Over the Top Golf Swing

by Louis Esselen
(owner golfswingfeeling.com)

Coming over the top with your golf swing refers to the incorrect move you make when beginning the down swing.

This seems to be a very dominant and misunderstood move done by most golfers who are slicers of the ball.

The major cause of this move is starting the down swing with a dominant right shoulder or upper body. This is usually associated with trying to hit the ball too hard.

The right shoulder turns back to the ball too parallel to the ground. This move pushes the arms and hands away from your body and sets the path of the club head to swing back down to impact at a steep angle downwards and across to the left of your intended target.

Deep divots that face left of your target are a sign of this incorrect swing path.

Solving an over the top golf swing

You need to understand the shoulders do not play any active role in the golf swing. They are followers of what the the hands are doing. They should be passive at all times during the swing.

The only stroke that needs any domination from the shoulders is putting.

Understanding one simple move of the right shoulder will solve an over the top swing. The first move the right shoulder makes in the downswing should be downwards towards your right hip, instead of outwards.

A good way to practice this is not to focus on what the right shoulder is doing but to rather feel where the hands are and feel them move downwards towards the right hip.

This move will pull your right shoulder into a steeper angle downwards at impact.(a position all good players are in at impact). The hands will have the feeling of approaching the ball from your right pocket and inside the target line. Your right elbow should move toward your right hip.

A great feeling here is feel the hands square the club face into the ball instead of the shoulders.

Take a look at this page where you can see photos of this move.

I have a loop in my Downswing?

by Louis Esselen

I have a fairly flat swing and keep my right elbow in tight, but I feel like I am looping at the top of my back swing into my down swing because and I see a outside/in divot most of the time. How do I prevent this action and improve my swing path into the ball?

Louis's answer:
It is most important to understand a little about ball flight laws here.

Firstly , you are aware that you are swinging from the outside to inside, or to put this into simpler terms, you are swing across your target line with your arms swinging left of your target line and staying close to the left side of your body when you swing through the ball. This is the typical "cut action" which is also familiar in the cut shot in tennis.

We know from this action the ball will always spin off to the right for a right handed player.

You need to reverse this action in order to get the opposite effect.

Now for your particular swing action I would suggest two actions to try.

If your right elbow is tucked into your side on the back swing you need to make sure it stays there in the down swing to impact for your club head to follow an inside path back to the ball. This will give you a straighter ball flight or perhaps a draw shot which will curve slightly to the left of your target.

The advantage you have here is that the arms swing together in sync with you upper body which essentially gives you a feeling of developing a good powerful action.

With the outside to inside swing path, the body is in the way so it becomes easier to re-route the arms away from the body on the down swing, hence the out to it swing path.

The other option to follow is by swinging back with the right elbow against the right side, and once your club shaft reaches the halfway point in the back swing or is parallel to the ground, the right elbow should leave the right side so that you can develop some width in the back swing.

It would become essential to return the right elbow to your right side half way in the down swing. This will give you a feeling of more power and width in the down swing and an inside to square to in swing path.

Your divots will also straighten out and aim towards your intended target.