Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
How can you stop swinging over the top? Well first let’s understand what swinging over the top is. Swinging over the top is very common actually an awful lot of golfers will have an over the top swing, what we imply by that is that, they have got a good setup, and the backswing is coming back up on a reasonable line with sort of on-plane here, but then the downswing is over the top, in front of the plane and now it is coming down too steeply, so we see a loop, a classic sort of over the top loop. Now the problem with the over the top loop is if the club is coming off line into the ball its probably going to cause one of two shots, maybe a pull down the left side or a big fade from left to right, turning into a slice and missing the right to the target. So having an over the top golf swing definitely isn’t a great thing to have.
Now one of the biggest reasons why people have an over the top swing, is from the top of the backswing they start their downswing by rotating, their upper body too soon, so from the front they swing back and then they rotate their upper body and they bring the club in front of them then chop down on the ball from an over the top position. And actually a better way of approaching this would be to start your downswing, using your lower body, so from a good address position, nicely wound up to the top then start the downswing, moving your lower body into the target and not your upper body. So from the top, lower body goes first that creates a lot of space, a lot of room and allows the club to come more down on the inside rather than over the top. So from down the line now looking at this again, up to the top, start with the hips and the lower body, and the club drops in behind that can now attack the ball from the inside position rather than starting the swing with the upper body which brings this over the top. So if you understand what an over the top swing is, and you can understand how the lower body can start to move out of the way first to stop the upper body dominating, then the lower body can allow the club to come more down on the inside, hit through in a better squarer line and actually hit straighter golf shots by starting the downswing with the lower body. 2015-04-01 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
How can you stop swinging over the top? Well first let’s understand what swinging over the top is. Swinging over the top is very common actually an awful lot of golfers will have an over the top swing, what we imply by that is that, they have got a good setup, and the backswing is coming back up on a reasonable line with sort of on-plane here, but then the downswing is over the top, in front of the plane and now it is coming down too steeply, so we see a loop, a classic sort of over the top loop. Now the problem with the over the top loop is if the club is coming off line into the ball its probably going to cause one of two shots, maybe a pull down the left side or a big fade from left to right, turning into a slice and missing the right to the target. So having an over the top golf swing definitely isn’t a great thing to have.
Now one of the biggest reasons why people have an over the top swing, is from the top of the backswing they start their downswing by rotating, their upper body too soon, so from the front they swing back and then they rotate their upper body and they bring the club in front of them then chop down on the ball from an over the top position. And actually a better way of approaching this would be to start your downswing, using your lower body, so from a good address position, nicely wound up to the top then start the downswing, moving your lower body into the target and not your upper body. So from the top, lower body goes first that creates a lot of space, a lot of room and allows the club to come more down on the inside rather than over the top. So from down the line now looking at this again, up to the top, start with the hips and the lower body, and the club drops in behind that can now attack the ball from the inside position rather than starting the swing with the upper body which brings this over the top. So if you understand what an over the top swing is, and you can understand how the lower body can start to move out of the way first to stop the upper body dominating, then the lower body can allow the club to come more down on the inside, hit through in a better squarer line and actually hit straighter golf shots by starting the downswing with the lower body.
