Rob S. flew into Charlotte to see me for an afternoon golf lesson. In the interview session with him, I found out he in his mid-40s, works out a lot and is in extremely good shape. Hr does Pilates so he's extremely supple and flexible. He told me that at his best he's been about a 3 handicap but right now was struggling like crazy to be a good 10. After studying the Peal Performance Golf Swing he decided to come in and get a really good work over and fine tuning.
After I evaluated his set up and swing on my form and videotaped his swing, the video revealed simply and plainly why he comes over the top, the outside to in swing path. When I started showing it to him he could not believe what he was seeing. The problem was his backswing. He was so supple and flexible. He was turning his shoulders well past 90 degrees. He could not believe it when he saw it. He thought he was making a perfect limited turn, with his left arm being over his toe line. He was so far past it into the Sacred Burial Ground. it was beyond belief for him. He thought he had such a good backswing.
The easiest thing to say is that if you're coming over the top you have one or two major issues. Alignment, you're aiming to the right, if you're right handed, or to the left if you're left handed. You have to come over the top to pull the ball back to the line and/or you're turning too much. It's one of those two or a combination of both.
Even if you're aiming to the right and making the big turn, that will cause you to come over a lot more, because you have farther to come back to the line to swing down the aiming line. If you're only coming over the top a little, it's very likely you're turning too much and getting deep in the Sacred Burial Ground.
The issue gets bigger if you're more supple and flexible. Women are, by nature, more supple and flexible than men, and boys and girls are because of their youth. Then, when you add that many golfers, especially us seniors, are trying to keep ourselves in good shape with a good diet and working out for strength and conditioning as well as flexibility, well, we're getting more flexible. What we don't realize is that this flexibility is allowing us to make more turn without us knowing we're really doing it.
I can't tell you how many senior golfers I've worked with that feel they're not supple or flexible and it never enters their mind that turning too much is the cause of their balls getting blocked to the right or pulled to left or hitting chunks and thins, or even losing control of their control of their golf swing. It never dawns on them that they could be too flexible. When we videotape them and see them way inside toe line, it's mind boggling to them.
If you've been working out and getting more flexible, pay attention to and check out if, in fact, you're staying with as limited turn, 3/4 backswing, because it's amazing how many golfers I keep running into who have no concept that they could ever over swing because they're not supple enough when, in fact, they are able to get back into the Sacred Burial Ground.
Rob learned, in this lesson, that his suppleness and flexibility was way more than he imagined. As many of our students have learned, when I video tape their swings, they are more flexible than they think. The key is to know, if you're coming over the top, take a look at the amount of turn you're making in your backswing.
IN almost all regards, after alignment, the #1 cause of coming over the top is too much turn into the backswing. So either get a camera and video tape yourself, have someone look at you, or maybe even to some shadow swinging. The best thing to do is get a camera.
There are the HD Flip cameras and now Kodak has a new version, called the HD Kodak vi8. It's no bigger than your smart phone, but the beauty of the vi8, you can do stop action and slow motion right on the camera. You don't have to download it into your computer. Prices range between $150 and $200.
Most of you suffer from over the top, and over the top means too much turn. Remember, the key to swinging on-on-and-on is to turn only to the toe line.
The Surge!