Overswinging...yay or nay?

[Chillmoon91]

I noticed recently I have a bit of an overswing with my driver, irons are fine. I dont reverse pivot and stay pretty connected because Im flexible, so I was wondering is it a bad thing if you avoid these problems? Daly, mcilroy and phil all overswing with their drivers, now I know their outrageously talented but are there other problems caused by overswinging? What you think? give me some drills to help if you,re not a fan of overswinging

[Chillmoon91]

anyone.....?

[GaijinGolfer]

Overswinging causes problems because no matter how much you may FEEL like you are staying on-balance, on-temp and on-plane; chances are you arent. Swinging harder is giving you minimal added distance at best and its costing you accuracy.
For all us amateurs, "swing easy" is the only way to go.

[nuck81]

Here is what I was taught when it was time to add more power to shots.

Frst you should not over swing on the back swing as it introduces all kinds of problems.

I was taught to give more "help" to the downswing.

An anology I was given was to imagine you were pushing someone in a swing. If you want them to go higher and faster you don't try to push them higher on the way up so they have farther to fall, you push them on the way down giving more energy to the natural momentum of their downswing. The same though and feeling should be given to the golfswing, particularly through impact.

[James_Black]

They don't overswing that much (apart from daly)

The problem isn't only over swinging, it's that they lose all their width when the start the down-swing and actually lose power.

[Adumb]

It's a complicated question because some pros have mastered and many amateurs have butchered it. A lot of long drivers do the overswing in fact. However, I've found that the problem is mechanics. Even if you have the flexibility and are able to let the head of the driver come last and have perfect timing with your wrists, the overswing changes everything. You have to maintain a larger wrist angle and the toughest part is getting your downswing on the right line. Like James said, it's actually pretty easy to lose power on the downswing. It's up to you how you want to go about it, if it feels more natural, go for it. But I'm not sold on the fact that you will extend your drives by 50 yards and be an extremely long hitter. Look at Camillo bombing them 340-350 yrds sometimes, and he doesn't even take a full backswing. Basically do what works for you and try to improve on that. Swing speed simply takes practice. I drive anywhere from 240-320 yrds if the conditions are right, and I take a pretty normal backswing. I've tried the overswing and could never get it to work even if I hit it straight, I still didn't hit it any longer. Having said that, it's not to say that it won't work for you, so give it a try at the driving range and see if it works. Good luck!