How The Golf Takeaway Can Change Your Golf Ball Flight (Video) - by Pete Styles
How The Golf Takeaway Can Change Your Golf Ball Flight (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we understand that ball flight, the way the ball curves in the air is dictated primarily between the angle of the club face and the direction of the swing path and the difference between the two. Then that should explain to us that the downswing angle into the golf ball is quite important in how the ball flight can curve. So how can that affect the backswing motion of the club? But actually if you consider a golf swing, it’s sort of a big circular motion, it could be argued that if I take my club outwards in my backswing quite steep, as I get to the top, the big circular motion has already got momentum bringing it around in an arc and back on the inside. So I don’t necessarily have an up and a down motion that follows the same path, I have a big circular motion that drops inside so I could have a takeaway that goes this way, drop my right arm in, now on the inside, now I’m attacking the ball from the inside and if I square my face or get my face aiming left in relation to my path I’m going to see the ball draw. So an outside takeaway that then drops in, could see more draw shots. And conversely if I have my backswing path inside the line in here, can actually see a chopping over motion effectively the club has forwards momentum at the top and I have a forwards loop. And this is probably a subconscious fault that a lot of golfers get into.

They’re trying to draw the ball so they think they should swing the club back from the inside, what they don’t necessarily appreciate is here they kind of have a brick wall, I can’t swing back any flatter so I have to swing up and then I’ve got forwards momentum on the golf club, coming over the top effectively, a casting action out to in, and that’s going to fade the golf ball if I had the face open to the path. So if we have a straight back action we’ve got a better chance to bring the club straight down on the inside line or effectively a straight line which is going to hit straighter shots. So it could be argued that if you wanted to draw the ball, take it out to drop it in and if you wanted to fade the golf ball swing it in, to throw it over. Now there can be a caveat with that and I would suggest that some golfers that would actually make their swings get worse, but have a practice on that because if you can feel that up here dropping in motion and the in here throwing out motion, if that can change your downswing path by changing your takeaway path, you might be able to change your ball flight just simply by changing your takeaway. Have a practice on that in the driving range and see if that works for you. 2015-10-09

So if we understand that ball flight, the way the ball curves in the air is dictated primarily between the angle of the club face and the direction of the swing path and the difference between the two. Then that should explain to us that the downswing angle into the golf ball is quite important in how the ball flight can curve. So how can that affect the backswing motion of the club? But actually if you consider a golf swing, it’s sort of a big circular motion, it could be argued that if I take my club outwards in my backswing quite steep, as I get to the top, the big circular motion has already got momentum bringing it around in an arc and back on the inside. So I don’t necessarily have an up and a down motion that follows the same path, I have a big circular motion that drops inside so I could have a takeaway that goes this way, drop my right arm in, now on the inside, now I’m attacking the ball from the inside and if I square my face or get my face aiming left in relation to my path I’m going to see the ball draw. So an outside takeaway that then drops in, could see more draw shots. And conversely if I have my backswing path inside the line in here, can actually see a chopping over motion effectively the club has forwards momentum at the top and I have a forwards loop. And this is probably a subconscious fault that a lot of golfers get into.

They’re trying to draw the ball so they think they should swing the club back from the inside, what they don’t necessarily appreciate is here they kind of have a brick wall, I can’t swing back any flatter so I have to swing up and then I’ve got forwards momentum on the golf club, coming over the top effectively, a casting action out to in, and that’s going to fade the golf ball if I had the face open to the path. So if we have a straight back action we’ve got a better chance to bring the club straight down on the inside line or effectively a straight line which is going to hit straighter shots. So it could be argued that if you wanted to draw the ball, take it out to drop it in and if you wanted to fade the golf ball swing it in, to throw it over. Now there can be a caveat with that and I would suggest that some golfers that would actually make their swings get worse, but have a practice on that because if you can feel that up here dropping in motion and the in here throwing out motion, if that can change your downswing path by changing your takeaway path, you might be able to change your ball flight just simply by changing your takeaway. Have a practice on that in the driving range and see if that works for you.