Hi, my name is Jim Roy, former PGA and Champions
Tour player, and I'm here in Syracuse, New York, at my home course, Bellevue Country
Club. In this video, I want to address 'coming over
the top'. My students, a lot of them struggle with this,
and I want to touch on a couple reasons why I think people struggle with this, and hopefully
give you some ideas and some feels that can get you back on track. First of all, let's talk about, what is 'coming
over the top'? So, most of us are aware that when we take
the club up to the top of our swing, we'd like the club to start down, pretty much straight
down, and to deliver the club from the inside. Coming over the top, I see a lot of people,
their first move from the top, the club jets out here, and once it goes out there, it's
not coming back.
So, what does that do? It causes the path to continue on this way,
across and to the left, and in order to hit it, I see a lot of you backing out of the
shot because you feel like you have to, and you really do, once that club gets out of
plane. So, what do I see as the main reason for this? Overuse of your body, too much tension in
your arms, and you're not letting your arms swing, so the sequence of motion is a little
off.
So, people get up, they try to hit it hard
from the top, and as soon as they do this, there's no recovery from there. So, let's talk about, how can we fix this? Number one, when we start the club back away
from the golf ball, I see a lot of you getting the club way too far inside, so your natural
inclination, once you do this, is to go like this to hit it.
So, let's talk about the initial move away
from the ball and how maybe you can check to see if you're in the right position. What I like to do is set up. I'm going to keep the club on the ground,
and with my left hand, and arm, and shoulder, I'm going to trace a semi-circle as I turn,
and I'm going to trace it to the middle of my right foot, put my right hand on it, lift
the club up, and that's a pretty good indicator as to where the club should be. Now, I mean, it can be out here, and it can
be a little in here, but this is a good guideline for you. And then, from here, we're just going to set
the club the rest of the way. So, we're pretty much on plane, a pretty good
position to hit a decent shot. So, check to see, are you taking that club
inside too quickly and it's getting your arms way in here, which is forcing you out here.
So, the takeaway is one of the reasons, and
another reason, like I said, is a lot of people get up here, anxious, go to hit it, and once
that club's there, no good, no good. So, here's a couple things that you can work
on that's going to help you feel the arms more in your swing, and also that club fall
down on plane so you can hit more solid shots, better accuracy, as well as better distance.
So, this is a favorite drill of mine that,
actually, I got from Craig Harmon years ago, and I use it in my golf swing. We're going to set you up for success. We're going to set up and pull our right foot
back, so my right toe is even with my left heel. What that's going to do is, it creates this
vision of room here, and gives you the freedom to come from the inside, and the correct weight
shift. So, from here, the ball's in the middle of
my stance. I'm going to take the club back, the weight
shifts into my right heel. My first move is to shift into my left foot,
and that motion there, as you can see, lets the club fall on the correct plane. I'm not going this way.
So, I want you to start out doing this, small
little shots. We're going to shift our weight to the right,
come from the inside, and we're going to create more of an inside attack on the golf ball,
which is the exact opposite of that over-the-top move. Now, I've had great success with this drill,
and I think you will, too, because it really gives you freedom to stay in here and hit
from the inside, instead of feeling like you're all jammed up once you come over the top. So, let me hit a couple more with the right
foot back, backswing, shifting my weight to my left side, and then hitting from the inside.
So, again, that ball started a little bit
right and drew in, which is a shot, if you're coming over the top, you feel like you're
never going to hit. Now, let me talk about quieting the body and
getting your arms in motion. Remember, most people that come over the top,
they're here, and they're all body, and the arms aren't involved enough. Along with the right-foot drill, I want you
to hit some shots with your feet close together, which is automatically going to quiet your
body down. From there, when you take the club back, I
want you to pause at the top of your swing. When you pause at the top of your swing, you're
going to initiate the downswing more with your arms, which is what you need to do if
you're always coming over the top. So, with this swing, feet are close together,
which quiets the body, I'm going to take the club up, and I'm going to pause for a second,
and then start down.
Again, distance isn't a factor here. We're just trying to create a different pattern
for you. Okay, up, pause, swing. So, that pause is just enough for you to activate
your arms on the downswing and quiet your body down so your body doesn't throw that
club out over here. So, let's do that again. I'm going to take it up, pause, come back
down. So, on all those swings, I'm feeling more
of my arms, less of my body, which I think is a great feeling here in golf, especially
if this is what you struggle with. And then, the last one I want to show you
is a great way to practice.
If you can find a ball above your feet, then
you can easily feel what it's going to be like to come from the inside. Okay, so here we are with the ball above our
feet. Now, my students have had really good success
with hitting a lot of balls this way to help them feel what it's like to come from the
inside and maybe break that habit of coming over the top. So, the ball's above my feet, so now I kind
of almost have the lay of the land helping me here. So, before you hit this, I want you to make
some concerted swings, and on the downswing, I want you to really feel like you're swinging
up into the hill. So, I'm swinging up into this hill. This is the exact opposite motion of the 'coming
over the top' move. So, I'm telling you, you've got to exaggerate
it just to change a little in this crazy game.
So, a couple of good practice swings, we're
swinging up into the hill. Then, get up here with that same feel, and
I'm going to feel like I'm going to swing up into the hill, and the ball's going to
start to the right and draw back. Try this. Swing, practice swings, downswing, up into
the hill. That's the exact opposite motion, and I think
you're going to find it's going to help. So, let's review really quickly on how we
can help stop 'coming over the top'. Number one, we've got to quiet our body down. Most people get up here, they try to hit it
with their body, and when they do, that club gets thrown out here, and once it is, it's
not coming back. So, let's check our takeaway, make sure we're
not whipping the club inside too much.
At the top of our swing, we want to feel our
arms falling. We need to feel our body quiet. So, how do we do that? Remember, both feet together, swing it up,
pause, and then start down. That helps us initiate our downswing more
with our arms, and quiets the shoulders so we don't throw that club over here. The right-foot drill, when we pull this club
back, you're going to feel like you have a great field of vision here.
You're going to have a feeling that, once
you're up here, you can have that club approach from the inside, which is the feeling that
you want. Start out slow. Don't try to hit it far. Get the feeling, and then once you get confidence,
you'll get more and more adept to that feel. And then, of course, if you can practice with
the ball above your feet, just the lay of the land is going to help you come from the
inside and get your attack angle more shallow, and get rid of that over-the-top move.