Flat shoulders = over the top? ( two photos )

[Kieran123]

Hi guys,

I REALLY want to fix my over the top move - from pulls to blocks to the occasional balloon slice - it is driving me crazy

Below are two photos. One at address showing shoulder angle, then second at the top of my swing again showing shoulder angle.

My address angle is a lot steeper than my transition position.

What can I do to keep that same shoulder angle on the downswing?

[Stretch]

Let your right leg straighten more. Will free your hips to turn on a more tilted angle, which should also help with the shoulder plane.

[Kieran123]

Originally Posted by Stretch

Let your right leg straighten more. Will free your hips to turn on a more tilted angle, which should also help with the shoulder plane.

Ok cool. Would a good thought to have be that my left shoulder stays on a line in front of the ball ( ie. at a point an inch towards my body )

[guiseppe]

I struggle with the same problem.  I worked with my pro on it and she would make me hit balls with only one thought:  make sure the club head comes from the inside.  She didnt care where the ball went; she just wanted me to feel that angle of attack.  We did it for 3 hours taking breaks to chip and put and rest.  Whenever I would try to slip some other thought in, she would pull me back and say:  the ONLY thing I want you to do is come from the inside.

She is a firm believer in "I can't tell you what it feels like to do it..."  So, she tells me what I need to do and asks me for feedback as to how it feels.  Once I started coming from the inside consistently she asked me what I was feeling and we used that as the swing thought.

This works for me: If the front of the ball is 12:00, concentrate on hitting it at 7:00 (or the back inside 1/4 or some other variation of that).   Once you do that, you will have your own "feel" or swing thought that necessarily makes it really really hard to come over the top.

[saevel25]

Yes a flatter swing can cause an over the top move. The reason is that the left shoulder will get closer to the ball than needed, this throws the club outward. You can get away with it, if your able to drop the club down, or maybe reorient the swing on a better plane. But a flatter swing is tougher to work with, especially if your shoulders are the reason for the flat swing.