Outside takeaway

[bunkerputt]

I was filming myself today and notice that when I take the club back, it's extremely to the outside. It requires that when I get to the top, I have to do a big drop to get it back on plane. Since I don't time the drop correctly all the time, I hit some pretty inconsistent shots. What's weirder is that I used to take it too far to the inside and attempted to correct this some time back. Apparently I overcorrected. I also do a little practice takeaway ala Anthony Kim before I swing. That looked great on camera. It's just when I hit the ball that I do the weird outside thing. But they both feel the same to me for some reason. Any drills to get the club going back on the right plane?

[Joejoe26]

I was filming myself today and notice that when I take the club back, it's extremely to the outside. It requires that when I get to the top, I have to do a big drop to get it back on plane. Since I don't time the drop correctly all the time, I hit some pretty inconsistent shots. What's weirder is that I used to take it too far to the inside and attempted to correct this some time back. Apparently I overcorrected. I also do a little practice takeaway ala Anthony Kim before I swing. That looked great on camera. It's just when I hit the ball that I do the weird outside thing. But they both feel the same to me for some reason. Any drills to get the club going back on the right plane?

I used to take the club too far inside too. I had to take it outside in order to get back on plane. Have you seen yourself on camera recently? The reason why I ask is that even though it feels that you are taking it too far outside, it might be right on plane. Every time I view my backswing on camera, I'm still taking the club a little inside even though I thought i was outside the plane. Also, it is better to be outside then on the inside, however, if you are way too far outside then you have a problem. I have my own little weird drills that I do to make sure that i'm on plane and even then it's not always 100% proof. I think the best way is to videotape yourself or if you have a place that can slow your swing down and just make sure you are on plane. I'll do this probably once or twice a week.

[Zeph]

Sounds simple, but I just focus on keeping the club on the same path all the way up. I imagine a slot or a track which the club is traveling on/through. The angle stays the same all the way up to the top of the backswing.

[PingGKEN]

I agree with Joejoe. Get your swing on video. I am notorious for having a swing that is well under plane. I took a lesson and our main focus was to start on plane and stay there the entire back swing. When we finally got it on plane, it felt to me as though I was pushing the club away from me on an extreme outside path. Turns out I was spot on!

[bunkerputt]

I agree with Joejoe. Get your swing on video. I am notorious for having a swing that is well under plane. I took a lesson and our main focus was to start on plane and stay there the entire back swing. When we finally got it on plane, it felt to me as though I was pushing the club away from me on an extreme outside path. Turns out I was spot on!

Umm... Not sure how it was missed, but the original post started with "I was filming myself today..", as in using video. What I noticed on the video was that my practice takeaway was on plane, but when I take it back when I am actually hitting a ball, my hands move to the outside, away from my body. If I leave them on the outside, I'll hit a shank. If I try to correct by pulling my hands into my body on the way down, I'll sometimes hit one off the toe. Maybe I'm not describing the problem correctly. Imagine you have a headcover under your left arm inside your armpit. On the takeaway, the headcover will fall to the ground.

As in your case, when I originally made the correction a few months ago, it felt extremely outside, but it was spot on. Now it's gotten too far to the outside and I have to swing in a way that feels extremely inside to be spot on. I imagine I'll correct it and find that it's too far to the inside in a few months. My main question is, what kind of drills can one do to preserve the proper takeaway? That is, I don't want to drill a "feeling" of an inside takeaway just to compensate and get it on plane, until it actually becomes inside a few months down the road. I'd rather drill a feeling of an on-plane takeaway so that no overcorrection is needed later on.