When you swing Coming Over The Top with your golf swing you will have the tenancy to pull, slice or shank the ball and will never attain the perfect golf swing. Coming Over The Top is the most common mistake for amateur golfers and most of them do not know how to correct this common golf swing flaw. Basically, the problem is swinging over the top instead of staying on the same golf plane during the down swing.

Coming Over The Top - Why does it happen?

It's all about controlling the golf swing.

The golf swing is a chain reaction event. What you do at set up determines what you do on the takeaway. What you do on the takeaway determined what happens half way back on the swing. What happens halfway back in the swing determines what happens at the top of the swing and continuing on to impact. So you can see, that if you do not begin the gofl swing correctly, it will have a compounding negative effect causing you to come over the top.


So How Can You Fix Coming Over the Top?


The first place to look to correct coming over the top is the set up. Most people that I see that have this problem set up with their feet closed and shoulders open which is a very contradicting set up position. This inevitably causes an improper takeaway where the golfer breaks the wrist prematurly and pulls the club back (inside) insteat of away. This creates a very flat swing plane with the club shaft pointing way out past the ball. The premature rotating of the shoulders during the takeaway is the main cause of Coming Over The Top.

At halfway point of the swing, you want your left arm to be straight and parallel with the ground and the club shaft pointing to about where the ball is laying or slightly inside. The improper position will inevitably prevent the golfer from hitting the ball at all, so they over compensate by bringing the club over the top to hit the golf ball. Basically your subsconscinece mind is forcing a compensation by swinging over the top in order to make contact with the ball.

Video by Nick Bayley

The Simple Solution:

• The takeaway position must have the left arm straight and parallel to the fround.
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• Keep the club shaft inside the golf ball at the proper takeaway position.
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• Use a slight hand rotation at the top of the back swing.
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Watch this video to see the correct way to avoid Coming Over The Top.

This virtually eliminates any possibility of slicing the golf ball.

J. Cavell
September 22,2008

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