It's one of the most common stories in golf instruction: a golfer works hard to shallow the club, fixes their slice, and then starts hitting blocks and snap hooks instead. They traded one two-way miss for another. The problem isn't that they shallowed — it's that they shallowed too much.
Eric Barlow has a drill that defines exactly where "enough" ends and "too much" begins.
The full drill is demonstrated here: Inside Path Corrector Drill — pathpal drill page
The drill
Eric Barlow — PGA Master Professional, Golf Digest Best Teacher in Every State (2022–2027), NEPGA Section Teacher of the Year, Mass Chapter Teacher of the Year, and Director of Instruction at Winchester Country Club — uses the pathpal to create an upper boundary for the hand path through impact.
The setup
- Set the pathpal at an angle just slightly above your shaft angle at address
- The rod sits just above your natural hand path as a ceiling
- Make swings focused on staying underneath the rod through the hitting zone
- If your hands rise through impact, you catch the stick — instant feedback
The ceiling the rod creates is the key. A too-inside path forces the hands upward through impact to find the ball — and the pathpal catches that rising move immediately. To clear the rod, the hands have to stay low and connected, which naturally brings the path back to a neutral, on-plane delivery.
Watch Eric Barlow demonstrate the drill
Watch the full drill on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA067_6zO5c
Why it works
What makes this drill particularly valuable is that it addresses a fault most golfers don't know they have — or don't believe they have, because they've been told to shallow for years. The raised-hands move through impact is a compensation, not a technique choice: the body is solving a low point problem created by an excessively flat swing plane. The pathpal rod above the shaft angle catches the compensation and forces the swing to solve the actual problem instead.
The raised-hands move through impact is a compensation, not a technique choice. The pathpal rod catches it and forces the swing to solve the actual problem.
It's also worth noting how this drill pairs with Eric's Over-the-Top Elimination drill. That one places the pathpal outside the lead leg to catch too-left exits. This one places it above the shaft angle to catch rising hands. Together, they define the full corridor of a correct swing path — not too steep, not too shallow, not too left, not too inside.
Who this is for
- ✓Golfers who block shots to the right or snap-hook the ball
- ✓Players who've overcorrected a slice and now have the opposite problem
- ✓Anyone who's been told their swing is "too flat" or "too far from the inside"
- ✓Golfers experiencing a two-way miss who can't identify which fault is causing which shot
Try it
- Set the pathpal just above your address shaft angle.
- Make 10 slow-motion swings focused on staying underneath the rod.
- Hit 15 shots at 75% effort.
- You'll likely feel the hand path staying lower and more connected almost immediately — and your contact will reflect it.
Related drills
If this drill is addressing your path, these three are natural complements — each targeting a connected fault in the same swing family.
"Over the Top" Elimination Barrier Drill
The mirror correction — catches a club that exits too far left. Together these two drills define the full swing path corridor: not too steep, not too shallow.
Inside-Out Draw Path Drill
Uses both pathpal halves to build a precisely calibrated delivery corridor for the driver. Good next step once the inside-path ceiling is understood.
"Hook-to-Fade" Dual-Segment Drill
For players whose too-inside path has become a hook. Uses a dual-barrier setup to reverse the flat inside takeaway and retrain the exit path.
Browse the full library: pathpalgolf.com/pages/all-drills
About Eric Barlow
Frequently asked questions
How do I set up the pathpal for the Inside Path Corrector Drill?
Set the pathpal at an angle just slightly above your shaft angle at address — creating an upper boundary just above your natural hand path. Make swings underneath the rod. If your hands are rising through impact due to an excessively inside path, you'll catch the stick. Clearing it means your hand path is staying lower and more on plane through the hitting zone.
Why do my hands rise through impact?
When the club approaches from too far inside, the golfer often has to raise the hands through impact to avoid the ground — lifting the club through the hitting zone rather than driving down and through. It's a compensating move: the excessively shallow path creates a low point problem, and the hands rise to solve it in real time. The pathpal rod above the address shaft angle catches that rising move, forcing a more neutral, direct plane where the hands don't need to lift.
Can you shallow the club too much?
Yes — and it's more common than most golfers realize, especially among players who've worked hard on shallowing as a slice fix. When the club gets excessively flat on the downswing, the path moves too far from the inside, the angle of attack becomes too shallow, and the hands have to compensate to find the ball. Eric's drill exists precisely because shallowing is taught so frequently as a slice correction that some golfers overcorrect and create a new, opposite fault. The pathpal gives you an upper boundary to define "shallow enough without being too shallow."
What ball flight does a too-inside swing path produce?
An overly inside-out path typically produces one of two misses depending on face angle: a push or block to the right when the face is square to the path, or a snap hook when the face closes through impact. Both are difficult to predict and control because the path is so far off neutral. Golfers with this fault often describe a "two-way miss" — blocking it right one swing and hooking it left the next.
How does this drill differ from Eric Barlow's Over-the-Top Elimination drill?
The two drills are mirror corrections for opposite path faults. The Over-the-Top Elimination drill places the pathpal outside the lead leg to catch a club that exits too far left — fixing an out-to-in path. This drill places the pathpal just above the address shaft angle to catch rising hands — fixing an excessively in-to-out, too-shallow path. Together they define the correct corridor from both sides: not too steep, not too shallow. Eric uses the same tool to solve both problems by simply changing the placement.
Build a better swing path with one tool.
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