The wall drill has been a staple of junior golf instruction for decades because it solves the most common developmental fault in one immediate, physical lesson: the club can't go flat and inside if there's a wall in the way. Shawn Koch uses the pathpal to bring that same principle to any practice environment — no wall required.
Full setup details are on the Vertical Backswing Drill page, or watch Shawn demonstrate it with a student here:
Watch the Vertical Backswing Drill on YouTube →
The drill
Shawn Koch — Golf Digest #7 Best Teacher in Georgia (2024–25), Georgia Section PGA Teacher of the Year (2016), Golf Magazine Top 100 Teachers to Watch (2023–2024), Georgia PGA Player Development Award winner (2022), GRAA Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, and Director of Instruction at Atlanta Athletic Club — uses the pathpal at 90 degrees as a portable, angle-adjustable vertical wall for junior swing plane correction.
The setup
- One pathpal half set at 90 degrees — fully vertical, acting as the wall
- A 30-degree reference line marking the correct heel position at address
- Student sets up in the correct relationship to the wall
- Backswing goal: clear the wall by working the club up rather than around
- Any flat or inside backswing catches the rod immediately
The drill requires no ball — it's a pure backswing shape builder. Slow-motion rehearsal is the prescription, and the feedback is binary: clear the wall or catch it. There is no gray area.
Shawn Koch demonstrates the drill with junior student Jack. View on YouTube →
Why it works
Junior golfers get stuck inside because their natural tendency is to swing the club around the body — a flat plane that feels powerful but sets up a downswing with no path to the ball except from deep inside. By placing a physical wall outside the swing arc at 90 degrees, Shawn makes the flat plane structurally impossible. The club has to go up. The only question is how much, and the wall calibrates that answer precisely.
The club can't go flat and inside if there's a wall in the way. The pathpal brings that same principle to any practice environment — no wall required.
The 30-degree heel reference is an important detail that distinguishes this from a generic wall drill. By marking the correct foot position relative to the barrier, Shawn ensures the student is in the right setup before the swing begins — the wall is effective only if the golfer is standing the correct distance from it. Too close and correct swings catch the wall. Too far and incorrect swings don't. The heel reference eliminates that variable.
For junior programs specifically, the pathpal implementation is significant because it removes the geographic constraint of the traditional wall drill. A physical wall or doorframe limits the drill to one specific location. The pathpal at 90 degrees replicates that wall anywhere — on the range, in a simulator bay, in a living room — making it available for every practice session throughout a junior's development rather than just structured lesson environments.
What the wall teaches
The fault
The club rolls flat and inside on the backswing. From there, the downswing has no efficient path to the ball — leading to pushes, hooks, and getting stuck inside.
The barrier
The 90-degree pathpal acts as a portable wall on the inside of the takeaway path. A flat backswing catches it immediately. A correct "club working up" swing clears it.
The reference
The 30-degree heel line ensures the correct setup distance from the wall. Without it, the drill can catch correct swings or miss incorrect ones depending on where the golfer stands.
Who this is for
- ✓ Junior golfers whose dominant fault is a flat, inside backswing
- ✓ Parents and junior coaches looking for a portable wall drill solution for home or range practice
- ✓ Any golfer — junior or adult — whose instructor has identified a shallow backswing plane as the root cause of their downswing faults
- ✓ Instructors at junior programs looking for a scalable, easily explained drill that delivers immediate feedback
Try it
Set the pathpal at 90 degrees with the heel reference at 30 degrees and have your junior make 15 slow-motion rehearsal swings to halfway back — focusing entirely on clearing the wall. Once they can consistently miss the rod, gradually increase the swing to three-quarter speed. Then remove the pathpal and hit five balls, recreating the "up" feeling without the physical reference. The improvement in downswing path and contact quality will be immediate.
- Set pathpal to 90° (vertical wall); place heel reference at 30°
- Set up in the correct distance relationship to the barrier using the heel reference
- Make 15 slow-motion rehearsal swings to halfway back — focus only on clearing the wall
- Once consistently clearing at slow speed, increase to three-quarter pace
- Remove the pathpal — hit 5 balls recreating the "up" feeling; observe the change in downswing path and contact
Related drills
The Vertical Backswing Drill addresses the vertical dimension of the flat inside backswing. These three drills complete the picture — covering the same fault for adults, the horizontal inside rip, and the full plane relationship from backswing through downswing:
Also by Shawn Koch. The same 90-degree wall concept applied to adult golfers at Atlanta Athletic Club — working the club up the wall rather than rolling it inside on the takeaway.
Matt Tindale's dual-barrier corridor targets the horizontal dimension of getting stuck inside — the club ripping flat behind the body. The complementary fix to this drill's vertical correction.
Eric Barlow's foundational plane drill teaches the full backswing/downswing relationship — up the plane going back, under it coming down. The natural progression once the vertical backswing is corrected.
About Shawn Koch
Frequently asked questions
How do I set up the pathpal for the Vertical Backswing Drill?
Set one pathpal half to 90 degrees — fully vertical — and position it on the inside of the takeaway path, acting as a wall just outside the swing arc. Use a second reference rod at 30 degrees as a heel alignment marker to ensure you're standing the correct distance from the barrier. The drill cue is simple: work the club up the wall on the backswing, not into it. Any flat or inside takeaway catches the rod immediately.
Why do junior golfers tend to get stuck inside?
Younger and smaller golfers often develop a flat, inside backswing because their natural proportions make it easier to swing the club around the body rather than up and over it. The flat plane feels powerful because it creates a wide arc, but when the club gets too inside on the backswing it loops even further inside on the downswing — getting stuck — producing blocks, pushes, and low hooks. Shawn specifically calibrates the wall to each student's size, because the correct plane is body-proportional rather than one-size-fits-all.
What does "club working up" mean as a swing feel?
"Club working up" means the club travels on a more vertical arc on the backswing — rising above the address plane rather than sweeping flat around the body. For a golfer who tends to flatten the plane, this feels dramatically different: the arms lift more, the club feels like it's going up rather than behind. The 90-degree wall provides immediate feedback — if the club catches it, the plane was too shallow. If it clears, the club is traveling up and over correctly.
Why is the heel reference line important?
The wall drill only works correctly if the golfer is standing the right distance from the barrier. Too close and correct swings will catch the rod. Too far and incorrect swings won't. The 30-degree heel reference ensures the student is in the correct positional relationship to the wall before the swing begins — eliminating a variable that would otherwise make the drill inconsistent.
Can adults use the Vertical Backswing Drill, or is it only for juniors?
Any golfer whose instructor has identified a shallow or flat backswing plane as a root cause of downswing faults can benefit from this drill. Shawn uses it specifically with juniors in this video because the flat inside backswing is so common in junior development, but the 90-degree wall principle applies to adult golfers with the same fault. Shawn's separate Wall Drill video demonstrates the same concept with adult students at Atlanta Athletic Club.
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