Full Swing · Technique

Stand the shaft up to give it room to shallow

The speaker says golfers who get steep in transition often fight to make the club LOOK shallow — say, in a mirror or on video — instead of earning it, which the speaker calls putting the cart before the horse: in the takeaway they whip the club head in behind the grip and try to make the backswing itself look laid off or flat, doing in the backswing what should happen in the downswing. The speaker's point is that the club needs somewhere to shallow to, so feeling the handle more in and the club head more out, standing the shaft up like an umbrella, gives the club room to lay down coming through. Trying to lay it down from a position that already feels flat and parallel to the ground just tugs the handle steeper on the way down.