One of the major differences between a high handicapper or inexperienced golfer and a better player or professional, is their ability to understand and control their swing path.

Generally speaking, better players and professionals can control their swing path in order to hit the shot shapes that they desire. Whereas less experienced golfers and higher handicappers have a tendency to either misunderstand their flight, or be less able to make the required alterations.

Many better players and golf instructors would prescribe that an inside-outside swing path is a preferred path to that of an outside-inside path. This is certainly applicable for most of the longer golf clubs, as it will generally produce a longer or penetrating and slightly drawing ball flight.

Conversely, an out to in swing path is often described as steeper and would normally produce a left to right flight, which could result in shorter slicing golf shots.

In order to create an inside-outside swing path, focus on bringing the golf club down more behind your body in the initial phase of your downswing, keeping your hands relatively close to your rear leg to the bottom part of your downswing and extending your arms out in front of you.

In the follow-through motion, the arms should feel like they're extending to the right of the target line for the right-handed golfer and left for the left handed golfer.

A good drill to help focus on creating the right swing path would be to take two golf clubs, place one on the floor indicating your ball to target line and stand parallel to this club. Now take the second club and point it right of the target line for the right-handed golfer by about 15° and now practice making your swing follow the second golf club so it follows on an in to out path. This is the first element of trying to create stronger more penetrating longer draw shots.

How to Create Inside to Outside Swing for Better Golf

Swing path is one of the key variables within your golf swing. If you can swing along a good path – and the same path time after time – it will be much easier to play good golf. As you might suspect, this is an area of the game which gives most amateur players a hard time. The typical amateur struggles to swing along a quality path, making good ball striking nearly impossible to achieve. In this article, we are going to discuss how you can improve your game by focusing on a reliable inside to outside swing path through the hitting area.

If you haven't previously thought much about your swing path, now is a good time to start paying attention to this important piece of the golf puzzle. The path of the club as it moves through the ball is incredibly important, as that path is going to go a long way toward determining the direction of the shot. When swing path is combined with face angle, you are left with a specific ball flight. Only when you know what swing path you are using will you be able to reliably predict your ball flight shot after shot.

Technically, you can move the ball toward the target with a variety of swing paths, as long as your club face is working together with the path properly. However, for most golfers, the easiest way to be successful is to swing on an inside to outside path, as this kind of swing will make it easy to produce a controlled draw. By swinging from inside to outside while keeping your club face square to the target, draw spin will be created. With a nice little draw working for you, it will be no problem at all to navigate your way around most golf courses.

Of course, a draw is not the ball flight you will see coming off the clubs of most amateur golfers. The majority of recreational players fight some degree of a slice, which comes as a result of swinging across the ball from outside to inside. This is usually done unintentionally, and the results are not pretty. In addition to seeing the ball curve off line quickly, you will probably struggle to achieve playable distances when dealing with a slice. If you are able to use the instruction provided throughout this article to fix your swing path issues, the slice should be a thing of the past.

Before you set about the task of learning a new swing path, it is important to understand that you will be in for plenty of hard work before results are achieved. It is hard to change your path, as the swing you will be making is going to feel significantly different from your previous move. Change never comes easy in golf, but it is worth it in the long run. Dedicate yourself to learning how to execute an inside to outside swing path and your game is going to move in the right direction over time.

All of the content below is based on a right-handed golfer. If you happen to play left-handed, please take a moment to reverse the directions as necessary.

Assessing Your Current Swing Path

You can't start to make changes to your swing path without first knowing how the club is moving through impact presently. It would be a mistake, of course, to spend time working on an inside to outside path if you are already using one in your game. Taking some time to review the current status of your swing before getting started is the best way to make sure you don't waste even more time later on.

So how do you determine what kind of swing path you are using at the moment? The best way to start is to take a close look at your ball flight. Head to the driving range and hit a handful of shots using your seven iron. As the shots fly, watch them carefully to determine whether they are drawing, fading, or flying mostly straight toward the target. After five or six shots have been hit, you should have a pretty good pattern established on which you can base your conclusions.

If the ball is drawing on its way to the target, there is a very good chance you are already swinging on an inside to outside path. While it is possible to hit a draw (or a hook) when swinging from outside in, such a shot would be relatively rare. If you see that your shot pattern on the range is a draw, you can probably move on from this discussion safely. You are likely swinging from inside to outside already, so there would be no need to work on this point any further. Your time will be better spent on other pursuits.

However, if you are hitting a fade with most of your shots, there is a good chance you are swinging across the ball at impact. If the shots are just slight fades, you may be swinging across the ball only by a degree or two, with a slightly open face. Or, if you are hitting a big slice, the club will likely be moving dramatically across from outside to inside at impact, and the face will be wide open. No matter what degree of fade you happen to be hitting, there is almost certainly work to be done if you would like to move your swing to an inside to outside pattern.

Should you decide that you would like a more definitive view of your swing path before moving forward, there is one obvious option to consider – video. By recording your swing on video, you can see the path of the club as it moves through the ball in no uncertain terms. You will be able to determine without a doubt what kind of path you are using through impact, and you can then make decisions on how to change your technique from that point.

If you decide to use video, ask a friend to help you by recording a few swings on the range. You will need to use the 'down-the-line' angle for these recordings. That means the person holding the video recorder (a cell phone, most likely), needs to be standing on an extension of the target line, behind the golfer. Of course, they need to be standing back far enough to safely avoid the club as it swings around you. Ask your friend to record three or four swings, and offer to do the same for them if they would like to check out their own technique.

There is no trick to watching these videos once they have been recorded. Tracking the path of your club head through impact should be no problem at all, especially if you watch the videos over and over again for a few minutes. If your cell phone or other recording device allows you to play the video in slow motion, use that feature to make it even easier to watch your path. Now that you have clearly seen how you are swinging the club, it will be time to move on to making changes to your technique.

The Keys to an Inside to Outside Golf Swing

Should you find that it is going to be necessary to change your swing technique in order to move the club from inside to outside, you will want to get down to work on this task right away. It could take a while to make these changes effectively, so there is no point in wasting any time. Get started as soon as possible and each shot you hit will take you one swing closer to a better future on the links.

To keep your practicing sessions on track, review the list below for basic tips related to an inside to outside golf swing. If you are able to incorporate these tips into your technique, you can rest assured that you will be going in the right direction.

• Set up square to the target. In order to swing through the hitting area on the correct path, you need to start by setting your body square to the target line at address. That means everything needs to be working together in your stance, including your feet, hips, and shoulders. Start by placing your feet square to the target line and then move everything else into position until you are comfortable and ready to swing. Many amateur golfers start the swing from an open position, and they are never able to get back square as a result. Take some time to work on this basic fundamental and you will find that the game overall will get a little bit easier.
• Avoid using your hands in the takeaway. This is one of the most important pieces of advice you will find in this entire article. If you use your hands actively on the way back, the club is going to become stuck inside of the proper plane. From there, you will be forced to push it up and away from your body at the top of the swing. This is the classic pattern experienced by countless slicers around the world. To break this pattern, the first thing you need to do is take the hand action out of your takeaway. Move the club back away from the ball by turning your shoulders without using your hands at all. The hands should only get involved in the swing once you have moved the club well away from the ball. This type of takeaway is going to keep you on plane, and you will be in a much better position when you arrive at the top of the swing.
• Drop the right elbow. Speaking of the top of your swing, the moment you transition from backswing to downswing is a crucial point in time. Everything can go wrong at this one point in the swing, or you can set yourself up for success. When the club gets to the top of the swing, the first thing you want to do is drop your right elbow in toward your side. This is an essential move. Dropping your right elbow in toward your side will bring the club down into the slot, and it will position it for an aggressive inside to outside attack. Few amateur golfers get this move right during the transition, which is why the slice is such a common problem.
• Keep it moving. The last tip in this section is another big one – you need to make sure your lower body keeps moving through the shot all the way to a balanced finish. It is common for amateur players to hesitate at some point in the downswing, as they try to guide the club into the ball carefully. There is no room for such careful movements in the downswing. The downswing needs to be aggressive and confident if it is going to work, so get your lower body moving toward the target and keep it going until the ball is on its way. Any hesitation in your rotation toward the target could force the club over the line and you would end up hitting across the ball as a result. By committing to great lower body rotation all the way into the finish, you will give your swing the best possible chance at success.

Despite what it may seem like at the moment, there is nothing magical about an inside to outside golf swing. As long as you install the proper mechanics in your swing, you can move the club in the correct direction before long. Of course, the results of those swings may not be what you have in mind right away, but you will at least be making progress. From there, it will take nothing but time and effort to have your results start to match up with the new swing path you are using.

What to Expect

If you are able to begin swinging the club successfully on an inside to outside path, you will likely notice a number of changes almost immediately. Some of these changes will be positive, and others might be negative – at least at first. Like anything else in golf, you are going to have to work on adapting to these changes in order to use your game effectively on the course. You won't just be able to keep playing the way you have always played, only with a new swing path – you are going to have to change the way you play the game entirely.

With that in mind, the following points highlight what you can expect to happen when you start to use an inside to outside swing path.

• Added distance. One of the nice surprises you will find when you make this change is the fact that most of your shots are going to be traveling farther than ever before. Swinging from inside to outside puts you in a more powerful position, meaning the ball is likely to leave the club face at a higher speed – and it will travel farther in the end. Of course, while extra distance is great, you need to know how to use that distance if you are going to score well. Take some time to get used to your new distances and don't fall back into old habits with regard to club selection.
• Reduced spin rate. At first, this might sound like a problem, but it can actually be a good thing. When you hit across the ball with a steep downswing, you are going to create an extremely high spin rate on your shots. That spin rate will help you to stop the ball quickly, of course, but it will also make it difficult to control your shots in the air. By attacking from the inside instead, you can bring that spin rate down – and you will have more control over your shots as a result. Most professionals would gladly sacrifice a bit of spin rate in order to control their trajectories, and you should be willing to make the same trade.
• Right to left ball flight. Of course, you are probably going to be hitting a draw now, rather than a fade. That might seem like an obvious point, but it will be more difficult than you might expect to learn how to adjust your aim accordingly. If you have been playing a fade or a slice for a long time, you are very comfortable with the idea of aiming to the left of the target. To suddenly start to aim to the right of your targets is going to be difficult, to say the least. Pay careful attention to your aim on the driving range and master this point there first before heading out to the course. Aiming to the right is going to look strange to you at address, but you need to trust the process and your new swing in order to send the ball in the proper direction.
• The occasional hook. When you were swinging the club across the line on the way down, one thing you didn't have to worry about was a hook. However, now that the club is attacking from the inside, you may find that you hook the ball to the left from time to time. To avoid this outcome as often as possible, make sure your lower body is moving aggressively through impact without any hesitation. Stopping your body rotation before the ball is gone can cause the club to flip over at impact, and a hook will be the almost certain result.

To be sure, you are going to have to make some adjustments if you are going to succeed with this new swing path. Be patient with the process, adjust as you go, and don't expect amazing results right away. Golf is a game which always requires patience, and that is going to be true in this case as well.

Switch It Up in the Short Game

Nothing can be simple in golf. Even when you think you have the game figured out by using a reliable inside to outside swing path, you will find that there is an exception to this pattern. That exception comes in the short game, where you will be better off hitting through the ball with an outside to inside move.

Why would you want to hit across the ball when chipping and pitching? Check the points below to better understand this concept.

• Easier to create backspin. You want as much backspin as possible (generally speaking) when playing short game shots. By hitting across the ball, you will have a better chance to produce backspin, as you are going to be using a relatively steep angle of attack. If you have ever wondered how the pros are able to get so much spin on their short shots, this is part of the secret.
• Avoid grass behind the ball. Another major benefit to hitting across the shot when chipping is the ability to miss grass which may be bunched up behind your ball. You want to make clean contact on your short game shots, and this tip is going to make it a little easier to do just that.
• Get the ball up in the air quickly. The downward angle of this technique is going to help you to elevate the ball quickly, which is a good thing when trying to avoid any trouble between your ball and the target. You can switch back to an inside to outside swing when hitting a bump and run, but any elevated chip or pitch will be best handled with an across the line approach.

Learning how to swing from inside to outside is likely to take some time, but it just may be the best thing you ever do for your golf game. Hopefully, the advice provided in this article will help you to make this transition as quickly and successfully as possible. Good luck!