The Takeaway Check Drill

Set the pathpal to 90 degrees so the vertical alignment rod stands straight up and down — this is the wall that blocks the inside roll. Then thread a second alignment stick through the center alignment feature of the pathpal — this rod runs horizontally and mimics the hand path direction. The two rods together create a two-reference station: the vertical rod catches the wrist roll and inside takeaway if the club contacts it, and the horizontal center rod gives the hands a target direction to move toward on the takeaway. The drill cue is "hands toward the pathpal, clubhead out" — the hands track along the horizontal rod direction toward the device while the clubhead tracks outward and away, establishing the correct relationship between hand path and club path from the first foot of the backswing.

These are two distinct faults that look similar but have different mechanical origins and different corrections. When the hands move inside — away from the pathpal and toward the body — the golfer has typically picked the club up with a body turn that takes the hands off the correct path before the club has had a chance to move. When the clubhead moves inside — rolling low and behind the hands — the wrists have rotated and the forearms have rolled, taking the clubhead inside while the hands may still be on a reasonable path. Ed's drill corrects the clubhead-inside fault specifically: the vertical rod catches the forearm roll that sends the club inside, and the horizontal center rod gives the hands their correct inward direction, which produces the "hands inside, clubhead out" geometry of a correct takeaway.

On the correct takeaway, the hands move in a relatively straight path back from the ball while the clubhead swings outward and upward along the swing arc — this relationship keeps the club outside the hands at halfway back, which is the reference checkpoint most instructors use for a correct backswing plane. When the forearms roll and the wrists hinge incorrectly on the takeaway, the clubhead moves inside the hands — the opposite relationship — which flattens the club below the correct plane and creates the stuck, behind-the-body position that Shawn Koch's Wall Drill also addresses. The key insight in Ed's drill is that the hand path and clubhead path move in opposite horizontal directions in the early takeaway: hands slightly inward (toward the pathpal), clubhead outward. This counterintuitive relationship is the takeaway geometry that most recreational golfers have never been taught explicitly.

A single vertical rod — like Shawn Koch's Wall Drill — tells the golfer what path the club cannot take (into the wall) but doesn't tell them where the hands should go. Ed's center alignment rod adds the positive direction: it gives the hands a specific target to move toward rather than just a barrier to avoid. This matters because the takeaway is a two-variable movement — the hands must go somewhere correct while the club avoids going somewhere incorrect. With only the wall, a golfer could avoid the club contact by picking the arms up steeply, which also avoids the wall but creates a different fault. With both rods, the station enforces the complete correct takeaway geometry: hands track toward the device along the center rod, club stays outside and avoids the vertical wall.

Both drills use the pathpal at 90 degrees as an inside takeaway barrier, but they teach the correction through different mechanisms. Shawn's Wall Drill uses the vertical barrier alone — the drill cue is "work up the wall, not into it," emphasizing the backswing plane direction. Ed's Takeaway Check Drill adds the center alignment rod as a hand path reference, teaching the specific relationship between hand path and club path that defines a correct takeaway: hands toward the device, clubhead out. Shawn's drill is a plane direction corrector; Ed's drill is a geometry teacher. For golfers who understand that they roll the club inside but can't feel what the correct movement actually is, Ed's two-rod station gives both the wrong-answer barrier and the right-answer guide simultaneously — making the correct takeaway not just blocked from being wrong but actively taught as a specific movement pattern.