The whole "don't take the club inside" thing confuses me.

[$2 Nassau]

I guess I just have very little understanding of the golf swing. And I'm about to stop trying to understand it because it's driving me nuts. LOL Because, I don't get it, what do you mean you're not supposed to take the club back to the inside? I mean, I know you're not supposed to wrap the thing around your waist when you swing back, but all of us can't be Jim Furyk.

Let's assume you are hitting a driver, where should the club be after the first 18 inches of the takeaway? Should it be directly behind the ball with the club face still square to the target line, or starting to track inside?

What's confusing is when I see a swing like Anthony Kim's - sure looks like he takes the club back to the inside to me, but then again that could be where my misunderstanding of the golf swing comes into play.

[Bauer]

This confuses the hell out of me as well. I feel like all I've been hearing is the opposite... "you MUST take the club back more inside than outside". Hopefully this gets cleared up rather quickly.

[MackJL06]

well it depends on what kind of shot you want to hit. anythony kim definatly does take the club WAY inside on his drives because he likes to hit a draw. on PLAYING LESSONS FROM THE PROS with a.Kim he showed how all he does on his driver takeaway is put his left elbow in a certain position and doesnt think about anything else. he proceeds to swing away from his body and flipping the wrists which causes the draw. when taking my 1 and only golf lesson...the pro put a clubhead cover along the right edge of the ball about a foot behind it and a clubhead cover to the left of the ball about 4inches. (this view would be from behind the ball). this meant i had to pull my club on an inside swing path and push OUTWARDS while hitting the ball. this swing path plus the flipping of wrists through the ball plays a nice draw. a nice way to think about a backswing is to swing underneath your right shoulder. when you are setup over the ball...imagine a big line along your shoulders....swing underneath that line...not sure if any of that made sense. i have a video from my pro analyzing my swing that i can post if this didnt help you at all.


DONT GIVE UP!

[$2 Nassau]

This confuses the hell out of me as well. I feel like all I've been hearing is the opposite... "you MUST take the club back more inside than outside". Hopefully this gets cleared up rather quickly.

LOL

I always hear the opposite of that. Less inside more straight back! That just leads me to come down really steep and either hook or push/slice the ball. I think I'm going back to what I used to do with the driver, just concentrate on making a full shoulder turn, staying behind the ball and not care about much else. That's when I used to hit draws. Now I hit everything but the fairway.

[$2 Nassau]

well it depends on what kind of shot you want to hit. anythony kim definatly does take the club WAY inside on his drives because he likes to hit a draw. on PLAYING LESSONS FROM THE PROS with a.Kim he showed how all he does on his driver takeaway is put his left elbow in a certain position and doesnt think about anything else. he proceeds to swing away from his body and flipping the wrists which causes the draw. when taking my 1 and only golf lesson...

Okay, this I understand because that's what I used to. Basically track the club slightly inside on the takeaway(I did this by just making a full shoulder turn back and keeping the arms fairly passive) and then I looked to follow that same path into impact.

But when I make the effort to go more straight back, then I guess you need to let the club kind of "drop" into the slot to start the downswing. Just can't do that for some reason.

[MackJL06]

what i try to think of on my backswing is those headcovers...making me swing inside. then on the followthrough of the ball imagine hitting about 7oclock on the ball...12oclock would face fairway...3 being opposite side of ball im standing on

[Joejoe26]

Hey Nassau, when they say "bringing the club inside", they are referring to the player's swing plane. Every player has their own swing plane. This is where technology comes into play. If you were to record your swing on video, they have software that can allow you to analyze your swing. So if you were to view your swing from the target line view, you could draw a line from the hozzle of the clubhead, following the shaft line and through your body. That would be your swing plane. So during your backswing, your clubhead should be following on this path. It's sort of hard to explain without drawing pictures. I'm new to this forum, but I think they analyze swings on here. You could also youtube videos that show instructors drawing swing plane lines on students or pro players.

As you naturally start taking your backswing, the clubhead should start to open up (clubhead toe up when shaft is parallel to the ground).

[DavidFehertysBike]

What taking the club too much inside means is dragging the club to the inside with your hands on the takeaway. On the takeway, you should be extending the clubhead strait back through the target line and away from the ball. Not inside or out. Your shoulder turn is what brings the club inside and behind you at the top of the backswing, not your hands or arms.

I used to make the same mistake and had the same confusion. Now i just extend strait back into the "toe up" position, and turn my shoulders away from the target to get the club to the inside. Then i can then come back out on the way down.

[Leftygolfer]

This is my fault. I can tell you why it is bad. When it gets to the top you can not start the down swing without a slight outward move away from the body (AKA over the top). This causes pulls, pull hooks, weak iron shots, contact off the toe, and bad golf. You are better off looping the other way if you are going to loop. It is a killer for power and should be avoided and if that means looping the other way, that is fine.

Hope this helps.

[enarhi]

Generally speaking, the advice from a teaching pro of "take the club inside" and "don't take the club inside" are both actually referring to the same ideal of a proper swing plane. The only difference is that for a golfer who takes the club outside (commonly leading to a slice), the sensation of bringing the club inside leads to a proper plane, while for a person bringing the club extremely inside with limited arm extension (commonly leading to a sharp hook or block), the sensation of keeping the club straight back leads to a similar proper plane. I'd suggest you record video of your swing from behind the target line and look at what plane your takeaway is on. This will show you whether you really need to "take it inside" more or less.

[Zeph]

I try to visualize that I'm taking the club back on the plane of the club at address, when going past parallell I'd like it to be on plane or slightly off outside, not inside. Coming back down I want to be on plane or slightly inside it.

[grantc79]

I try to trace a straight line back with the club for the first 2 feet or so and then I just fold my right arm up.

A good way to get this feeling is to imagine you are a baseball pitcher (go watch a video of a pitcher if you need to) and watch how their arm is tucked at the top, then unfolds on the way down, then slides across their body in the follow through.

I pull the club away with my right arm (which keeps tension on the left arm and keeps it straight). I basically make the pitchers move in reverse.


What you don't want is to be too far inside going because that will lead to pull hooks or a high blocked push to the right.


The BIG PICTURE is you have to be at a certain spot when you make contact with the ball. Everyone likes to say that what you do going back doesn't matter but if you are too far off line you will have to compensate in your transition and downswing.

This will lead to wayward shots and a loss in club head speed.

[PingGKEN]

Had my first lesson with a pro who is heavy on video review. I am severely under plane on my backswing. We are working on hinging my wrists MUCH earlier in my swing. This feels so wrong to me, but hey, I guess that a good thing! It almost feels like I am picking the club straight up in the air right from the get-go. Also, it really stretches out my left shoulder. (Righty)

[cirem22]

don't take it too far inside trust me. I started with a slice problem, I figured out I was taking the club outside on my backswing. The past month or so I have been taking the club straight back, it helped my swing in a big way. Last night at the range I was Hooking the ball like never before. I asked my slelf "wtf, from slice problems to a nasty nasty hook?" turned out I was exagerating the back swing and ended up pulling it too far inside, that was causing the nasty hook. The too far inside hook was much worse then that outside slice I used to have. Straight back is the best path I have found.

[Joejoe26]

Hey PingGKEN, I felt the same way when I was told to take it back further out rather than in. I saw it on the video that I was coming way too much inside which caused a lot of problems. I remember that it felt REALLY weird trying to bring it back on plane. I had to exaggerate the feeling and when I videotaped it, the exaggeration actually put me just right on plane. Keep working with it because swinging on plane opened a lot of doors for me. I probably instantly shot 2-4 strokes better after swinging on plane. Plus, it gave me the confidence that I was actually doing something correct.

[Diddy]

don't take it too far inside trust me. I started with a slice problem, I figured out I was taking the club outside on my backswing. The past month or so I have been taking the club straight back, it helped my swing in a big way. Last night at the range I was Hooking the ball like never before. I asked my slelf "wtf, from slice problems to a nasty nasty hook?" turned out I was exagerating the back swing and ended up pulling it too far inside, that was causing the nasty hook. The too far inside hook was much worse then that outside slice I used to have. Straight back is the best path I have found.

As Harvey Penick would say: "If you have a headache, just take a couple of aspirin. Don't take the whole bottle."

[RC]

The whole key to the inside discussion is the relationship of the hands and the axis of a line through both shoulder joints to the club. If you are standing with a wall in front of you (a wall with its flat side toward the target line but room for your club head and ball) there should really be no part of the swing that would hit that wall. You come inside it on the take away and on the through swing and finish.

At address, an extension of the line of your arms and hands would be steeper than the plane of the club shaft. As the club goes back, the hands come inside as the shoulders rotate and the club generally stays in the same relative position (above the hands) as it starts moving upward. So the club does not get inside before the hands during the initial takeaway.

People who come too far inside can easily determine if they do... as the club goes back, stop when the club shaft first reaches exactly level with the ground and look where the shaft is pointing. Ideally, it should be parallel to the target line (it will look slightly left because of parallax) but it should never point to the right of the target line for normal shots. I like to think the club always stays above the plane of the hands on its way to the top, but as long as the hands come inside more than the club during the first part of the swing you should be OK. At the level position (sometimes called 3:00 O'clock from the golfer's perspective) the toe of the club should be either straight up or on the spine angle or somewhere in between, but never face down, or rolled wide open partially facing skyward. A lot of long hitting power swingers are on the spine angle here, but straight up is the general recommendation. I like to be on the spine angle personally, but I tend to take it back lower and a little more straight back, extending the arms for as much width as I can get. I like as much space as possible from my hands to my head, but the right arm necessarily folds down, pointing more toward the ground. You do not want an acute angle (less than 90 degrees) in your right arm at the top if you want maximum power. Admittedly, some teach softer arms (slight folding of both arms) but I like more extension and a pretty straight left arm.

The reasons for all this is to keep the club more in front of your chest. Yes, it moves a bit more to in front and above the right shoulder, but does not get behind the axis of the shoulders for most good ball strikers. Even at the top, the hands may get to above the right shoulder, but not trapped further behind you or you will have to make an over the top move or some compensating recovery. Some can get away with that and play a power fade (or suffer from a hands flipping duck hook,) but most recommend staying within the normal range of variances for the modern swing.

Hope this is interesting -- I don't claim it is gospel.

[billm408]

Maybe it will help to think of the position of the shaft & clubhead on your takeaway.
When your hands are at hip height and shaft parallel to the ground, the shaft will be pointing down your target line, the clubhead will be toe up and still in front of your upper body.

If you're taking it too far inside, the shaft will be aiming well right of target and the clubhead will behind you, moving face up.