over the top

[johalco]

Have been playing golf for several years and can't seem to stop the over the top swing path. if anyone has any ideas how to stop this i would love to hear from you.


Thanks

John

[BrianW]

Re: over the top

Work on this drill:

Stand as if addressing a ball with a club (Don't use a club though) and have the palms of your hands together. keep your left hand out in front of you and take your right hand back as if you were making a backswing. From the top swing your right hand back and clap it into your static left hand. Repeat this action a number of times.

You will notice that you do not bring your right hand over the top in this action, you will make a perfect golf swing without any conscious effort. Keep repeating the drill so that you pick up on the correct natural feel of swinging down on an inside arc. It can be good to do this a few times before actually addressing a ball.

[cyc53870]

Re: over the top

I remember good ol' Golfone (why hasn't he been posting lately?) wrote that the feeling of the downswing (so as to avoid coming over the top) is that of bowling, not tennis...

[BrianW]

Re: over the top

Or:

Read 3 skills, that shows you how to sort it out

[ogallalabob]

Re: over the top

Some instructors recomend using a baseball bat to practice your swing. That way you can see your swing path. I would also focuse on the take away. Most problems occure there and the over the top is just a correction or result of too far outside take away. Take the club back on more inside a path.

[jambalaya]

Re: over the top

If I could somehow keep my front shoulder pinned back as I execute my backswing it would all but eliminate my over the top move.

[kbp]

Re: over the top

IMO, for a lot of folks over the top is due to poor lower body work, specifically, the right hip blocking the inside path to the ball because it is not turning through impact (or not at all even).

Set up on the ball in your desired IMPACT position.... hips open, left leg mostly straight, right leg bent, right knee kicked down and in and up even with the ball, shoulders basically square, left wrist straight, right wrist cupped. Move from there to the top of the backswing and then back down to impact. Back and forth, in balance, keeping the spine angle. See how the parts move, where the weight is, the flexing of the joints along the way, that makes the move possible, especially the right side knee action and the right hip movement. The right front of the hip and the hands sort of "meeting up" at the ball and moving through impact.

[BrianW]

Re: over the top

You need to take back in the downswing what you put in the backswing, with a little more at impact. The final move in the backswing should be the first move in the downswing.

Work out the sequence and you will get it right. The clapping drill I mentioned earlier (Plagiarised from 3 skills) is also a good drill to get the right feel as is the "Pump It Drill"
http://www.progolflesson.com/drills/pump.wmv

[jbrunk]

Re: over the top

Have been playing golf for several years and can't seem to stop the over the top swing path. if anyone has any ideas how to stop this i would love to hear from you.


Thanks

John

You swing over the top to play your too open clubface. Fix you clubface first and then you won't need to come OTT. Don't let it open too much on the backswing transition or downswing. And forearm rotation is your friend.

[gman4500]

Re: over the top

check out http://golfvideos.blogspot.com/ 'gravity swing vid' about midway thru he talks about slack in the right shoulder joint caused by jamming it in the backswing and how it jolts out of plane in transition. works for me. good luck.

[jambalaya]

Re: over the top

check out http://golfvideos.blogspot.com/ 'gravity swing vid' about midway thru he talks about slack in the right shoulder joint caused by jamming it in the backswing and how it jolts out of plane in transition. works for me. good luck.

The video was removed. Who was the instructor?

[golfunderrepair]

Re: over the top

Swinging over the top and striking the ball from only 3° on the outside of the line loses 10 metres of distance, by comparison hitting 3° on the inside line loses only 2 metres. The majority of pros who have contracts with Taylor Made who were studied are hitting at 0° or slightly inside. (Golf Laboratories used a robot to hit balls which were analysed by a TrackMan and all the results are in September's Golf Digest).

Combining this with compensation golfers make by opening the club face creating some really cool slices and you have a total loss of distance which is enormous.

The first drill suggested by Brian is great. Bringing the club up correctly on the backswing at least means you are giving yourself a chance of hitting the ball in the inside as you come down on it.

Good luck.

Tim.

[golfunderrepair]

Re: over the top

Okay, maybe we are both correct. A swing from the outside to the inside produces a descending phase strike whereas a swing from the inside out produces an ascending phase strike. So in principle two players with the same club head speed can have a big difference in distance (questions of shaping the ball aside).

As for the stats, Golf Laboratories Inc. had a robot swing a club at 170 km/h which created a ball speed of 225 km/h at impact then measured the results with a TrackMan and published this month in Golf Digest France.

At 0°, or a neutral strike the launch angle was 12° for a 203 metre carry. As the strike was modified to the outside the launch angle decreased. So for a strike of 9° from the outside to the inside the launch angle came down to 4.6° for a carry of 160 metres (the roll factor was always between about 15 and 20 metres).

Although I'm not a statistic fiend, I found these interesting. I understood from the original post as this being problem but if it's not, then my apologies.

[BrianW]

Re: over the top

Its all about loft. An open face increases loft and sends the ball higher, a closed face reduces loft and sends the ball lower. This is why slices soar and hooks dive.