I hear this on TV, on the range and on the course and about 80% of the time it is either explained incorrectly, or the person doesn’t understand what they are saying or doing.
It is very important to understand what this means or you will screw your swing up badly.
Explaining it in print is difficult, so stick with me…and please feel free to ask for clarification.
OK, we are at address position, we need to draw an imaginary line along the toe of the golf club out to the target. That is the “target line.”
Swinging inside/out is used to teach people who come over the top to stop slicing the ball and others to hit draws. When you swing inside/out, you are NEVER NEVER NEVER supposed to have the toe of the club go outside the imaginary target line that we just drew.
Most people think inside/out means swinging outside the target line and that creates all sorts of problems…not the least of which is the hozel being pushed out into the ball and we know what that result means.
Inside/out means a down swing on plane goes from inside the target line, outside to the ball. Here is where the train goes off the tracks. If the club is on plane after going outside to the ball, it immediately goes back inside the target line on a mirrored path that it came into the ball from.
The ball is the outer most point of the club’s arc.
I hate to be so technical, but I wanted to explain this as I see way too many people practicing their swing to go outside the target line and that is a death move.
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I’ve heard this since I was a kid, but isn’t a bit of what you are describing a “baseball” swing. I have a natural draw and used to hear that ALL the time about my swing (I never played baseball).
A baseball swing doesn’t have the same release a golf swing does.
I am describing a classic on plane golf swing. If your swing goes outside the target line, it is way off plane…or your plane is way too far to the inside. Either way, it is not good.
When I’m not hitting the ball well, one of the (many) fixes I try is to lay down a club a few inches from the ball outside of my swing plane with the grip end pointed at the target. Then I hit a few shots while concentrating on making sure my clubhead doesn’t hit the shaft or doesn’t get too close to it. This drill has always worked so well for me… I think it really does a good job of band-aiding the “inside-to-out” tendency that has always plagued me. It really helps prevent the club from getting “stuck” on the downswing.
That is an awesome but dangerous drill for some…LOL. You obviously understand what I was talking about.