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Inside Takeaway - 2 Key Causes

An "inside takeaway" is a common complaint of high handicap golfers. They are often told that they take it inside which causes the club to then swing over-the-top on the downswing. While these two often go together, it's not 100% causation. That said, getting your takeaway on track can help if you are way inside. An inside takeaway often comes from a flat shoulder plane or not enough arm rotation. In this video, I'll walk you through what to look for on video and how to fix it if you are struggling with your takeaway getting too far inside.

Tags: Standing Up, Drill

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This concept video is investigating two causes of the inside takeaway.

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So one of the common questions that I get from new students or new members of the site

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is relating to the takeaway that one of the looks that golfers hate the most is when

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the club gets inside here kind of in this space.

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So if I had the club on the ground and kind of a shaft line here, the classic look

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of the club coming more up the shaft line versus going inside or under that shaft line.

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I think for a lot of the swing plane arrow where the main thing that golfers were working

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on was kind of these angles that was one of the big-bed pew.

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So I'm going to talk to you about two main causes that I see of that inside.

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So takeaway, I don't think being a little inside is the worst thing for a lot of golfers.

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So be careful with it, but if it is excessive, it's way inside, then yes, it usually

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points to one of these two problems in your swing.

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So one of the problems is an arm movement and one of the problems is a body movement.

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We're going to start with the body movement because that's actually a little bit easier

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to decode.

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So the main thing that's going to bring the takeaway too far inside is a lack of side

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bend or a lack of left shoulder or lead shoulder down.

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So left shoulder in my case.

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So what I mean by that is if I'm standing up here, if I was to bend to the left as much

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or as I'm rotating, then by bending to the left, if I keep my arms out in front of the

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body, that tends to make the club come up.

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So one common issue is that a lot of golfers turn those shoulders on a really flat plane.

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So if this shoulder goes high or this shoulder stays low, you can see how that would tend

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to do two things.

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That will tend to shift my upper body off the ball and then from the down the line view,

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if you were looking at the angle of my shoulders, it would be pointing more parallel to

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the ground or almost out towards my camera as opposed to down towards the golf ball

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there.

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So if the body tends to tilt down, that first movement, that will help bring the club

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a little bit more outside.

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So that's a common one that I see for a lot of golfers who bring it inside.

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The other option is more from the arms, which is if I bring my arms across my body,

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so if my arms have very little rotation, if I bring my arms across my body, as opposed

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to when we do the backswing only type drills, we talk about letting those arms rotate

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a little bit and keeping that trail arm in front of your chest.

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Those movements while it feels like rotating the arms would bring the club way inside,

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it actually moves it more on a path kind of out that way as compared to the down the line

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camera.

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So if I do the arm rotation movement where I feel either the lead arm kind of rotating

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over, a little bit like this, only about 30 degrees or so, or if I feel the trail arm

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starting that jazzy Jeff move, where the elbow stays in front and the arm is going into

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some external rotation.

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If I do those two movements, especially if I do those two movements with a little bit

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of side bend, you can see how that almost naturally gets the club swinging on more of

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a outside take away.

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So like I said, either snatching the club inside from the arms or turning the shoulder

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plate really flat will give you more of that inside take away look.

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Now what I tend to find is the pattern is most of the time golfers will go inside take away

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and then lift up and come over the top.

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So part of the challenge is if you're going to fix that take away movement, you have to

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get used to having the arm shallow a little bit in transition as opposed to that steep movement,

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which is at the over the top movement.

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And if you're going to shallow your arms in transition then you have to get a little

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bit more comfortable with powering the down swing with body rotation as opposed to with

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arm pull.

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So if I'm working on it, I usually do the down swing drills and kind of work on getting

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the body to rotate and the arms to shallow.

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And then when you start to add a little bit better backswing it fits.

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So it actually helps you do the down swing movement to better.

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If you start with trying to do the backswing and you still want to come over the top,

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it'll actually make you come more over the top.

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You won't be able to commit to it because you will struggle with contact almost instantly

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and that's usually when you'll try it.

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Four or five swings and then bail on it and move on to something else.

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So I want you to understand the takeaway but understand how it fits into the equation.

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I recommend working a little bit on some down swing movements before you make it too

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higher priority.

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But if you are seeing a weight inside takeaway, first check the shoulder tilt and body

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position and second check the arm rotation.

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That'll help you clean up that annoying look that messes up your swing plane.

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So let's do one of the bad one where we're going to do both.

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Turn shallow and lift it up and you'll see it didn't make great contact but did kind

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of that classic pattern.

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Now we'll do one that feels a little bit more better.

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We're going to rotate those arms while getting that shoulder down and we make pretty good

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contact there.

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