Okay, folks, let me walk you through what I did today at the range, trying out that David Leadbetter ‘Straight Away’ idea for the takeaway. My takeaway’s been all over the place lately, mostly whipping inside way too fast, so I figured, why not give this a shot?
Getting Started
So, I got to the range, grabbed my usual bucket of balls. Decided to start with my 7-iron, feels like a good middle ground. First thing, I put down two alignment sticks. One pointing at my target, just like always. The crucial one, though, I placed parallel to the target line, but just outside the ball. The idea was to use this stick as a visual guide to keep the club head moving straight back along the target line for the first foot or two.
First Swings – Feeling It Out
Alright, took my setup. Felt pretty normal. Then, the first few attempts at the takeaway…man, did it feel weird. Seriously awkward. My brain was screaming, “You’re pushing it way outside!” It felt like I was deliberately steering the club away from my body. It didn’t feel powerful or natural at all initially.
The first few shots were… well, not great. Some shanks, some thin hits. Clearly, just focusing on that straight-back move messed up the rest of my sequence for a bit. It’s like my body didn’t know what to do after that initial move.
Focusing on the Movement
I decided to slow things right down. Like, super slow-motion backswings. I wasn’t even hitting balls for a few minutes, just doing practice swings focusing purely on that initial move.
- I watched the club head track back right alongside that outside alignment stick.
- I tried to feel like my hands, arms, and shoulders started back together, as one piece. No independent hand action pulling it inside.
- I really exaggerated the feeling of keeping the club head outside my hands for that first part of the swing.
After maybe ten minutes of these slow rehearsals, I started hitting balls again, trying to keep that same slow, deliberate takeaway feel. It still felt a bit robotic, not gonna lie.
Seeing Some Progress (Maybe?)
Gradually, it started to feel slightly less awkward. I noticed that when I managed to keep the club going straight back without forcing it, the transition felt a little smoother. The shots weren’t perfect, but the real shockers, the shanks and banana slices, seemed to reduce a bit. Contact felt a little more solid on the ones I got right.
I even pulled out my phone and took a couple of slow-mo videos from behind. Watching it back, yeah, I could see I was still taking it a touch inside sometimes, but it was way better than my usual snatch-it-inside move. Seeing it visually helped connect the feel with the reality.
Wrapping Up the Session
Spent about an hour just on this one thing with the 7-iron. Didn’t even touch another club. By the end, I was hitting some reasonably straight shots. The ‘straight away’ takeaway felt less like a weird exercise and more like the start of a golf swing, though it’s definitely not automatic yet.
My main takeaway (pun intended!) is this: It feels super unnatural at first if you’re used to rolling the club inside. You really have to trust it and maybe exaggerate the feeling initially. Using that alignment stick on the ground was key for me today, gave me that constant visual check.
It’s definitely something I need to keep drilling. It feels like it could help with consistency if I can groove it in. Tired now, but felt like a productive session. We’ll see how it feels next time I’m out.
