Fixing my Overswing

[wrx_junki]

Okay so I have an excessive overswing and trying to cut down. I practice in front of a mirror at home but when I goto the range and course all hell breaks loose. If I try to bring back my club back slowly then I have no rhythm to hit the ball.
Also, my clubhead bounces below parallel at the top even during the practice swings. When I see videos the pros clubhead never bounces. Should I be keeping a firmer wrist so its more controlled?
I used to hit my 7iron 160-170 last year whereas now I'm hitting it barely 150. It just feels to me that as I do things to fix my swings its just ruining my ballstriking. Lessons are out of the question since I barely afford public green fees, lunch, and gas.

[ks8829]

Do what I do and hit short pitches to 30 yards on a grassy field. Its easy on the body, its free and it will help your game more than pounding a large bucket of balls.

The ideal is you are searching for the perfect one piece take away backswing so that you will make consistent solid contact with the ball.

Now the trick is to tuck your right elbow against your body and practicing chipping with the club no farther back then parallel to the ground. Your feet should be very close together or just slight apart. Once the club is taken back with your elbow against your body you will notice that the club will automatically lift off the ground and once you take the club back in a one piece take away and you are parallel to the ground the toe of the wedge should be pointing to the sky or upward.

Now you are ready to release the club forward and make solid contact with the golf ball when you do this you should also hear a click sound of the ball making contact with the club face.

Practice this motion until you can consistenly make solid contact and feel confident.

Now you are ready to move on to a fuller swing. now take the club back in a one piece take away parallel to the ground and the toe toward the sky, now break your wrist and lift up the club while the shoulder and hips turn fully and the club is parallel to the ground in a full backswing motion. This backswing motion is best done in slow motion so that your ensure a full turn of your shoulders and hips.

Now that you are fully coiled in your backswing, simple release with your hips first and uncoil effortless without any effort and the club will automatically make solid contact with the ball everytime.

Now, try this same swing with higher clubs and you have found your tempo and feel for a full swing.

Now, you only need to work on the direction because you will make solid contact the distance will be consistent

just my 2 cents

[$2 Nassau]

I assume that is a picture of you in your avatar? Looks very similar to my playing partner in my league. He plays to an 8 handicap...his swing is probably longer than yours. Sometimes the clubhead on his driver will touch his left knee on the backswing.

He doesn't try to swing like that it just happens...he is a small flexible guy, he swings very smooth and in control. He tried some years back to scale it down and just could not do it. It has more to do with his wrist hinge at the top of the swing than brining his arms back too far. He hits a 7i around 175.

Do you feel like you are overswinging? Is this natural? I can see maybe scaling it down just a touch, but otherwise...most people would kill for that flexibility. I say as long as you are in control stick with it for now and just slowly, over time, try to scale it back.

Going cold turkey will probably never work.

[realed]

I used to have an overswinging problem and it looked similar to yours in your avatar. I am actually impressed that your clubhead goes that far. My swing is more compact now and I actually just get short of parallel now at top.

My problem was (and it may be the same for you) that I let my hips turn too much with my backswing (almost a sway to the point of a reverse pivot). Try focusing on staying a bit centered on the ball where your head doesn't move too far back and focus on turning against your hips (you should feel tons of tension in your right leg) - you shouldn't be able to over swing this way. Once I fixed my overswing problem, I was able to get more distance out of my swings with all the torque i was creating. Hope this makes sense. I couldn't even swing past parallel now unless I let my hips move with my backswing.

[jambalaya]

I am with realed here. It looks as if you straightened your right leg and just let your hips and right leg go where it may. Partly a slide as well as rotation back. Way too much movement down there. Keep the same flex in your right knee throughout your backswing and set your right leg solidly. As you turn back you should feel tension on the inside of your right leg from the ground up. You shoulders will turn more than your hips. You don't need a big hip turn but let the shoulders turn as much as flexibility will allow. It is hard to tell how much of going past parallel is due to good shoulder flexibility or a really big lift of the arms. Probably a bit of both. Shoulder turn is good, a lot of lift of the arms makes it hard to get them back in sync with the body turn. Keep experimenting and asking questions.