Over....The....Top!

[HytrewQasdfg]

Thanks guys. I know what I must do, but man, something inside of me just makes me want to smack the ball with my forearms and hands. When there is no ball there (practice swing), I feel like a pro: in balance all the way to a nice finish, smooth transition, etc etc. But, put that ball there, and uuuuhhhhhhhhh

An interesting drill for this was developed by the Gravity Golf guy (David Lee) called the crossfoot drill (I think he used to do it on one foot, but who can stand on one foot all day.)

Anyway, stand on your left foot and cross your right foot over the top of your left foot. Backswing and then downswing. If you use your arms to drive the downswing there is no way you can maintain your balance. You'll end up falling backwards or on your face. He has some "different" (as in strange) ideas about the right way to swing, but he has come up with some good drills for balance and eliminating the "hit" urge.

[Zeph]

Remove too much action with the upper body is one of the key points, definately, but you should at the same time make sure your swing plane is if anything, on the inside. If you get the club outside, you'll struggle to get it back in, even with good motions. You can see players like Garcia do this. He is outside the ball at the top of the backswing, but he lets his arms drop from the top, which gets the club back to the inside of the ball.

This may look confusing, but what you want to look at is the club and how it moves relative to the yellow line which goes through the ball and his head. When his hands point directly into the camera, a half swing, the club is parallell to the yellow line, but a few frames later, the club is angled 50-60º outside this line. If he'd just turned through from there, he'd come way over the top. The key move is dropping his hands to the inside from the top of the backswing so he can approach the ball from the inside and get it out there on the line. He also gets tremendous lag with this move, making him one of the longest hitters on the tour.



If you lay the club off like he does, you must drop the club back to the inside before speeding up. The alternative is to keep the club on the inside of the ball through the swing, or at least from the top and down, seen on the swing video below by Tiger. He gets it on the inside and keep that plane through the entire swing.

[misty_mountainhop]

Remove too much action with the upper body is one of the key points, definately, but you should at the same time make sure your swing plane is if anything, on the inside. If you get the club outside, you'll struggle to get it back in, even with good motions. You can see players like Garcia do this. He is outside the ball at the top of the backswing, but he lets his arms drop from the top, which gets the club back to the inside of the ball.

Sergio's hands dropping into "the slot" on the way through is a natural product of his lower body triggering the downswing; you can't help but have your hands do this with his leg/hip action. In fact, I'd bet on a more Garcia-like drop the more outside the line on the way back you go; one problem for lesser players with a takeaway like that is a lack of shoulder turn. Sergio has a lot more wrist action than Tiger in those videos as well; Tiger's wrist action looks a lot more restricted which may explain the less obvious two-plane swing. I'm not enough of an expert on swing analysis but I do know that if you want to avoid an over-the-top move, you want to be legs/hips dominant at the start of the downswing.

[Zeph]

I haven't read any comments from Sergio on his swing, but it doesn't look like the hips and leg action is pulling his arms in that way. If you swing to the top of the backswing and from there push and turn the hips, the arms will follow, but not drop down like Sergio does. Tiger's got good hip and leg action, but his arms doesn't drop anywhere as much as Sergio's.

[PingGKEN]

Wow, guys, I heard one little tidbit about the downswing that I think is going to help me a lot! It read like this: After a proper backswing, (which I am working on), you need to think about getting your hands "to the area that your left hip vacated".

I have always "thrown my arms at the ball" causing extreme OTT and shanks. This little bit of info gave me some of the best ball striking Ive ever had at the range yesterday. Much lower ball flight than before. I sensed the clubhead trailing as I brought my hands down and in. I think this is something that I have been missing out on for a while. Can't wait to go back and work on it some more.

What do you have to say about this particular swing thought?

[TN94z]

Wow, guys, I heard one little tidbit about the downswing that I think is going to help me a lot! It read like this: After a proper backswing, (which I am working on), you need to think about getting your hands "to the area that your left hip vacated".

Whatever helps "you" get in the right positions. It doesn't really matter what the swing thought is, as long as it helps you

[Zeph]

If it works, great. A huge part of fighting a move over the top is getting the arms and hands closer to the body on the downswing. This will let you deloft the club and create lag. It's a mental thing as well as a technical.
Another drill I've read is that you let the hands brush your right hip as they come down. You don't want to hit them, of course, but it's something you can focus on. Making a more downward move with the hands instead of out.

Weight placement and stance is also a part in all of this. If you are hunched over the ball and have the weight on the balls of the feet (like I do), it's harder to let the arms swing freely.

Something that I like to focus on when working on this is where my hands point. The club is held at an angle, so I want to be on the inside of the ball. If my hands point at or outside the ball on the downswing, the club as no option but to come over the top. You can go to Youtube and look at videos of Tiger, Hogan, Nicklaus etc. The hands always point somewhere from straight down to halfways to the ball. I'll show on a picture below. The club is attached to the arms, so it's simply a product of what the arms does. Trying to ignore the club and just focus on the proper movement and placement of the arms can help you fight the over the top move. It's common to throw the club at the ball, creating a straight line from the left arm, through the shaft and down on the ball. You want there to be an angle at the hands where the arms point inside of the ball and the position of the club in your grip takes care of keeping the club square.

[nlowplacez]

watch a swing vision of somebod like jim furyk. his hands are practically in his pockets on the downswing. great for two plane swings, or in his case EXTREME two plane. Tiger used to have more of a reach for the ball, because his hips were so far gone by impact his hands couldnt be close to them. his action is a little closer to furyks now. and most good strikers have hands close to the body on downswing. very very few amateurs do this. hmm, wonder why that is.

[RC]

Stop the video of Sergio on the downswing when his club is almost level to the ground (not quite to 90 degrees from the ball.) Note two key things: (1) his hands are already near his right pants pocket and below the clubhead, and (2) he has already opened up his hips and you can clearly see both hip cheeks. If you want power, there it is. His club has not yet gotten to within 90 degrees of the ball and he has already turned more than 99 percent of golfers, clearing out the left hip. He has an amazingly powerful body swing.

Not everyone can get into Sergio's position, but almost everyone can turn their hips more before impact. From his position in the video, I cannot imagine how he could come over the top on that shot. That is why I think the clearing turn is the key stopping the "hit" impulse and OTT move.