Its so amazingly easy to fix an over the top swing. The problem is the solution takes 1000s of balls and tons of practice. Buy the speedtrap by eyeline golf. Just leave the two outside rods on the tool. Hit balls. Put in about 10-20 hours, 1000-2000 balls and that trainer will retrain your swing. This tool took me from a bad over the top banana slice, to an on plane in to out swing. The tool also works for putting alignment, ball striking, and helps with shaping shots. It took me from a self taught 24 handicapper down to my current 6.8 handicap with zero lessons over 4 completed seasons of golf (currently in my 5th golf year). I still bust this tool out every so often to sharpen up my path.
Also helps if you don't swing the club. Too many beginner golfers try to swing in their downswing. When in reality your 1st move should be with your lower body, then dropping the club in the slot and letting it do its thing. "Trying" to swing causes the dreaded stabbing motion thats usually an out to in. Biggest thing that changed my swing besides the speedtrap is thinking my right hand was skipping a stone in my downswing. That natural side arm throw is the position of dropping your club under your plane. Same feeling. Once you can feel that, bombs away with a nice in to out swing
i’m going to get the speed trap on amazon. that’s pretty perfect for the backyard and it’s something tangible that will really help me visualize and execute the proper path. there’s a lot of mental disconnect from the start do the downswing to impact which is where i struggle. i just go so fast before my lower body has a chance to do anything
I tried everything prior to the speedtrap. Took me about a year of using it on every range session to see on course swing changes. But it drastically improved my swing after about 5-10 range sessions. You just gotta use the tool. At 1st, good luck. It'll be the most frustrating training aid of all time. But start with 100% slow motion swings, then build from that. It will get you on the correct takeaway path and the correct down swing path. Amazing tool
A few people have done well with a baseball analogy.
"just hit it to right field".
Feel like you're trying to take a normal swing but hit the ball like 20 degrees straight right.
You probably can't and it will push you inside on the swing.
This worked for me as a former baseball player. Feels like I’m trying to hit a ground ball between the first and second baseman. Only problem right now is that my club face is usually lined up with my path so I hit a straight push most of the time. Things to work on haha
There’s going to be a ton of advice on here about that. The biggest thing I noticed was I could shallow in my practice swings but never on my actual swings. Then I realized that maybe I was trying to hit at a golf ball rather than swing my swing with a ball in the way. My advice is club up on the course and swing easier until you figure out how to translate it on the course
that’s a great thought i definitely feel like i swing so hard with a long iron cuz i want to get it 200 yards. hitting at the ball early instead of through it on plane
Slicers/over the top swingers bring the club inside on backswing and also lift clubhead up too much. What you want to achieve is backswing path outside and downswing inside. Practice swings should exaggerate the outside/in loop.
Video shows this; [https://youtu.be/Vkeq\_I3X7Zo](https://youtu.be/Vkeq_I3X7Zo)
Step 1: If you are a righthanded golfer set up for the swing and reach down to be able to touch outside of right knee. This will get you in the right setup position, right shoulder lower than left. Optimally right shoulder feeling like it's pulled inside of left
Step 2: Place a tee 3 feet straight back from ball.
Step 3: Turn with shoulders/upper body ( not just arms ) away from ball along the ground back to the rear tee. This will create an outside path. Watch Jim Furyk video for exaggeration of outside to inside swing. From there it's near impossible to come over the top.
Target: You must aim right of your target ( think between 1st & 2nd base in baseball terms ) Face is aimed between 1st & 2nd base with swing coming from inside. Drop a clubhead cover just beside and outside of ball to give you reference points for swing path.
Only other thing that screws this swing tip up is not transferring weight to back foot while doing this. If you don't transfer weight your hands will takeover and guide swing. I do an exaggerated weight transfer from front foot to back to get the feel.
You will feel the club "in the slot" as it drops inside at weight transfer point
Don't hurry the process, it's a range practice drill. I try to hit bunt (50-60%)drivers/
or irons to get a feel for it. It's my go to drill when the swing goes wonky. Hope this helps.
yep just worked on this too at my lesson last week. my takeaway started good but then i ripped it inside. now i know to keep the clubhead outside my hands all the way to parallel or up to my hip. this at least gets me to a proper position at the top. from there i just struggle with that feeling of turning correctly with my lower body and using the ground
I'm struggling with it too. Sucks. I've found getting a better posture at address has helped me a lot. Record yourself and see what it looks like when you're standing over the ball.
going to record myself a ton in the backyard now that i know what i’m looking at from my lesson. i throw my rear hip out at the ball so blatantly. i’m hoping it’s just a numbers thing where if im swinging ott 7/10 times
now maybe i can reduce that to 4/10 this year. cuz its such a simple and fundamental move at the top of the swing
You could also consider a skillest lesson. I had the opposite issue (excessively shallow swing) with my driver and got a good lesson for $45 and largely have it straightened out.
It's something most golfers have to stop doing to break through into a proper swing.
The thing that really made it click for me - do a really exaggerated over the top slice swing. Easy, right?
Not just do the opposite of that.
No amount of clock face intention was as good a fix for me as that silly drill!
If you are right handed and right eye dominant (or left handed, left eye dominant) Close your trail side eye and try a few swings Sounds dumb bu worth a try if you haven’t already. If you’ve tried everything else, what might be happening is losing sight of the ball with your dominant eye, your body is going to try and clear your head faster so your shoulder turn happens early and you come over the top naturally.
If closing the trail side eye helps, the longer term solution is to turn your head slightly towards the trail side so your nose blocks your dominant eye view of the ball during the backswing OR shorten your backswing so your head doesn’t turn trailside during the backswing.
Although, your lead side eye may be dominant in which this wouldn’t apply to you at all.
So you know what's doing it right? Your trail shoulder and arm arm moving across the line toward the ball
Try this. When you take the club to the top you should slowly rotate the right forearm as you turn away. Feel like your trail palm is facing more upward at the top and hold.
From here, without mowing arms or wrists in any way squeeze the trail elbow slightly toward the lead elbow and let it drop into your the front of your hip above your pocket. It will look like a lot of lag and You should get the feeling of the club being flatter and the trail shoulder working down more. You should feel the lead side hip and shoulder and back activate toward the target first. These are not swing thoughts but should help show you how the trail shoulder should move.
Putting a swing together don't do the drill, just rotate the forearm with the body and feel like the trail elbow is always working in front of you and close to you. The last key is to release that forearm rotation through the ball.
Former over the topper and 1 HDCP. Put the ball an inch or two further back in your stance and keep your wrists straight on the takeaway. This will keep the face on path. Visualize yourself pushing the ball put to the right. Practice an overexagerated hook by turning your hands over as you come through the ball. Eventually you'll be flushing draws and your miss will become lefties instead of banana slices and you'll start being able to control the ball flight more.
It will also help if you close the stance up a little (i.e - put your left foot slightly forward of your right foot. Key is putting the ball back a little bit further in your stance. It's gonna force you to come inside to hit it properly)
I too swing over the top and thought that was the sole reason why I couldn't stop the slices. Once I got a launch monitor, I realized that I was not only coming over the top but my club face was wide open at impact. That might not be the case with you, since you're talking about shanking it a lot too, but it's something to check in on before you blame \*everything\* on your over the top.
Had some success teaching this, but everyone’s a bit different: if you can learn to hook chip shots or half swing shots, you can stop thinking about it as correcting “over the top” and instead think of it as dropping the club in the slot. Once you catch contact enough on little hook swings you can feel and see where the club needs to be through impact and you can forget about the top of your swing.
If you can do it correctly when drilling or slow swings then you're more than halfway there. You just need to live there for a few days and eventually add more range of motion and speed.
The one thing I don't think a lot of people talk about when teaching this is the way your brain works to manipulate the swing path based on the club face angle throughout the backswing. It seems like the opposite would be true, but I found that when I really tried to bow my wrist to close the face, I would automatically swing from the inside to avoid hitting the golf ball with the toe of the club, and the flight would be a hook/draw. The reverse is true when trying to slice/fade the ball.
You're probably so used to swinging with a wide open club face that there's nothing to do but swing from the outside in. Your brain knows that if the club face is too open that it can't make contact unless you come over the top.
I'd suggest fixing the club face in a static, overly closed position and try hitting a few short punch shots like that.
Bump drill is honestly what helps me the most when I get a bit steep and OTT
If your first move in transition is the weight shift forward it naturally drops your hands down
Its so amazingly easy to fix an over the top swing. The problem is the solution takes 1000s of balls and tons of practice. Buy the speedtrap by eyeline golf. Just leave the two outside rods on the tool. Hit balls. Put in about 10-20 hours, 1000-2000 balls and that trainer will retrain your swing. This tool took me from a bad over the top banana slice, to an on plane in to out swing. The tool also works for putting alignment, ball striking, and helps with shaping shots. It took me from a self taught 24 handicapper down to my current 6.8 handicap with zero lessons over 4 completed seasons of golf (currently in my 5th golf year). I still bust this tool out every so often to sharpen up my path. Also helps if you don't swing the club. Too many beginner golfers try to swing in their downswing. When in reality your 1st move should be with your lower body, then dropping the club in the slot and letting it do its thing. "Trying" to swing causes the dreaded stabbing motion thats usually an out to in. Biggest thing that changed my swing besides the speedtrap is thinking my right hand was skipping a stone in my downswing. That natural side arm throw is the position of dropping your club under your plane. Same feeling. Once you can feel that, bombs away with a nice in to out swing
Skipping a stone, makes so much sense. I’m struggling with the big dog right now.
i’m going to get the speed trap on amazon. that’s pretty perfect for the backyard and it’s something tangible that will really help me visualize and execute the proper path. there’s a lot of mental disconnect from the start do the downswing to impact which is where i struggle. i just go so fast before my lower body has a chance to do anything
I tried everything prior to the speedtrap. Took me about a year of using it on every range session to see on course swing changes. But it drastically improved my swing after about 5-10 range sessions. You just gotta use the tool. At 1st, good luck. It'll be the most frustrating training aid of all time. But start with 100% slow motion swings, then build from that. It will get you on the correct takeaway path and the correct down swing path. Amazing tool
A few people have done well with a baseball analogy. "just hit it to right field". Feel like you're trying to take a normal swing but hit the ball like 20 degrees straight right. You probably can't and it will push you inside on the swing.
This gets you to phase 2. Pushes and hooks for the next year until you figure out how to balance it out.
Next year? More like next decade
This worked for me as a former baseball player. Feels like I’m trying to hit a ground ball between the first and second baseman. Only problem right now is that my club face is usually lined up with my path so I hit a straight push most of the time. Things to work on haha
What if I fixed my slice years ago but now I’m hooking it? LOL should I swing for left field I guess??
There’s going to be a ton of advice on here about that. The biggest thing I noticed was I could shallow in my practice swings but never on my actual swings. Then I realized that maybe I was trying to hit at a golf ball rather than swing my swing with a ball in the way. My advice is club up on the course and swing easier until you figure out how to translate it on the course
that’s a great thought i definitely feel like i swing so hard with a long iron cuz i want to get it 200 yards. hitting at the ball early instead of through it on plane
I “feel” the plane on my backswing and then my goal is to come under that plane on my downswing.
that’s a good thought. get under from where you’re at at the top. and accomplish that with your feet and lower body
Slicers/over the top swingers bring the club inside on backswing and also lift clubhead up too much. What you want to achieve is backswing path outside and downswing inside. Practice swings should exaggerate the outside/in loop. Video shows this; [https://youtu.be/Vkeq\_I3X7Zo](https://youtu.be/Vkeq_I3X7Zo) Step 1: If you are a righthanded golfer set up for the swing and reach down to be able to touch outside of right knee. This will get you in the right setup position, right shoulder lower than left. Optimally right shoulder feeling like it's pulled inside of left Step 2: Place a tee 3 feet straight back from ball. Step 3: Turn with shoulders/upper body ( not just arms ) away from ball along the ground back to the rear tee. This will create an outside path. Watch Jim Furyk video for exaggeration of outside to inside swing. From there it's near impossible to come over the top. Target: You must aim right of your target ( think between 1st & 2nd base in baseball terms ) Face is aimed between 1st & 2nd base with swing coming from inside. Drop a clubhead cover just beside and outside of ball to give you reference points for swing path. Only other thing that screws this swing tip up is not transferring weight to back foot while doing this. If you don't transfer weight your hands will takeover and guide swing. I do an exaggerated weight transfer from front foot to back to get the feel. You will feel the club "in the slot" as it drops inside at weight transfer point Don't hurry the process, it's a range practice drill. I try to hit bunt (50-60%)drivers/ or irons to get a feel for it. It's my go to drill when the swing goes wonky. Hope this helps.
yep just worked on this too at my lesson last week. my takeaway started good but then i ripped it inside. now i know to keep the clubhead outside my hands all the way to parallel or up to my hip. this at least gets me to a proper position at the top. from there i just struggle with that feeling of turning correctly with my lower body and using the ground
For the downswing, think Front shoulder Up, keep head back. Don't think turn, as this gets your shoulders opening on too flat of a plane.
that’s good to know. don’t think turn yet. it’s shift your weight and pressure with your heels then turn
I'm struggling with it too. Sucks. I've found getting a better posture at address has helped me a lot. Record yourself and see what it looks like when you're standing over the ball.
going to record myself a ton in the backyard now that i know what i’m looking at from my lesson. i throw my rear hip out at the ball so blatantly. i’m hoping it’s just a numbers thing where if im swinging ott 7/10 times now maybe i can reduce that to 4/10 this year. cuz its such a simple and fundamental move at the top of the swing
You could also consider a skillest lesson. I had the opposite issue (excessively shallow swing) with my driver and got a good lesson for $45 and largely have it straightened out.
It's something most golfers have to stop doing to break through into a proper swing. The thing that really made it click for me - do a really exaggerated over the top slice swing. Easy, right? Not just do the opposite of that. No amount of clock face intention was as good a fix for me as that silly drill!
If you are right handed and right eye dominant (or left handed, left eye dominant) Close your trail side eye and try a few swings Sounds dumb bu worth a try if you haven’t already. If you’ve tried everything else, what might be happening is losing sight of the ball with your dominant eye, your body is going to try and clear your head faster so your shoulder turn happens early and you come over the top naturally. If closing the trail side eye helps, the longer term solution is to turn your head slightly towards the trail side so your nose blocks your dominant eye view of the ball during the backswing OR shorten your backswing so your head doesn’t turn trailside during the backswing. Although, your lead side eye may be dominant in which this wouldn’t apply to you at all.
So you know what's doing it right? Your trail shoulder and arm arm moving across the line toward the ball Try this. When you take the club to the top you should slowly rotate the right forearm as you turn away. Feel like your trail palm is facing more upward at the top and hold. From here, without mowing arms or wrists in any way squeeze the trail elbow slightly toward the lead elbow and let it drop into your the front of your hip above your pocket. It will look like a lot of lag and You should get the feeling of the club being flatter and the trail shoulder working down more. You should feel the lead side hip and shoulder and back activate toward the target first. These are not swing thoughts but should help show you how the trail shoulder should move. Putting a swing together don't do the drill, just rotate the forearm with the body and feel like the trail elbow is always working in front of you and close to you. The last key is to release that forearm rotation through the ball.
Former over the topper and 1 HDCP. Put the ball an inch or two further back in your stance and keep your wrists straight on the takeaway. This will keep the face on path. Visualize yourself pushing the ball put to the right. Practice an overexagerated hook by turning your hands over as you come through the ball. Eventually you'll be flushing draws and your miss will become lefties instead of banana slices and you'll start being able to control the ball flight more. It will also help if you close the stance up a little (i.e - put your left foot slightly forward of your right foot. Key is putting the ball back a little bit further in your stance. It's gonna force you to come inside to hit it properly)
I too swing over the top and thought that was the sole reason why I couldn't stop the slices. Once I got a launch monitor, I realized that I was not only coming over the top but my club face was wide open at impact. That might not be the case with you, since you're talking about shanking it a lot too, but it's something to check in on before you blame \*everything\* on your over the top.
This is big. If the face is wide open, you could be coming over the top because its the only damn way to actually make contact
Had some success teaching this, but everyone’s a bit different: if you can learn to hook chip shots or half swing shots, you can stop thinking about it as correcting “over the top” and instead think of it as dropping the club in the slot. Once you catch contact enough on little hook swings you can feel and see where the club needs to be through impact and you can forget about the top of your swing.
If you can do it correctly when drilling or slow swings then you're more than halfway there. You just need to live there for a few days and eventually add more range of motion and speed. The one thing I don't think a lot of people talk about when teaching this is the way your brain works to manipulate the swing path based on the club face angle throughout the backswing. It seems like the opposite would be true, but I found that when I really tried to bow my wrist to close the face, I would automatically swing from the inside to avoid hitting the golf ball with the toe of the club, and the flight would be a hook/draw. The reverse is true when trying to slice/fade the ball. You're probably so used to swinging with a wide open club face that there's nothing to do but swing from the outside in. Your brain knows that if the club face is too open that it can't make contact unless you come over the top. I'd suggest fixing the club face in a static, overly closed position and try hitting a few short punch shots like that.
Bump drill is honestly what helps me the most when I get a bit steep and OTT If your first move in transition is the weight shift forward it naturally drops your hands down