing you cant come ott. from this position just swing through to the finish ,,,,finish on your right toe ,,,not the ball on your rigth foot . If you fininsh on the ball on your right foot you are hangin back . let me know how it works dagoos

[microcrayfish]

I had the same problem and my teacher had me stop my backswing when my hands got to hip height and make sure that the club was parallel to my body line and not coming inside it. From there he had me complete the swing to get the feeling of taking the club back on the right plane. You can start the swing from the hip position to begin with and then progress to starting behind the ball and pausing and then finally to making a full swing with no pause. Hope that helps, it worked for me.

[Leftygolfer]

Question. When the club is parallel to the ground, should the butt be pointing to target? I thought this was inside and where I am and getting stuck. My belief is/was that it should be pointing to right of target and at the top of the swing it should be parallel to the target line. If it is pointing at the target when it is parallel that the only place for it to go is inside, stuck, over the top, off the toe and pulled/hooked.

[blackxpress]

Here's a drill my teacher gave me. I also read the same thing in Golf Digest once upon a time. Set up a stand bag beside your right hip (RH golfer) and practice taking the club back without hitting the bag. Then move to the other side so that the stand bag is on your left (RH golfer) and practice hitting balls without hitting the bag. The first time I tried it I hit the bag so hard I nearly broke my club.

[lataliano]

I struggled with the same thing for a while. I found an excellent cure to think of a figure of 8 during the swing. That is, start the backswing feeling as though you're moving away from your body (you're actually not but it does feel like that). Then at the top of the swing (try 3/4 swing to start with) feel like you're then coming inside and hitting the ball away from the straight line (which you are actually doing). It's also really important to stay connected during the whole swing, left arm close to body, right elbow fairly tight to right side. This swing change fixed many issues I had: it forced good extension and weight shift, kept my posture/spine angle correct and enable me to drop into the slot and create lag, which equals consistent and longer shots. Handicap is dropping very quickly as a result. Now I need to go research putting and chipping somewhere on this site and I might make a halfway decent golfer!!!!!

[saevel25]

Quote:

My teacher told me that the clubhead gets inside when the hands go too far to the outside. His fix for letting the clubhead get behind you is to force your hands more to the inside on the takeaway, which - he says - will leave the clubhead outside more.

It doesn't quite work that way for me - my body tends to take the clubhead where my hands go - but I understand what he's thinking and I'm sure it works for some other people.

I get the logic there, i am the same as you, i can get depth wtih the hands, but the club head loves to get behind them. I would love to get the clubhead at the hands, instead of infront of them.

I believe the whole issue is that hinge, if you hinge right you don't throw the club inside. I try to feel that my left hand doesn't turn over, and that to hinge i push the butt end of the club away from my body. This gets my left hand to hinge on the right plane.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by saevel25

I believe the whole issue is that hinge, if you hinge right you don't throw the club inside. I try to feel that my left hand doesn't turn over, and that to hinge i push the butt end of the club away from my body. This gets my left hand to hinge on the right plane.

Hinging can help, but rolling #3 (power accumulator #3) doesn't help either. Lots of people could do with a feeling of counter-rotation or the right hand staying "on top" more. And earlier cocking of the left wrist, too.

[dean007]

So would a Ricky Fowler type backswing be a good thought?

[saevel25]

Ricky does alot right, his hands get extremely deep, but his clubhead is infront of his body. If you got to golf digest and check out his swing, they show the swing 180 degrees from down the line view, so the ball would be comming at the camera. If you check out the image were his hands are waist high, his clubhead is position between him and ball, while his hands are at his hips. Then he hinges up nice. Solid swing, he just drops the club a ton in the backswing, were his clubshaft is inline with his right forearm going into impact. Bottom level of the slot.