The Inside Takeaway: Why Most Golfers Get It Wrong
I think a lot of golfers get the concept of an “inside takeaway” very wrong. And maybe even some teaching pros. So I’m sure I’ll get some pushback on this lol.
But here’s what I believe: there aren’t “hundreds” of ways to swing a club. I think there are universal moves that MUST occur in the golf swing. And if they don’t, you’re going to need God-given talent to compensate for it. The kind of talent that can’t be taught.
You hear it all the time. “Everyone’s swing is different.” “There’s no one way to swing a club.” “Find what works for you.” And ya, to some extent that’s true. But I think people take that concept way too far. They look at tour players with different-looking swings and assume that means anything goes. That you can do whatever you want as long as it works.
That’s not how it actually works. What looks different on the surface is often remarkably similar at the foundational level. And when there ARE genuine differences—like a truly inside takeaway—those players are doing incredibly difficult compensatory moves that most golfers will never be able to replicate.
Let me show you what I mean with some examples. Because I think once you see the difference between what actually IS an inside takeaway versus what just LOOKS like one, it’ll change how you think about swing mechanics.
What Even Is an Inside Takeaway?
Before we get into the examples, let’s define what we’re actually talking about here. An inside takeaway isn’t just about the club moving back on a flatter plane or at an angle that looks “inside” from down the line. That’s what trips people up.
A true inside takeaway is when the club gets behind your body structure early in the backswing. Behind your wrists. Behind your arms. The clubface opens up, the shaft lays off, and you’re essentially creating a position that requires significant recovery work in transition.
Most people who think they’re taking it inside are actually just taking it back on plane while maintaining their structure. The club might travel on a flatter angle, but it never actually gets behind them. Their right hand and arm stay on top of the club the entire time.
That’s a massive difference. And it matters because if you’re trying to emulate a swing that you think is inside when it’s actually not, you’re gonna end up confused as hell about why your results don’t match.
Example 1: Arnold Palmer – Not Actually Inside
In my opinion, this is NOT an inside takeaway. Some people will look at Palmer’s swing and immediately assume it is. I get it. The club does indeed move back at more of an “inside” angle compared to a more modern upright takeaway. It looks flat. It looks like it’s going inside.
But the club never actually gets “behind” him. It never gets behind his wrist structure. Never gets behind his arm structure. If you watch closely, the entire time his right hand and right arm stay on top of the club. That’s the key difference.
Palmer’s takeaway is more about the angle and the path the club travels, but he maintains his relationship to the club throughout. He’s not fanning it open. He’s not laying it off. He’s just taking it back on a flatter plane while keeping everything connected.
That’s not an inside takeaway in the way most people think about it. It’s just a flatter takeaway with good structure. Big difference.
Example 2: Webb Simpson – Actually Inside (And Crazy Impressive)
Here’s the first example of one of the very few pros who genuinely has an “inside” takeaway. And when you see it, you’ll immediately notice the difference from Palmer.
The club face is fanned open almost immediately. Like, right from the start of the backswing. And the entire shaft is laid off and gets way behind his arm structure. This is what an actual inside takeaway looks like. The club is literally behind him in a way that Palmer’s never was.
He even has a cupped wrist at the top, which makes this all the more mind blowing. A cupped wrist with a laid-off shaft? That’s usually a recipe for disaster. That’s a wide-open clubface that should produce massive blocks and slices.
99.5 out of 100 amateurs could never get away with doing this. You’d hit it 50 yards right and have no idea what happened.
So how does Webb make it work? He compensates with a ridiculously impressive move where he squeezes the arms and elbows to get back in front of the body in transition. It’s like everything that got spread out and behind him suddenly tightens up and gets back in position.
And as a result, he gets the club in a textbook position at the final parallel into impact. Perfect shaft plane. Perfect face angle. It’s honestly incredible to watch when you know what you’re looking at. He goes from a position that should be unrecoverable to absolutely perfect in a split second.
That’s the kind of compensatory move that can’t really be taught. You can explain it. You can show someone video of it. But replicating that level of coordination and feel? That’s years and years of ingrained motor patterns.
Example 3: John Daly – Looks Inside But Isn’t
Similar to Arnold Palmer, the club does indeed start back at a more inside angle. And because Daly’s swing is so long and powerful and dramatic, people assume he’s taking it way inside. It looks wild. It looks unconventional.
But when you actually break it down? It’s not that different from Palmer at the foundational level.
As the club goes back, his right arm and right hand stay on top of the club and club face. Notice how the shaft never really gets “laid off” like it does with Webb Simpson? The club face never fans open early. It stays relatively square to his body rotation.
This is because Daly never truly lets the club get inside in the way Webb does. His right side stays on top of everything throughout the backswing. He’s maintaining his structure even though the swing looks massive and unconventional.
Not an inside takeaway, even though it looks like one at first glance. It’s just a really big, powerful swing on a relatively flat plane with great connection.
And that’s why Daly could bomb it 350 yards without losing accuracy. Because despite how wild the swing looked, the fundamentals were actually really solid. He wasn’t having to make crazy compensations. He was just staying connected and rotating hard.
Example 4: Jon Rahm – Subtly Inside (And Fascinating)
This is a very interesting one because it’s very subtle. Way more subtle than Webb Simpson. But I do believe Rahm has an “inside” takeaway.
He almost immediately opens up the club face on the takeaway and gets the club behind him, even though from down the line it appears the club traveled straight back. You have to really watch closely to see it. It’s not obvious like Webb where the shaft is clearly laid off.
But it’s there. The face opens early. The club gets slightly behind his structure. And similarly to Webb Simpson, he plays with a laid off shaft at the top of his backswing.
So how does he compensate? Two key moves:
First, he bows his wrist at the top which prevents the club face from opening up during the downswing. That bowed wrist keeps the face from getting too open despite the laid-off shaft position. Very difficult to teach that, by the way. It’s one of those things that either feels natural to you or it doesn’t.
Second, he has a similar move to Simpson where he tightens everything up in transition and is able to return all of the angles he created in the takeaway back to impact. Everything that got spread out or behind him suddenly comes back together. The arms drop. The elbows tuck. And boom, he’s in perfect position at impact.Very impressive and not something many tour pros do. That’s elite-level compensation that took thousands and thousands of swings to develop.
Final Thoughts
All of this is to say that ya, the game can be played with different swings. I’m not saying there’s only one way to do it. But in order to play with a swing that deviates from the fundamentals, you have to recognize the compensatory dynamics at play.
And many of these compensations really cannot be taught. They’re not positions you can drill or practice in slow motion. They’re dynamic, feel-based moves that happen at full speed and require incredible timing and coordination.
Webb’s squeeze move in transition? Can’t really teach that. Rahm’s bowed wrist at the top combined with his transition tightening? Can’t really teach that either. These guys developed those moves over years of hitting thousands of balls and making micro-adjustments based on feel.
So I slightly reject the notion that this game can be played with “hundreds” of different swings. At least not at a high level. Most tour level swings really aren’t THAT different if you can view them at the “foundational level.”
The guys who truly take it inside—like Webb and Rahm—are doing things in transition that most amateurs will never be able to replicate. It’s not impossible, but it requires a level of feel and coordination that takes years to develop. And even then, it might not work for you because everyone’s body moves differently.
And the guys who look like they’re taking it inside—like Palmer and Daly—are actually keeping their structure on top of the club the entire time. They’re not making those crazy compensations because they’re not creating positions that need to be compensated for.
Understanding the difference matters. Because if you’re trying to copy Webb Simpson’s takeaway without understanding what he does to recover from it… you’re gonna have a terrible time lol. You’ll block everything right, get frustrated, and wonder why you cant break 85 even though you’re “doing the same thing.”
You’re not doing the same thing. You’re doing the first part without the second part. And the second part is what makes it work.
Can you get away with an unconventional move at your local muni playing bogey golf? Sure. But if you want to shoot in the 70s consistently or play competitive golf, the margins for error get way smaller. And that’s when these foundational principles really start to matter.