Golf instruction is heavily focused on the over-the-top move — and for good reason. But Jacob Tilton teaches a category of golfer that rarely gets addressed: the one who swings too far from the inside. The blocks, the hooks, the inconsistent contact — all coming from the same excessive in-to-out path that nobody is talking about on the lesson tee.
Jacob calls it the 10%. And he built a drill specifically for them.
The drill
Jacob Tilton — Golf Digest Best Young Teacher in America (2024), 2023 Georgia PGA Section Champion, PGA Tour participant (RSM Classic, 2023), winner of the 91st Yamaha Atlanta Open (2024), and Director of Instruction at Ansley Golf Club — uses the TrueStrike to enforce a more neutral path for golfers whose swing goes too far inside-out. See the full drill page here.
The setup is the mirror image of his Wedding China Drill:
- Place the TrueStrike near the ball to intercept an excessively inside-out path
- On the downswing, get the clubhead just outside the hands — not behind them
- That position forces the club out in front of the body rather than deep inside
- Miss the TrueStrike cleanly and you'll produce a controlled left-to-right fade
- Hit it — and the path was too far inside
The fade is the tell. When the clubhead gets outside the hands in the correct way, the path neutralizes and the ball starts slightly left of target before fading right — controlled, predictable, and far more manageable than a two-way miss of blocks and hooks.
Watch the drill
Jacob demonstrates the full setup and execution in the video below. Watch on YouTube or play it directly here:
Why it works
The excessive inside-out path often develops as an overcorrection — golfers who worked hard to fix their slice can inadvertently push the path too far the other way.
They stop slicing and start blocking and hooking instead, often assuming the problem is their face angle rather than their path.
Jacob's TrueStrike placement makes the path fault physically undeniable. The pad is positioned exactly where the too-deep, too-inside club travels — so if you're coming in from too far inside, you catch it. The only way to miss is to move the clubhead out in front of the hands, which naturally brings the path back to neutral.
This drill also pairs precisely with Jacob's Wedding China Drill — together, they define the full corridor of a correct swing path. That one catches too-outside. This one catches too-inside. Between the two, you've got every path fault covered with the same tool.
Who this is for
- ✓Golfers who consistently push or block shots to the right
- ✓Players who alternate between low blocks and snap hooks
- ✓Anyone who's overcorrected a slice and now has the opposite problem
- ✓Golfers who've been told their path is "too far from the inside" but can't feel the correction
Try it
Place the TrueStrike in the inside-path position and make 10 slow-motion swings feeling for the clubhead getting just outside the hands at waist high. Then hit 15 shots at 75% effort watching for the fade shape. Once the neutralized path feels natural, remove the TrueStrike and hit five shots — the left-to-right ball flight should follow.
For the full setup instructions and additional coaching notes, visit the TrueStrike Outside-In Fade Drill page on pathpal.
- 10 slow-motion swings — feel for the clubhead just outside the hands at waist height
- 15 shots at 75% effort — watch for the left-to-right fade shape
- 5 shots without the TrueStrike — the neutralized path should carry over
Related drills
This drill is one part of a complete path-correction system. Here are three closely related drills worth working through — each addresses the same path-fault spectrum from a different angle.
Inside-Out Draw Drill (Wedding China Drill)
The mirror image of this drill. Jacob places the TrueStrike outside the ball to catch an over-the-top, outside-in path — training the inside-out delivery that produces a consistent draw. If this drill is your next step after fixing the fade, start here.
Inside Path Corrector Drill — Eric Barlow
Eric Barlow uses the pathpal as an upper ceiling — set just above your shaft angle at address — to catch hands that rise through impact on an excessively flat, inside approach. If you're blocking and hooking and want a different perspective on the same problem, this is the drill.
Hook-to-Fade Dual-Segment Drill — Mark Heartfield
Mark Heartfield uses both pathpal segments to build a two-barrier hook-to-fade corridor — a backswing barrier to prevent an inside takeaway, and a downswing barrier to enforce a left exit. If your block-hook miss comes from a flat takeaway as well as a deep downswing, this dual-segment setup addresses both phases at once.
About Jacob Tilton
Jacob Tilton is a Golf Digest Best Young Teacher in America (2024), 2023 Georgia PGA Section Champion, and PGA Tour participant (RSM Classic, 2023). He is the Director of Instruction at Ansley Golf Club and holds Trackman Level 2, V1 Level 3, Boditrak, and Plane Truth certifications.
Follow Jacob on Instagram: @tiltgolfer · Follow pathpal on Instagram
Frequently asked questions
What is an excessive inside-out path and why does it cause blocks and hooks?
An excessive inside-out path means the club is approaching the ball from too far behind the body on the downswing. When the face is square to the path, the ball pushes or blocks to the right. When the face closes through impact in reaction to the steep in-to-out angle, the ball snaps left into a hook. The two-way miss is the hallmark of this fault — and it often develops when a golfer has overcorrected a slice by shallowing too aggressively.
How is the TrueStrike placed for this drill versus the Wedding China Drill?
The two setups are mirror images of each other. In the Wedding China Drill, the TrueStrike is placed outside the ball to intercept an over-the-top, outside-in path. In this drill, the TrueStrike is placed in the path of a club coming in too far from the inside. The goal switches from pushing the clubhead inside the hands to moving it out in front of them — which neutralizes the path and produces a controlled fade rather than a draw.
Why does fixing an inside-out path produce a fade?
When the clubhead gets just outside the hands at waist height — as Jacob describes in this drill — the path neutralizes from excessively in-to-out toward a more neutral or slightly out-to-in delivery. With a square face, that neutral path produces a gentle left-to-right ball flight: a controlled fade. It's far more predictable than the alternating block-hook that an excessive inside path creates.
Is this drill only for advanced golfers?
Jacob describes this as a drill for the "10%" — golfers whose path problem is too far inside rather than over the top. That population tends to be intermediate-to-advanced players who have already worked on shallowing, but it also includes any golfer who pushes and blocks consistently or alternates between blocks and hooks. If that pattern describes your miss, the drill is relevant regardless of handicap.
Fix the path fault most instruction ignores
The TrueStrike is part of the pathpal training system — an integrated, all-in-one tool used by PGA professionals to build better swing habits with immediate physical feedback.
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