Swinging the club off plane at the start leads to a number of negative side effects you’d rather not deal with. It happens when players — slicers in particular — start back by moving the club too far to the inside (above right). The more you move the club in this direction as you take it back, the greater the likelihood you’ll produce the swing condition you’re trying to avoid in the first place: a steep, over-the-top (i.e., slice) downswing.
So what’s the fix? Well, since golf often requires a modicum of counterintuitiveness, try to initiate your backswing while keeping the clubhead in front of your hands. With this “hands in/clubhead out” feel, the club will automatically swing up on a steeper plane as you complete your turn. Better yet, it’ll encourage the shaft to shallow back on plane as it drops down from the top of your backswing.
The fact is, sometimes you have to focus on developing an “anti-move” to get either the club or your body into the correct position. You see this a lot with better players who rehearse unique swings that look quite odd; what they’re really doing is pushing their feels to the opposite extreme to offset inefficient tendencies — and make it easier to find ideal ones.
Sean Hogan is the director of instruction at the Leadbetter Golf Academy in Orlando, Fla.
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