Reasons for the Outside-In Golf Swing and How to Correct

Alright, outside in. Outside in of what? Well what we are talking about here, what our teacher is talking about is hitting the outside portion of the golf ball or going outside or over the swing plane. Now the swing plane is pretty much determined, not completely, but pretty much determined by the angle of the club at address. So if you can visualize lines going up parallel to that shaft on the ground, all of your shafts are different, fourteen different clubs, fourteen different lie angles. This happens to be a 5-iron, kind of my mid range clubs. My short irons will be more upright and my driver will be the flattest golf club. So they are all on different planes.

Once I determine this angle I can visualize it as sort of a 45-degree angle for arguments sake, that is a little more towards a driver, but if you visualize that angle being at about a 40 five. Straight up and down is a 90, flat to the ground is a zero. That is a good little visual picture to have as you swing the golf club. Now the outside in swinger will tend to go a little in on the backswing, the arms might pull in a little bit in behind them where the club gets in behind them, and then they loop the club over the top or over that angle so that the shaft gets very vertical like the wall on a house or the 90-degree angle, coming down steep. And now I am over the top of the golf ball. I generally will pull up and slice across the golf ball, imparting slice spin and it will peel off to the right part of the golf course.

To cure it most people will aim more to the left so that they can get the ball on the golf course and that encourages more over the top and outside in. What you are trying to do is get this golf club to go up and down a track, or for an over the top person you might want to think about doing the opposite where you loop the club a little more behind you. It is actually a little drop behind you. Get the club a little more up on the backswing and drop it in. That is the opposite move. That is an underneath move.

That is more of what a good player will do like Jim Furyk right now would be an extreme example of someone who takes the club back almost over their head and then makes a big loop to the inside. Lots of great players have done that. So that is a good image for you to have, to get yourself from being over the top. Most players coming to our golf schools are somewhat over the top and we try to get them back in the slot, back on plane, or back hitting the ball on the inside portion of the golf ball.