takeaway drills | Golf Monthly

A thing consider is, in a golf swing the arms need to have connection with the body turn both back & through.

Check you have a good neutral grip, so handle in fingers not in palms, the "V''s between right & left hand, thumbs & forefingers, both point to middle right shoulder.
If the grip isn't good, say the right hand a ways too far under the handle it's easy to use the hands from the get go & roll them over so the swing plane is straight away going behind the legs some & is a good ways too flat.

Ideally the shoulders & arms move the 'arm triangle' away with no hand/wrist movement from the get go, the 'set & hinge" doesn't start to happen until the triangle has moved so the hands are opposite the right thigh.

There's a position called 1st parallel, when the shaft of the club gets to the position (hands around hip height) the shaft is both parallel to your ball/target line, parallel to the ground & also parallel to your toe line. (if you roll away the shaft to this point the shaft will then point a good ways inside behind your legs the butt end of the handle will also point out over & across the ball/target line.) Shaft should be parallel (as explained below) the butt end pointing parallel left towards target.

Good drill to this first parallel position (you're not hitting balls, just moving the club away to get to this shaft parallel to position)

So put a ball down so you can get address right, then directly behind the ball put an alignment stick down (or other club) that's pointing directly down the target line, put your club face square to target line take parallel left square address position, note where your right little toe is, then place another alignment rod (other club) starting opposite where the little toe is & completely parallel to the rod (club) you placed behind the ball.

Drill; So you get the feeling, is while keeping your legs/hips solid, move the club away with arms/shoulder/chest as one movement, keeping the slightly angled left wrist you had at address, so very quiet hands/wrists they don't roll or set from the get go of movement, keep the same hand angle relationship to the shaft.
So you just turn & move the 'triangle' until the hands are around hip height, the shaft then should be parallel to both the rods (club shafts) you put on the ground and pretty parallel to the ground also. If they are not start again. just make a smooth controlled move away, until you can repeatedly hit this position.

From here in a full golf swing motion all that then happens is that the left thumb 'sets upwards' to point at the sky as the right arm folds, right elbow pointing to the ground as the body/shoulders turn until the body & shoulders cannot turn anymore, Wherever that point is, it all stops, thats the top of the back swing, there's no independent lifting motion away with the arms to get the club further back.

Here's a vid I've put up a few times lately (with good reason it's sound advice), this drill would also be a good thing to do.

Place the club on the ground in exactly the same place & note where the handle he's swinging gets to in relation to the handle on the ground. Note the shaft is parallel too (as spoken about above)
This vid also a good guide to what the top of the swing looks like in relation to how the spine angle tilts away from target at top, also it shows how the handle coming back through to impact is in a different relationship to the one on the ground than it was going back in the takeaway. (This handle position working back to target is how you 'keep' lag so speed & power in the downswing)

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